Shark Exhibit Building New York

Shark Exhibit Building, Coney Island, New York, USA - Slade Architecture New York City is redeveloping Coney Island: reviving its historic identity as a world famous amusement and recreation destination. The recently completed redevelopment master plan identifies several Coney Island "Icons" as the key elements in the redevelopment. The Parachute Jump and the New York Aquarium are two of these icons and together they anchor the two ends of the Coney Island Boardwalk. Because of the building's location on the boardwalk, the Coney Island development Corporation and the New York Economic Development Corporation requested that the Aquarium hire a design firm to redesign the shark exhibit building to be the iconic marker for the aquarium on the boardwalk. Our charge was to work with the exhibit design firm to create three alternative schemes for the shark tank building. Our design proposes to create an iconic gathering place at the end of the boardwalk. The building is like a wooden dune on the boardwalk. It allows visitors to climb to a view of the aquarium interior or sit and look out at the boardwalk and beach. In addition the perforated metal building skin allows views between the exhibit spaces, the boardwalk and the aquarium creating an interaction between these spaces that does not currently exist. At the direction of the client, the final scheme expands the exhibit programs to include a sea lion exhibit and an aviary in addition to the Shark Tank? The bottom of the sealion tank includes viewing areas on the boardwalk. The rooftop sealion exhibit provides a sculpted viewing platform peering back over the boardwalk and an Iconic marker from the boardwalk Shark Exhibit Building images / information from Slade Architecture Recent Manhattan Building The Standard New York Todd Schliemann of Polshek Partnership Architects photos © Nikolas Koenig/Hotels AB Recent Coney Island Building Coney Island Ampitheater Grimshaw Coney Island Ampitheater images © Grimshaw