About

A participatory exhibit about the past, present, and future of the New Haven Armory on Goffe Street.   Excavating the Armory launched at City-Wide Open Studios Armory Weekend, October 14 & 15, 2017, and continues as an online forum and citizen organization with the goal of conserving the Armory as a shared civic resource.  We join those who care about the future of the Armory and invite your participation.

We are looking for opportunities to share and expand Excavating the Armory with community groups, schools, non-profits, city officials, and other interested citizens.  We hope it can be helpful in community organization around the conservation and activation of an irreplaceable landmark so full of potential.  There are many creative models for the social preservation and fiscal stewardship of buildings like the New Haven Armory.  If you would like to join our mailing list or get connected, please write excavatingthearmory@gmail.com.

At the Armory, we create a five-part strategy to uncover the physical and social qualities and potentials of the building:

  1. A collective social history timeline to generate individual, shared, and possibly conflicting memories and associations with the Armory.
  2. An architectural vocabulary to introduce a descriptive language for the building’s physical and spatial presence.
  3. An urban diagram that draws connections and suggests relationships at the scale of the neighborhood and the city.
  4. A precedents study, suggesting models of continuing use, adaptation, and stewardship of old armory buildings.
  5. And a forum on armory futures, featuring a cut-a-way model to imagine new programs and activities for the Goffe Street Armory.

Excavating the Armory is a collaboration between the Yale School of Architecture‘s Urban Research and Representation seminar, led by Elihu Rubin; high school students from the New Haven Academy; and Artspace New Haven.

Yale School of Architecture:  Isabel Balda Moncayo, Jonathan Hopkins, Jincy Kunnatharayil, Javier Perez, Evan Sale, Armaan Shah, Priya Sheth, Fran Xavier

New Haven Academy: Justin Aresta, Alexis Badger, Katie Castillo, Karynn Hardy, Karlyse Pollard, Daniel Ramirez

Thank you: Greg Baldwin, Deborah Berke, Sarah Fritchey, Meredith Gavrin, Nadine Horton, Helen Kauder, Bill MacMullen, Marium Majid