Lent Space is a privately-owned 0.5 acre development site that is temporarily being made open to the public. The space serves as an exhibition space for large sculptures, an event space and public space as well as a tree nursery. When Lent Space closes, the trees grown on the site will migrate to the streets of the surrounding neighborhood, turning into street trees for the emerging Hudson Square BID. In response to the client's requirement of enclosing the space with a 7ft fence, we designed a moveable sculptural fence facing Duarte Square that can enclose or open the site to different degrees and also serve as a public amenity in the form of benches and wall panels for exhibitions. Different time-spaces and different constituents border the site: Varick Street with its droves office workers, 6th Avenue with a number of everyday uses occupying the sliver parcels and Canal Street with both the daily congestion of commuters entering Holland tunnel and the "sidewalk mall" of vendors selling fake handbags and t-shirts.
