Masters of Architecture Thesis Project Spring 2009
Parsons the New School for Design

Raised highways propagate our cities. They transport vehicles, people and goods from destination to destination. This singular function is triumph over everything else. Topography, buildings, places, and cities are carved away, disrupted or extinguished to achieve this goal. Neighborhoods are divided, mountains are leveled; all for the use of the automobile.

My thesis is a series of explorations, sketching out opportunities for programmatic extensions along the highway. This investigation looks for ways to mitigate the oppositional quality of a raised highway, specifically investigating the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, running through Sunset Park, Brooklyn. The interventions serve BOTH the neighborhoods running underneath the expressway and the automobiles traveling on the highway. Neither user is left out, each one working with and serving the other.