WILLIAMSBURG COMMUNITY CENTER

Location: Brooklyn, NY
Date: 1997
Program: Community Center

The merging of the public realm of the park and semi-public realm of the community center produces a cohesive environment that maximizes the functionality of the spaces. The open park and multi-purpose center become mutual extensions of one another in this simple, durable design that stresses continuity and practicality.

Simple design elements such as the minimal use of angles and curves also demonstrate the careful thought put into the construction of each zone that varies in function and accessibility.

ANALYSIS:

  • Former east-west street grid continues to order superblocks of Williamsburg Houses.

  • Within the new Center’s block, the old street grid shears the block into 3 distinct zones: residential, school and park.

  • Within the Williamsburg Houses area, public functions of school, park and commercial retain the orthogonal of the old street grid.

  • Almost all buildings in the neighborhood are plan extrusions instead of volumetric conceptions.

  • The site mediates the intersection between civic and residential, between the Houses and the ‘old’ neighborhood, between park and building. 


SYMBOLIC CONTEXT:

  • Create a neighborhood civic center of park community center and school.

  • Create separate formal order for the center which differentiates it from residential and commercial buildings, and reinforces its symbolic presence in the community.


CONTEXT:

  • Create a mini civic center of park, Center, and school.

  • Bring park into Center and Center into the park

  • Maintain park through entire block

  • Differentiate between public realm of the park & semi-public realm of the Center.


FORMAL ISSUES:

  • Maintain orthogonal grid of civic functions in Center

  • Create a Center which conjoins inside and outside

  • Create a Center which physically joins park and building, not a free-standing building.

  • Dissolve Center into multiple pavilions individually scaled

  • Create variety of indoor and outdoor spaces which reinforce the functions within the program: fully enclosed, transparent, screened open to air, covered open to air, open to sky

  • Create variety of landscapes related to program: hard paved, grassy, open to sky, shaded by trees 


PROGRAM:

  • Park - Create variety of park activity areas: playground, picnic, handball, strolling

  • Building - Subdivide Center into distinct clusters of related functions: office, social rooms and gymnasium/ feeding

  • Create Center defensive perimeter which varies with availability of supervisors and degree of activity

  • Enable visual supervision of Center by just 2 adults 


TECTONIC ELEMENTS

  • Create distinct structural systems/ tectonics for each cluster appropriate to function and spans

  • Build park and Center walls of simple masonry construction, with minimal use of angles or curves; make Center easy to build, durable, and easy to maintain.

  • Vary masonry wall construction according to function and orientation 


SOLUTIONS:

  • Pull shear lines of park through the precinct of the Center

  • Organize volumes, functional zones, social zones, and tectonics in relation to the shears