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Back As Front

Type
Urban Farm
Location
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, New York, USA
Instructor
Prof. Hanna Tulis
Year
2022

Taking Lincoln Center's pre-2006 condition as a point of departure, Back As Front examines the distance between its monumental buildings and everyday public life. Timber structures and planted habitat facades are added along the existing closed walls, turning the building edge into an accessible, occupiable public space.

Urban farms, farmers markets, dining spaces, and a natural history museum give visitors reasons to stay beyond attending performances. Walkways connect these activities with opportunities to observe urban wildlife, bringing ecological reinhabitation and daily social life into the same architectural framework.

Site analysis of Lincoln Center and its surrounding urban fabric
Site Context and Urban Connections

Animals and Plants as New Occupants

The proposal extends the idea of a building's occupants to animals and plants. This study considers the diets, activity patterns, and habits of owls, falcons, pigeons, cats, squirrels, butterflies, and bees alongside vegetation. These different ways of inhabiting the city inform the relationship between habitat facades, planted spaces, and the routes from which visitors can observe them.

Study of animals and plants as new occupants of the site
New Occupants · Animals and Plants

Reclaiming the Building Edge

The site analysis places Lincoln Center within its surrounding streets, buildings, and open spaces. The proposal concentrates new activity along the edges of the existing volumes rather than treating the central plaza as the only public destination. The floor plans trace an open timber band around and between the buildings, creating routes and places to pause where a closed wall previously defined the boundary.

Concept diagram connecting existing facades and the spaces between buildings
Concept · Facades and In-Between Spaces
Physical model showing open timber additions around existing Lincoln Center buildings
Physical Model · Open Timber Additions
Red massing study marking proposed additions along existing building edges
Massing Study · Proposed Building Edges
Timber Interventions and Floor Plans

Thickening the Wall into Habitat

The new facade is conceived as a thickened edge that accommodates both planting and occupation. The sections place layered timber walkways beside planted walls, with stairs linking different levels. This added depth creates a relationship between the existing building, the habitat surface, and the visitor's route, making the wall an inhabited spatial boundary rather than a single plane.

The ambition for a return to the San Juan Hill site is framed as ecological reinhabitation. Proposed habitats seek to accommodate urban wildlife such as falcons, pigeons, and raccoons, while adjoining observation routes allow visitors to encounter animal activity and vegetation as part of the public experience.

Habitat Facades and Layered Walkways · Section 1 Habitat Facades and Layered Walkways · Section 2 Habitat Facades and Layered Walkways · Section 3 Habitat Facades and Layered Walkways · Section 4
Habitat Facades and Layered Walkways

Observing, Growing, and Gathering

The four perspectives develop distinct everyday settings: an observation gallery beside a planted habitat wall, a timber route around a basin of aquatic planting, a dining space edged by vegetation, and a farmers market. Repeated columns and overhead beams give these spaces a continuous rhythm, while stairs connect activities across levels.

Urban farming, food exchange, dining, and the natural history museum are conceived as related public programs. Visitors can move between observing animals, encountering planting, buying produce, and sharing a table, giving the spaces around the performance buildings a more continuous everyday use.

Visitors observing birds and a planted habitat wall from a timber walkway
Wildlife Observation Gallery
Timber walkway and stair around a basin of aquatic planting
Timber Walkway and Aquatic Planting