The current Office of Emergency Management (OEM) gives the impression that, in times of crisis, one must be protected with heavy, monolithic barriers, creating an reclusive building that is further concealed by the Brooklyn Bridge and Cadman Plaza Park. In reality, emergency events call for spontaneous collaboration and trust between strangers.
The project articulates the many different departments that are involved in the decision-making process at the OEM by fragmenting them into individual volumes and placing them in larger fields of public program. The emergency response vehicles and distribution trucks, which act as crucial extensions of the building out into the city, are also integrated into the facade by locating parking on the second level. A series of circulation cores, both opaque and transparent, help maintain secure access to office levels but allow for visibility so the public may become more aware of the role and work of the OEM within the city.
The overall building is kept quiet and the outer envelope ambiguous to contrast and slowly reveal the more dynamic events and forms housed within.
Published in Retrospecta 40
Run for Cover! is an issue dedicated to defensive architecture.