The Manhattanville Factory District projects by Terrain Work were recently featured in Architectural Digest. These new landscapes reveal the rich and varied geological history of West Harlem through the use of stone and topography. The landscapes also connect various development sites in the district through three new inter-block links between 125th street and 128th. Taken together these three landscapes will provide vital new publicly accessible open space in the Manhattanville Factory District and offer array of new programmatic activities for residents of West Harlem. Terrain Work is collaborating with Janus Property, Leven Betts, and Gluck+ for this new plan that will transform the district giving residences the framework to forge new connections and experiences of their own.
Terrain Work Building Connections in West Harlem
Theodore Hoerr, Principal of Terrain Work, was recently part of a special panel event as part of AIA New York's Architecture and Design Month. Theodore presented three Terrain Work projects - Taystee, Malt House, and the 126th Connector - for the panel "Manhattanville Factory District—Building Connections in West Harlem." The event and panel discussion focused on the design and community interaction that has engendered the transformation of the Manhattanville Factory District. This master-planned district of more than one million square feet in West Harlem is being developed by Janus Property Company from underutilized industrial buildings and vacant land from West 125th to West 128th Streets. The District creates a collaborative corridor anchored by Columbia University, Columbia Medical Center, City College, and the New York Structural Biology Center, and brings much needed publicly accessible open space to this re-imagined industrial neighborhood.
Moderated by Pulitzer Prize-winning architectural critic Paul Goldberger, the event featured speakers Elsia Vasquez, Founder and Executive Director of P.A.’L.A.N.T.E. Harlem; Larry English, Chairman of AirRail and former Community Board 9 Chair; Patrice Derrington, Director of the Center for Urban Real Estate and Director of the M.S. in Real Estate Development Program at Columbia University; Scott Metzner and Jerry Salama, Principals of Janus; Stella Betts and David Leven, Principals of LevenBetts, the architecture firm for MFD’s Taystee Lab Building; Thomas Gluck, Principal of GLUCK+, the architecture firm for MFD’s Malt House; and Theodore Hoerr, Principal of Terrain Work, the landscape architect for the District's publicly accessible open space. Photo Credit: Janus Property Group.