Time has always been an element of the unknown, which blinds us of our developments as a society. The city grid that was established in 1811 has governed Manhattan of New York City for over 200 years. The city grid and its implied property lines has kept our built environment and social infrastructures from evolving alongside the technological advancements of our society. One can almost start to imagine the city as being tethered by a rigid and systematic net, which leaves limited room for growth and change.

Manhattan Transverse,

is a manifestation of a new kind of spatial interaction that inverts the private and public ownership of buildings in Manhattan’s Civic Center against the imposed city grid. To approach this radicality through subtleness is to morph the public realm into the exclusivity of civic architecture. To break the unyielding barriers of the building forms and corresponding property lines is to adapt the solid boundaries into a zone of spatial ambiguity, where an urban and social infrastructural system reshapes the opportunities for formal, social, and urban engagement.