Like the monsoons, the dust storms and the mountains, the BIG Pin is also an exceptional moment, a point of reference and a mechanism to set the still landscape in motion only this time through the movement of the spectator. Instead of referencing other observation towers, the Pin takes as a point of reference Frank Lloyd Wright’s celebrated Guggenheim Museum of New York. The visitor experiences the museum as a spiral motion looking inward. At the BIG Pin, the focus is reversed. Instead of a void, there is the dramatic landscape of Phoenix, Arizona.
The outdoor space can be used for assembly and testing of pod components, large gatherings, and as social space for the staff. It provides visual connections between the different departments and references the courtyard of Virgin Hyperloop’s LA campus. The facility also houses a test portal, that provides a passenger interface into the pods while they remain in the vacuum tube. This first prototype will be applied in the first commercial Hyperloop portals and continue HCC’s legacy of the first architecture turned Hyperloop infrastructure project.
The . mile project area is located within the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) -year floodplain and spans from Montgomery Street to East th Street. The ESCR project is designed to protect and improve the resiliency of the large and diverse residential community of more than , New Yorkers, including approximately , NYCHA residents. ESCR will also offer protection to critical infrastructure including a major pump station and an electrical substation that powers much of Lower Manhattan as well as numerous local schools and libraries.
Intrepid’s front façade is created by the strategic stacking of High Concrete’s precast panels of varying sizes, figured in a basket-weave pattern to realize the top of the building’s straight edge. As the panels reach upward they also tilt outward, creating an inviting, cave-like canopy over the building’s front sidewalk. Each of the building’s other three sides stand straight up, maintaining the structure’s signature paneling.
On floor B, travelers can pick up their vehicle from the car rental/valet service located in the connection bridge within minutes of arriving in Terminal A, and drive off directly with the utmost convenience. On the western end, the upper “snake” is extended and cantilevered out to provide shelter and shade, whilst simultaneously creating a striking symbolic entrance gesture to the Airport City for everyone coming from the Luxembourg city center.