THE NEW ZOCALO

Designers: Florencia Pita & Jackilin Hah Bloom

Project Team: Rachael McCall (Team Leader), Ivan Bernal, Kyle Branchesi, Javier Cardiel, Charmaine Lam, Nader Naim, Hyo Seon Park, Shane Reiner-Roth, Sandy Sanchez, Nithya Subramaniam, Claudia Wainer

Model Builders: Zaid Kashef Alghata, Cristina Macia Briedis, Coleman Butts, Albert Chavez, Isabela de Sousa,
Wan Sun Kung, Diastika Lokesworo, Matthew Momberger, Nader Naim, Hahn Nguyen, Pinar Seven, Simon Sun

Consultants: Russell Fortmeyer (Arup, Los Angeles), Rodney Rojas (SCI-Arc Fabrication Shop, LA), *Special thank you to SCI-Arc for their support on this project.*

Curators of The Architectural Imagination: Cynthia Davidson, Monica Ponce de Leon

Mexicantown, DE. 15th Venice Architectural Biennale 2016.

U.S. Pavilion, The Architectural Imagination.

The New Zocalo is an urban platform. A Spanish word for “base” or “footing” that in Mexico can also refer to a town square or plaza, zócalo is here understood as an elevated plinth. Hovering above street level and aligned with the adjacent rail yard, the plinth’s colorful textured paving traverses a series of gardens while broad oblique walkways connect formal and informal destinations. The raised platform is accessed from below, where parking is available on grade. The platform supports six clusters of buildings, some of which break through its plane to also engage the street level with lobby entries. They include a theater with a restaurant, a recreation center, a winter garden with a cafe, a marketplace that accommodates indoor and outdoor retail, an outdoor band shell, and a cultural center. By raising the public plaza, the project affords visitors new views of the rail yard and surrounding neighborhood and allows public space to coexist with busy vehicular flow at street level.