Planet.ORG Headquarters
Governors Island, NYC
for
role
status
year
GSA
Principal
Competition Entry
1996
The competition addressed the impending deaccession of Governors Island to private control after nearly 200 years as publicly held land. The central objective was to theorize, through speculation on land use strategies and programs, the best relation between the public and private realms toward maximizing public good within a capitalist framework. The brief specifically requested proposals that would challenge the most likely possibility for the site which would be that it would be turned over to exclusive enclave development.
The proposal sought a new model for “The Commons”. The privatization of a public “good”, in this case Governors Island, was enacted through a transfer of resources to a new “Planet.ORG” made up of a array of non-profit organizations focusing on environmental conservation and sustainable development. The resources would be held in common, each individual non-profit as a shareholder, a public “good” held in the form of a non-profit corporation.
To celebrate the transfer, there would be a series of festivals held throughout the year which would commemorate the activities of the constituent institutions. These holidays would counteract the increasing commercialization of existing secular holidays and establish a unique annual cycle of events to mark local time on the island. The island’s isolated geography would further strengthen the identity of the local by encouraging reinvestment in the local economy.
The breath of programs proposed would support the vital cycles of reinvestment.
Additionally, in anticipation of the upcoming revitalization of NYC port at Redhook as primary market for New York City, the island could also be seen as a lens, a conciliator between industry and finance, literally a stepping stone, geographically posing the argument that there must be some middle ground.
As a primary gesture for the physical transformation of the island, two triangular incisions were proposed to form twin sheltered ports of entry to the new facilities along what was the southern coastline of the original island before it had been extended by landfill. These interventions abut the existing Liggit Hall whose interior south facing court yard is becomes a primary public gathering space bridging the past of the Historic District at the north to the future of the “People’s Commons” in the landfilled section to the south.
The other important piece of infrastructure linking the two parts of the island, and is an encircling raised sea wall and esplanade designed as primary gesture of preservation and conservation in view of the threat of sea level rise due to global warming.
Hovering above the sea wall and supported on pilotis is the new “Plant.ORG” headquarters building which houses the collection of non-profits and linked by a sequence of public spaces that weave up their way up each level. This provides varied outdoor space in the dramatic context of the harbor as well as public access to ongoing educational programs and amenities offered by the participating non-profits.
Though primarily assigned to commercial use, portions of the structure, particularly and the radiused southern section, would function as an hotel offering short term rentals for people working at the headquarters or simply for the citizens of the five boroughs seeking a retreat with access to nature.
The building is tied into Liggit Hall at the north to form a continuous ring framing the new commons. At the interior of this ring, the landfill is again reconfigured recycling debris from the demolition of the structures formally occupying the site as fill to form a new topography of hills and water features offering varying vistas and views to the surrounding harbor from the interior of the site.
This new landscape would be restored as a native forest to provide a unique resource to visitors. Trees are planted in a grid oriented to the Manhattan grid. In addition to the glazed Exhibition Hall framed by Liggit Hall, the headquarters has a conference center with meeting rooms and 2 amphitheaters with views onto the Statue of Liberty.
Since the site is developed as a “natural preserve” all recreational uses would be accommodated in the form of floating piers accessible from the esplanade.
