Lauren Forrest

The Atrium is a year-round conservatory at Sutton Place, in New York City, that encourages interaction and community engagement through its natural landscape, varied public space, and diverse marketplace. Inspired by the site's history as a market in the early 1900s and aligning with the community’s interest in nature conservancy, The Atrium bridges the gap between the surrounding neighborhoods, organizations, and businesses. The core ideas behind the design are interconnection and stability, redefined as the ability to thrive in response to change. The thesis includes orthographic drawings and renderings, a hand-printed and hand-bound project book inspired by botanical journals, a one-eighth-scale laser-cut model, and a 3D printed physical model.