From Ruin to Recreation

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From Ruin to Recreation

Firm

PROP

Type

Hospitality + Sport › Sports Center
Landscape + Planning › Public Park

STATUS

Concept

SIZE

25,000 sqft - 100,000 sqft

Pier 40, a deteriorating parking structure on Manhattan’s waterfront, embodies a history of adaptation—from a mid-century cargo terminal to a parking garage and makeshift soccer field. While the infrastructure indefinitely awaits reconstruction due to lack of funding and remains underutilized to the public, this project proposes a “constructive deconstruction” approach, facilitating the demolition process as an interim strategy to transform the site into an expansive, open-air recreational landscape that fosters collective activities and urban connectivity.
The first technique involves selective disassembly of the existing. Prefabricated concrete slabs, girders, and columns are stategically taken down following the existing expansion joints and assembly traces, revealing the pier’s underlying framework. This process introduces sectional variations into the space that consequently accommodates a multi-level sports park encompassing basketball, tennis, volleyball, and handball courts.
Deconstruction and construction move in tandem—while vehicles toll away concrete parts to be reused in their afterlife, lightweight steel posts, cables, and nets are erected to replace solid facade panels, enhancing permeability, airflow, and connection to the city.
Reflecting themes of adaptability and temporality, the visualizations demonstrate how dismantling, reclaiming, and repurposing space and materials can foster urban regeneration, offering a sustainable, incremental alternative to conventional redevelopment. By transforming a fading industrial structure into a dynamic urban playground, this adaptive reuse strategy extends the lifespan of an underutilized architecture and redefines the pier not as a relic of the past, but as an evolving civic space—where play, movement, and interaction emerge from the act of “unbuilding”.