Program Overview

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Advanced Design Studio: Re-Imagining Empire State Plaza

The Advanced Design Studio: Re-Imagining Empire State Plaza is a course that explores the concept of adaptive urban re-cycling. The studio focuses on the Empire State Plaza in Albany, New York, and its relationship to the city and its inhabitants.

Course Description

The course description is as follows: Adaptation [noun]
the action or process of changing something, or of being changed, to suit a new purpose or situation

Cities and buildings have many stories. From initial conception and construction to the ultimate and subsequent use, a site and its buildings transform in relation to their evolving urban context, use, environmental forces, and social and economic demands. This studio looks at a process of deep adaptation whereby buildings and cities are not just “changed to suit a new purpose or situation” but the “situation” itself requires interrogation and interpretation from multiple points of view enabling the architecture to undergo a series of radical reconsiderations. Moreover, this adaptive process must recognize that as designers, architects, educators and activists, what we do (everyday) has a direct impact on others and the environment. What and how we design can change social norms, upend latent hierarchies, advocate for a cleaner healthier environment, create more equity, take on preconceived notions of program and type and provide for new ways if seeing.

Site of the Studio

The site of the studio is the Empire State Plaza in New York’s capital city of Albany. Conceived and designed by the then Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller and the architect Wallace Harrison, Empire Plaza was built in the late 60s and early 70s and is a paradigm of modernist urban planning that played out in this era’s other such government centers as Brasilia, Chandigarh and Boston, to name but a few.

Objectives of the Studio

The objectives of the studio are to critically re-adapt Empire State Plaza by transforming its relationship to its larger urban context and infrastructural systems, rethinking its program and use, adapting its existing buildings to become carbon neutral and imagining the possibilities towards a new kind of public plaza for the people of Albany and the citizens of New York.

Methodology

The studio will use a series of choreographed operations to achieve its objectives. There will be five reviews—one for each operation. Each review will reveal a new story, an added layer and/or a different point of view from which to critique the original. The final project is a collection and/or series of adaptations—lessons in re-imagining a future for Empire State Plaza.

Travel

The studio will visit Empire State Plaza in Albany, NY, early in the semester. During the February travel week, the studio will travel from NYC to Brasilia and spend three days studying the Federal Capital of Brazil and its surrounding city, landscape, and buildings. From Brasilia, the studio will travel to Sao Paulo for four days and visit several adaptive construction projects including Lina Bo Bardi’s SESC Pompeia Factory and Teatro Oficina as well as several other architectural sites.

Credits

The course is worth 9 credits.

Faculty

The faculty members teaching this course are Stella Betts and Brett Schneider.

Semester Offered

The course is offered in the Spring 2023 semester.

Other Semesters

The course has been offered in previous semesters with different titles and instructors, including:

• Advanced Design Studio: Architecture of Alliance (Spring 2025) taught by Sunil Bald
• Advanced Design Studio: RAI Reimagined (Spring 2024) taught by Isaäc Kalisvaart, Bjarne Mastenbroek, Andrei Harwell, Erik Go
• Advanced Design Studio: Paradise Not Quite Lost (Spring 2022) taught by Mark Foster Gage
• Advanced Design Studio: Coastal New England: History, Threat, and Adaptation (Spring 2021) taught by Alan Plattus, Andrei Harwell

Program Details

The program details are as follows:

• The course is part of the Yale Architecture program
• The program offers various degrees, including M.Arch I, M.Arch II, M.E.D., Ph.D., and Joint-degree Programs
• The program also offers undergraduate studies, student travel, awards and fellowships, and explore all courses
• The program has a faculty that includes endowed professorships
• The program has a student affairs department, recent graduates, student work, student groups, and career development
• The program has an alumni department
• The program has various resources, including all images, forms and resources, make a gift, school policies and bulletin, jobs at YSoA, and accreditation information

Academics

The academics section includes:

• Overview
• M.Arch I
• M.Arch II
• M.E.D.
• Ph.D.
• Joint-degree Programs
• Undergraduate Studies
• The Jim Vlock First Year Building Project
• Student Travel
• Awards and Fellowships
• Explore all Courses

Admissions

The admissions section includes:

• Overview
• Requirements
• Tuition and Fees
• Financial Aid
• International Students

Calendar

The calendar section includes:

• Events
• Academic Calendar
• Exhibitions

Publications

The publications section includes:

• Overview
• Perspecta
• Retrospecta
• Constructs
• Books

About the School

The about the school section includes:

• Overview
• History and Objectives
• News
• Tribal Lands Acknowledgement
• Yale Urban Design Workshop
• Yale Center for Ecosystems in Architecture
• Fabrication Labs
• Advanced Technology
• Staff
• Visiting
• Contact

Faculty

The faculty section includes:

• Explore all Faculty
• Endowed Professorships

Students

The students section includes:

• Student Affairs
• Recent Graduates
• Student Work
• Student Groups
• Career Development

Alumni

The alumni section includes:

• Overview

Resources

The resources section includes:

• All Images
• Forms and Resources
• Make a Gift
• School Policies and Bulletin
• Jobs at YSoA
• Accreditation Information