Marc Perrotta, M. Arch

The Harlem Edge/Cultivating Connections Competition NYC 2012 ...

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 14:27:00 -0500

The Harlem Edge/Cultivating Connections Competition NYC 2012

In this competition, an abandoned waste transfer site in the Hudson River is reimagined as the host of a new community oriented complex, complete with gardens, restaurant, and performance spaces.

The Harlem Hanging Gardens float above the river, a shimmering complex clad in a screen of gold pyramids connecting the adjoining Riverbank Park and the shore, stitching together once isolated and disparate parts of a thriving community. At the center is a Market Hall showcasing the produce grown in the rows of community plots, and also providing a home to the other local businesses. A tri-level restaurant offers city and river views and produce grown on site on its menu. Clinging to Riverbank Park is a performance space for Harlem theater and dance companies.

This new epicenter is an enormous rigid box cantilevered from the former waste transfer block and connected to the side of the Riverbank Park and supported at the shoreline. Abundant space between the rows of planting beds allows the sun to reach the water, maintaining a fragile ecosystem. Its pyramidal skin has three sides reflecting the water and the city, the top is a phtotovoltaic panel.

Entrance at new Marketplace.

Garden view, looking toward Riverbank Park

Aerial view

Site Plan

Garden-level Plan

Section A

Section B

Facade detail

CV/DATA

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 16:33:00 -0400

Résumé

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 16:23:00 -0400

These projects, both built and unbuilt, represent my experience as an architect. I have eight years of architectural experience, and four years as an architectural historian. Currently, I am a design project manager at MADE Architecture for a five-floor townhouse residential conversion. I began working at MADE in November 2012.

At HWKN I was the project architect on their built projects for over two years. My role included schematic design, design and construction documentation, and construction administration. I was also key to their competition submittals. Although I also worked at Platt Byard Dovell White (PBDW) for three years, the work at HWKN best represents my design aesthetic and my responsibilities as a project architect. However, I learned a great deal from PBDW and can provide more information about my work there.

My work as an architectural historian was centered around 19th century American architecture. I also have a M.A. History of Art, and after writing a graduate thesis about Kirkbride model insane asylums and the history of asylum care, I went on to work at the Ohio Historic Preservation Office and a private consulting firm that investigated threatened historic resources. I also learned a great deal from these positions.

Please excuse my evolving web abilities. But do feel free to contact me with inquiries and comments.

Marc

European Sketchbook

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 16:20:00 -0400

Here is a partial sampling of sketches made while traveling through Germany, Austria, France and Switzerland.

HWKN: Il Laboritorio del Gelato NYC 2010 This 3500sf...

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 16:11:00 -0400

HWKN: Il Laboritorio del Gelato NYC 2010

This 3500sf fit-out includes a small retail space and a large production facility. In response to the clients wish for a ‘raw’ space, the retail area is left with an exposed concrete slab ceiling, mechanical systems, and a concrete floor. In response to health and building code regulations, the production space required a new, hung ceiling to cover dust-collecting pipes and conduits. Here was an opportunity to use a luminous ceiling of polycarbonate panels to provide the required enclosure as well as a cool, clinical atmosphere. With slick, white epoxy flooring, the production space lives up to its ‘laboritorio’ namesake.

Project Architect: Design, Bid, and Construction Documents, Construction Administration

HWKN: Hudson Street Apartment NYC 2010 This partial...

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 16:09:00 -0400

HWKN: Hudson Street Apartment NYC 2010

This partial gut renovation focused on combining slick, minimal detailing with sensuous and rough materials, and simple strategies for creating intensive effects. Calm, white spaces are contrasted with rooms saturated with color and pattern. The plan remained relatively unchanged. However, bleaching existing hardwood flooring and new finishes, the new custom kitchen, and the walnut paneled master suite helped to complete the transformation.

Project Architect: Design, Bid, and Construction Documents, Construction Administration

HWKN: HighLine Loft NYC 2009 Specific interventions are...

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 16:07:00 -0400

HWKN: HighLine Loft NYC 2009

Specific interventions are designed to simultaneously open up and define spaces in a loft that was compromised by an earlier renovation. A new dining area is sandwiched between an inset epoxy floor and ceiling pattern, and the new master bedroom is tucked behind a new dressing room with a dual-acting door…complete with cat access. This work took advantage of the newly renovated HighLine Park: large old loading dock openings were re-opened and fitted with solid glass brick, flooding the apartment with light and parkside views.

Project Architect: Schematic Design; Design, Bid and Construction Documents; Construction Documentation; Construction Administration

HWKN: 980 5th Avenue NYC 2008 This gut renovation was...

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 16:04:00 -0400

HWKN: 980 5th Avenue NYC 2008

This gut renovation was for a couple that wanted a contemporary, urban apartment in the city that also reflected their fondness for ‘traditional’ design. As a result, classicism is compressed: the kitchen wrapped in a stack of plaster moldings and classical profiles. Meanwhile, the rest of the apartment, complete with new kitchen, new finishes, and central AV system, is a quiet, minimally detailed refuge from the city.

Project Architect: Construction Documents, Details, Construction Administration

HWKN: Mini Rooftop NYC 2008 As part of BMW Mini...

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 16:02:00 -0400

HWKN: Mini Rooftop NYC 2008

As part of BMW Mini Cooper’s ‘Creative Use of Space’ campaign, a rooftop hill emerges from an integral, ubiquitous grid - much like park space in NYC. The floor is a responsive LED installation that interacts with music and video performances. The hill itself is a wood, light frame construction with underlit seats supported on Sonotubes, with grass panels and a fiberglass hilltop stage. Stadium lighting is added for maximum impact, and a boxy stage is inserted into the exiting billboard frame.

Project Architect: Schematic Design, Design, Bid and Construction Documents, Details, Construction Administration

Cleveland International School Competition Cleveland 2011 In...

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 15:43:00 -0400

Cleveland International School Competition Cleveland 2011

In order to create an exceptionally flexible K-12 school, the classrooms are configured like a giant ‘checkerboard’ with alternating spaces left open for collaborative teaching and engagement. The classes and common spaces are terraced up on either side of the entry plaza, separating the building into a high school and lower school. Beneath the classes are shared spaces: gymnasium, art and tech zones, a green technology teaching center, galleries, and a library with a secluded reading garden that joins the two schools. A perforated skin is draped over the school providing abundant, filtered daylight and an expansive, complex and playful envelope. Planted rooftops are playgrounds and teaching gardens, while the rest of the site is designed to be an integral component of the neighboring Cleveland State campus.

Plan Diagram

Typical linear classroom arrangement shifted into a ‘checkerboard’ with alternating spaces open for joining classes and collaboration: maximum flexibility.

The lower and high schools are joined by shared facilities and common spaces, ensuring a mix of abilities and subjects.

Section Diagram

The classes are stepped in section creating a dynamic space that connects to the shared facilities and specialized zones.

CityRacks Competition NYC 2008 Throughout the city, cyclists...

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 15:36:00 -0400

CityRacks Competition NYC 2008

Throughout the city, cyclists use sign posts as bike racks. The dimensions of the standard street post are ideal for all types of locks, and their ubiquity already define them as part of the language of New York City’s streets. Instead of tossing the old ones into the garbage, we proposed putting them back where they belong: on the sidewalk as urban furniture. Bent into various yet specific shapes as bike racks and seating, these street signs have a second act as part of the city’s dynamic street life.

with Daniel Samton

Academia Bridge and Museum Competition Venice 2006 Located on...

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 15:33:00 -0400

Academia Bridge and Museum Competition Venice 2006

Located on a route that links Venice’s piazzas into a continuous sequence of public spaces, the Academia Bridge is another link in a chain of piazzas. Here, the maximum area of the bridge is dedicated to pedestrian flow and daily life with a generous cafe and large areas for lingering. Above is a collection of rooms that contain an architectural museum with archives and galleries. Hanging from a super-scaled steel wrapping of Venetian lace, the museum is suspended like a mirror image of the city reflected in the canal.

with: Sofia Castricone and Teresa Ball

Universal Arts Center Competition NYC 2006 The Roosevelt...

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 15:27:00 -0400

Universal Arts Center Competition NYC 2006

The Roosevelt Island Smallpox Hospital is a lonely spectre on the East River. This project transforms it into a new arts center while a ghostly second skin preserves its spectral decay. Molded directly from the decaying walls, a recycled, plastic, crystalline duplicate hugs the old ruin as a glowing rainscreen. These molds are then replicated as cladding for new classrooms, studios and performance spaces that stretch over the new rolling landscape. The new park, also a topographical copy of the debris left behind by various demolitions, is a series of mounds that support the additional facilities and create an other-wordly landscape for this once eerie remain.

with: Sofia Castricone and Teresa Ball

Urban Habitat Competition Charlottesville VA 2005 This...

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 15:23:00 -0400

Urban Habitat Competition Charlottesville VA 2005

This competition explored ways to rethink subsidized housing and environmental strategies. The colorful modular panel system gives a new sense of playfulness, expedites construction, and creates a standard uniqueness. Units can be freestanding or stacked for density, a combination of housing types and social mixing. The faceted roof channels rainwater into an offset service core and provides an optimal angle for photovoltaic panels. The site includes a playground, common spaces, a commercial strip, and a xeriscape habitat that collects water for irrigation, attracts wildlife, and is a calm yet powerful landscape for residents and the community.

with: Sofia Castricone and Teresa Ball

Coney Island Parachute Pavilion Competition NYC 2005 With the...

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 15:20:00 -0400

Coney Island Parachute Pavilion Competition NYC 2005

With the intention of breathing life into an aging Coney Island, this new entertainment pavilion pays homage to the landmarked Parachute Drop while reinventing the spirit of the boardwalk. Instead of the typical divide between midway shops and games and the boardwalk, the promenade and the amusements are mixed: the scattering of columns are also games, fortune tellers and other distractions. They support a twisted floating marquee, a restaurant with a digital skin of responsive and dynamic visuals. At night, an ‘under the boardwalk’ nightclub helps bring the entire site to life.

Honorable Mention

with: Sofia Castricone and Teresa Ball

Mixing the midway with the boardwalk.