Conceptual Statement:
The 41 Cooper Square building serves as the new academic building for the Cooper Union. The building takes on a new design and style that differs from other Cooper Union buildings. The Board of Trustees and other liked minded individuals in leadership roles commissioned an architectural design studio to create a building that would hold a new representation of the school, one that aligns itself with exclusivity and privatization.
The site of the 41 Cooper Square building repels individuals and does not aesthetically invite most people. An intervention to remove some of the excess design of the building to open up some space to create an outdoor setting would be ideal. This could be one of the first steps to help the architecture of the institution align itself more with the values of Peter Cooper and Cooper Union students. Additionally, the intervention is cost effective and would not add to the growing debt of the already distressed budget. The intervention would focus on deconstruction rather than creating additions. The intervention helps resolve the issue of misrepresentation in a financially smart approach, one that Peter Cooper would support.
This intervention aims to offer Cooper Union students, East Village residents, and East Village passerbys a friendly space to sit and relax. The space can also be used by the school to offer school related events. The school could hold events for the community or even rent it out to artists. The intervention will bring function to the space outside the 41 Cooper Square building that is beneficial to the key actors of the site and future actors.
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Digital Walkthrough:
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