Governor's Cup Pavilion

On June 7th 2014, The Governor’s Cup Pavilion designed by CDR Studio Architects was revealed during the 5th Annual Figment Art Festival in Governor’s Island, NY. This project, created out of 30,000 recycled clear plastic cups was a highlight of the festival as its hovering clear organic lattice-like structure danced around the surrounding trees and draped all the way down to the grass. The Governor’s Cup Pavilion was this year’s City of Dreams Pavilion winner hosted by Figment, ENYA (Emerging New York Architects) and SEAoNY (Structural Engineering Association of New York) as an architectural installation entry for the island. The organizations called for production volunteers of which, one of our own project designers; Jeanne Chiang, LEED Green Associate, had participated. This was a 6 month long design collaborative that called on architects to engage in different tasks from cup cleaning all the way to assembling the cup modules and zip-tying. If you look closely, her name, along with the 100 plus volunteer designers is labeled on the cups, giving proper credit to all those who worked on it.

We asked Jeanne her reason for participating:

“The project shows the ability of repurposing used materials and make it re-interact with the public. The Governor's Cup Pavilion is an icon that evokes environmental critique on our society. If you look at it, these are the 30,000 cups that we often blindly throw away. I became interested in this project because I see it as a “Green” Initiative that promotes sustainable practices. I fell in love with the concept and wanted to help turn it into reality.”

Just recently, the Pavilion was featured on the Wall Street Journal titled “Disposable Display” (June 16th Greater New York Watch)

The Pavilion is now a staple exhibit at Governor’s Island, and is open to visitors all summer long.