Noel Murphy, 2012 Rotch Scholar

Problem

Create a new public school for the arts that could serve as a cultural hub for the emerging Fort Point District.

Solution

Public Assembly

The emerging status of the Fort Point neighborhood is driven by a desire and support for innovation. The role of the public institution in such an environment is critical. Is it supportive or conservative? Protected or opened? The proposed Fort Point Public Arts School is driven by the demands of innovation and the need for public institutions to reaffiliate themselves with the public at large.

At the heart of the proposal is the desire to weave the public aspects of the institution into the day-to-day life of the school - functionally, visually, and philosophically. Considering two general types of uses - core and communal - the building attempts to intertwine and connect students patterns within the school. Further, the public is drawn into and through the building as a premise of using its spaces. In formal terms, the overlap is produced by a double-helix arrangement of core and communal programs. Core programs - classrooms, offices, studios - always share levels with communal programs. Further, the programs are distinguished by their degrees of visual openness. Core uses being more solid and introverted while communal functions provide transparency within the school and to the city beyond. The interplay of core and communal creates dynamic spaces of friction - open/closed, loud/quiet, voyeuristic/private. Finally, the Arts School makes gestures to the city and the harborwalk. Key public programs are revealed within the helix and opened to the city - the school as a visual projection.