This spring will mark the 14th year of the Young Architects Program at MoMA PS1 in Long Island City, and yesterday Downtown Brooklyn-based firm Interboro Partners—which consists of partners Tobias Armborst, Daniel D’Oca, and Georgeen Theodore—were announced as the winners of the 2011 program for their “Holding Pattern” design—pictured above, more views after the jump.
The soaring, winged formation of taut ropes stretched between the MoMA PS1 facade and the cement walls that enclose its gravel courtyard, like last year’s “Pole Dance” design by Dumbo-based firm SO-IL, is extremely light and graceful, as opposed to the much bulkier and not terribly pleasant MOS “afterparty” design of 2009 and WORK Architecture “Public Farm 1” in 2008. The shape, whose bird-like span evokes Santiago Calavatra’s forthcoming PATH station at the World Trade Center, is only half of the project though.
Underneath the ropey canopy will be a seemingly random selection of items. Members of Interboro Partners visited MoMA PS1’s neighboring businesses and organizations—including 5Pointz, the Long Island City Ballet School, John Murray Playground, the local greenmarket, Court Square Library, the Long Island City YMCA, a nearby retirement home, the Jacob Riis Neighborhood Settlement House and more—and asked them what they needed. The idea being that the design would include as many of these things as possible so that, when “Holding Pattern” comes down in the fall those objects can be donated to the local groups that need them.
Of course, certain things proved less practical for a public outdoor space that also hosts a jam-packed summer concert series (Warm Up!), so there won’t be any books sitting out for the summer waiting to go to L.I.C. Library, but there will be plants that’ll eventually make their way to the playground, tents destined for the market, and a volleyball net for the settlement house, amongst others—assuming all those things survive a summer of intensive use, of course. Interboro Partners’s stretched rope design should be in full swing by late June.
(ArtsBeat, ArchDaily, Photos: Interboro Partners)