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Beaux Arts Ball 2023: Sea Change
Asked to design the installation for the Architectural League’s Beaux Arts Ball in 2023, CO Adaptive set out to create a piece that embodies their goals around material circularity within the unique setting of the Brooklyn Navy Yard’s Building 269 / Agger Fish.
Building 269 in the Brooklyn Navy Yard is an exquisite remnant of its time, standing unchanged after more than 80 years. CO Adaptive wanted this installation to enhance its inherent beauty, and aimed to create something that would adapt to, and be distorted by, the expansive open space, highlighting its vast height and immense depth.
The installation was rigged to the existing building, without touching the floor. Colorful netting defined the dance floor and two central oculi suspended from the building's large rigging system offered glimpses at the boundless ceilings beyond. Plant matter hung from the netting created an intimate setting that made visitors feel they were entering a submerged, undersea environment.
CO Adaptive’s goal was to create an installation that would be entirely circular and create no waste. The textural and colorful fishing nets that create the transparent tent were simply borrowed; we sourced them from Net Your Problem, which collects used nets from fisheries in Massachusetts, and sent them to recyclers to reuse in new product manufacturing after the installation was taken down.
Hanging from the tented nets, and providing beautiful natural undulations, is rockweed. This was sourced locally through Lobster Place, who are committed to being good stewards of our community, our resources, and the environment. After the Ball, the rockweed was donated to local urban farms to be composted and added to garden beds, where it increased nitrogen. Increasing concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere result in a larger uptake of CO2 by the ocean. Rockweed, alongside other seaweeds, represent important photosynthesizers that, like their terrestrial counterparts, absorb CO2 and thereby regulate the pH levels of the ocean.
The CO Adaptive design and build team was given access to the 9th floor of their studio space building to lay out and de-tangle the donated nets and mock up how they would be installed in 269. A mere three days before the event we were given access to the space to rig them up. Lighting was tested the night before and really brought the installation to life. Everything was taken down again within a few hours the following morning, and the materials made their way to their next destination from there. As intended, zero waste was created from the installation.
It was CO Adaptive’s desire to bring climate change—and the responsibility of the architectural profession in affecting change within the building sector—to the forefront of the event. Building 269’s proximity to the East River already underlined its vulnerability to rising sea levels, and on the day of the event, significant flash flooding throughout NYC almost derailed the event and emphasized the urgency of this conversation.
By creating an installation that treads ever so lightly, we wanted to draw attention to how much catching up we, as an industry, have to do to mitigate the effects of climate change.
Featured in:
- Beaux Arts Ball 2023: SEA CHANGE, The Architectural League of NY
- Beaux Arts Ball 2023 Photo Gallery, The Architectural League of NY
- Arch League Boogies Down at The Brooklyn Navy Yard, Surface Magazine
Architecture: CO Adaptive
Lighting Design: Joel Fitzpatrick, Ken Farmer
Location: Brooklyn, NY
Type: Arts & Cultural
Values: Creative Reuse, Low Carbon, Healthy Materials, Design for Disassembly
Finished Photographs: Donilee McGinnis, Leandro Viana