Project by Hee Leong Lim @limmi_____ + Hobin Lee @robinlee_4 + Seungwon Lee @zzsana
Rethink Ground reconnects fragmented urban infrastructure and housing by expanding the “"ground”“ both vertically and horizontally. Historically, the pedestrian environment in Washington Heights has been severed by the Cross-Bronx Expressway and four isolated residential towers. Our project focuses on the social agency of the New York ‘Stoop’ and seeks to recover the inherent value of the ground that has been lost in vertical high-rise living.
The strategy of Extraction selectively carves out units within the towers to open up the mass. These resulting voids meet the park, generating a new internal flow. In response, Addition introduces new residential volumes within and around these gaps. The existing towers and the newly added structures open toward one another, creating a continuous living environment directly linked to the park.
While Extraction opens the space, Addition occupies it. The expressway and towers—once symbols of urban disconnection—are integrated with the park and transformed into a new civic centerpiece. By reconnecting the severed planes of the earth and the building, the Ground is redefined as a single, continuous, and expansive social landscape.
