Shifting Centrality
Cancel Architecturesupervised by Preston Scott Cohen
Location: New Orleans, Louisiana
Date: 2020
Monuments are able to draw power and prominence through their architectural and urban features. Its placement on a high pedestal above the horizon line and an urban roundabout all contribute to the visibility and statue of a monument. America is battling the existence of confederate monuments. Throughout the country, monuments are in states of either still standing, hidden away, desecrated, or half removed. The monuments are so imbued in the city's urban fabric, with long axis leading toward monuments or entire parks built so that the monument could stand at its apex.
Shifting Centrality investigates canceling these monuments' power and re-purposing them back to the public by cutting off the fundamental aspects that give the monument power. The roundabout loop is cut off, reducing its function to a typical intersection, and the residual space allows for new public space and stage. The monument's pedestal is then re-purposed as a projection room, redirecting focus to the stage. The pedestal becomes background, reducing its monumental nature. Utilizing the nationwide need to store these monuments away, the project uses the funding for that storage to create the stage. The structure of the stage alludes to the existing roundabout while providing an entirely new focus.
