3rd Year Urban Studio | 2024

Program: Mixed-Used Residential
Completed: 2024
Location: Binghamton, NY

Design a mixed-used housing complex meant to nourish the minds, bodies, and souls of its inhabitants and enhance its immediate urban context.

Forming Binghamton’s Built Fabric

After colonial Americans arrived on former Haudenosaunee lands and founded Binghamton, other immigrants from across Europe came to Binghamton to work at the new factories that were being founded in the area. Production and factory jobs continued to ramp up until they peaked during World War II. After the War, Binghamton University was founded in nearby Endicott, just as jobs began to move overseas and many Binghamton companies moved or closed. Binghamton University’s first center in downtown Binghamton was founded in the mid-2000s.

Site Analysis

The site is located in proximity to restaurants and amenities in downtown Binghamton, as well as to the two buildings in the downtown area that are owned by Binghamton University: the Binghamton University Downtown Center and the Koffman Southern Tier Startup Incubator. As such, it is an advantageous place to situate a housing hall for students who want to use the skills they learn from the University to create new products, services, and companies that can “ramp-up” Binghamton’s industrious nature once again.

Ideation Sketches and Study Models

Early sketches were used to explore different formal strategies that would accommodate the various programs of the site. A ramp was decided on to allow for a smooth, easy transition between different programs and allow for the possibility of novel, interstitial programs to develop. A study model depicts a simplified ramp that allows for building masses of different designs to be clipped on the ramp. The clipped-on structures modify the program and circulation of the architecture.

Diagrams

At the center of the Binghamton Ramp-Up is the ramp that connects all of the other programs to each other. At the center of the ramp are the platform programs, which provide public spaces close to the housing units that enhance the experience of residents by providing modified or miniaturized versions of the mind, body, and soul programs.

Sections and Elevations

Arched windows reflect the site context of downtown Binghamton, which is filled with brick architecture containing arched windows. Large arched windows set high inside rooms in the front elevation reference 19th and 20th century factory architecture, where such windows provide generous daylight for workers while preventing them from viewing–and getting distracted by–the outside world. A semicircular section of the front facade utilizes a curtain wall construction to invite pedestrians to enter and view the public galleries exhibiting information on the history of Binghamton.

Plans

The housing units consist of three-bedroom, two-bedroom, one-bedroom, and studio apartments. Most functional spaces such as washing rooms and storage rooms are located on the first floor, while housing is located directly above in the second through fifth floors. In addition to the public exhibition space facing Exchange Street, the Binghamton Ramp-Up includes a makerspace, a gym, and meeting spaces as programs meant for residents as well as visitors. A patio is located at the fifth floor for use by the residents. Platform programs include mini exhibition spaces and mini libraries.

Renders

The combination of ramps surrounding the housing units and stairs connecting the platform programs creates two speeds of interior circulation. This dynamic approach to the interior charges spaces with activity and excitement. From the exterior, the Binghamton Ramp-Up functions as an infill building, placing itself firmly in its context while indicating, via its form, its novelty and functionality to passersby.

Models

A 1/16”=1’ model and a 1:500 site model were used to show the building’s relationship to its context at different scales.