“Things CUNY Has Built” Includes Pavilions at Freshkills Park
Freshkills Park is a big fan of temporary structures. As a site that’s only open for public events a few days each year, it’s really valuable to have materials that can be stored, assembled, dismantled, stored, assembled, and so on.
Architect and professor Jonathan Scelsa gets that. He and his students at CUNY City College have designed and built pavilions with experimental designs that allow the structures to be stored and assembled on days when the park is open. The pavilions also provide meeting points where visitors can come to get information about the park.
This month, CUNY TV interviewed Scelsa as part of their profile on the amazing things that have recently been built across the City University of New York. An adjunct at the Spitzer School of Architecture, he has worked with students on prototypical pavilions over the past couple of years. Both the Hy-Bol and Flower Pavilions were gifted to NYC Parks specifically for Freshkills Park.
During the design and prototyping process, students learn a lot about what it takes to build such structures. “Students always kind of assume that you make a digital model and then you just turn it into a building,” Scelsa said. “There is so much prototyping that happens in between those two periods. It’s a constant process of learning.”
Learn more about the process and Scelsa’s architecture company, op/al, here.
