INFLATED SHELLS

Location: New York, New York
Duration: 1 Week

Instructor: Robert Pietrusko

Fall 2017 Pre-Term Workshop / Harvard Graduate School of Design
Project Team: In collaboration with Yona Chung and Meredith Chavez

This short-term research project aims to uncover the volume and extent of foreign direct investment in the city of New York. New York City has seen exponential growth in its real estate market in the last decade. A close look at the real estate transaction revealed the source of these investments to be international actors. Furthermore, to understand its effects on the built environment, the project reveals that the highest densities as well as the highest peaks of these transactions are in the Midtown District. The typologies of these buildings may vary from mid-century buildings to point towers, but they are all sit within the buzzing urban life of New York as empty shells.