As you peer through the elegantly glazed vestibule of the new 53rd Street Library in Manhattan, instead of book-lined shelves, you see a large amphitheater with expansive wood tiers.
A neglected 19th-century landmark reveals an astonishing space for a new hotel, thanks to Gerner Kronick + Valcarcel and Martin Brudnizki Design Studio.
For more than 60 million refugees, asylum seekers, and internally displaced people around the world, “shelter” has been experienced through relentless movement and escape.
Drawing comparisons to an M.C. Escher composition, a pinecone, or even an insect’s exoskeleton, Thomas Heatherwick’s Vessel is a 16-story steel pavilion with 80 viewing platforms, 154 flights of stairs, and almost 2,500 steps.
“People thought New York was finished,” says Architectural Record editor in chief Cathleen McGuigan, thinking back on the days after September 11, 2001. “People didn't understand how a city could go on.” But in the decade that followed, the city and country did carry on, spurred by tragedy into new conversations about politics, security, and architecture.