William Burroughs Foundation
Houston Street is the divide between colonial Manhattan and the 19th century grid which now defines the island. The street has been cut-up through a series of widening procedures leaving unique fragments of peripheral space: spaces of idiosyncrasy once part of a network of forgotten paths which fold one over the other. Analysis of William Burroughs’ “Naked Lunch” reveals the character of the author. It also offers a technical understanding of the generative possibilities created using the ‘cutup’ method of literary production.
From the main atrium at the ground level visitors may enter an auditorium, or continue up into the gallery space at the second level. Above the gallery space light filters in between structural components, catwalks, and the working rooms which hang off the street facade. Visitors may continue up along the perimeter of the main atrium, which lets off at each level of a reference library placed against a party wall on the south property line. Working rooms are accessed through the reference library by catwalks which float over the gallery space.
The experience of passing from the understated library through this chaotic space is countered by the small, utilitarian spaces which are the working areas. Each is visually closed off from the rest of the building, including only a desk, chair, and view of the street outside. The path of artists and writers using the work rooms is reflective of the processes used by William Burroughs in his creation of literature, where chapters and passages are characterized by mundane prologues which quickly break into disorganized, delusional statements, and are brought back to some semblance of reality. This cycle is repeated many times through each chapter.
