5Pointz

We were pretty bummed over the summer when we heard that Long Island City graffiti mecca 5Pointz was being torn down and replaced with condos. But now that the site has officially been razed, a group of architects are taking this crime against architecture and using it to fuel their mission of preserving the city's unofficial artistic and cultural landmarks. Arianna Armelli, Ishaan Kumar, David Sepulveda, and Wagdy Moussa created DEFACED as a group that "values artistic freedom and expression, protecting the cultural relics of New York City refusing to witness the complete disregard for the history of New York." As their first order of business, they've created a proposal to buy back the 5Pointz site from developers and build a creative oasis that includes an urban rooftop with rainwater collection system, artist gallery, and recycling center.
More on DEFACED and its proposal