Pier 7 Aqua Art Center: Water-themed Art Incubation Center on Brooklyn Pier 7

Contributors

Jeff Li (B.Arch. '26)
Xinyue (Joy) Ru (M.Arch. '25)

Class

ARCH 5115 Vertical Design Option Studio

Instructors

“Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.” — Pablo Picasso. Art is not only a source of inspiration and creativity but also a vital contributor to the cultural wellness of a community, fostering connection, healing, and a sense of belonging. Our proposal aims to create an art incubation center at Brooklyn Pier 7 by integrating existing structures with newly built ones. This center provides a holistic community for artists who use water as a medium for their work, offering a space where they can live, work, create, and exhibit all in one place.

By summarizing the typologies of mainstream water-themed art, we identified five types of exhibition platforms. Two different spatial systems are designed to accommodate artworks of varying scales, positioned within the north and south rows defined by the existing warehouse structure. The southern row supports large-scale, team-oriented installations, while the northern row offers double-height studios, small workshops, and compact exhibition spaces. The central row transforms into a public promenade connecting the city to the waterfront, ending with two major attractions — a large water theater and a floating art installation park. Promoting cultural wellness and waterfront community engagement, the project reinterprets the historic Brooklyn waterfront as a balanced environment where art, space, and well-being thrive together.