GRIDS & IDENTITIES

Located adjacent to Lincoln Center, this cultural museum explores the shifting relationship between people, land, and movement in New York City. The site carries layers of inhabitation—from the waterways and migratory patterns of its original inhabitants, to San Juan Hill, to the rigid Manhattan grid and the institutional presence of Lincoln Center. Historical water flows are traced and transformed into a fluid, shoal-like architecture that juxtaposes the imposed grid geometry of the city, allowing visitors to wander and encounter fragments of the site's past. A semi-permeable archival core anchors this movement, turning history into something experienced through the body. By opening a traditionally exclusive institution to the public, the museum challenges restores a sense of collective movement and cultural exchange to the site.