N H D M

The expansive terrain of Queens has been the testing grounds for the ideals that are too wild for the tightly gridded island of Manhattan. Freed from the logics of maximum efficiency and density, Queens embraces all dreams and visions in a loose yet interconnected assemblage. 

The souvenir catalogs these multifarious idealisms through the representation of selected form(at)s of homes and communities found in the contemporary CB-Q6 as well as the area’s collective memories. The collection articulates more pronounced urban forms - from the halved Garden City of “Real Good Homes” to the winding private streets in Forest Hills, from a “tower in the park” of once vehemently opposed NYCHA project turned vibrant NORC (Naturally Occurring Retirement Community) to the increasingly ubiquitous podium-tower shell of luxury interiors to name a few- while bringing forward less readily visible spaces as well as new possibilities.

In Queens alone, there are 135,688 illegally converted basement living units (and 904 in CB-Q6) as of 2017, that are largely inhabited by the new immigrants and a low income population. Unnoticed yet extremely densely occupied, the sprawling underground city represents both the hopes and despairs of American dreams and the lack of affordable housing options for the less privileged in our city. As the subterranean portion of the Souvenir articulates the examples of such hidden habitation, the linear element of the souvenir - proposed to be a new monument of the city - utilizes the Queensway, an abandoned 3.5 mile long tract of public land, formerly the LIRR, as a site of affordable public housing and community amenities that flexibly responds to the local needs throughout the area and tackle the housing shortage. 

The souvenir aims to instigate the consideration of the ways we inhabit the city together and posits the possibility of a daringly visionary and transformative yet decidedly supportive architecture and urbanism that goes beyond the maintenance of the status quo.