The beach is the original commons, a public space at the edge of the city and ocean, open for all to enjoy. PS1 MoMA YAP offers the opportunity for a new interpretation of its courtyard as that original common - a public beach commons for relaxation and playful recreation. With this in mind, we propose Beach Party for the 20th edition of PS1 MoMA’s Warm Up.

Beach Party! is a timely response to local challenges that New York Beaches are facing. Indispensable in storm protection against rising sea levels, New York’s beaches struggle to maintain themselves naturally from continuous erosion. Beach Party! brings the joys of New York’s beaches, as well as awareness of the challenges that they face, right into the heart of Queens. The architecture borrows from the familiar as a way to speak to the collective, to memory, and a common understanding. Beach Party! borrows the four most familiar elements of the beach to bring New York’s coastal periphery to the museum in the urban center: sand, water, swings, and a bouncy ball.

Transplanting five of New York’s beaches into the museum’s courtyard, visitors will revel in the distinctive sands of New York’s coastal periphery spread across the courtyard. Suspended above these sands is a 160 foot long Group Hammock spanning between a transverse beam at the courtyard’s entrance and extending the full length of the courtyard to the museum’s podium. An oversized Beach Ball bounces between the overhead beams. And lastly, the only element that sits on the ground, the Looped Pool cast from sand aggregates from the five New York beaches offers a 6” wading pool to cool off and experiences the delight of water under the sun.

At the opening of Beach Party, sand from Far Rockaway, Long Beach, Fire Island, Jamaica Bay, and Westhampton will form a striped groundscape, each distinguished by colors and textures unique to their original beaches. Over the course of the summer, the strips will mix and merge as visitors frolic in the sand, their communal play erasing divisions and creating an ever-changing sandscape. An estimated 5,000 cubic yards of sand is sufficient to cover the courtyard to a depth of 6” - less than 0.05% of most beach sand reclamation projects in New York.

Overhead, three truss beams float above the Beach, their shadows suggesting three ‘zones’ below while leaving the Beach a single, unfettered space. An oversized Beach Ball sits in one zone, and the Looped Pool in another. The third, largest space can be used for large-scale performances, both by itself and in conjunction with the rest of the Beach.

Two of the three truss beams bridge the museum’s podium entrance to a third, shorter beam connecting the ensemble to the surrounding walls. The two longer beams carry between them the bright orange Hammocks - a nod towards ubiquitous beachfront construction fencing. Besides sand below and steel above, Beach Party utilizes ‘rope’ recycled from plastic bottles to weave both the Beach Ball and the Hammocks.

Whether ensconced in the Hammocks, dipping feet in the Looped Pool, rolling around the Beach Ball, or leaving notes for strangers in the iridescent dunes, revelers will enjoy a piece of New York’s oldest commons without leaving the city - their most relatable summer activity. By borrowing these elements, we seek to share the beach experience within the city.

As New York braces against rising tides, Beach Party is a timely, if ephemeral, reminder that we should never take one of its most precious public spaces for granted.