<p>The east side of Lower Manhattan is extended with landfill by one block to create an esker, or ridge, parallel to the shoreline.<br /></p> Architecture Research Office

Hanover Square: within the area affected by a Category 2 hurricane, the roadbed is rebuilt as a network of porous green streets to absorb rainfall and channel storm surge inundation out to the harbor.  

West Street is reconstructed and renamed Western Parkway for its green space, a light rail transit loop, pedestrian walkways, and bike paths.  

Water Street runs parallel to the shoreline and is designed to hold storm-surge volume and drain back to the harbor.  

 Coenties Slip: A linear forest below street level runs along the East River to the Brooklyn Bridge, providing a first line of defense against storm surges.  

Tate Library

Princeton University

Sciences Library

Inside the Judd Foundation Building in SoHo

Colorado College

The proposed site extends around the tip of Lower Manhattan. 

Times Square

The Cass Gilbert

 Architecture Research Office (ARO) is the New York City firm led by Stephen Cassell, Kim Yao, and Adam Yarinsky. Since 1993, the firm&rsquo;s diverse project portfolio&mdash; spanning strategic planning, architecture and urban design&mdash;is united by a principled and engaged approach to design, collaborative process, and technical precision, always in an effort to achieve the greatest aesthetic impact with the fewest natural and financial resources. This philosophy has earned the firm over one hundred design awards (#Awards) including the 2020 AIA Architecture Firm Award, the AIA New York State Firm of the Year Award, and the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award for Architecture. 

Architecture Research Office

Jean Parker Phifer, NYC architect and author of Public Art New York, reads a selection on the US Armed Services Recruiting Station located in Times Square.

Stephen Cassell, principal architect at Architecture Research Office, discusses ARO's renovation of the Armed Forces Recruiting Center in Times Square.

 Barry Bergdoll, former Phillip Johnson Chief Curator of Architecture and Design at MoMA talks about the issue of rising current in Palisade Bay and its impact on the architecture and the urban environment. 

 Stephen Cassell, principal architect at Architecture Research Office, discusses his firm's proposal to reshape the New York City harbor in response to global warming and rising water lines. 

Architect Adam Yarinsky talks about the restoration of 101 Spring Street, the nineteenth century cast-iron warehouse in which the artist Donald Judd lived and worked from 1974 until his death in 1994.  The building is notable for both its elegant, extensively glazed exterior and for the significant transformations that Judd implemented to the interior. The project includes the repair and preservation of the historic exterior fabric, together with extensive life safety, fire suppression and climate control improvements to enable the building to function as a museum and offices of the Judd Foundation. 

The Architect talks about the design process.

Stephen Cassell, principal architect at Architecture Research Office, explains how ARO, in partnership with Della Valle Bernheimer, designed and built an energy efficient, sustainable house for a low-income neighborhood in Syracuse, NY. 

Stephen Cassell, principal architect at Architecture Research Office, discusses ARO's ongoing renovation of the north section of Union Square. Renovations include rehabilitating a former music pavilion and adding a much needed public bathroom. 