Typically, if you find yourself being submerged in New York’s East River, you probably aren’t having the best of days. But Italian architecture firm Lissoni Architettura, as part of a speculative design competition hosted by Arch Out Loud that sought innovative designs meant to transform New York City’s waterfronts, wanted to remove some of the stigma associated with the East River.
Lissoni Architettura’s concept, NYC Aquatrium, took first place in the Arch Out Loud competition and proposed the idea of building a partially submerged “island” or "shell" aquarium in Long Island City’s 11th street basin that would extend out into the East River, inhabitat.com reports.
The design calls for two islands, connected by a surrounding boardwalk, that would exist in an excavated site turned into a water basin. The island that reaches farther out into the river would be the partially submerged aquarium and would include eight above ground biome domes housing marine life from around the world. Four of the domes would house sea life from the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, and Southern Oceans, while the remaining four would house life from the Caribbean, Mediterranean, Tasman, and Red Seas. An iceberg at the center of the island would represent the North and South poles.
“The main idea is to generate an environment whereby visitors feel that they themselves are entering the water to discover the beauty of the marine life on display,” the firm wrote in its project proposal.
The second island would act as a green space during the day and retract to cover the partially submerged island at night, creating a shell not only to protect the arena and the biome domes within, but also to take on a “second life” as a planetarium.
The design is nothing more than a concept with no intention of actually being built, but if the idea of the Arch Out Loud contest was to spark the imagination of what could become of New York’s waterfronts in the future, this design certainly accomplished that goal.
Rendering Courtesy of Lissoni Architettura and Arch Out Loud
Rendering Courtesy of Lissoni Architettura and Arch Out Loud
Rendering Courtesy of Lissoni Architettura and Arch Out Loud
Related Stories
| Sep 13, 2010
Second Time Around
A Building Team preserves the historic facade of a Broadway theater en route to creating the first green playhouse on the Great White Way.
| Sep 13, 2010
Palos Community Hospital plans upgrades, expansion
A laboratory, pharmacy, critical care unit, perioperative services, and 192 new patient beds are part of Palos (Ill.) Community Hospital's 617,500-sf expansion and renovation.
| Sep 13, 2010
China's largest single-phase hospital planned for Shanghai
RTKL's Los Angles office is designing the Shanghai Changzheng New Pudong Hospital, which will be the largest new hospital built in China in a single phase.
| Sep 13, 2010
Richmond living/learning complex targets LEED Silver
The 162,000-sf living/learning complex includes a residence hall with 122 units for 459 students with a study center on the ground level and communal and study spaces on each of the residential levels. The project is targeting LEED Silver.
| Sep 13, 2010
World's busiest land port also to be its greenest
A larger, more efficient, and supergreen border crossing facility is planned for the San Ysidro (Calif.) Port of Entry to better handle the more than 100,000 people who cross the U.S.-Mexico border there each day.
| Sep 13, 2010
Triple-LEED for Engineering Firm's HQ
With more than 250 LEED projects in the works, Enermodal Engineering is Canada's most prolific green building consulting firm. In 2007, with the firm outgrowing its home office in Kitchener, Ont., the decision was made go all out with a new green building. The goal: triple Platinum for New Construction, Commercial Interiors, and Existing Buildings: O&M.
| Sep 13, 2010
Stadium Scores Big with Cowboys' Fans
Jerry Jones, controversial billionaire owner of the Dallas Cowboys, wanted the team's new stadium in Arlington, Texas, to really amp up the fan experience. The organization spent $1.2 billion building a massive three-million-sf arena that seats 80,000 (with room for another 20,000) and has more than 300 private suites, some at field level-a first for an NFL stadium.
| Sep 13, 2010
'A Model for the Entire Industry'
How a university and its Building Team forged a relationship with 'the toughest building authority in the country' to bring a replacement hospital in early and under budget.
