"Reimagine the New York State Canals"

In Phase 1 COLLECTIVE’s proposal for “Reimagine the Canal” competition introduced strategies of Cultural Tourism with arts and culture, connecting nature, engaging the communities, creating accommodations and the reuse of idle architecture. We believe Art & Culture is not about buying a ticket to consume, because Art is Work and it can become a driver to revive the once vibrant commerce ecology of the Erie Canal communities.

Among 145 entries worldwide, 7 finalists/ teams were selected; with our 105 page submission of Phase 1, it brought COLLECTIVE forward as a finalist to Phase 2.

COLLECTIVE as part of the “Intra Works” team, formed specifically for Phase II, is composed of COLLECTIVE, WRT and Interface Studio.
COLLECTIVE as the only international team with project experiences globally in the US, Europe and Asia etc, hope to utilize our architectural and urban design expertise for the revitalization of the Erie Canal Heritage Corridor through strengthening our Phase 1 proposal of Cultural Tourism. Working as “Intra Works”, the team proposed 3 pilot projects at Little Falls, Canajoharie and Utica, looking into creating art installation, revival of idle architecture to engage the communities and linking the city to the canal through architectural design.

Huge gratitude to the team at COLLECTIVE bringing this forward.

Phase 1: Betty Ng, Ivy Ip, Juan Minguez, Katja Lam, Kimberley Lau, Ray Lau, Sanny Ng, Wingyi So

Phase 2: Betty Ng, Dan Xue, Janice Kwok, Juan Minguez, Sanny Ng

*We were asked a few times what drove us in entering this competition: COLLECTIVE directors Betty Ng and Sanny Ng attended Cornell University for their B.Arch degrees, both have very fond memories living in Upstate New York, which contributed to COLLECTIVE’s decision in entering the competition in Phase 1 - Sanny currently resides in NYC and directs the COLLECTIVE NY office; Betty particularly feels close to the Finger Lakes Region, having worked on the construction documentation phase of Milstein Hall at Cornell University during her time practicing at OMA New York.