NYC AIDS Memorial Park Design Competition

We are looking for designs that function both as a neighborhood park and a significant memorial.

Description
We are looking for designs that function both as a neighborhood park and a significant memorial. Designs will be evaluated in their success at creating a community park integrated with an AIDS memorial that adaptively reuses existing below-grade space as a learning center to exhibit the history and facts of the ongoing epidemic. The new park should be designed as a place for passive and active recreation for the surrounding park-starved neighborhood. The park, memorial features, and below-grade learning center must be integrated both functionally and aesthetically.
This is a very challenging site for several reasons. The triangle is bound on two sides by subway trains. The below-grade space is raw and existing ceiling heights are approximately 10 feet. Issues of access, egress, locating mechanical and HVAC equipment, and bringing daylight to the below-grade space must all be addressed. Two underground passageways exist that connect the below-grade space with neighboring buildings. One runs under Seventh Avenue to the East Side existing hospital building; the other connects to the O'Toole building under West 12th Street. Both are city-owned, and proposed designs should explore their reuse potential for access/egress and housing mechanical equipment.
The ground plane of the site is 16,000 square feet and currently houses a loading dock, medical gas storage tanks, and a small community garden that will be demolished and cleared for the construction of the new park. Because the site is in the Greenwich Village Historic District, all park plans must be approved by New York City's Landmarks Preservation Commission.

Jury
Kurt Andersen (Journalist and Host Studio 360)
Barry Bergdoll (Chief Curator of Architecture and Design, Museum of Modern Art)
Elizabeth Diller (Partner and Co-founder, Diller Scofidio + Renfro)
Robert Hammond (Co-founder and Executive Director, Friends of the High Line)
Dr. Marjorie Hill (CEO, Gay Men's Health Crisis)
Bill T. Jones (Executive Artistic Director, Choreographer and Dancer, New York Live Arts)
Richard Meier (Founder and Managing Partner, Richard Meier & Partners Architects LLP)
Ken Smith (Founder and Principal, WORKSHOP: Ken Smith Landscape Architect, P.C.)
Suzanne Stephens (Deputy Editor, Architectural Record)

Prize
First prize: $5,000
Runner-up: $2,000

Entry Fee
$50 USD

Entries
One page PDF (under 5MB) scalable to ledger paper (11x17'')

Timetable
Results notification: February 1, 2012

Organizer
Architizer

Official Website
http://www.architizer.com/en_us/competitions....