The Manhattan Districts 1/2/5 Garage, overlooking the Hudson River at the corner of Spring Street and West Street, houses three district garages for the NYC Department of Sanitation. The buildings have become iconic and a source of neighborhood pride. Although municipal infrastructure projects are often targeted as undesirable uses, the community has embraced the project and applauded the use of design to successfully integrate critical services into the neighborhood. This pair of public buildings serves close to 300,000 residents.
The team worked closely with DSNY and a Community Board approvals process, in a series of workshops to develop program requirements for a vertically organized multi-district garage. Through this process, opportunities were identified for combining shared spaces, reducing floor to floor heights, and optimizing circulation efficiency.