Plant-arium
city . New York
program .
The envisioned project is an extension of the American Museum of Natural History facing Central Park in New York City. The new center is intended to showcase, study, and monitor plant habitats of Manhattan and from around the world therefore its name: New York Plant-arium. The program includes: native plant habitats (on roofs and grounds), humid and dry tropics greenhouses, plant exhibition galleries, research laboratories, classrooms, library, auditorium and cafeteria.
The project challenges standard notions of high rise buildings and make evident the need of solar exposure to sustain life. The presence of greenhouses and plant habitats within the building, impose a radical rethinking of the structural skeleton and the building massing and skin.
Design Team
Architecture: Rene Onate
Paul Del Canal
