Monolith - Visitor's Center | Newark

Raymond Boulevard, Newark, NJ, United States

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Monolith - Visitor's Center | Newark

Raymond Boulevard, Newark, NJ, United States

Firm

Type

Cultural › Cultural Center

YEAR

2009

Monolith
Compactness and open space
The city is a pulsating, dynamically changing organism. The need of a recognizable sign inspired us to suggest a concentrated balance and focus point, giving stability to where the surrounding urban fabric loosens itself. As a visible landmark, the center is identifiable from the distance and by its diversity. Added to the Newark Skyline, it represents a forceful counterpoint and gateway to the the riverside park. The competition site, mostly left untouched, accentuates the green setting and is open for diverse urban sceneries, including landscaping and the introduction of new parking facilities according to local needs.
Newark Visitors Center
The center is designed like a pedestrian promenade. It is a white concrete and steel monolith, to be filled with stories and with its own future to write. Important functionalities are readable in the facades. The volume is crowned by the auditorium and the conference room, whereas several canal passages penetrate the fortress-like walls like spyglasses, offering guided views to the outside and filtering light to the inside. Rather than a static building, the construction evokes the image of a complex, almost urban section.
Sustainable Icon
Our proposal uses the potential of the relatively constant groundwater temperature as a base of the air conditioning and heating system, minimizing energy consumption and, thus, costs and CO2 savings. Moreover, densifying the built masses, the formerly undefined plot is rethought as a public, representative and civic zone with urban and environmental qualities, reducing both environmental and optical contamination.
© michelangelo acciaro | architettiall rights reserved