NEW YORK, NEW YORK
The 127th Street Park is a park in West Harlem’s Manhattanville Factory District that creates a mid-block pedestrian connection stitching together the Taystee Life Sciences building with the Malt House mixed-use site. Like the Malt House and Taystee, 127th St. uncovers the neighborhood’s geologic history with consistent materials and motifs that unite the neighborhood’s public spaces. Large boulders represent the glacial erratics that were deposited in Manhattan when the glacier retreated from the last ice age. Glacial erratics are all different types of rock, moved by geologic forces from one location to another. Harlem is similarly shaped by “cultural erratics”- the variety of ethnic communities that have historically settled in Harlem and currently reside in Harlem, making it the neighborhood it is today. A graphic mural that abstracts the glacier’s height in comparison to the neighborhood’s buildings enlivens the blank façade that borders the site. The mural extends through the site, uniting the two planes, with the “ice” splitting the boulders. Floating furniture and a continuous tree canopy create spaces of respite that elevate this space from more than just a pedestrian connection.