Awards & Honors

Spitzer architecture students reimagine a new future for the Kingsbridge Armory

09. 21. 2023

  • B Arch students Mateo Penafiel, Shiva Abbaszadeh, President Boudreau, Director of Operations Jason Garcia, Prof. Fabian Llonch, and Dean Marta Gutman.

  • B Arch student Wyatt Kuebler (far right) shows off his model.

  • Kingsbridge Armory model.

  • B Arch students show off their model.

  • Kingsbridge Armory model.

  • President Boudreau and Prof. Llonch examine a model.

  • Kingsbridge Armory model.

  • Prof. Llonch and B Arch student Marxell Mejia pose in front of Kingsbridge Armory model.

  • The crowd gathered at Community Celebration: Together for Kingsbridge / Juntos Para Kingsbridge.

  • Kingsbridge Armory.

Students from the City College of New York’s Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture attended a celebration for the future redevelopment of the Kingsbridge Armory and displayed the models they made for an architectural competition to reimagine the space in the Armory parking lot on Sunday, Sept. 17th.

The Armory is up for redevelopment thanks to an investment by the City and State of New York of $200 million, a favorite project of Governor Kathy Hochul, Mayor Eric Adams, and Representative Adriano Espaillat. The New York City Economic Development Corporation and the Community Working Group recently released the “Together for Kingsbridge Vision Plan.” To celebrate this milestone, they hosted a community celebration.

Spitzer 4th and 5th-year B.Arch Students took part in the competition, “Kingsbridge Armory as a Vertical Farming Facility,” as part of their Professor Fabian Llonch’s Spring 2023 semester design studio. The idea was to create designs for the adaptive reuse of the North Bronx Kingsbridge Armory, one of the largest armories in the world. The competition was sponsored by the Spitzer School, the American Institute of Architects, Bronx chapter, and Bronx Borough President Hon. Vanessa Gibson.

The models made by students from the competition were on display Sunday at the celebration with the students on hand to answer questions and talk about their inventive use of the space. In addition to the students, CCNY President Vincent Boudreau attended the event with Spitzer School of Architecture Dean Marta Gutman.

Four teams of students competed to showcase their proposed integration of vertical farming into the landmark structure. The winners (Team G1) were Shiva Abbaszadeh, Kingsley Chong, and Wyatt Scott Kuebler, and received a prize of $1,200 from the Bronx chapter. A $600 prize went to the runner-up (Team G3) Marxell Mejia Vargas, Mahomudur Rahman, and Shara Um.

The other participating students were (Team G2) Mingyao Chen, Wei Qing Lin, Manfei Shi, and (Team G4) Rustam Domullojonov, Mateo Sebastian Penafiel, and Florjan Plepi.

The Vision Plan is a crucial step towards making the Armory an economic engine for the Bronx and will inform a request for proposal (RFP), which is being released soon.

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