Socrates Sculpture Park SEATING

Location: Queens, New York
Type: Furniture, Park Seating
Status: Open Competition, 2018
Team: Miroslava Brooks, Daniel Markiewicz, Parsa Khalili

Tasked with providing seating for at least twenty-five people on a very modest budget, this proposal aims to do more with less. Rather than create a set of one-off seats for a select few on this shoreline park in Queens, this project aims to create seating for an entire community and foster interaction through gatherings and events. With the novel use of telephone utility poles this projects creates a flexible seating system with a diverse set of configurations that can accommodate a wide range of uses.

In a park with a track record of displaying found-object-art, the ready-made industrial utility pole is not only historically appropriate, but offers structural rigidity, significant length, financial practicality and extreme durability. This project proposes to cut the poles in half, lengthwise, to create a smooth top seating surface covered with a pristine coat of white lacquer, offering a stark visual and tactile contrast to the rough half-round log below.

Each pole is outfitted with custom seating profiles optimal for reading, sunbathing, lounging, or watching a performance. At the larger scale, each pole is fixed to the ground only at one end allowing it to be rotated freely like the hands of a clock. The project can discreetly subdivide the park into different pockets of activity or alternatively into one grand gesture suitable for large scale community events.  More than just seating for individuals, these types of flexibility encourage gathering, dialogue and interaction within and for the surrounding Long Island City community.