Times Square Armed Forces Recruiting Station
by Architecture Research Office,
Principles Stephen Cassell and Adam Yarinsky, Project Architect: Alan Bruton
Times Square, NYC
2000
A 500sf, four desk recruiting facility to replace an historic booth in Times Square. The station is built directly over a fresh air shaft for the New York subway system, challenging the main programmatic necessity of the project: the inclusion of a bathroom for the first time. Acknowledging the iconic placement of the national outpost in the belly button of the city, which is the site of celebrations as well as demonstrations against national policy, an abstract arrangement of fluorescent lights covered with reflective gels resembles Old Glory, making the structure as much a sign as a building. Fiber optic couples for the broadcast and control of the Ball Dropping for the annual New Years Eve celebration are built in to the rear panel of the booth.
