COAHSI

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COAHSI

Firm

Type

Cultural ›

The Council on the Arts and Humanities for Staten Island, or COAHSI, operates uniquely as a facilitator, providing a space for other individuals, groups, and organizations, as well as initiating dialogue between said groups. Their initiative is not to promote themselves, as a new MoMA or New Museum, but rather to promote its individual users.
The design strategy provides a flexible and adaptable space that allows COAHSI to provide its services to artists, performers, and viewers in a way that allows any number of possibilities for display and dialogue. Such a space should operate as both an overall collective as well hold potential for individual moments an varying scales. By reorganizing the given program into two zones: static and flexible, we were able to begin to maximize the potential for spatial and programmatic flexibility.
After analyzing the site conditions, a clear location for COAHSI's intervention became clear. The existing street going through the site holds great potential for future development of the site, but it sits disconnected from the existing Bay Street urban front. By locating COAHSI in between these, in alignment with the existing storage vaults, both a connection to from the waterfront to Bay Street and a new urban street is made. With this location, COAHSI becomes the catalyst for future urban development of the site, as well as a key bridge to the larger area.
In order to maximize flexibility on the site, all static program is aligned on a bar to the rear of the building, allowing all flexible program to fill the new streetfront facade. In between flexible and static, a zone of interchange is created via a "wall" that functions as the power strip for the flexible space. This wall condition hosts the shop equipment, media, and office workstations, all of which "plug in" to the wall for storage, and can be pulled out as needed to create new zones within the flexible or static space.
COAHSI's new facility serves as a catalyst for the urban regeneration of the overall site and area, while also maximizing the potential for COAHSI as a host to any number of possible activities. Ultimately, it provides both a flexible facility for its users, and a key element to the cultural fabric of Staten Island.

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Sloan Springer

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COAHSI

COAHSI

Product Spec Sheet

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Team