Beach Party

edited by Sheila Kim -- Interior Design, 6/1/2003 12:00:00 AM

For the past four years, the P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center and the Museum of Modern Art have one-upped the tar-paper beach, inviting city-bound New Yorkers to frolic in the courtyard of P.S.1's building in industrial Long Island City. The watery fun comes courtesy of the Urban Beach project, designed every summer by an emerging talent from the institutions' Young Architects Program. This year's winner, Tom Wiscombe of Emergent Architecture, found his inspiration in sails, kites, and other playful tension structures. His urban beach features a translucent permeable roof of canoelike shapes, covering portions of the courtyard and two long pools of water—a cool antidote to P.S.1's summer music series, Warm Up. June 29– August 31; 718-784-2084; ps1.org, moma.org.