The Museum of Modern Art and MoMA PS1 invited Matthew Baird Architects and four other young architecture firms to generate a series of design strategies to help address the inevitable rising water levels within New York Harbor. Focusing on the Bayonne and Kill Van Kull shipping route area in New Jersey, Matthew Baird Architects’ proposal engaged the architectural relics of industry to create unforeseen building types and unanticipated programmatic occupations, imagining a terrain where submerged piers and petroleum facilities become active pieces in an evolving landscape. Glass reefs created by the accumulation of modular glass “jacks” cast from locally-recycled glass waste become a home where New York’s water-based ecosystems can grow, replenish, and flourish.
ARCHITECT: Matthew Baird FAIA, Matthew Baird Architect, PLLC, TEAM: María Milans del Bosch, Daniel Greenfield, Juanita Wichienkuer, Kristen Becker, Nim Lee, Kira Appelhans, Ajay Manthripragada
Drawings © Matthew Baird Architect, PLLC & Exhibition Photography © 2010 The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Photo: Thomas Griesel
MoMA RISING CURRENTS I AWARDS AND PUBLICATIONS
Projects for New York's Waterfront
"Rising Currents: Projects for New York's Waterfront presents solutions for making New York City more resilient to the effects of climate change, documenting the innovative proposals of five teams of architects"
"AIA New York is dedicated to three goals: design excellence, public outreach, and professional development."
A.I.A AWARD
New York State Excellence in Design
"Rising Currents: Projects for New York’s Waterfront,” a new show at the Museum of Modern Art, reflects a level of apocalyptic thinking about this city that we haven’t seen since it was at the edge of financial collapse in the 1970s."