This project is informed by a desire to better integrate Lower Manhattan’s green spaces into the city fabric, and in particular to create a green link between the site and Battery Park. The design solution is a building which ramps from Battery Park all the way up to the site, culminating in a Passivhaus skyscraper. Above the ramp a stepped inhabitable green roof is proposed, acting as an extension to the park and allowing the public to circulate up into the city, to enjoy the sun and views to the south and to picnic on the series of green terraces. At the same time this new intervention acts to cover the existing urban scar the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel ramp cuts into city fabric.

The Green Ramp is envisaged as a ‘vertical eco-corridor’, with continuous vegetation linking ground and sky, reducing the heat island effect and allowing for the migration of plant species throughout the building, and the city beyond. Greenery is embraced throughout the tower, with planting integrated into its southern façade through deciduous vines which grow along cables to provide summer shading, but die away in the winter for increased solar heat gain. Residential apartments are organised such that 80% of the units are directly south-facing, with the remaining 20% orientated east and west. Office accommodation is located at the tower’s base, beneath the green ramp, allowing for large open floor-plates with increased shading.

This project came third at the UK National Finals stage of the 2011 Isover International Student Design Competition.