Info︎

The Loop

Newburgh, New York
Spring 2020, Columbia GSAPP

Collaborator: Erin Biediger
Critic: Adam Frampton, Only If

Newburgh is a changing city, with Downing Park at the center. Over the last century, Newburgh has gone from a wealthy trade hub to a struggling fringe city. A new wave of immigrants are bringing life and a fresh identity to the city, yet it remains segregated, with the centrally located park dividing groups defined by density, age, economic stability, and race.

The Loop is a proposal that strives to connect disparate populations along the periphery of Downing Park, improving circulation while breaking down the scale of the site into clearly defined spaces to gather. The loop itself begins to take shape by responding to the existing landscape of the park as well as known pedestrian zones around the site, providing equal access to communities on each side of the park.

Rooms, or spaces within the park defined by specific topographic conditions, provide clear areas for gathering, much like in Olmsted & Vaux’s original plan for the park. The space between the rooms is filled with ‘un-maintained’ native grasses, left to grow wild as a restorative meadow and define the boundary of the rooms. By un-maintain-ing 50% of the park, not only does upkeep become more affordable for the city, but Downing Park becomes a small yet important player in the larger ecosystem of the Hudson Valley, giving land back to pollinators and wildlife.

Architectural interventions are inserted into the interstitial spaces that form when the loop intersects a room, adding another layer of draw and programming into the park. The resulting design will provide a revitalization of a historical asset to the people of Newburgh, and encourage neighbors from diverse economic and social backgrounds to come together.