A collection of inquiries in
ArchitectureFabrication
to understand the world
as an assembly of:

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Elements


Contact


Palace of Joy

People’s Pool


Coney Island, NYC
2 Week Design Competition, 1st Place

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Core II Studio

Instructors: Mariana Ibañez, Liam O’Brien, Rosalyne Shieh
Collaborators: Ana Macintosh, Alice Jia Li Song

How does narrative embody monumentality?

Recounted as a memory in Rem Koolhaas’ Delirious New York, the “Palace of Joy” exists only as fragments of memory and imagination. Though the project was never completed, its monumentality persists in recollections and momentos: an architecture whose presence extends beyond built form. Through perspective drawings and trinket-making, we take an anachronistic journey to the iconic bathhouse of Coney Island to explore the entanglement of narrative and form.








Massing Model, Thermoformed PETG

Perspective: First Sight



Proliferation of iconography, signage, and advertisement
embedded the Palace into the whimsical mythos of Coney
Island. Over time this idealized monumentality allowed the
project to “realize” a sense of grandeur far beyond the
possibilities of physical manifestation. 

Model Index: Exploring Monumentality in Form


Perspective: Street View

Perspective: Navigation

Distilling Spectacle into Memory:
Commemorating the 1961 crowning of the Palace of Joy  as the “People’s Pool,” the memorial trophy distills the monumental structure into a selection of its most iconic parts.






Perspective: Souvenir


Danny Griffin Selected Works 2014-2023