Neri Oxman’s productive frictions

Oxman was a rock star researcher at MIT. Now she wants to build the wildest innovation lab of the 21st century.

Four hundred years ago, at the intersection of what is now 11th Avenue and West 54th Street in Manhattan, an oak-tulip tree forest wrapped along the coastline of the island. During this period, when the Lenape tribe still called the island of “Manahatta” home, the landscape was as biodiverse as Yellowstone. Today, the neighborhood, currently known as Hell’s Kitchen, is dotted with luxury car dealerships and bodegas.