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LERNER PROJECTA graphic study and the resultant model from a project to photograph and document the Columbia University student center, built by functionalist architect (and former Columbia Architecture School Dean) Bernard Tschumi. This particular design attemted to capture the fragmented, effervescent quality of light as it interacts with the glass northern facade of the building, particularly during dusk.

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THE ERASERS PROJECTThis project is a visual analysis of an excerpt from Alain Robbe-Grillet’s 1953 novel The Erasers, where the protagonist documents his travels through an anonymous -- presumably fictitious -- French city. This model is a physical mapping of the interplay between the main character’s narrative conscious and his dialogue with the strangers he encounters throughout the 30-page passage.

MANHATTAN TRANSFORMATIONNew York City’s zip code system is illogical and

often arbitrary. Neighboring codes are seldom consecutive, and more often than not jump

hugely from zip to zip. How, then, could this strange disorderliness--in a city of grids and

consecutively numbered streets and avenues--be repaired?

This model attempts to address the island’s seeming lack of organization by

simultaneously highlighting its gross lack of contiguity and allowing anyone to interact with the model (and thus, Manhattan) on his or her

own terms. The completely malleable outer frame of the island can be shifted across all axes to reorder the zip codes in any system

desired. Since each individual zip code is placed in ascending height according to its

number, the first and most obvious realignment would be to create a new

Manhattan with a consecutive and contiguous series of zips. The entire structure can even be

unwound and reconnected to place the codes on the island’s exterior, inverting Manhattan’s

habitat from isolated island to a lake ringed by small communities. Structure can be set in mo-

tion, and order can be created from chaos.

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A B S T R A C T I O NS P R I N G 2 0 0 7

EAMES SUITCASEHuman have spent years trying to come up

with creative ways to control light diffusion in interior spaces. In Charles and Ray Eames’ home, however, the two archi-

tects developed a binary language of light--either fully allowing the Santa Monica

sun to penetrate their house’s numerous glass panels, or completely deflecting its path with

the facade’s opaque segments. This either-or construction combined with the Mondrian-

esque linearity of the house’s exterior elevations drastically changed the way in

which light enters and diffuses a room. In-stead of predictably and consecutively spaced

windows simply designed to act as conduits for natural lighting, the geometry of the

Eames House creates within the building in-tersecting and interacting volumes of sunlight

that each diffuse differently throughout the interior. My suitcase aims to echo the many

ways in which light and translucency interact with each other and to capture the segmented

way in which those volumes project them-selves through space. Where one section might look solid, a few abbreviated move-

ments show that in fact the illusion of opacity merely comes from a series of interacting and

cooperating units which each interact differ-ently with ambient lighting. In this way, light

becomes a volumetric solid; capable of creat-ing its own space within an interior.

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MIDTOWN PASSAGEMidtown Manhattan is home to dozens of mid-

block passages that constitute privately owned

public space, most of which were created by

zoning changes in the 1970s that permitted de-

velopers and architects to build taller structures if

they included public passages. This project is an

exploration of how those public spaces could be

enriched from their current conditions to include

programmatic function -- in this case, as an open-

air book exchange program.

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BIKE-SHARE STATIONThis project is an exploration of Manhattan’s perimeter and its transportation infrastructure. Situated at the 72nd Street Boat Basin, the bike-share station functions as an extension of the bike path, creating both a resting place for cyclists and a vista from which to observe and contextualize the New Jersey and Lower Manhattan skylines.

LIBRARY PROJECT:PROGRAMMATIC DETAILThis project is rooted in the examination of existing library systems and structures in an effort to create a small-scale design model linking program, material, and space. The detail to the right is a section of an automated book retrieval and reshelving system housed in the underground core of a library.The library’s main floor is left open and available for the other programmatic functions frequently associated with libraries

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LIBRARY PROJECT:CHINATOWN SITEGiven a location at the corner of Canal and Eldridge Streets in Manhattan and a list of specific programs to include, this project is an exploration in specific site construction. This library combines the usual functions of a standard NYPL branch with space for an outside organization, the Center for Urban Pedagogy. Housed in the interior core of the building, CUP’s offices are allowed to interact with the rest of the library through the translucent strips of plexiglass that act as windows for the interior space and ex-trude to serve as bookshelves in the library’s exterior space.

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NEW ORLEANS RECOVERYIn the wake of Hurricane Katrina, amateur photographers

posted more than 500,000 images of New Orleans and the

surrounding area on photo sharing sites like Flickr,

Webshots, and Pbase. This project was an attempt to

collect and organize just some of those “crowdsourced”

images through a group we created on Flickr to create an

interactive map of existing conditions and ongoing

renovation in the Mississippi Gulf region.

[With Jane Price Estrada, GSAPP ‘08]

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RECYCL ABLESThis project is an exploration and comparison of re-

cycling programs in roughly 20 different cities around

the world. Analytic research and data compiled on

each region’s government-implemented recycling

program is supplemented by images taken by volun-

teers in every city of their weekly recycling output.

While perhaps less telling than raw statistical data,

the photographs will serve as a visual representation

of the diversity and volume of a standard household’s

recyclable output, and an indicator of how successful

various incentive programs work across the world.

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EVOLUTION OF A SKYLINEThe image of the downtown Manhattan skyline is instantly recognizable. For nearly a century, buildings like the former world trade center towers were symbols of the success of a nation. However, the evolution of the Manhattan skyline involves a constant and cyclic process of creative destruction.Following September 11th and the destruction of the world trade center, then-Governor George Pataki and Mayor Rudy Giuliani founded the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation to initiate a program called RenewNYC. Over the next several months, the LMDC approached 24 different architecture firms to propose their own plans for the site. But the decision process was contentious and every design was rejected.In August of 2002, developer Larry Silverstein took over the project and asked seven architecture firms to collaborate on a join master plan for the world trade center. These were SOM, Foster, Shigeru Ban, Richard Meier, United Architects, Daniel Libeskind, and Peterson/Littenberg Architecture. This video shows each of their original designs at the beginning stages of planning. In a visual description of the sky-line’s creative evolution throughout this process.[With Christopher Macies, CC ‘09]

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THE MAKING OF MANHATTANVILLEThe Manhattanville Valley lies on the west bank of upper Manhattan, sandwiched between Morningside Heights to the south and Hamilton Heights to the north. From the start of its industrialization in the mid-19th century, the area was converted from wooded forest and farmland to a major transit hub for New York City -- containing the West Harlem Piers on the Hudson, the landmark Riverside Drive viaduct, and the city’s first above-ground platform for the first New York City subway line at 125th Street and Broadway.By the 1950s, however, rapid urbanization overtook the rest of the city and left Manhattanville on the outskirts of New York. Many of the existing structures were relegated to storage facilities and autobody shops, and the area began to stagnate without any significant subculture. Today, Columbia owns most of Manhattanville, and has plans to build another campus in the 17-acre tract from 125th and 133rd Streets between Broadway and Amsterdam. This project -- which exists at www.manhattanville.net -- is a culmination of a semester’s worth of research and nearly three years of photographs in an attempt to capture Manhattanville as it exists now -- on the cusp of its next major reincarnation.

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