the loop

2020
In collaboration with Alek Tomich
Critic: Adam Frampton, Only If Architecture

Newburgh is a city in flux, with Downing Park at the center. Over the last century, the city 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 park dividing groups defined by density, age, economic stability, and race.

The Loop is a proposal is to unite the divided populations surrounding the park with a single circuitous path through the park, providing access and activation to a deteriorating asset at the center of the city. The loop begins to take shape by responding to the topographical conditions of the park as well as known pedestrian zones around the site.

As the loop winds through the park, it takes on varying qualities as it encounters different topographical conditions. The most normative of these conditions is the loop as a walking and biking path, which, when it encounters a more sloped area of the park, may act as a retaining wall. When the loop intersects the Polly Pond, it acts as a bridge - giving visitors a more direct path over the pond. And finally, when the loop creates the ‘interstitial’ spaces within the rooms, they can be considered a widening of the path itself, serving as a respite along the way.

The Loop strives to connect disparate populations along the periphery of Downing Park, breaking down the scale of the site into clearly defined rooms with spaces to gather. The resulting design will provide a revitalization of a historical asset to the people of Newburgh.