Station Socials | the commons

CORE II STUDIO | COLUMBIA GSAPP

ABSTRACT

This intervention, Station Socials, reimagines the isolated train station not just as a means of traveling to and from Greater New York, but as community hubs and focal points for their respective neighborhoods.

For my sites, I chose the various train stops of the Port Washington Branch of the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR). My project as a system of frames able to be replicated on the two of the different typologies of stations: the standard platform (raised 4’) and the sunken platform. These stations are spread out liberally in Queens: a borough which has long been marred by suburban sprawl and disruptive urban infrastructures. The irony of transit infrastructure is that in the mission of connecting distant neighborhoods, too often these infrastructures create split and demarcated neighborhoods

Station Socials proposes that the underutilized train stations of the LIRR serve as these community hubs. By introducing a system of indoor waiting spaces, outdoor ‘tempered’ spaces, and zones of engagement, my proposal renegotiates the physical divide the train station imposes. In doing so, Station Socials seeks to create a dialogue between the station and the community that promotes the narrative of decentralizing infrastructural economies to support local community hubs rather than the investment of major train terminals.

The project heavily relies on the ‘post-tension stone beam’. These beams, in my case made from blocks of granite, are post-tensioned with steel cables and mortar to reinforce their structural capabilities, allowing them to take on the capabilities of steel beams while remaining a low embodied carbon alternative (research shows a 15% embodied carbon cost to steel). By creating a framework using post-tension stone, the thermal capabilities that stone inherently can be utilized to create tempered spaces.

The stone framework also serves to allow the support of suspended circulation bridges and roofing, allowing easy mobility and comfort to the passengers of the station, and support for waiting stations and other programmic space that will serve the communities.

This stone structural frame expands with the addition of its enclosures and tempered spaces creating pockets of engagement in between the spaces. This space is my commons, by providing park space for the community it will transform the occupancy of the stations to not just commuters, but to the average person in the neighborhood.

SUPPORTING DRAWINGS