Architectural Narrative

Freedom Plaza reimagines Manhattan’s East River waterfront as a civic landmark rooted in openness and access. Designed by Bjarke Ingels Group, the 4.1 million square-foot development is anchored by a 4.77-acre public park that stretches from First Avenue to the water’s edge. Elevated above a below-grade casino, the park weaves together play areas, gardens, and gathering spaces, transforming a long-neglected site into an active urban oasis. Flanked by expressive residential and hotel towers, the park serves as a democratic threshold for the city. At its edge, the Museum of Freedom and Democracy—shaped like a looping form—overlooks an amphitheater and embodies the site’s civic and symbolic ambitions.

Surrounding towers balance cultural, residential, and hospitality uses in a modernist language of clean lines and warm materials. Two residential towers deliver over 1,300 units, nearly 40% of them affordable. A pair of hotel towers, linked by a skybridge with wellness, dining, and art spaces, house New York’s first Banyan Tree and Mohegan-branded hotels. By tucking all podium functions—parking, retail, gaming—below ground, the project preserves the park’s openness, a rare move for developments of this scale. With net-zero operational goals and embedded environmental strategies, Freedom Plaza is both a skyline-defining gesture and a bold vision for urban equity and sustainability.

Visual Narrative

Bloom’s images, sketches, and references explore how a project of this scale both shapes and is shaped by the city around it. Sometimes the architecture is revealed in full; other times, it’s partially obscured by its surroundings—mirroring the way we encounter New York itself. At moments, the scale is overwhelming; at others, it’s reduced to a single texture, detail, or reflection. The visuals follow a rhythm of compression and release, guiding the viewer through the evolving relationship between built form and open space set in an iconic urban context.

This narrative unfolds in a series of visual “acts,” each evoking a different urban mood: the optimism of a clear morning, the tension of a cloudy afternoon, and the cinematic glow of night. These changing atmospheres reflect the dynamic life of the city—a place in constant motion, where clarity and disorientation often coexist.