Devan Elias

Adapt 52 is a site located along the piers in New York City during the 1980s. It is a project that asks “What if?” about a site that, although it currently exists in a different condition, nonetheless represents a uniquely rich history, beginning as a passenger ship terminal in the early 1900s and being adapting over times to many other uses, most notably as a respite for marginalized queer people during the 1970s and 1980s. In 1981, the site served as a space in which to explore identity and sexual liberation, but its identity abruptly became that of a ground zero of the global AIDS pandemic. My design proposal offers something purposeful and with new meaning for a community that has endured tremendous loss. It creates a center giving artists with AIDS a place in which to reflect while providing space to support those affected and working on AIDS advocacy. The final deliverable, formatted in the style of a catalog, deeply explores the queer subculture in historical context and highlights my initial design processes and concepts expressed through event programming proposed for the space itself.