The Equity Project Middle School
Set in the Inwood neighborhood of Manhattan, this new 480-student school combines a complex spatial program with refined volumetric clarity. Curtis + Ginsberg Architects cleverly stack varying scales of spaces that lead students through their daily routines. The school's reception area, a vertically compressed space, empties out into two dramatic volumes: a double-height entry stair and an even taller, full-court gym. Next on the ascent, floor three is the cafe with a full commercial kitchen, where student lunches are prepared daily. Floors four and five contain classrooms. Floor six is the crown jewel of the school - another cathedral-like space for music instruction and performance.
As a multi-story, urban school, circulation is a vertical stack of spacious and bright staircases. A vibrant red greets students at the ground floor reception space and is traced up the building by perforated metal railings. As students reach the top of the school, a skylight-topped atrium floods the staircase with natural light.
The exterior of the building exudes colorful, child-like joy, deliberately standing apart from the mostly brownish-yellow palette of the neighborhood. Bright red vertical fins line the front facade of the building, offering a spectacular optical illusion as the stacked fins separate and disappear as you approach the building.
Photographed Fall 2019.
Architect: Curtis and Ginsberg Architects
Builder: Procida Companies
Client: The Equity Project
I love the built environment. My photographic practice is anchored by my fascination with design, urbanity and the tactile experience of our surroundings. I believe that our built environment is in tension between intentionality and circumstance, the whole made more powerful by the nature of its duality. My passion is creating photographic representations at the intersection of design, implementation, and context.
I believe in telling stories. Great photography creates narrative strings that enhance our understanding of the built environment. I use my experience to highlight, finesse, contextualize the ideas embedded in each project. My goal is to explore implementations of great design, distilling and connecting photographic vignettes that offer insight into the ideas that shape our world.
I began my career as an architectural designer and refined my focus to the representation of architecture. My interest is in built work - the physical manifestation of design. Through scouting, planning, photographing and all the steps that come after, I refine the representation of each project to best reflect the goals of my clients.
I hold a Bachelor of the Arts in Architecture from Columbia University and a Master of Fine Arts in Photography from the School of Visual Arts. I am based in Manhattan and available for assignments worldwide.
You can reach me at info@alexanderseverin.com