Map as Catalyst: Retooling a Rust-Belt City Alec Bliss-Pryor Advisor: Professor Brown Thesis Book
CONTENTS Introduction
5
Contention
7 9-33
Initial Explorations Archive
35-51
Mapping Precedents
53-73 75-101
Rochester Subway Rust Belt Precedents
103-109
Mapping Exercises
111-125
Scenario l
127-135
Scenario ll
137-143
Scenario lll
145-153
Scenario lV
155-159
Bibliography
160-161
3
Introduction
The thesis began with an exploration into the history of architecture as it relates to the urban context. Initial influences ranged from Le Corbusier, Colin Rowe and Rem Koolhaas. The submission for proposalooza juxtaposed different movements and projects from the past century onto a single timeline. Collage combines visual ideas and fragments from disconnected origins into a new synthetic object which casts new roles and meanings to the parts. It initiates new narratives, dialogues, juxtapositions and temporal durations. The ingredients of collages are suspended between their original meaning and the new roles assigned to them by the ensemble of collage. There was a fascination with the application of collage ideals into an urban context to begin to explore the issues of continual change.
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6
Contention
Mapping can be defined as the dynamic, temporal representation of the existing ground condition as well as the abstract operations that begin to experiment with these elements.1 This thesis aims to identify, through the process of mapping, the ways in which Rochester could shift from an industrial to knowledge-centric city. Mapping reveals that the ingredients to Rochester’s revival lies within the existing conditions of the city. James Corner describes the process of mapping as: “The act of [discovering] new worlds within past and present ones; [inaugurating] hidden grounds upon the hidden traces of a living context.� 1 Going with the theme of past and present, a relic of the city in the form of an old canal network that runs through the center of Rochester is reintroduced. The canal network later formed into the Rochester subway, a series of rail car lines that brought residents from the periphery to the city center. Today the subway is no longer a clearly defined feature of the city, its lines have been cleared while roads, highways and parking lots have taken its place. Retooling the area of the subway is an effort to generate a discussion about the future of Rochester and other Rust Belt cities. Mapping becomes a generative tool to lay the groundwork for more efficient means of occupation and organization of this infrastructure. In terms of knowledge creation, mapping allows for the selective representation and experimentation of knowledge-centric elements in the city of Rochester. Mapping is a tool to construct a new framework atop of an existing context, which begins to suggest connections among otherwise disparate parts. The idea of the map transcends more traditional city planning and zoning methods to create a more layered, complex fabric. Each layer of the city is not viewed as an isolated condition, but instead as a stratified amalgam of relationships. Mapping illustrates the potential for Rochester to become more heterogeneous and open-ended in its transformation to a knowledge-centric city. 1
Corner, James. The Agency of Mapping: Speculation, Critique and Invention. na, 1999.
7
Initial Explorations
9
James Corner Field Operations and Diller Scofidio + Renfro: The Highline
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The economy, culture and built environment of the United States embodies a sense of efficiency and speed. The result is an overlay of efficiencies and inefficiencies. The efficiency of large motorways and shopping complexes are becoming more commonplace in the American landscape, but they are also steering people away from the identities of their cities. What makes a place unique and memorable within the urban fabric is being outmoded by these efficiencies. The inefficiencies of cities, the tangible places that encourage human interaction, are losing a sense of importance. Inefficient urban spaces are typically spatial and historic, the challenge is to adapt these spaces to fit the required efficiencies of modern day cityscapes. These are the areas that give cities an identity. Instead of letting architecture go to waste within cities, historical urban areas can be seen as opportunities for adaptation to create a more meaningful connection to the present.
“When we build our landscape around places to go, we lose places to be.” - Charles Moore “A healthy city is not nostalgic. It may contain elements that represent a previous period but imitation of the past produces stagnation and devolution.” - Carl Giometti
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EFFICIENCIES “NO MAN’S LAND” Fast-paced movement with an emphasis on convenience
LA Interchange, 1960s Caltrans Aerial photo
McDonald’s
INEFFICIENCIES “PLACES” More traditional ideas of space and circulation that establish a sense of “place,” favors a slo
Unter den Linden Street (Berlin, Germany)
Cafe seating along Las Ra
12
’s Drive Thru
Mall at Farifield Commons.
ower pace of travel
amblas. (Barcelona, Spain)
French Quarter (New Orleans, LA)
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River with roadway covering water
River after roadway wth new bridges and relocated World War I Memorial
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WaterFire with World War I Memorial
Examples of cities that have taken deteriorating and detrimental infrastructures and infused a new meaning and cultural significance became a focus of research. WaterFire is a cultural event in Providence that was made possible by the reclamation of three rivers passing through the middle of the city. In the downtown area, fifty to seventy percent of the rivers were covered with roadways and parking lots, leaving them to function, at best, as storm sewers. The roadways and railroads covering the river were effectively acting as barriers between the city and gown (location of Rhode Island School of Design and Brown University). The rivers were renovated and adapted to revitalize a formerly “dead� downtown. The reclamation turned this area of the city into a permeable membrane of social space and ease of passage.
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Various lampshade functions: consumptive/productive, sign-lampshade
Lampshades
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7th Avenue (Phoenix, AZ) was widened in 1968 to create a high volume north/south transportation corridor. The pedestrian zone, including landscape improvements, were absorbed by the increased width of the street. Competition with regional malls, power centers and strip malls lead to further decay of the strip. The project sought to establish a character for the strip, promote renovations of existing businesses and new development, and form a stronger pedestrian connection with the surrounding neighborhoods. The new design elements—bands, vertical panels, canopies,and trees—are “amenity infrastructures” because they seek to create desirable conditions; they create an urban oasis in an area of the city that formerly favored automobiles. The prototypical elements are also a flexible, “emergent” infrastructure that will develop with the city, reflecting the specific conditions present at each site they are installed.
7th Avenue Strip
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This diagram depicts the idea of phasing where preservation and new development occur in horizontal bands across the city of Beijing.
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In order to deal with the influx of preservation, we must balance the give and take relationship of the built environment. There was a move towards the topic of preservation versus renewal and the issue of preserving at a potentially harmful rate. “The march of preservation necessitates the development of a theory of its opposite: not what to keep, but what to give up, what to erase and abandon. A system of phased demolition, for instance, would drop the unconvincing pretense of permanence for contemporary architecture, built under different economic and material assumptions. It would reveal tabula rasa beneath the thinning crust of our civilization – ready for liberation just as we (in the West) had given up on the idea.” - Rem Koolhaas “Every generation must build its own city [...] constant renewal of the architectonic environment will contribute to the victory of Futurism...” - Antonio Sant’Elia
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A series of proposed phasing in Beijing that reveals alternative strategies to preservation. In these schemes, preservation does not play favorites. Instead, the preservation is free from political or economic influence and retains a sense of how a city, culture and infrastructure changes over time.
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“The current moment has almost no idea how to negotiate the coexistence of radical change and radical stasis that is our future.” Time cannot be slowed or halted, instead preservation must learn to adapt to present conditions. The effects of preservation must be understood with the intentions of keeping the ‘preserved’ alive and relevant. OMA describes modern architecture as supportive and provokative of modern conditions. However, modernism can be a broad categorization of architecture that often struggles to connect with the existing built environment. The concept of ‘phasing’ initiates a continual mediation between preservation and development. The juxtaposition forces modernization to address the existing context in the hopes of leaving a more lasting, complimentary relationship.
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CONVENTION CONCERNING THE PROTECTION OF THE WORLD CULTURAL AND NATURAL HERITAGE Noting that the cultural heritage and the natural heritage are increasingly threatened with destruction not only by the traditional causes of decay, but also by changing social and economic conditions which aggravate the situation with even more formidable phenomena of damage or destruction, Considering that deterioration or disappearance of any item of the cultural or natural heritage constitutes a harmful impoverishment of the heritage of all the nations of the world, Considering that protection of this heritage at the national level often remains incomplete because of the scale of the resources which it requires and of the insufficient economic, scientific, and technological resources of the country where the property to be protected is situated, Recalling that the Constitution of the Organization provides that it will maintain, increase, and diffuse knowledge by assuring the conservation and protection of the world’s heritage, and recommending to the nations concerned the necessary international conventions, Considering that the existing international conventions, recommendations and resolutions concerning cultural and natural property demonstrate the importance, for all the peoples of the world, of safeguarding this unique and irreplaceable property, to whatever people it may belong, Considering that parts of the cultural or natural heritage are of outstanding interest and therefore need to be preserved as part of the world heritage of mankind as a whole, Considering that, in view of the magnitude and gravity of the new dangers threatening them, it is incumbent on the international community as a whole to participate in the protection of the cultural and natural heritage of outstanding universal value, by the granting of collective assistance which, although not taking the place of action by the State concerned, will serve as an efficient complement thereto, Considering that it is essential for this purpose to adopt new provisions in the form of a convention establishing an effective system of collective protection of the cultural and natural heritage of outstanding universal value, organized on a permanent basis and in accordance with modernscientific methods
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CONVENTION CONCERNING THE DEMOLITION OF WORLD CULTURAL JUNK Noting that cultural heritage and natural heritage are overwhelming us not only through the increasing need for identity and or history, but also by changing social and economic conditions which aggravate the situation with ever more formidable phenomena of preservation, Considering that the proliferation of cultural or natural heritage constitutes a risk of trivializing the heritage of all the nations of the world, Considering that protection of this heritage at the national level has at its disposal enormous economic, scientific, and technological resources in the country where the property to be protected is situated, Recalling that the ideas of the organization provide that it will liberate oversaturated urban territory through the demolition of junk, and recommending to the nations concerned the new opportunities that will emerge, Considering that the existing international conventions, recommendations and resolutions concerning cultural and natural property demonstrate the importance, for all the peoples of the world, of actively demolishing junk, to whatever people it may belong, Considering that parts of the cultural or natural heritage are insignificant and transient and therefore need to be demolished to facilitate the growth and development of mankind as a whole, Considering that, in view of the magnitude and speed of the global potential to produce junk, it is incumbent on the international community as a whole to participate in the removal of cultural and natural heritage that constitutes Insignificant Universal Junk, by the granting of collective assistance which, although not taking the place of action by the State concerned, will serve as an efficient complement thereto, Considering that it is essential for this purpose to adopt new provisions in the form of a convention establishing an effective system of collective demolition of cultural and architectural heritage that constitutes Insignificant Universal Junk, organized on a permanent basis and in a cordance with modern scientific methods
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The graph reveals the trend in preservation to deem more and more recent buildings as historical. The trend may eventually lead to ‘prospective’ preservation where buildings will achieve preservation status before they are even built. Source: G.J. Ashworth, Heritage Planning
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Preservation is dominated by the lobby of authenticity, ancientness, and beauty, but that is, of course, a very limited conception of preservation. Instead, what if preservation acted in a very democratic, dispassionate way—highways, monuments, bad things, good things, ugly things, mediocre things were all considered part of an authentic condition.
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Koepel Panopticon Prison. OMA was tasked with studying the 100 year old prison with the idea of renovating the space to embody present day insights into the treatment of prisoners. Based on the changing environments of prisons, this building was condemned to be demolished. However, the building contained an undeniable architectural quality that favored preservation. The center of the panopticon formally represented the place of power and observation, but the OMA renovation flipped this relationship to the periphery. The guards were now observed in full view by the prisoners. Everything becomes transparent for both parties. The renovation sought to undermine the ideas of entrapment that were set by the existing structure. The symbol of power at the center of the panopticon was transformed into the intersection of two streets that run to the edges of the prison. The streets begin to organize the placement of new facilities that blur the barrier between exterior and interior. The modern changes create their own aspirations for the use of the prison, but they do not fully erase the character of the existing building. Their is a mediation that remembers the history of the prison, but molds it into a place of rehabilitation by modern standards. The project involved making a building useable “for the next 50 years,� which in a way set an expiration date. The panopticon renovation makes the building immediately relevant, but that relevance will again deteriorate to a point of either destruction or rebirth.
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Fondazione Prada. The Fondazione Prada consists of new and regenerated buildings including warehouses, laboratories and brewing silos. Altogether, there are seven existing buildings with three, typologically specific new structures. The first of the new structures is a podium for temporary exhibitions, the second is a multimedia auditorium, and the third is nine-story permanent exhibition space. The project explores the repertoire of spatial typologies for exhibiting art. Most of the complex was reused to foster a constant state of interaction between old and new architecture. The juxtaposition of these variables promote unstable, open programming for art and architecture to benefit from each other’s challenges. The project is a critique of the use of abandoned industrial spaces for art, which typically do not offer much in terms of variability. Some of the existing buildings were selectively removed in order to create a more sizeable courtyard. This reflects the principle that, in certain cases, the removal of the existing will result in more relevant and useful spaces.
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Matadero. Comprised of a former slaughterhouse and livestock market, the site contains a set of pavilions designed for different purposes and services. The facilities began to fall into disuse until the 1990s, which initiated a series of planned renovation projects. The aim of the projects was to respect the architecture of the slaughterhouses with the intention of converting 75% of the space for cultural use. The interventions focused on a specific use for each structure, which limited the amount of industrial material required to create the necessary space for the activities to be held. The project reflects an ambition to regenerate the existing built environment for flexibility, reversibility and a respect for the original architecture.
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Kolhoff, Hans, and David Griffin. City of Composite Presence. 1978. Collage City. Cambridge: MIT, 1978. Print.
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The book “Collage City� brought with it the idea of collage and city in a metaphorical sense. His book refers to cities in a constant flux of change that result in a layering of history. He presents abstractions and comparisons that create oppositions. An example would be his comparison of the Uffizi and the Unite by Le Corbusier where one is the inverse of the other. The Uffizi being the void within which the figure of the unite can fit.
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Archive
Papier CollĂŠ
Collage-Drawing
Photomontage
Digital Methods
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Archiving involved a vast collection of collages ranging from different art movements and methods. Collage has the capacity to capture spatial and material characteristics of the built environment, acting as an analytical and interpretive mechanism. Architecture comes into play in the sense that it frames an ever-changing collage of activities and objects.
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Shields, Jennifer A.E. Collage Genealogy. 2014. Collage
and Architecture. New York: Routledge, 2014. 4. Print.
Gris, Juan. Nature Morte a la Guitare. 1913.
Braque, Georges. Still Life with Glass and Letters. 1914. The oan and Lester Avnet Collection.
Picasso, Pablo. Still Life in Front of a Window At Saint-Raphael. 1919. Heinz Berggruen Collection, Geneva, Switzerland.
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Cubism (1907-1919) Methods 1. Gris’ collages maintain the legibility of the original form, with the fragmentation and displacement resulting from the objects components or as a result of the superimposed grid. 2. Braque’s restructuring occurs in the dissociation of the contours from the materiality of the object. 3. Picasso’s collages restructure objects through the juxtaposition or transposition of form and material, rather than displacement.
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Carra, Carlo. Words in Liberty. 1914.
El Lissitzky. Proun 19D. 1922.
Moholy-Nagy, Lรกszlรณ. The Shooting Gallery. 1925. The Red List. Web.
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Constructivism (1919-1934) Principles 1. Tectonics - Employing industrial materials and systems of assembly, which we can associate with the ready-mades appropriated in collage and assemblage concurrently. 2. Fracture - Revealing the process of fabrication/construction and valuing materiality and texture in the work. 3. Construction - Equating the role of the artist/architect with that of the scientist/engineer through an empirically driven process of deriving space and form.
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Le Corbusier. Le Tareau Trivalent. 1958.
Schwitters, Kurt. The Proposal. 1942. Tate, London, England.
Hoesli, Bernard. XLVll: Untitled. 1976.
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Papier CollĂŠ Type of collage in which fragments of paper are used for their form, color, pattern and/or meaning - typically newspaper, wallpaper or solid color paper - in conjunction with other media such as oils or charcoals.
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Matta-Clark, Gordon. Splitting. 1974. Estate of Gordon Matta-Clark, New York. Collage and Architecture. New York: Routledge, 2014. 153. Print.
Hockney, David. The Desk. 1984. Joiner Photography. Web.
Hamilton, Richard. Just What Is It That Makes Today’s Homes So Different? 1992. Tate. Web..
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Photomontage The combination of multiple photographic image fragments extracted from various sources. Photomontages tend to be representational - through interpretive - depictions of forms and spaces rather than abstract compositions, with some exceptions.
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[1] Van Der Rohe, Mies. Concert Hall. MoMA Mies van der Rohe Archive, MoMA, New York. [2] Van Der Rohe, Mies. Museum for a Small City Project, Interior Perspectives. 1943. MoMA Mies van der Rohe Archive, MoMA, New York.
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Bauhaus The Bauhaus school taught and practiced in a variety of media. Moholy-Nagy combined both photomontage with tonal collage and line drawing to depict the dynamism of the modern world. Qualities of plasticity as well reductive geometries and their interrelationships in the blank space of the canvas were principal focuses of the Bauhaus. Mies exploited collage to not only reveal spatial and material qualities of architecture, but to create a dialogue between architecture and its natural or built context. In his proposal for a concert hall, Mies takes a photo of warplane factory and selectively removes the planes from the image. He leaves the architecture as a frame, devoid of its original association. He then places colored paper to create spatial relationships and a statue to place a new meaning for architecture.
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Mathur/da Cunha. Draining Waters from Mississippi Floods. 2001.
Feld Studio. Extracts of Local Distance: Jewish Museum. 2010.
Point Supreme. Archipelago Cities - Athens. 2011.
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Digital Methods Digital methods exploit digital media to both facilitate analogue techniques and devise new techniques for collage-making through direct and indirect manipulation. Digital methods interrogate the interface between the artist and collage, as well as between the inhabitant and the built environment.
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Mapping Precedents
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[1] Corner, James. Long-lots along Mississippi River. 1996. Taking Measures Across the American Landscape. Print. [2] Corner, James. Pivot Irregators. 1996. Taking Measures Across the American Landscape. Print.
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Taking Measure Across the American Landscape James Corner and Alex MacLean Corner uses collage-drawing to document the dynamic nature of site as it has been used by humans over time. His collages relate the human body and how site is both measured and experienced. To Corner, measurement is utilized in different ways; measurement serves to relate the human body to activities and materials, and to relate the everyday world to the invisible dimensions of the universe. Mapping is most effective when its capacity for description also sets the conditions for new eidetic and physical worlds to emerge. Mapping emerges as a creative process by reformulating what already exists. This process differs from planning in that it entails searching, finding and folding complex and latent forces in the existing milieu rather than imposing an idealized project from on high.
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Navaho Spring-Line Fields. Tuba City, Arizona. A large mesa cliff seeps water from a bedding plane to grow a verdant garden in the desert. Through a system of small check-dams and terraces, water is distributed so that plans and crops can bloom on the sandy washes.
Flower Fields. Oceanside, California. Fields are plotted with great precision. The seeding, sprouting and blooming times of the various crops involved find expression in the dimensions and rotational schedules of the farmed landscape. The plot is as much about timing and sequence as it is about spacing and marking the ground.
Remnant Beach Ridges across the Grid. Reynolds, North Dakota. Ridges of old beach deposits from the receding edge of an ancient lake drift counter the geometry of the survey grid in North Dakota. The variation in water-holding capacity, fertility and slope of these residual soils, the result of topographical and hydro pedological histories, demands a negotiated manner of farming overlaid upon the grid.
Extr
Field
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Process of Mapping
The creation of a field, the setting of rules and the establishment of a system; second, the extraction, isolation or “deterritorialization” of parts and data; third, the plotting, the drawing-out, the setting-up of relationships, or the “reterritorialization” of the parts. Fields – The continuous surface, schematically the analogical equivalent to the actual ground. The graphic system within which the extracts will later be recognized. The system of organization will condition how and what observations are made and presented. Extracts – Things that are observed and drawn onto the graphic field. Extracts are selected, isolated and pulled out from their original seamlessness with other things; they are effectively ‘deterritorialized.” Plotting – The “drawing out” of new and latent relationships that can be seen amongst the various extracts within the field. To plot is to trace, to set-in-relation, to find, and to found. Plotting produces a “reterritorialization” of sites.
racts
Plotting
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Discours sur les Passions de L’amour. Guy Dubord.
A Seven Day Circle of Ground. Richard Long.
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Contemporary Mapping Practices
1. Drift – The use of maps as instruments for establishing and aligning otherwise disparate, repressed or unavailable topographies. Drift maps critique contemporary circumstances, not from outside and above but from participation within the very contours and fabric of political and institutional reality. Case Study: Discours sur les Passions de L’amour. Guy Debord, 1957. After walking aimlessly through Paris streets, Debord would cut up and reconfigure a standard Paris map as a series of turns and detours. The resulting map produced a subjective, street-level view of desires and perceptions of the city’s streets. Case Study: A Seven Day Circle of Ground. Richard Long 1984.
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Wexner Center for the Arts. Peter Eisenman.
Parc de la Villette. Bernard Tschumi.
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Contemporary Mapping Practices
2. Layering – Superimposition of various independent layers to produce a heterogeneous and “thickened� surface. Case Study: Parc de la Villette. Bernard Tschumi. The project dismantles the programmatic and logistical layers of the park into a series of independently-considered layers. The layers present a complexity of intended program for the site. When combined, the resulting structure is an intricate fabric, without center, hierarchy or single organizing principle. Case Study: Art Museum at the California State University, Long Beach. Peter Eisenman. The process for designing this project involved a whole series of local maps that were drawn upon and transformed into a new composite assembly. Through manipulating mappings of the site, Eisenman enables the project to evolve a future form with specific and unique local histories.
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Four Planning Fields for Bucharest, Romania.
Gameboard.
Stepping Stones.
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Contemporary Mapping Practices
3. Gameboard – These are shared working surfaces upon which various competing constituencies are invited to meet to work out their differences. The map assumes a facilitating status for otherwise disparate parts. Case Study: Four Planning Fields for Bucharest, Romania. Raoul Bunschoten/CHORA, 1996. A cultural planning concept is presented in a rule-based system for developing and advancing certain scenarios of urbanization. When each layer is superimposed, there are vertical correspondences that permit decisions and actions on one layer to have effects upon others.
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[
[
Environment
erasure origination transformation migration
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Urban Flotsam Raoul Bunschoten/Chora Erasure – The erasure of the activities of human beings and the structures they have created, which results in a kind of void or chasm. The process of emptying out, taking away, removing, but also making space, opening, creating distance. An important concept of urbanism is erasure because it allows for renewal and change as well as allowing people to situate themselves within an environment. Origination – These are points of change, insertions of seeds for new beginnings, turning points. Origination follows the idea of generation that is not fully planned nor controlled, it establishes an environment for growth. Transformations – A field is set for actions that will transform it. A transformation in a field calls for a morphology of the processes which underlie the transformation. It involves the exchange of certain parameters or elements for others, or the reorganization of their relationship within a given period. Migration – Indicative of mobility, moving things, objects travelling through a site, projected ideas. Migration is a dynamic process that unfolds new identities in the field.
The basic set of four processes can be applied in any situation, at any moment in time, and at any point in space.
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The Loom (Linz, Austria) Raoul Bunschoten/Chora Strategy 1) Brand the city edge and string of public features as an important urban figure or icon and publicize its presence. 2) Analyze each public element within the strips for the development of symbolic or physical gates between zones. 3) Use these iconic elements as catalysts for the formulation of a possible new identity. Invite individual development of each strip on the basis of each of these elements. Process 1) Fabric Strips: Series of narrow strips based on existing urban fabric. Each strip has the ability to maintain a particular activity that links to one of the public elements on the old city edge. 2) Institutional Structure: Organizational structure for the plannning and control of the development of each strip. 3) Public Gates: Link the organizational structure to the public elements. Stimulate active development in a small selection of zones, which eventually creates the necessary conditions for dynamic interaction between various strips. 4) Point Attractors: Clearly recognizable and strong point-attractors in some strips.
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Rochester Subway
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Electric Railroader’s Association map.
Erie Canal Aqueduct between 1888 and 1894.
Aqueduct with subway tracks. 1929.
The city of Rochester purchased the right of way for construction of the trolley subway over the orginal location of the Erie canal. The subway was built in an effort to reduce the surface traffic in the city and stretched for roughly ten miles. From its opening in 1927, the subway never fully met its potential. The subway was unable to extend into the suburbs because it was owned by the city, which could not justify spending money outside of city of limits. The New York State Thruway was constructed 15 miles south of Rochester. The city council at the time decided to discontinue subway service improvements and extensions and instead move forward with the construction of the Eastern Expressway to connect with the Thruway. The subway ceased passenger car service in 1956 and has had major portions of its track infilled or repurposed. The two-mile network of tunnels beneath the city of Rochester remains an unused opportunity to revitalize the unpopulated city center.
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Decline of the Rust Belt
Vacancies - Oversupply of aging, deteriorating houses - Vacant, unsafe properties (often residential) - Depressed real estate market - Foreclosures Unused Land - Challenge of repurposing vacant land for some use - No big chunks of developable land, only small infill lots Building Stock - Low-quality housing - Functionally obsolete housing - Expensive to bring historic housing stock up to code - Aging infrastructure and public facilities Limited Resources - City financially strapped as a result of lower tax revenues and other factors - More problem properties than the City can demolish with existing funding - States are cutting resources for older urban areas - Need to protect neighborhoods where abandonment is occurring Other - Loss of identity and challenge of creating new, more positive images for neighborhoods - Many rental properties with unresponsive landlords - Struggling historic commercial corridors
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Median Household Income - 2012
$24,000 or Less $24,001 $39,000 $39,001 $53,000
5 mi
$53,001 $68,000 $68,001 $82,000
0
More than $82,001
mi
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Diversity Index - 2012
82-100 (Very Diverse)
5 mi
56-81 30-55 0-29
0 mi
81
Highway Accessibility
5 mi
1 Minute 3 Minutes 5 Minutes 10 Minutes
0 mi
82
Unemployment Rate - 2012
More than 21%
5 mi
14.1-21% 7.1-14% 7% or Less
0 mi
83
Population Pressure
5 mi Higher Loss Normal Growth Higher Growth
0 mi
84
Population Density
5 mi
1,000 or Less 1,001-10,000 10,001-100,000 100,001 or More
0 mi
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Rochester Sanborn Map 1924-38
5 mi
0 mi
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Rochester Sanborn Map 1904
5 mi
0 mi
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Rochester Historical Map 1888
5 mi
0 mi
88
Rochester Historical Map 1910
5 mi
0 mi
89
5 mi
0 mi
90
5 mi
0 mi
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Connections
This map explores the abundance of crossings, both car and pedestrian, over the Gennessee River. The subway route passes beneath the Broad Street bridge, which was historically an aquaduct for the Erie Canal. The tunnel condition beneath the city opens up an exploration in both plan and section.
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Eastman Business Park
North American Breweries
Frontier Field Eastman School of Music
University of Rochester
State Hospital
Networks
Locating the former stations of the subway begins to question the viability of using this infrastructural spine. The route passes through the heart of the city as well as important areas of employment, transportation and recreation.
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Gennessee River
The Gennessee River has been dammed at several locations to deter flooding. As the river passes through the city of Rochester, there is a series of elevation changes that result in dramatic waterfalls. A dam and the Upper Falls are both in close proximity to the Subway route.
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Land Tracts
This map takes into consideration the sites of Government owned property, vacant properties and properties that are scheduled for demolishion. Combining the areas of these sites open up possibilities for reaching out from the area of the Subway and into the city.
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Zoning
C-2 Community Center District M-1 Industrial District R-1 Low Density Residential O-S Open Space District CCD Center City District URD Urban Renewal District R-3 High Density Residential Preservation District
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Rust Belt Precedents
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Connective Corridor - Syracuse, New York - Mark Robbins Universities in urban settings have the potential to spearhead more innovative, long-range goals and processes than local political cycles encourage. They increasingly provide both intellectual and financial capital for projects outside their traditional bounds. This is especially true within municipalities of the Rust Belt, in which the lack of resources and expertise within the public sector is often greatest. Crossing for-profit and not-for-profit entities, the university can provide a nucleus around which activities in multiple disciplines can occur–a cross section of the economic and social welfare of a region.
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Medi-Plex City - Cleveland, Ohio - McLain Clutter As it stands today, the Clinic exists as a kind of heterotopic city resting atop a dying city–interiorized and resistant to assimilation into a larger urban culture. However, the abundance of spatial logics and the broad cross section of public constituencies and events it houses could be put in chorus with the rest of the city. For example, designing courtyards that serve as space for the Clinic’s staff and visitors as well as public space for the surrounding urban population. It could also mean networking the commerce in the interior urbanism of the Clinic’s lobbies with systems of shopping across the city at large.
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Radical Railbanking - Detroit, Michigan - McLain Clutter By drawing on the practice of railbanking—the repurposing of abandoned rail corridors into recreational trails is used to end the notion of living on the wrong side of the tracks. Geographic information systems (GIS) manipulate and repackage geodemographic data to transform Detroit’s rail corridors into public spaces that bring together residents with different socioeconomic, ethnic, religious, and racial backgrounds. This project points toward the use of data as a design medium for designers to instigate the possibility of new kinds of collectives in the city.
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Mapping Exercises
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SITE PLAN
EDUCATION LEVEL
VACANT/OWNED LOTS
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RAILWAYS
HIGHWAYS
ETHNICITY
SCHOOLS
PARKS
AREAS OF INTEREST
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KODAK DISTRIBUTION CENTER
I II
III V
VII
IV VI
VIII
UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER AND MEDICAL CENTER
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IX
MAP ELEMENTS SITE AREA
RAILWAYS
HIGHWAYS
LESS THAN 20%
20-40%
40-60%
HISPANIC
BLACK
WHITE POPULATION
PUBLIC SCHOOL
GOVERNMENT OWNED
VACANT LOT
PARK SPACES
AREAS OF INTEREST
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60-80% BACHELORS DEGREE OR HIGHER
0
1 mi
VACANT
YOUTH POPULATION
INDUSTRIAL USE
LOW HOME VALUE
KODAK OWNED
LOW INCOME
SCHOOL
NO COLLEGE EDUCATION
PARK
POPULATION INCREASE
GOVERNMENT OWNED
POPULATION DECREASE
Layering Latent Data
Using the extent of the Rochester Subway route, different layers of hidden potential is revealed. Demographic information, education, as well as population shifts are layered in relation to vacant and government owned property. The potential of what is readily available in Rochester is illuminated by juxtaposing latent information over the existing fabric of the city.
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Parks/Youth Population
By selectively pairing the location of existing parks and areas of the city with the youngest population, this map begins to suggest networks that connect and allocate new land for recreation within the city.
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Low Income/Population Increase/ Low Home Value This map pairs together latent data that would be useful in determining future low income housing locations. The white is both government owned or existing vacant lots within a half mile range of the Rochester Subway.
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No College Education
This map identifies the areas of the city that possess the lowest amount of college education. Illuminated in blue is the Rochester Subway route, schools and any available property within half a mile. The available property within the low education areas could find a new purpose in serving to educate.
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R-1 R-2 CCD O-S URD M-1 C-2
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ZONING
R-1
CCD City Center District
Low-Density Residential District Intended to maintain residential areas at relatively low densities. Predominantly owner-occupied, single-family detached and attached homes.
Create a pedestrian circulation system that ties Center City together and links the Genesee River, Main Street and key attractions/destinations.
CCD-R
City Center District - Riverfront Promote the riverfront as a place for public gathering and activity. Reduce the “barrier� effect of the river separating the east and west sides of the Center City; strengthen linkages across the river.
CCD-M
City Center District - Main Street Enhance the civic nature of Main Street; encourage a variety of street-related activities and uses. Promote Main Street as the primary ceremonial space in the City.
CCD-B
Neighborhood Center District Provides for small-scale commercial uses offering primarily convenience shopping and services for adjacent residential areas.
Create a transparent street-level plane which exhibits the greatest sense of public space. Allow existing towers to readily adapt to a variety of uses and functions.
O-S Open Space District
R-3
High-Density Residential District Protects, preserves and enhances existing residential areas of higher density.
C-1
City Center District - Base District Create green streets and mid-block corridors to enhance pedestrian circulation.
CCD-T City Center District - Tower District
R-2
Medium-Density Residential District The inclusion of single-family residential, two-family residential and multifamily residential provides a diversity of housing choices.
C-2
Community Center District Provides diverse commercial development along gateway transportation corridors with a dense mixture of uses such as housing, retail and other complementary uses.
C-3
preserves and enhances Rochester’s open spaces and recreational areas by protecting these natural amenities and restricting development that does not respect these environmentally sensitive areas.
Regional Destination Center District Provides locations for regional scaled growth and development of commercial and light industrial uses.
M-1
URD Urban Renewal District
Industrial District Reoccupancy and redevelopment of industrial buildings are encouraged.
Eliminating substandard and deteriorated structures and other blighting influence in an area of the City, through demolition and redevelopment.
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Scenario I Scenario I presents the process of transitioning an industrial park into an academic environment. Initially, warehouses are repurposed into classrooms and lecture spaces. Overtime, development on vacant plots of land allow for larger University buildings.
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REPURPOSED STRUCTURE
PROPERTY LINE
PROJECTIVE STRUCTURE
RAIL LINE
BIKE ROUTE
ROAD
VACANT LOT
PROJECTIVE CIRCULATION
GOVERNMENT OWNED
PROJECTED CIRCULATION THE HIGHWAY AND RAIL BARRIERS AT BOTH SIDES OF THE INDUSTRIAL PARK ARE MADE TRAVERSABLE BY PEDESTRIAN BRIDGES. THE LARGE EXPANSE OF THE INDUSTRIAL SITE BEGINS TO FIND NEW ROUTES BETWEEN STRUCTURES.
PROJECTED BUILDINGS DRAWING FROM THE FOOTPRINTS OF SCIENCE AND TECH BUILDINGS FROM THE ROCHESTER INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, THE INDUSTRIAL PARK GRADUALLY TRANSITIONS TO A MORE ESTABLISHED ACADEMIC CAMPUS.
REPURPOSED BUILDINGS EXISTING WAREHOUSES WITHIN THE INDUSTRIAL PARK ARE REDEFINED AS ACADEMIC BUILDINGS. THE OPEN, FLEXIBLE STRUCTURE OF THE WAREHOUSE IS OCCUPIED WITH THE DIVERSE PROGRAMS OF A UNIVERSITY.
131
Zooming in to the site plan, a mixture of future academic buildings (red) and repurposed warehouses (black) create the makeshift academic campus.
133
These vignettes attempt to capture moments throughout the campus. Bike paths create circulation between former industrial sites. Warehouses are gutted to suit the needs of classrooms and lecture spaces. Pedestrian bridges push for a more walkable city, passing over former barriers like highways and train tracks. At the same time, the dichotomy of new construction against the existing environment illustrates a gradual change.
135
Scenario II Scenario Il takes a long stretch of vacant land situated between two suburbs. The land is repurposed into a large recreation area, which features several typologies of pavilions made from recycled industrial materials.
137
REPURPOSED STRUCTURE
PROPERTY LINE
PROJECTIVE STRUCTURE
RAIL LINE
BIKE ROUTE
ROAD
VACANT LOT
PROJECTIVE CIRCULATION
GOVERNMENT OWNED
139
PARK PAVILIONS VACANT POCKETS ALONG THE ROUTE OF THE PARK ARE OCCUPIED BY THE VARIOUS DIFFERENT TYPES OF PAVILIONS.
GATEWAYS THE FORMER ENDS OF STREETS NOW BECOME ACTIVE GATEWAYS INTO THE PARK TO CREATE A MORE TRAVERSIBLE NEIGHBORHOOD. A NEARBY SCHOOL RECEIVES MORE ACCESS TO RECREATIONAL SPACE.
COMMUNITY PARK FROM VACANT LAND THE LARGE STRETCH OF VACANT LOTS IS A RELIC OF THE FORMER ERIE CANAL ROUTE. HERE, THE LAND IS RECLAIMED AS PARK SPACE WITH PAVILIONS MADE FROM RECYCLED INDUSTRIAL MATERIALS.
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TYPE I: COVERED RECREATION PAVILION
TYPE lII: COVERED STAGE
TYPE lI: PICNIC SHELTERS
Scenario III Scenario Ill looks at a residential block that is overtaken with vacant property and lots. In order to repopulate these spaces, different functions outside of housing may take root. The idea of turning the residential block into a series of start up spaces is one iteration that can solve the issue of vacancy.
145
REPURPOSED STRUCTURE
PROPERTY LINE
PROJECTIVE STRUCTURE
RAIL LINE
BIKE ROUTE
ROAD
VACANT LOT
PROJECTIVE CIRCULATION
GOVERNMENT OWNED
147
RESIDENTIAL BLOCK RESIDENTIAL BLOCKS ARE REPURPOSED INTO RENTABLE BUSINESS SPACES. GOVERNMENT OWNED VACANT LOTS NOW BECOME OCCUPIED IN THE FORM OF STARTUPS.
RESIDENTIAL LOTS RESIDENTIAL NEIGHBORHOODS IN CERTAIN AREAS OF ROCHESTER ARE FACING A LOSS IN POPULATION AND OCCUPIED PROPERTY.
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HOUSE TYPE I
HOUSE TYPE lIl
HOUSE TYPE lI
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Scenario IV Scenario IV seeks to revive the underground tunnel system beneath the city center. Formerly an aquaduct for the Erie Canal and then a rail line for the Rochester Subway, the tunnel may now find a more pedestrian-centric function. The immediate stretch of tunnel beneath the Broad Street bridge connects major buildings in the heart of Rochester.
155
REPURPOSED STRUCTURE
PROPERTY LINE
PROJECTIVE STRUCTURE
RAIL LINE
BIKE ROUTE
ROAD
VACANT LOT
PROJECTIVE CIRCULATION
GOVERNMENT OWNED
BROAD STREET AQUADUCT THE BROAD STREET AQUADUCT ONCE SERVED AS A CROSSING POINT FOR THE ERIE CANAL OVER THE GENESSEE RIVER. IT WAS LATER REPURPOSED FOR THE ROCHESTER SUBWAY UNTIL ITS CLOSER IN THE 1950s. CURRENTLY ABANDONED, THIS UNDERGROUND PASSAGEWAY CAN BE RECLAIMED AS A PEDESTRIAN CIRCULATION ROUTE BENEATH THE CITY.
CENTRAL CONNECTIONS THE CENTRAL LOCATION OF THE AQUADUCT PROVIDES ACCESS TO THE ROCHESTER PUBLIC LIBRARY, CONVENTION CENTER AND THE BLUE CROSS ARENA.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY INITIAL EXPLORATIONS Ellin, Nan. Integral Urbanism. New York: Routledge, 2006. Print. Koolhaas, Rem. “Cronocaos.” OMA. Web. Koolhaas, Rem, and Jorge Otero-Pailos. “Preservation Is Overtaking Us.” Columbia GSAPP. Web. ARCHIVE Petit, Emmanuel, ed. Reckoning with Colin Rowe: Ten Architects Take Position. New York: Routledge, 2015. Print. Shields, Jennifer A. E. Collage and Architecture. New York: Routledge, 2014. Print. MAPPING PRECEDENTS Binet, HeÌleÌne, Raoul Bunschoten, and Takuro Hoshino. Urban Flotsam: Stirring the City. Rotterdam: 010, 2001. Print. Corner, James, and Alex S. MacLean. Taking Measures across the American Landscape. New Haven: Yale UP, 1996. Print. Corner, James. The Agency of Mapping: Speculation, Critique and Invention. na, 1999. Deleuze, Gilles, and Félix Guattari. “A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia.” L’ombre De L’arbre Ou L’errance Du Rhizome 2 (1980): Interconnected. University of Minnesota Press. Web. <http://projectlamar.com/media/A-Thousand-Plateaus.pdf>. RUST BELT PRECEDENTS Czerniak, Julia, ed. Formerly Urban: Projecting Rust Belt Futures. New York: Princeton Architectural Press with Syracuse U School of Architecture, 2013. Print.
ROCHESTER SUBWAY Hackworth, Jason. “Rightsizing as Spatial Austerity in the American Rust Belt.” Environment and Planning A 47.4 (2015): 766-82. JSTOR. Web. Lopez, Steven Henry. Reorganizing The Rust Belt : An Inside Study Of The American Labor Movement. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004. eBook Academic Collection (EBSCOhost). “American FactFinder.” U.S. Census Bureau. <http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/index.xhtml>. “Data.” US Census Bureau. <http://census.gov/data.html>. Central Library Of Rochester And Monroe County. Historic Monographs Collection. “Rochester Lines.” The New York State Railways. Rochester Public Library. Passenger Department. Web. <http://www.libraryweb.org/~digitized/books/New_York_ State_Railways_Rochester_lines.pdf>. ESRI 2016. ArcGIS Desktop: Release 10. Redlands, CA: Environmental Systems Research Institute. “Rochester Transit Corporation.” Rail City Historical Museum, n.d. Web. 19 Dec. 2016. <http://www.railcitymuseum.com/RAIL_CITY_vER/Rochester_Transit_Corporation.html>. “What’s My Zoning District?” City of Rochester. ESRI, <http://rochesterny.maps.arcgis.com/apps/InformationLookup/index.html>.