School of Architecture at The Village West
Rooted in a shared commitment to creativity, civic engagement, and the power of public space, the “Pratt Institute x TheVillage West: Windows on 14th Street” installation brings student work beyond the classroom and gallery walls and into the everyday rhythm of one of New York City’s busiest pedestrian corridors, connecting neighborhoods from Union Square to the Meatpacking District through the power of a creative education, art, design, and culture.
At the School of Architecture, we see the design, planning, and management of the built environment as tools for addressing the critical issues of our time—from social justice to the climate crisis. Student at the School of Architecture build the skills and knowledge they need to respond to these complex and evolving challenges in a uniquely versatile, innovative, and ethical way. As they do, they are prepared to lead a life of consequence within each discipline, both today and beyond.
Browse work by students in Pratt’s School of Architecture below.
Eli Lange and Ashley Zhong, Graduate Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Urban Design
Foundry
This project investigates the relationship between industrial production and architectural form through the contemporary foundry. Organized around the processes of melting, casting, and recycling metal, the building emerges from the thermal, spatial, and environmental demands of production. Systems of ventilation, daylighting, thermal mass, and exhaust are integrated into the architecture, revealing the flows of energy and material that shape both the building and the objects it produces.
Costanza Bacci and Harrison DuBose, Graduate Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Urban Design
Obelisk
Conceived as a contemporary social condenser, The Obelisk interrogates the relationship between architectural image and program through the lens of wellness, optimization, and spectacle. Drawing from Rem Koolhaas’s reading of the Downtown Athletic Club, the tower organizes a vertical sequence of plots in which each floor operates as a distinct performance within a larger techno-psychic apparatus for the continual redesign of the body. Here, fitness, recovery, pharmaceutical intervention, biometric surveillance, and sensory enhancement are stacked into hierarchy of intensities, where improvement is increasingly administered rather than earned. The project positions architecture not as a neutral container for wellness, but as an active participant in the production of contemporary desires, anxieties, and aspirations.
Noah Spivak, Graduate Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Urban Design
Rivian Park
Rivian Park reimagines the Rivian factory in Normal, Illinois through a reorganization of the production plan into a more efficient and adaptable configuration capable of expanding alongside the company’s future growth. Beyond manufacturing, the proposal transforms the site into a destination centered on adventure and public engagement, incorporating programs such as an annual Formula 1 race, a track and field complex, and a ski hill that evolves seasonally to support different activities throughout the year. Structurally, the project is designed to achieve long spans while resisting significant wind loads and maintaining open, flexible spaces for essential services and circulation. As a whole, the project embodies Rivian’s ideology of adventure while redefining the contemporary factory as a framework for efficiency, experience, and future development.
Chrissy Lifton and Will McNeil, Graduate Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Urban Design
Forever is a Long Time
“When we enter a hemlock forest on a sunny day, we sense a change and immediately recognize that we are in a different and special place. The light dims perceptibly, the wind dissipates, and the temperature drops. The ground beneath our feet turns soft and spongy, and the understory opens up around us as the abundance of other plants declines. Stillness reigns. The wooded environment quiets, and singular sounds stand out clearly. Such is a hemlock forest.”-From Chapter Two of Foster’s Hemlock: A Forest Giant on the EdgeJacob’s Ladder Scenic Byway sits at the intersection of many modes of movement, including 3 highways, the Appalachian Trail, and a dammed creek. Currently, access requires parking at a pull-off lot and walking along Route 20, which limits accessibility, and creates a sense of disjointedness and confusion. This project proposes a more cohesive experience by facilitating movement from the parking lot to the trail system, connected by a proposed hemlock boardwalk through a marsh, which becomes its own place to meander, sit, and watch birds. The boardwalk then guides visitors into a forested canopy, where we propose a two-level covered bridge to cross the creek. The structure seeks to be meditative, insulated from the sound of the roads, and provide a series of views from its two stories, taking inspiration from the feeling of being inside a hemlock forest.