The Penn Boogie Woogie

Futurecity, Grimshaw Architects and the Municipal Art Society reimagined the urban area surrounding the iconic Penn Station and Madison Square Gardens. Inspired by Mondrian’s last painting Broadway Boogie Woogie, the teams took New York’s classic rectilinear grid, and carried out a detailed cultural audit of the area mapping out and colour coding the diverse creative and cultural industries to be found there. A new map suggested redefining the east-west ‘horizontal’ streets of New York as well as the north-south vertical avenues to create a new way of looking at the city. The Boogie Woogie map provided ideas for a cultural masterplan for the area and inspirations for a new culture-led revival of the city quarter.