Reframing Memory

A Collaboration with Artist Mikel Glass

This ongoing collaboration with artist Mikel Glass focuses on a former industrial building in Passaic, New Jersey—part of the historic Raybestos complex. Located in a city long associated with Robert Smithson’s conceptual explorations of the post-industrial landscape, the site holds both material and cultural resonance.

Rental Offices for the Raybestos Industrial Complex - Passaic, New Jersey

The proposal engages the building through a series of artistic and architectural interventions intended to reframe its present condition while opening the door to future possibilities. The work draws attention to the building’s layered history—its expansions, weathering, and moments of improvisation—making them visible rather than concealed.

Our contribution supports the evolution of the project’s spatial strategy and review process, including the potential for new architectural elements that mark or frame specific conditions on site. In dialogue with Mikel’s broader vision, these gestures aim to reinforce a sense of presence, memory, and latent use.

Conceptual image by Mikel Glas

The project situates itself within an ongoing lineage of critical site engagement—raising questions about how we read, reinterpret, and reclaim spaces shaped by industry, erosion, and time.