Parachute Pavillion

Coney Island, New York

(Competition project, 2005)

This competition project addresses the famous parachute tower in Coney Island, which was used for training purposes. The competition brief called for the design of a small pavilion sited at the base of the structure that could act as a space for exhibits and information about its history. Counterpointing the elevation of the tower, the pavilion crouches low to the ground, picking up the directionality of routes around the site. The spatially compressive quality of its terrestrial form contrasts with the vertical attenuation experienced by a descending parachutist during a jump, when all elements of his equipment exist in a tensile relation with one another. The project was exhibited at the Van Alen Institute in New York in 2005