2019 Pagganuck Pavilion

Parsons Design Workshop 2019 continued their partnership with the Trust for Governors Island. A collaborative design process that examined the history of the Island and the ethnography of the site culminated in the creation of Pagganuck — a solar shading pavilion and iconic visual marker inspired by the building techniques of the Lenape Tribe, Native Americans of the Manhattan region, who referred to the island as Pagganuck or “Nut Island” named for its plentiful hickory, oak, and chestnut trees.

Pagganuck incorporates bent laminated wood arches with exterior powder coated steel cladding panels combined with repurposed PVC mesh that formerly clad the New School water towers at 70 5th Avenue. Covering a cobblestone patio, the pavilion accommodates custom outdoor seating made from cork, white oak and steel brackets that can be arranged by the users. The moveable seating named "Okto" takes its inspiration from the triangular form of the Pavilion's peaks.

I led the graduate students throughout the summer construction process. I guided them through iterative prototyping and further development of the shade structure and seating components. We engaged with a laminated wood truss manufacturer, steel fabricators, powder coating and hot dip galvanizing vendors, and engineers. We poured concrete footings and laid several thousand stone pavers before erecting the wood frame of the shade structure and cladding it. I helped the team come up with a fabrication strategy that made use of both the digital and analog resources at the Making Center at Parsons. We designed jigs for the manual tools like the table saw, router, and drill press for repetitive parts, and used the CNC routers and plasma cutter for complex and unique components.

The finished pavilion provides an extension to the Urban Lab site, and is a visual beacon for the thousands of visitors that pass by the site as they enjoy Governors Island.