Between roughly 1950 and 1970, New York produced the most coherent body of commercial architecture in its history. Lever House and Seagram established the type, the 1961 Zoning Resolution codified the plaza that came with it, and within two decades several hundred towers were built on that logic, most of them competent, a few of them extraordinary, and only a handful of them landmarked. This studio takes that inventory as its subject. The buildings are structurally sound and superbly located, and increasingly unwanted, having been designed around a pattern of work that no longer exists. Demolishing them writes off the carbon already spent and leaving them alone writes off the site.

The regulatory moment is favorable in a way it has not been. City of Yes for Housing Opportunity zoning amendment widened conversion eligibility to buildings completed before 1990 and, through the Universal Affordability Preference, exchanges additional residential floor area for permanent affordability. New York State’s Affordable Housing from Commercial Conversions tax incentive rewards commercial to residential conversion where a quarter of the units are income restricted. The 2025 state energy code, the first in the country to require most new buildings to be all electric, sets a performance floor that no 1960s envelope can meet without substantial intervention.

Students will work in pairs. During the field trip we will collectively shortlist four buildings, each taken up by two pairs working independently, so that every host yields two distinct propositions. Each pair determines the programmatic mix and defends it. The common frame is office converted principally to housing, with 25 percent affordable units, a 25 percent floor area increment earned in exchange, a community facility, and a reasonable measure of at-grade retail. Every residential unit should be tested for private outdoor space, whether balcony, terrace or loggia, and each project should propose a set of shared residential amenities. Structure, core and envelope are the given conditions, and they are open to being worked on. This is an experimental design studio, and formal exploration is encouraged across addition, subtraction, surfacing, and spatial invention, from volume excavated out of deep plans to the massing and expression of the overbuild itself.

The work rests on shared research. We will build a collective base covering current code, zoning, incentives, energy requirements, construction cost, and sell-side economics, so that each pair designs against real numbers rather than assumptions. The field trip combines walking tours with survey and documentation.

The premise is that carbon, cost, code, and architecture are one problem, that it rewards experimentation, and that these buildings, which carry real cultural value, are best served by a repositioning that answers how people live and work in the city now.
 

Note regarding the Fall 2026 GSD academic calendar: The first day of classes, Wednesday, September 2nd, is held as a MONDAY schedule at the GSD. This studio will meet for the first time on Tuesday, September 8th.