(04) Reclaim Upzone
Between Content and Container Vol.04
A discourse on Gentrification in Crown Heights, NY/2018
Collaboration with Leah Ying Lin

After the “Avacado Toast Effect” start to spreading around the historically minority occupied neighborhood, can architecture design become the mediation to cease the friction between the local and the newcomers?
(001) Site Analysis

Crown Heights Rezoning Diagram 1995-2018


The major action of the Bedford-Stuyvesant Rezoning Plan in 2007 and the West Crown Heights Rezoning Plan in 2013 has brought many developers to come in to share the cake. Thus, demographics in Crown Heights has been changing along with the redevelopment of these zoning areas. With the establishment of new residential, commercial projects, and urban infrastructures, people from outside of the Crown Heights start coming in and changing the social environment consistently. The rezoning action led to the change of higher density of the residential area and more and more floating population from other places. The majority of the newcomers are white liberal professionals and new urban middle class, seeking social justice but also yearning living standards. Less and less urban space is accessible for the public to engage and take action while exclusivity is increasing for adjusting and copping the modern lifestyle for the newcomers.

(002) Massing Rhetoric

Designated under C2-4 and R6A NYC zoning code from C2-3 and R6 after the 2013 rezoning plan, new height has been granted. Rather than demolishing and build a new building, historical fragments and footprint are preserved while new space on top is added as a parasitic folie.
(003) Programming Strategy

Diagram_Vertical Accessibility








The programs provide studio and living space for artists while creating communal teaching space for the residents. Public accessibility is verticalized through each level while “the rights to the skyline” is liberated.

The terrace, the polemics of in-between, the politics between preserved and rezoned, integrated on this level. An elevated public plaza, an open community meeting hub, and a small exhibition space.

Moment_Community Study

(004) Representations


