Newark Arts Forum
The identity of Newark, New Jersey is tied to its connections. Its airport, port, highways, railroads, light rails and green corridors connect the communities within and tie Newark to the rest of the world. The Westinghouse building site sits at a critical juncture in this web, at the crosshairs formed by the Broad Street development zone and the line between two green corridors and adjacent transportation hub. With all of these influences, it is the ideal location for an urban renewal catalyst, an arts community, an Arts Forum.
The Newark Arts Forum will provide artist studios, work space, arts-based retail and office space, galleries, performance and visual arts education, multi-family housing and a performance pavilion. The structures take their form from the overlapping street grids of Newark, and allow a green corridor and bioswale to stitch through the space’s edge, reconnecting River Bank and Branch Brook parks.
All of the structures use shipping containers as a basic building component. The containers combine to accommodate different living and working environments, forming multi-level space at all program areas. Modular panels insert within the container frames to form the façades. The roof planes open up the potential for green roofs, solar panels, and private terraces and community gardens for the residents.
The organization of these structures to the context of the neighborhood, green space and arts will allow the Arts Forum to facilitate community growth, and open the downtown to the greater world. |
