Student project from the X-Information Modeling Course in the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation at Columbia University were featured recently on Untapped Cities . The project aimed to uncover the leftover lots of Manhattan's urban fabric, lots often left tiny, strange, and nothing short of awkward. In the tradition of the Flatiron building, the team speculated about the aggregate worth of these lots in Manhattan, arguing that in the city all land is valuable.
The net lot area of these types of properties total more than 5.2 million square feet. By zip code, 10014 in the West Village, 10018 in the Garment District and 10019 in Midtown, including the piers and parts of Central Park have the largest percentage of awkward lots by lot area. Zip code 10030 in Harlem had a large number of awkward plots, but it consisted of smaller lot sizes.
Thank you to Michelle Young for writing the piece and participating as guest critic in the course!