Vertical Publics: Landscape Transformation of Vacant Office Towers

Abstract

Vertical Publics explores the potential for reimagining vacant modernist urban office towers through transformative public space interventions. It challenges the conventional use, access, and ownership by blurring the boundaries between landscape and architecture, public and private, street and building. Set in the speculative future of 2058, this thesis introduces the Urban Arboretum Network (UAN) program and uses the Seagram Building as the first experimental site in New York City. This project vertically expands the streetscape by creating solar voids, programmed vertical surfaces, and an accessible circulation system that threads through the new urban experiences.