Re-Thinking LIC
Long Island City is a neighborhood that’s struggles to reinvent itself and its identity- stuck between the industrial character and heritage of the past and the aspirations of real-estate developers and politicians for the future. After the untimely exit of Amazon and its HQ2 - the question that has plagued Long Island City and all involved with it is- “After Amazon: What’s next for LIC?"
This project takes a bold approach towards rethinking the future for LIC by adopting a strategic tactic to incentivizing and distributing development across the neighborhood. In the hope to convert it from a transient neighborhood, with little or no relationship to its the various adjacencies, namely the NYCHA Public Housing, Cornell Tech or the LIC core, the strategy adopted here is that of re-negotiating thresholds so as to create an equitable and sustainable future.
While New York continues its trajectory towards becoming a city of diverse tech nodes, it is our belief that LIC can be designed to take on the role of NYC’s next Advanced Manufacturing and Tech hub. Thus the project aims to reimagine LIC by leveraging its unique location and proximity to Cornell tech; converting excessive infrastructure from a liability into an asset; prioritizing connections to open space and the waterfront and building strong connections to the past and future through critical conservation.
The 4 specific zones identified based on opportunity and potential are characterized by a different strategies and uses and can be described as- Parasitic Manufacturing, High-Density Residential Loop, Mixed-Use Waterfront and Central Tech and Business Spine.
