Image Credit : Photographer: Jasper Lazor
Project Overview
A tiny gem located in the Bronx has a big impact. The new building design brings a celebratory scale to the small project and to the larger neighborhood. Starlight Park, occupying a narrow sliver of land located between the Sheridan Parkway and the Bronx River, is now a vibrant community space primarily serving the neighborhood of Fairmont-Claremont Village to its west. There is a sharp transition from a very urban environment to nature, and this building negotiates that by placing it in the center of the park and letting it be a marker for the public.
The new building is a park amenity that provides restrooms, a garage for the storage of park utility equipment, and an office for personnel. There is a tendency to downplay the presence of public toilets, but doing so would diminish the park itself and the greater need throughout New York City.
Project Commissioner
NYC Department of Design and Construction
Project Creator
Team
Architect: GOA
Structural Engineer: Silman
MEP Engineer: IP Group
Landscape Design: Starr Whitehouse
Civil Engineer: Langan
Project Brief
The Bronx River Greenway, a continuous 23-mile bike and pedestrian path, runs along the eastern edge of Starlight Park thereby making it accessible to a much larger population. The Park includes a playground with extensive play equipment and landform mounds for children to run and roll on; a full-size soccer field with two baseball fields included within its boundaries; the Bronx River Greenway; and a future boathouse at its south end.
The building is located on the Northwest side of the park at the midpoint of the soccer field. To increase the connection to the athletic field a sloped path and stair from the lower field level connects to the plaza at the restroom level and mitigates the 4’ grade change.
In order to maximize the visibility of this modestly sized building, our approach is to create innovative massing and a noticeable shape to make it visible to users. Its massing includes two tall hip-roofed forms canted to the interior creating tall vertical walls around the exterior of the simple rectangular plan giving the building an increased presence in the park. The tall cones are toplit, bringing daylight into each restroom and into the garage/office. Skylights allow for natural lighting in all spaces, reducing the electrical load of the building
The building is clad in colored glazed brick; it is roofed with zinc panels. Both materials have been selected for their durability and ease of application to the building’s form.
Project Innovation/Need
Unlike typical public urban bathrooms, these spaces provide unexpectedly high, light-drenched volumes. The rooms are bright and airy. Modern architectural detailing combines with modern equipment including hygienic hands-free fixtures and electric hot water heaters. While comprised of budget-minded and durable materials, they are comfortable and welcoming. Inviting inside as well as from a distance, the unusual roof shape and unique materials with contrasting doors signal entry and delight. Clear yet playful supergraphics on the exterior bathroom doors inform wayfinding while reminding visitors of an important characteristic of a park – have fun and enjoy nature – while offering a dignified space for guests to utilize all while respecting the environment.
Design Challenge
Starlight Park is a result of a decades-long reparative planning project to mitigate a brownfield and revitalize a historically marginalized area. The park project addresses contamination from previous factory operations and reconnects communities while restoring the waterfront. The Bronx River Alliance, along with local community groups and government agencies, has been instrumental in cleaning up the Bronx River and revitalizing park amenities.
The Starlight Park facilities project recognizes the undersupplied need for public restrooms in public spaces and aims to address this issue with a sense of simple elegance. Juxtaposed with the various multi-floor multifamily housing complexes in the area, Starlight Park’s architectural design enhances the properties of the park itself as it delivers public amenities to a vital green space for residents of the surrounding area.
Sustainability
Starlight Park Facilities’ design decisions uphold the current, and hopefully future, aspirations for sustainable public design. The bifurcated skylights project lightwells down into occupied space, limiting the need for artificial light sources. Outside of daylight hours, the building's interior and exterior are illuminated with LED lights which curb the electrical pull of the building. Energy conservation is also attained through point-source electric hot water heaters.
Outdoors, rainwater is localized between the roof volumes and diverted into a tumbled rock garden on the building's park-facing side, to water surrounding native plantings and also preserve the natural landscape that shelters the athletic field. From a transportation infrastructure standpoint, the building’s garage houses the park staff’s electrical vehicle charger and provides bike storage for the surrounding community, further increasing accessibility to and promoting methods of sustainable travel.
Architecture - Public and Institutional
This award celebrates the design process and product of planning, designing and constructing form, space and ambience that reflect functional, technical, social, and aesthetic considerations. Consideration given for material selection, technology, light and shadow.
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