[ BETA ] SPACE: Reprogramming Urban Infrastructure to Reconnect Society

[BETA] SPACE Reprogramming Urban Infrastructure to Reconnect Society

Alexander Reeves M.Arch Thesis 2016 Professor Maurizio Sabini | Hammons School of Architecture

TABLE OF CONTENTS SECTION 1: PREFACE 4

1.1 Introduction 1.2 Parameters 1.3 Organization 1.4 Study Intent 1.5 Defining the Issues

SECTION 2: BACKGROUND 10

Alpha Spaces

2.1 A Reason for Being: Infrastructure and the City

2.2 Shift In Focus: Infrastructure and American Urban Planning 2.3 Other Side of The Tracks: Effect of Infrastructure on Urban Communities 2.4 Reserved Cities: Effects of Infrastructure on Rights to the City 2.5 The Importance of the “ Public Realm “

Actions Towards Change 22 2.6 Obstacles to Redevelopment of Community Infrastructure 2.7 Forced Change: “ Revitalization” of Communities 2.8 Citizen Planning: Tactical Urbanism and Claiming the In-Between 2.9 Archi[tech]ture: Architecture, Infrastructure and Technology Connected

SECTION 3: CASE STUDIES TOWARDS A BETA SPACE

3.1 Selection Criteria

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3.2 Jauregui’s Manguinhos Complex 3.3 BIG’S Slussen 3.4 Freeway Park, Seattle, WA 3.5 Willamette Water Treatment Plant

SECTION 4 : CONCLUSIONS 50

4.1 Approaching Catalyst Infrastructure for the future of our cities SECTION 5: PROJECT OUTLINE 54

Site

5.1 The Rust Belt

5.2 A City Divided by Infrastructure: Cleveland, OH 5.3 Testing Ground: Proposed Site

Program 62

5.4 Design Program 5.5 Design Objectives and Breakdown

Annotated Bibliography 66 Image Credits

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SECTION 1

PREFACE Decades of sprawl and disjointed infrastructure planning has fragmented cities and separated urban communities from the resources that established them. These structures and planning methods have become obsolete. Now, an architectural approach to infrastructure planning is necessary to reconnect communities, reestablish their urban identity, and catalyze change that the citizens strive for.

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1 | PREFACE

1.1 Introduction

For many Americans, a typical productive day starts with the morning commute. We drive from our home to our work and later back, occasionally we again drive out of our way to pick up groceries or other necessities, along highways lined with shopping centers and pockets of generic urban spaces. The paths between these destinations bear the same characteristics, blurring from one to suburb to the next. For generations we have been psychologically desensitized to this process, and those who do not live in urban areas may not directly see the reality of the situation.

Sprawl and automobile culture has affected the way we design cities, and our lifestyle has shifted with it. We began to plan cities to accommodate our tendency to separate where we live, work, and shop, and webs of infrastructure had to be developed to connect our different zones of use. While this infrastructure brings to mind thoughts of connection, as one is physically connecting to another place or another use, in reality they create as much of a division as a connection. Cities, our major concentrations of resources and social connections have been affected the most. In nearly every major city, large areas where inhabitants are excluded from the benefits living in an urban society exist, and in many cases, infrastructure has established their borders.

The physical presence of highways and other infrastructure creates barriers for urban growth, and often communities found near or beyond these have become subject to marginalization.

Typically spaces surrounding highways, railways, and industrial waterfronts present challenging environments to design in and often go untouched, creating a divide in the growing urban fabric, separating people beyond the city center from the amenities provided within. Decades of designing for urban sprawl and automobile dependency has allowed this trend to continue, and today people are rethinking the suburban lifestyle. Large scale urbanization is bringing people back to the city, and again marginal urban communities are at risk of being affected by the development of infrastructure. Now an architectural approach to infrastructure is needed as an intervention to the affects of poor planning in the past, to support a community focused and equitable future.

In the mid 19th century, urban planning saw a wave of advancement by the evolution of automobile culture and the institution of super highways. Dense cities throughout North America quickly became interwoven by transportation megastructures, rural areas were re-purposed for highways, and waterfronts became more industrialized. Initially, high-speed infrastructure was envisioned as a means of urban renewal. Cities were to be connected by massive lines of concrete, people were to be given access to new amenities and interactions. In many ways this was true, the rapid influence by the advancement of mobility technologies connected urban areas, allowing for travel of goods and people. However, this is where the physical manifestation of the urban planners’ hopes ceased. The effects of these massive incisions and the potential risk to the future

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expansion of urban areas was not explored in depth. As cities grew, the space near transportation infrastructure divided the physical and social fabric of the city as it attempted to expand beyond the barriers created by transportation paths. Near the margins of these forgotten but not gone borders, socio-economic divisions begin to manifest. Communities quickly become at risk of marginalization when separated from city by out-dated infrastructure planning. Many neighborhoods were cut off of the growth occurring in the city centers. The public spaces within cities are separated from many parts of the wider populace that would value this space, and instead of being activated through them, public space and urban planning has become reserved for the businesses and select populace that can live within the city center.

Communities are pushed further away by the physical environment of the looming concrete paths. The spaces near highway and industrial infrastructure are often polluted and environmentally degraded. Pockets of unclaimed space lay under them, waiting to be activated. However, the first thoughts on trying to ‘ revitalize ‘ these communities do not start here. Typically they begin within the communities, sometimes by outsiders, and often transplants the trend of corporate driven public space into these communities, starting a vicious cycle where the inhabitants are pushed again to the periphery. It is becoming clear that urban citizens are fed up with this process, and are beginning to take matters into their own hands by organizing ways to reclaim the city. Instead of beginning within a community, reprogramming and claiming the interstice space of divisive infrastructure can begin to reconnect communities to the city , give these areas access to resources they need, allow their voice to be heard in the future of the city, and can become catalyst that empowers its users to make the cities they want to live in.

It is clear that the current methods of infrastructure planning are unsustainable for American cities, socially, environmentally, and economically. But how can new or reprogrammed architecture and infrastructure provide public space as resources to a disjointed city? How can this space change over time to better meet the needs of a community, rather than becoming static for singular purpose as many other infrastructure and public spaces have become? How can a space provide a link to larger city growth, allowing a marginalized community to voice their influence on planning? What types of spaces would improve these neighborhoods, a transportation hub, space for celebration, markets, public space for expression? What is the link between architecture and infrastructure? Can this be used in a variety of places and on different scales? Can the identity of a place be reclaimed through the infrastructure that initiated it? Can public infrastructure space combine several programs to become more synergistic and useful to a community? Most importantly, how can architectural infrastructure catalyze change, and empower its users to develop the cities they want to live in? . In this research I am studying these questions to re-imagine the use of forgotten space created by pervasive urban infrastructure as a testing ground that allows it to change with the communities hopes and needs, creating a new space inspired by the space’s users

1.2 Parameters

After identifying a key issue in American urban planning, the infrastructure that was originally intended to be its link to resources and growth, there exists an opportunity to reprogram these spaces and manipulate them architecturally to better serve the communities that have become their victims. Today, even in politics the topic of infrastructure comes up as something that is in dire need of repair or replacement. However, designers and citizens can leverage existing conditions as assets in an effort to design the cities we want to live in. Rather than discuss the pros and cons of infrastructure influenced sprawl and the compartmentalization of resource facilities, this study focuses on ways to reclaim infrastructure as a catalyst for growth that will reconnect users with the resources that they have become separated from. As a topic for study, approaching infrastructure architecturally as space inspired by its users needs has an opportunity to welcome change rather than hinder it. This user focused thinking aims to fundamentally change how we plan cities and argues for a greater role of architecture and infrastructure design for people, and not just economics.

1.3 Organization

After recognizing the role that obsolete infrastructure plays on separating communities, several key areas are focused on in the research that outline the evolution of the conditions that we face today. They begin from the source, tracing back the initial link between infrastructure as the reason for a cities growth.

From there, the evolution of infrastructure and the conditions that were created in mid century America are explored leading up to the divisiveness communities face today. After recognizing the problem , this research then focuses on how urban planning has developed today, and critiques the methods aimed at changing spaces affected, from large scale gentrification of areas by private interests, to tactical urbanism organized by communities.

The research focuses on the current theories provided in several books and writings and aims to find ways to start a the source and reclaim infrastructure for communities, and explores new thinking on the role that architectural infrastructure plays in urban communities.

The study centers mainly on three books, Where We Want To Live by Ryan Gravel, a novel that describes the processes that lead to fragmented cities and as a call to arms for new ways of approaching infrastructure to create the cities that people want to live in; Next Generation Infrastructure by Hillary Brown that serves as a manual for interconnected ecological, social, and economical infrastructure, and Tactical Urbanism by Mike Lydon and Anthony Garcia that outlines community organized changes on the urban fabric to better reflect the needs of the users.

Supporting essays and documents reinforce the message in these books on writers such as David Harvey, Jorge Jaregui, and Jane Jacobs that express that something is fundamentally wrong with how we develop cities, argues that it is all linked to infrastructure, but also promotes that architecture and planning has the power to heal the areas affected. These studies were focused on because they begin to link together to a common goal: urban centers and infrastructure that benefits people through all aspects of life.

1.4 Study Intent

By identifying the causes of urban disconnection and researching the needs of affected communities, the research aims to discover a way of approaching infrastructure architecturally to empower people to become engaged in creating the cities they want to live in and catalyze change that isn’t forced on a population but instead is fueled by their needs. Infrastructure planning has become a heated topic in today’s urban zeitgeist, and more research on the role combined infrastructure and architecture can play in reconnecting communities and providing resources for growth is needed. If architectural interventions are not explored, these spaces will continue to be underdeveloped, disinvest-ed, and marginalized. The trend will continue outward and affect sprawl communities and lead to a further disconnected, isolated, and inefficient society. In this study, I am researching how infrastructure has separated communities and looking into ways to mitigate this through reprogramming infrastructure in order to find an architectural solution that focuses on the users needs, sustainability, interconnected systems, and the re-establishment of a community separated by poor planning as part of the cities identity. After identifying the issues and planning a strategy for a solution, I then look at cities in the rust belt as testing grounds for this new catalyst infrastructure. Cities in the rust belt have become concentrations of many of the problems caused by poor infrastructure planning, and the disinvestment of urban communities, they are also deeply tied to automobile history, and the infrastructure developed here has reflected this. If a way to develop synergistic, community focused, and connective infrastructure isn’t explored, the trend of infrastructure being developed for cities being solely focused on automobile culture and the issues it has created in urban communities will continue to fracture cities.

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1 | PREFACE

and its original identity. By understanding the role infrastructure plays in the urban fabric, examining ways to reprogram void space created by existing patterns, and exploring new forms of infrastructure this study explores ways architectural interventions in areas where obsolete methods of infrastructure planning has disrupted the urban fabric can follow a method of technological testing. Following this pattern will consider a community’s needs, aiming to reintegrate marginalized communities with the larger urban context and changing the existing [ alpha ] form of the space into a new [ beta ] space. Because the current methods of infrastructure planning have fragmented cities and few appropriate architectural interventions exist, the study examines how the second life of marginal space should eliminate barriers, provide space for community activity, promote interconnected and synergistic programs, allow for sustainable user initiated change, and become a catalyst that empowers a community to create the city they want to live in. Ultimately, this study researches ways to use the space that’s causing the division of these communities as a way to reconnect.

1.4 Defining the Issues

1 | PREFACE

The Problem: Decades of sprawl and the creation of inefficient infrastructure systems to support it has fragmented cities, separated communities from the resources they need, and damaged the environment. These process of suburbanization and dis-investment of urban areas has lead to the depopulation of many cities in America, further fueling the patterns of sprawl that contribute to the decline of cities. Today, cities and communities that struggle with infrastructure problems become less attractive for citizens to stay within or to move to. Now, something must be done within marginalized urban communities to repair the damages done to allow for future growth.

The Symptoms: 1.Physical Barriers-

Highways and other obsolete infrastructure physically divides cities, causing tears in the urban fabric that separate urban communities from each other and the resources they need.

2. Urban Dis-Investment-

Planning for sprawl requires investment in highway infrastructure outside of urban centers, leading to a dis-investment to the existing structures in communities, allowing them to become causes for the decline of an area.

3. Patterns of Segregation-

Barriers created by highway infrastructure reinforce patterns of racial and income segregation in urban cities by isolating communities from one another.

4. Resistance to Change-

The rigid planning methods surrounding the installment of transportation infrastructure make equitable change in urban centers difficult due to the environmental and social challenges created within them.

5. Environmental ImpactObsolete infrastructures destroy natural habitats and reinforce unsustainable patterns of travel, resource production, and energy use.

6. Segregated functions-

Resource and energy facilities became separated from each other due to the strain caused by sprawl trend, creating unsustainable and inefficient systems separated from their users.

7. Homogeneous Urban Identity -

Infrastructure has become the dominant architectural gesture is some urban communities, homogenizing the visual and cultural identities within them.

Statistics Attributed to Obsolete infrastructure

40%

Decline in Rust-Belt Pop. in the last 3 decades.

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51%

People living in segregated urban areas in Cleveland, OH

$ 1.6 Trillion

Cost to Repair Obsolete Infrastructure in the next decade

Tactical Urbanism-is an approach to neighborhood building and activation that uses short-term, low-cost, and scaleable interventions and policies to reclaim the right to the city and public realm for citizens.

Alpha Space- The exiting functional space thats purpose has become obsolete or can be reimagined to better serve its users Public realm- publicly owned parks, sidewalks, transportation hubs, pathways and other amenities within an urban environment.

Reason for Being- the reason for the establishment or growth of a city and its lifestyles, historically natural resources and the infrastrucutre that utilizes it created a city’s reason for being Sprawl- describes the expansion of human populations away from central urban areas into low-density, monofunctional and usually car-dependent communities, in a process called suburbanization.

Obsolete- something out of date or degraded, no longer positively serving its users

+ Alpha Space Obsolete Divisive Polluted

Interstice- the void spaces and dead zones created in the margins of infrastructure

Right to the City- the assertion that all people have the right to change ourselves by changing our city; the right to make and remake our cities and ourselves; the right for all people to benefit from the spaces and resources within a city Gentrification- “ renovation� of degraded neighborhoods often characterized by the displacement of low-income residence.

Rust Belt -refers to the former industrial heartland of north American that has declined following the shrinking of the industrial sector and loss of manufacturing businesses that defined these areas.

= Reclaimed, Reprogrammed By communities, environment, the public

Beta Space Connective catalyst, resource for economic, social and environmental growth

A new approach to infrastructure design: BETA SPACE

Instead of continuing to build infrastructure that harms communities, this project proposes that

infrastructure space is reclaimed for communities and the environment and reprogrammed to better suite their needs and desires. Taking existing spaces and reprogramming them creates a new Beta space that reconnects fragmented communities, provides them with resources, establishes a connective new public realm, becomes a testing ground for place-making and interaction, and renews the environment within cities. By taking an infrastructures original intent and re-purposing it for the community, a more socially and environmentally conscious role of infrastructure is created within cities, no longer as a means to an end, architectural infrastructure can become a catalyst for change that promotes growth and healthy, optimistic urban lifestyles.

(Source: Alexander Reeves Based on Background Research)

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1 | PREFACE

Infrastructure-the basic physical and organizational structures and facilities (e.g., buildings, roads, and power supplies) needed for the operation of a society or enterprise

[

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“ The story of people can be told through our infrastructure “ - Ryan Gravel

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SECTION 2

BACKGROUND How has infrastructure impacted the ways we design cities, leading to disconnected urban communities?

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2 BACKGROUND

2.1 A Reason For Being: Infrastructure and the City Humanity has always had an innate desire to group together and create social bonds. Initially it can be traced back to a shared need for survival and the accumulation of resources as a collective effort towards prosperity. As people gathered, more resources were needed to sustain them. In this way, interdependent communities and civilizations began to develop.

In the earliest stage of humanity, people had a direct dependency on the environment, and because they required ease of access to the ecological services provided by nature, settlements often developed along ley lines of natural resources. As civilizations and cities began to develop through time, the places that leveraged its resources had the best opportunities to thrive and grow. Because of this, humanity developed systems to harness and distribute resources. It is here that we first see the development of what we call infrastructure. Infrastructure is defined as the basic physical and organizational structures and facilities (e.g., buildings, roads, and power supplies) needed for the operation of a society or enterprise1. Because cities were arranged and grew due to the resources that supported it and the infrastructure that harnessed it, often these assets became a cities reason for being2. These systems support the needs of the people and become the vital force on which he success of a place is dependent.

of a multitude of infrastructural typologies that served many purposes, and cities often became specialized and adapted to their resources and their managing facilities. This technological change saw over time the development of infrastructure for power generation, water supply, transportation, food , and manufacturing of goods.

The development of cities along major natural resources can be seen in many American cities today, either through their geographical orientation or through remnants of the infrastructural identity. Take Los Angeles, California for example. The city we know today was originally founded around the Los Angeles River that was used for fresh water and transportation of goods.

However, as Spanish settlers began to claim this place, the river was deemed too unpredictable, often causing floods and effecting the city it served. Eventually aqueducts were constructed to provide water for the city and in the 1930s the river was encased in concrete and diverted. While initially the river was the lifeblood of L.A., it became nothing more than an over frequent backdrop to post apocalyptic Hollywood movies. 3

As time passed civilizations developed different ways to utilizes their infrastructure to create the places they want to live, and a multitude of variables changed what these might become. In many cases the identity of a city was established by and reflected in its infrastructure. For instance, the development of aqua-ducts in a Roman city. This development relied on the distribution of natural resources, in this case water, and as such urban planning situated around its use and became an integral part of their ancient cities.

In this way, the people benefited directly by infrastructure that improved quality of life.

The more cities grew, the more infrastructural technologies began to change. The success of a city often relied on innovative ways of harnessing and distributing resources. Many advancements developed to meet changing needs, and with each one came changes in the lifestyle of the communities the systems served. Generally, theses lifestyle changes were positive, but when technological growth and resource strain did not meet, compromises were made to serve the needs. Similarly, if new technology developed that was irresistible to harness, lifestyles were adapted to accommodate the changes, whether they be for economic, cultural, or political gain. As technology was innovated, new infrastructures were developed to organize and facilitate the management of resources. This lead to the development 1. “The Definition of Infrastructure.” Dictionary.com. Accessed October 10, 2016. http://www.dictionary.com/browse/infrastructure 2. Gravel, Ryan. Where We Want to Live: Reclaiming Infrastructure for a New Generation of Cities. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2016. 35..

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Fig.2.1 LA River unused and line with concrete.

The industrial era is perhaps the strongest example of the effect of rapid technological advancement on urbanism and the shift of lifestyles of urban communities. Traditionally, major cities that required efficient transportation infrastructures were placed along water fronts and zones of industry were placed along here. The invention of railways revolutionized industry and distribution of goods and cities grew around railway junctions and the resources they provided. No longer reliant on direct access to natural resources, the way cities were planned began to dramatically shift to a more economic focus.

3 Gravel, Ryan. Where We Want to Live: Reclaiming Infrastructure for a New Generation of Cities. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2016. 22. .

The innovation of transportation architecture has become one of the most definitive changes in infrastructure planning post industrialization. With improved transportation, civilizations no longer relied on direct access to natural resources to thrive.

Instead, the cities that profited from transportation became the ones that prospered. As the needs and desires of people evolved, a cities resources were strained and often they could not sustain themselves with their own produced resources. Here we see the shift from infrastructure to harness resources, to infrastructure for trading them. As resources became capital, infrastructure began to play an economic role in the development of cities. Areas surrounding water prioritized its ports, and planning centered around providing ample access to the sea, thus a cities prosperity wasn’t linked to how well it managed its resources, but instead how it could trade and obtain resources. Looking again at the post industrial world, the locomotive was a drastic advancement of economic based infrastructure that changed how we planned cities. Suddenly, far off places could be connected by railways and resources transfered quickly. Cities began to develop along critical rail junctures, and instead of starting at the source of resources, spaces for storing and managing resources developed along man made routes. In turn, these lines were built within cities for public access and to spur market development. Cities were cut by these lines and divided by pieces of infrastructural planning.

At this scope, it was initially a successful endeavor and gave unprecedented access and transport of goods and people. Here a link with architecture and infrastructure can be found. Cities grew along the railways, and depots were created at the junctions, many taking on splendid architectural manifestations that captured the minds of writers and artists such as Monet. However, this trend would continue, and many times urban planning could not keep up with the demands of transportation infrastructure.

Moving ahead to the mid 19th century another similar industrial revolution developed at an again unprecedented pace. Here we see the invention of the automobile, and with it an entirely new lifestyle and infrastructure to sustain it. Automobiles and the infrastructure coupled with it promised the opportunity for more connected cities, ease of travel, and awarded the opportunity for people to spread out from city centers and end their reliance on collecting around resources. Americans saw the opportunity to spread out from the city centers and sparked a lifestyle shift that began the first waves of sprawl in the country. Those that were able to move from city centers were enticed by a new lifestyle centered around automobile culture, owning property in often homogeneous communities, and the eventual reliance on infrastructure to support this.

2 BACKGROUND

2.2 Shift In Focus: Infrastructure and American Urbanism

Fig.2.2 Gare Saint-Lazare by Claude Monet capturing the activity of a rail-station in the post industrial urban fabric.

Many middle class Americans became dissatisfied with the urban centers. Here, resource infrastructure and the accumulation of concentrated populations and socio economic strain began to make cities unattractive to live in. After the automobile was developed and its promises of a new life came with it, many middle class, often white, citizens began to move away from the city center, in a process called white flight4. To accommodate for this shift in the apparent ideas of what an ideal place to live was, highway infrastructure was built to connect the newly developed periphery suburbs and the urban centers where these populations still worked. At the time, this new urbanism and infrastructure development was championed as a new method of urban renewal, and in many ways at the time it worked at varying degrees. The rapid influence by the advancement by mobility technology allowed the free travel of goods and people, and over time communities arranged around this resource as many had before on more traditional forms of infrastructure. Highways became a huge economic magnet, connecting rural communities with the larger market and places near these concrete lines prospered for a time. The suburban lifestyle created and supported by the creation of highway infrastructure became perpetuated in nearly every facet of American life. It became known as the “ American Dream” to own a car, a house in the suburbs and 2.5 kids. Underlying all of these cultural desires was a strictly economic endeavor that reinforced these ideals to fuel the economy which at the time was heavily based in the consumption of fossil fuels, and consumerism that was masked as the ‘ necessities’ of suburban life, all supported and dependent on auto-mobility and 4. “Sprawl.” Early Sprawl, an Excerpt from Sprawl: A Compact History by Robert Bruegmann. Accessed November 29, 2016. http://press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/076903.html

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2 BACKGROUND

highway infrastructure. Today we can see these communities in abundance, and often they comprise of similar characteristics: highway off ramps with a continuous strip of shopping centers, chain restaurants, and gas stations that become more pieces of infrastructure that sustain our auto dependent and consumer focused culture.

Cities were no longer restrained by the needs for immediate access to resources, allowing for corporations and manufacturing to move away from the city and along the new highway infrastructure that linked suburban communities and urban centers.

Inside the cities, old infrastructure that was used to harness existing resources or store them was no longer as necessary. Entire industrial districts were abandon and became so called black, gray, and brown sites rated on their contamination. Highway infrastructure became the priority, thus planning no longer focused on old infrastructural or industrial assets, and old resources causing the communities that grew around them no longer became spaces worth investing. Urban areas were carved by concrete paths, urban communities divided, and the initial infrastructure that provided many cities its reason for being was forgotten. Cities shifted from a places where people gathered around resources and areas these systems were grouped, to places were the economy of the highway and the ethics of profit trump all. Here is where we see the most damaging practice of infrastructure urban planning on communities.

By examining this trend we can clearly see how urban planning is influenced by the lifestyles we want to live, and as stated by Ryan Gravel we can see that in “ our finicky oscillation between what is useful today and obsolete tomorrow that we can begin to see clearly the intimate relationship between infrastructure and our way of life.5� The development of highway infrastructure, while initially seen as a process of urban renewal, led to a trend of establishing indistinguishable sprawl communities whose existence depends on the automobile, separated urban communities from resources and from themselves, and established a dominance of profit over the needs of humanity in the way urban planning is developed. The most directly effected areas are urban centers that were once connected to resources in the city, now being disconnected by the infrastructure developed for new mid century urbanism. If something is to be done to stop this cycle, these spaces become key in studying ways to stop sprawl and discover methods to catalyze more meaningful infrastructural connections that they were once reliant on. But to understand what must be done, the full effect of infrastructure on urban communities must be studied. It can be seen clearly that advancement of infrastructure is linked directly to shifts in lifestyle, however how deeply does invasive infrastructure affect the lives of urban communities?

5. Gravel, Ryan. Where We Want to Live: Reclaiming Infrastructure for a New Generation of Cities. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2016. 35..

Fig. 2.3 Photo of abandoned shopping plaza in Toledo, OH, a victim of sprawl.

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2.3 Other Side of the Track: Effect of Infrastructure on Urban Communities

2.3.2 Urban Dis-investment The invention of the automobile enabled those who could afford to move away from urban centers and areas of resource, people, and diverse concentrations into periphery suburbs. This process has been coined “ white flight” due to the political landscape in the 1950s that allowed only white middle class the privilege to make such a drastic shift in lifestyle. To accommodate this, large highway systems were developed to connect new suburban areas to the city centers. Many writers and urban planners considered this process the way of the future, and thusly, old infrastructure, which many times was inherently tied to the originally identity of the city, was forgotten. Near these obsolete infrastructures often laid communities whose prosperity was tied to the resources provided here. Rather than continuing to invest in these spaces, urban planners and legislators began to focus solely on highway infrastructure and suburban space, as they became the driving economic factors and preferred lifestyles of the current sociocultural influences. This sparked a trend of disinvestment in existing urban communities, and rather than protecting them and fostering their existing identity, they were often cut through with incisive lines of concrete, all in the name of progress. Following this, patterns of sprawl developed where private enterprise and citizens continually invested in unused space and established new communities

continually on the periphery of the one before it. Micro ecosystems existed here where the only infrastructure that the space relied on was the highway system. This became a cycle where highway after highway was built to connect these spaces, and as the more were developed the more the problem repeated itself.

2.3.3 Patterns of Segregation Because of the political landscape of the 1950’s when this shift in infrastructural planning began, the citizens that were left in urban centers often congregated in specific racial and socio economic groups. Because the white middle class left and other races and economic statuses remained in the cities, America began to perpetuate racial and class divides, often oriented around the infrastructure systems we developed. The spaces that urban citizens tended to organize around were the forgotten infrastructural spaces and communities due to their history, cheap cost of living, and establishment around resources. As highway infrastructure developed, these communities were further cut and fragmented. This shift in planning affected every major American city, and the segregation caused by infrastructure planning can be seen against the borders of infrastructure. Maps shown on pages 16-17, created by the Washington post, show the grouping major racial demographics of a city and a clear correlation between borders created by infrastructure and urban segregation can be seen. 6 This not only translated into segregation of race, but also into poverty level. Cities that were hit hardest by these trends, such as cities in the rust belt where the abandonment of manufacturing out of urban centers led to massive unemployment, faced unparalleled economic downturn and caused many urban environments to degrade and collapse. This trend still occurs, where many rust belt cities are experiencing the loss of populations and are shrinking, instead of growing as one would predict facing the recent trends of re-urbanization 7.

After the process of highway development began, existing urban communities were fragmented and the remaining urban citizens were forced into segregation based on race and socio-economic, all fueled by the investment in highways and suburbs .Highways halted the growth of these communities, stripping them from opportunity and perpetuating their own disenfranchisement in the urban planning process. Because this was allowed to begin and continually reinforced, American society started a trend of social and political polarization. Similarly, our dependency on the automobile has further isolated our culture. No more must we rely on public transport or do we interact face to face when during our commutes. Instead we are placed in individual automobiles, 6. “How Railroads, Highways and Other Man-made Lines Racially Divide America’s Cities.” Washington Post. Accessed October 10, 2016. https://www. washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/07/16/how-railroads-highways-andother-man-made-lines-racially-divide-americas-cities/ 7. “The Rust Belt: Once Mighty Cities in Decline.” Msnbc.com. Accessed November 5, 2016. http://www.msnbc.com/interactives/geography-of-poverty/ne.html

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2 BACKGROUND

2.3.1 Physical Borders The phrase “ other side of the tracks ” has become such an ingrained term used to describe social differences between people, that its true meaning is seldom contemplated. This phrase, and the attitude towards locational differences, has a direct connection to the patterns of urban planning that are controlled by transportation infrastructure. Over time, our cities diverged from being constructed around resources, to being manipulated by infrastructure for economic interests and highspeed travel of goods and people. Initially, it is of value to note that this infrastructure was developed as a mechanism to establish connections. However, as the reliance on these systems became reinforced by urban planning and American lifestyle, communities that were developed around old and forgotten infrastructure began to be divided up by the investment in more and more highway infrastructure. These large concrete paths separated communities from the growth in city centers that transportation infrastructure sustained. Six decades of planning for car dependency has profoundly changed our cities, reflecting our lifestyles and priorities, and affecting communities with direct and undesired adjacency to the systems we’ve created. Over time, our infrastructure has become more than just paths connecting one place from another, they have become physical borders that outline where one community begins and another ends. While it is easy to see how they physically divide cities, what has the affect been on the wider trend of urban planning near these communities, and how have the citizens been affected?

2 BACKGROUND

Fig. 2.4-2.6 Maps showing the Racial segregation of cities along infrastructure lines.“How Railroads, Highways and Other Man-made Lines Racially Divide

America’s Cities.” Washington Post. Accessed October 10, 2016. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/07/16/how-railroads-highways-and-other-man-made-lines-racially-divide-americas-cities/

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2.3.4 Resistance to Change After the process of suburbanization was in full swing in, highway infrastructure allowed for large populations of people to move outside of the cities, starting dangerous cycles of sprawl where new suburban areas were created one after another. Because this trend occurred quickly, the only structure to suburban areas were the ones created by roadways, and often they only lead through and into these areas. This ad-hoc method of planning made redevelopment and improving of suburban areas difficult. These areas were rigid and often not welcoming of change, making it impractical to add community or resource infrastructure programs.

Because these spaces were very rigid and separated from urban centers, development of new suburbs and new neighborhoods became the focus of investment, rather than investing in current

suburbs and the communities that already existed. This process of sprawl led to an increasingly separated web of disjointed and rapidly degenerating communities. Similarly, urban communities that were physically disconnected from urban growth become marginalized due to its proximity to road infrastructure, decreasing their economic viability. Both suburban and urban communities become defined by how they are influenced by infrastructure, either due to their reliance on it, or being restrained by it, and because of this, its more attractive to create new developments rather than improve old ones. Sprawl is efficient at creating one specific situation, but it is unable to sustain it over time, and makes these spaces extremely reluctant to change. Typically, very little attention is paid to the public realm in sprawl affected communities, and as such they serve only one function well and cannot adapt.

2.3.5 Segregation of Functions Designing for sprawl and suburbia not only caused the segregation of people, it also required the segregations of facilities and functions that support urban living. To support the sparse network of suburbs’ and urban centers’ needs simultaneously, industrial and resource infrastructure had to inturn be sprawled out and compartmentalized. As cities spread out and more suburbs began to be established, infrastructural that provided power, natural gas, water, or food had to meet the demands of a widespread lifestyle change. Similarly to how highway infrastructure was developed, industrial and production

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traveling to our destinations along the isolating infrastructure that we have perpetuated, causing a general apathy and at times senseless aggression towards others doing the same at the slightest inconvenience. The development of sprawl created sporadic separated communities, each homogeneous in its identity, each reflecting a specific set of status, politics and ideologies. It is clear that this process heavily favored individuals with economic power, and disinvestment became the status quo. This trend extends to the political landscape today, and the study of how infrastructure creates borders and forces urban segregation shows how today’s highly polarized society has been established by our city planning and infrastructure patterns.

2 BACKGROUND

infrastructure was produced by the quickest, cheapest, and most profitable means that yielded the highest reward for the lowest cost. Often they were placed in between cities and suburbs to meet both demands, causing many industrial centers that helped develop a city to become abandoned. Because the need for this infrastructure was immediate, there was little room for the advancement of sustainable, clean, or multiprocess resource facilities. This caused the compartmentalization of functional resource facilities, each one serving one specific purpose, and not always doing it in the most efficient way. Hillary Brown in her book Next Generation Infrastructure describes this as one of the most important issues in infrastructure planning today. She describes the inefficiency created when facilities are not grouped to enhance synergy, do not consider the effects of the environment, do not engage with the community, and are not adaptable to change as furthering the trend of harmful infrastructure fragmenting cities and damaging the identity and viability of urban centers. She argues that “ ...next generation infrastructure must move beyond mitigation [ of the effects of obsolete infrastructure] toward provision of tangible amenities, and must embrace the community as a valued and essential partner in facility development8”

Highways fracture natural habits just as they do social habitants, and even require the complete altering or demolition of the natural landscape to make way for ‘progress.’ The design methods for sprawl take little consideration of the environmental impact they have on environments. Thomas Laidley, a sociology doctoral student who developed a system of measuring sprawl in cities notes: “For every 10 percent increase in sprawl, there is an approximately 5.7 percent increase in per capita carbon emissions, a 9.6 percent increase in per capita hazardous pollution, and a 4.1 percent and 2.9 percent reduction in the owner and renter housing affordability index, respectively.10” However, new approaches of infrastructural planning for urban and suburban communities have the opportunity to stop this trend and argue for a better, carbon neutral and sustainable alternative.

2.3.6 Environmental Impact Past development of infrastructure trends not only have affected the social, economic, spatial, and visual characteristics of a city, but they also pose a real and visible environmental impact, not only locally but also globally. Today, the negative affects of fossil fuel consumption is apart of global scientific understanding, however when urban planning began to shift towards supporting automobile culture and its related infrastructures, the effects that this trend would cause were not apparent. The spreading out of suburbs and resources facilities fueled their own consumption, causing a reliance on fossil fuels to transport goods and people along the vast array of decentralized living enclaves.

Continually, more resources were required to sustain this, and more infrastructure was needed to support the transfer of the resources needed. A never ending chain of consumption started by a collective dependence on highway infrastructure has harmed the natural environment, and the environments of spaces placed near this infrastructure, and this includes urban communities.

Similarly, the abandonment of central industrial sectors and subsequent establishment of compartmentalized and separate facilities left behind polluted and degraded spaces that forced urban communities to suffer through the harsh conditions created by them. The environmental impact of the burning of fossil fuels is now deemed by scientists to be irreversible 9, and will continue if new patterns of urban planning are not established. Highways and other infrastructure not only affect the environment through the consumption of fossil fuels, but also through the physical pressure of having infrastructure present in an ecological system.

2.3.7 Homogeneous Urban Identity Lastly, infrastructure has not only created the homogeneous groupings of social and racial classes, it has also begun to strip a cities individual identities and effected the urban environment.

Highway infrastructure has become a necessary evil in every American city, and the development of them largely ignored any architectural or ecological sensibilities. The traffic lines cut through neighborhoods green-ways, and waterways, separating them from the downtown space whose activation relies on diverse interactions of user groups and benefits from the natural service that are provided by the adjacency to different environments.

Highways become a very visible statement about our reliance on transportation and our privatization of economy, and cities suffer the symptoms of our decentralized society. Infrastructures often becomes the most visible architectural gestures in a city, and become what people most interact with. Because they largely ignore context, community, the environment, and the future potentials of a city, they appear similar in every city, and when placed along any overpass throughout America, it would take some contextual detective work to understand where you are.

Our perpetual necessity to build highways has begun to strip the urban fabric of cities of its identity by segregating people away from the city centers, causing them to lose their voice in the city, establishing highways as the most prominent architectural statement in planning, ignoring the cities initial reasons for being often cutting of access to riverfronts and natural landscapes, and reserving cities as spaces for economic functions, rather than for social functions. This is not only shaping the cities, it is also shaping what we perceive a city to be. Further down the line, this also affects the type of spaces within the city and how their functions are programmed. No longer about people and living together for a common goal and to create social bonds, they have become places for economic functions, and all of the public spaces in cities begin to respond to this.

8. Brown, Hillary. Next Generation Infrastructure: Principles for Post-industrial Public Works. Washington: Island Press, 2014.125.

9. Forman, R.T., Estimate of the area affected ecologically by the road system in the United States. Conservation biology, 2000. 14(1): p. 31-35

10.“Surprise! Los Angeles Is the Least ‘Sprawling’ Metro Area in the Country.”

CityLab. 2015. Accessed November 5, 2016. http://www.citylab.com/commute/2015/02/a-new-index-to-measure-sprawl-gives-high-marks-to-los-angeles/385559/.

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2.4 Reserved Cities: Effects of Infrastructure on Right to the City Cities began to be developed to focus on economy and caused the segregation of communities from each other and from the city. It can be seen that this has been done through hasty planning of our infrastructure. By remaking our cities with infrastructure we have created a new lifestyle dependent on it and thus are condemned to live in cities where people’s right to the city is over ruled by consumerism and continuing the trends that support and are supported by decentralized infrastructure and sprawl. Today, the suburban trend is beginning to reverse.

2 BACKGROUND

Because past forms of infrastructure planning has supported the mass exodus of people out of cities and the development of highways has been geared towards economic functions, the emphasis on urban planning for people does not exist as prominently in major cities as it should. Instead, urban planning within downtown districts has reflected infrastructure in the way that profit and economic functions outweigh the people that interact with it. Because of this, people have begun to lose their Rights to the City as described by anthropologist David Harvey. ” The right to the city is far more than the individual liberty to access urban resources: it is a right to change ourselves by changing the city. It is, moreover, a common rather than an individual right since this transformation inevitably depends upon the exercise of a collective power to reshape the processes of urbanization. The freedom to make and remake our cities and ourselves is, I want to argue, one of the most precious yet most neglected of our human rights” - David Harvey Because people were no longer as directly connected to cities, urban centers became controlled by corporations and institutions that influenced urban planning patterns to support the new economic functions that city centers served. Public spaces within cities have become geared towards consumerism, and a disturbing lack of humanism in design has become prevalent. Cities were no longer places for living, they became places to buy into a lifestyle, and cities became spaces that served the movement of capital surplus and reinforced that consumerism is a necessary facet to urban life. The public realm is fitted to reinforce this idea in even the spaces established for pure democratic and social functions. Spike are added near benches to deter ‘ undesirables, ‘ advertisements line every corner and become major artistic expressions, and public spaces become privatized for people who visit them as consumerism. The public realm became available only to people who would buy into it. Infrastructure separated communities from city centers, causing them to lose their voice and rights to the cities that were established for them , and allowed for city centers to be bastions of the consumerist cycle. David Harvey outlined this symptom in one of his most prominent essay Rebel Cities: From the Right to the City to the Urban Revolution and states that : “[ The city is ]...man’s most consistent and on the whole, his most successful attempt to remake the world he lives in more after his hearts desire. But if the city is the world which man created, it is the world in which he is henceforth condemned to live. Thus, indirectly, and without any clear nature of his task, in making the city, man has remade himself 11”-David Harvey 11. Harvey, David. Rebel Cities: From the Right to the City to the Urban Revolution.

New York, NY: Verso, 2012.

Fig. 2.7 Cartoon depicting the loss of right to the city of the citizens and consumers, by the hands of the corporations they support.

More people are living in cities than anywhere else and people are moving to cities, attracted by the possibility of a diverse and resource full city could offer. People are recognizing that sprawl communities are inefficient and unattractive, and are opting for a more centralized, human focused lifestyle that relies on direct access to amenities. However, the development of cities for profit has made the promise of cities as places of access to human based design and amenities less of a reality. The development of infrastructure to support sprawl has affected the functions of cities and transferred the rights of the city and the public realm within to institutions of economic progress. In cities, this effect can be seen both in the detached urban communities and the downtowns, where the public realm has become a less habitable place for the pedestrian and no longer a place of vibrant social connections that cities originally offered.

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2.5 Importance of the Public Realm To understand the full influence that infrastructure planning has on public life, the importance of the public realm must be studied. In large cities, the public realm is generally considered the public squares, parks, centers that are scattered through the city. However, a more complete understanding would include the sidewalks, transportation hubs, and other amenities that make sectors of the city accessible by pedestrians 12. These spaces become informal spaces of interaction where people meet, have chance encounters, connect through the city, or are free to utilizes to expression how they want to use an environment. In cities, these spaces are established by the grids that organize different spaces of use. These spaces are part a larger infrastructure that is instrumental to how a city functions and how people interact with it. Over time however, the effectiveness and importance of the public realm has been hindered by planning cities for a more economic and auto based infrastructure. The public realm is increasingly cut down to support this new planning tactic, and cities are less focused on people as a result. This is again marginalizing communities by blocking access to the city that was once established through the public realm. Since the creation of cities, infrastructure and the public realm have been inherently tied, supporting each other by providing access and developing frameworks that help people live in the cities that improves their

quality of life. The public realm in cities are the ley lines that connect social, economic, cultural and institutional functions, and the hindrance of these by infrastructure goes against the original purpose that it was originally design to support. It can be seen that a return to public realm inclusive infrastructure planning is needed to revitalize cities as spaces that support basic human functions and desires, rather than hindering it. In cities where grids are established, the framework for the public realm exists, but has become manipulated by highway infrastructure. However, in suburban sites the need for the public realm is largely ignored because the main means of transportation is through automobile, making these places even more unattractive for future growth and concentration. However, if the importance of the public realm is so prevalent, why has infrastructure development largely ignored the public realm as an important function in cities? With this problem being so prevalent, what steps have been taken to design a more connective and people focused city? What has been done in spaces where infrastructure has negatively affected the public realm rather than created it? Infrastructure is described as the basic organizational structures needed for the operation of human life, and if we understand the need for social relationships as a basic facet of urban life, we can begin to see that infrastructure design should take a more conscious role in facilitating connections through the development of the public realm.

12. �What Is Public Realm? - Arc.� What Is Public Realm? - Arc. Accessed October 22, 2016. http://www.arc-online.co.uk/public-realm/what-is-public-realm

Fig. 2.8 Qualities of an effective public realm. http://www.pps.org/reference/what_is_placemaking/

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2 BACKGROUND Fig. 2.9 Benefits public space provides in cities. https://blogs.worldbank.org/endpovertyinsouthasia/files/endpovertyinsouthasia/publicspaces-benefits.jpg

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ACTIONS TOWARDS CHANGE

2 BACKGROUND

2.6 Obstacles to Redevelopment 2.4.1 Price Although the redesigning of the infrastructure near urban communities is desperately needed to begin to mitigate the effects of pervasive infrastructure and urban planning, it is important to note change cannot occur overnight. There are several obstacles preventing a retooling of infrastructure in urban communities.

Infrastructure throughout America, whether it be in urban communities, suburban areas or somewhere in between, has begun to deteriorate and become obsolete, no longer efficiently serving their purpose. While the presents an opportunity to reclaim infrastructural space and design better infrastructure that is more synergistic design that aims to reconnect communities, cities and the environment with direct amenities and an active public realm, the economic viability of such a large scale project makes it more profitable to simply repair that replace. It is estimated that the total repair or replacement of all obsolete infrastructure would cost an estimated 3.6 trillion dollars.13 The economic pressure that this price asks for makes it clear that it is time to reconsider how we design infrastructure and be more conscious about importance urban planning plays in the life of urban communities.

2.4.2 Politics Coinciding with the economic barriers associate with redeveloping America’s infrastructure is the politics associated with it. Political debates, whether state or federal level, often contain claims of overhauling America’s infrastructure, but the methods as to how and who foot the bill are always hot topics of discussion. Even the larger political landscape understands the role infrastructure plays, yet seldom in the discussion is the necessity to design infrastructure in more socially and ecologically rewarding ways. Without this, the trend of designing highway after highway and building wasteful energy and water management systems will continue, and this will continue to affect cities, how they are planned, and the connections between the communities within. Cities will continue to be fragmented unless the importance of infrastructure that repairs divides is recognized. Beyond this, a political structure for change needs to be developed that focuses on equitable social and economic developed in damaged urban environments.14 2.4.3 Perception Another road block to the re appropriation of infrastructure for communities and the public realm is the perception of what cities 13. Brown, Hillary. Next Generation Infrastructure: Principles for Post-industrial Public Works. Washington: Island Press, 2014.5.

14. Gravel, Ryan. Where We Want to Live: Reclaiming Infrastructure for a New Generation of Cities. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2016. 222..

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and infrastructure should be. Many are desensitized to our current planning patterns, recognizing infrastructure as a means to an end.

This view fails to understand the original intentions of infrastructure.

Originally infrastructure supported life and social connections, not simply economic endeavors. Only now do we allow infrastructure to dictate out lifestyles and we plan accordingly. The larger public zeitgeist must be reminded of the role that infrastructure can play in establishing equitable connections and re-grounding an area with its context and identity. Complacency has arisen in communities affected by past infrastructure strategies due to a chain of disinvestment in their space, and thus members do not feel they have the power to change how their community is represented. Communities must be empowered to allow needs and desires to be represented, and architectural infrastructure has the opportunity to give space to affected communities that catalyzes change. Changing the perception of what infrastructure is can allow people to define what urban living means.

2.4.4 Private Interests Through studying the affects of infrastructure on urban communities, a clear opportunity exists to leverage these conditions and marginal spaces as places to begin to change the communities. Social conscious designers recognize that if change in these affected communities were to begin, it would take into consideration the area’s existing identity and engage the community in creating meaningful and equitable change.

However, private interests also see the opportunities presented in these areas, whether they be the cheap land value created by infrastructure devaluing, or see the underlying opportunity in the close proximity to cities that are only barricaded by infrastructure.

These interests however don’t see these conditions as something that can be manipulated to repair community, but instead see them as things to exploit to jump-start widespread redevelopment that seldom reconsiders the inhabitants and culture of a place, and instead opts for a new one. But if these spaces are so degraded and in need of repair, why is a complete overhaul the wrong method of repairing these communities?

2.7 Forced Change: “ Revitalization” of Communities communities creates a equitable social change. If community engagement is the key to revitalizing communities, how have communities driven urban change by reprogramming their environment?

2 BACKGROUND

Urban Communities that are broken by outdated infrastructural strategies face an array of issues that need to be addressed to return social and economic opportunities in these areas and to re-qualify them as part of the city. However, urbanization and the migration of people back into the city is beginning to occur at unprecedented rates, creating a reverse lifestyle shift to that of the one during the 1950’s that followed the process of suburbanization. Space within urban centers is sparse, economically controlled, and usually privatized, creating a need for new urban spaces and connections. The old communities influenced by sprawl incentivization are becoming attractive targets to developers as places to leverage the existing conditions as opportunity. They seek to so called ‘ revitalize’ these areas to accommodate the influx of new populations. In these spaces, full scale redevelopment is the primary method, all fueled for their potential profits. This process has been established as gentrification, and the negative effects of this slash and burn method of urban renewal is another hot topic among architects and urban planners today. Seldom do developers that gentrify areas see the existing cultures or opportunities of citizens already existing as anything other than something to exploit. New buildings are built and private economies transplanted into communities.

Fig. 2.10 Protests against gentrification in urban communties outline the effects and response to forced change.

This type of forced change has a tendency to raise cost of living in these areas, making it impossible for the original inhabitants of this area to remain, pushing them to a periphery area that ironically and tragically mirrors suburbanization, but with a more undesired outcome. This further fractures communities and assists in the disintegration of their identity as part of the urban whole.

The privatization cities face moves into these spaces, dropping any guise that the citizens have any say on the development of it, causing high inequality, food deserts, and an area devoid of any unique identity other than one exploited or established as an attraction. Developers here also tend to start from within out, ignoring the causes of the communities segregation and degradation, often the infrastructure near it, and actually furthers the trend by connecting them through rigid road way infrastructure with little meaningful connections to context, history, culture, or the very reasons that a community grew here.

While forced change and gentrification is potentially harmful to cities and goes against what should be done in these areas to renew them, the counter point to these situations obviously cannot be to not influence change in the area. Rather, change should reflect the identity of its current citizens, empowering them to define the cities they want to live in and engaging them in the change occurring in the area. This catalyzes growth rather than forces it. This community engagement can also be reflected in how we plan connective infrastructure, and it can be seen that starting at the source of the problem to solve it while engaging

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2.8 Tactical Urbanism: The Citizen Planner Communities that have been affected by poor methods of infrastructural planing have begun to take matters into their own hands. No longer allowing the disinvestment of their communities to be deterrences to programming public life in urban centers, activist groups comprised of citizens, community groups and neighborhoods are organizing their own guerrilla style interventions on space throughout the city. Often, marginal infrastructure space, deactivated segments of the public realm, and even entire sections of road are being taken over and changed by communities to make pieces of the city more enjoyable. This community engaged urbanism has been coined Tactical Urbanism by writer Mike Lyndon and his firm the Street Plans collaborative.

“Merriam-Webster’s defines tactical as “relating to small-scale actions serving a larger purpose” or “adroit in planning or maneuvering to accomplish a purpose.” Translated to cities, Tactical Urbanism is an approach to neighborhood building and activation that uses short-term, low-cost, and scaleable interventions and policies15

-Mike Lyndon, Tactical Urbanism

In his series of manuals called Tactical Urbanism: Short Term Action, Long term Change show community organized small scale interventions in urban areas. These projects can range anywhere from street festivals or outdoor activities that claim road space, to the development of temporary informal economics such as farmers markets or food truck parking. Communities throughout the U.S are engaging in activities such as Park[ing] day where entire parking lots are converted into social spaces and cultural events.

They key thing to note here is that this change is prompted from the community level, and often without the engagement of city planners or infrastructure developers.

Fig. 2.11. New York City High-Line 15. Lydon, Mike, Anthony Garcia, and Andres Duany. Tactical Urbanism: Short-term Action for Long-term Change. Washington, DC: Island Press, 2015.

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Fig. 2.12 Tactical urbanism offers new ways to start the redevelopment of an area, consistently engaging communities in the process of renewal and place-making.

Though tactical urbanism projects are often cheap and temporary, the projects help change the perception of a space and outline the opportunities it has for a better urban environment. These interventions take place in the public realm, and show the desire that communities have for a more diverse and invigorated public real. They interact directly with space forgotten by infrastructure, and provide a key window into the potentials that architecture has for reprogramming these spaces for more meaningful public life and connections.

Changing of the urban fabric by citizen action does not only occur at in small scale guerrilla interventions, but also at large scale redevelopments of land and infrastructure. Projects such as the High-line, which is championed as one of the most successful reclamation of infrastructural space for communities, are often engaged by community organization the collective actions of communities. These communities have the power to start the process of renewal in the area, and because it starts with the users desires in ming, the projects often produce the most meaningful and equitable change for an area. Communities can organize to change degraded space, spark new economic programs, and engage in full scale reprogramming of the urban fabric. The public realm is the number one priority for these citizens, and often by engaging together as a community in the planning process, they uncover ways to use space and community activism to promote social, economic, and formal change. Collective engagement also ensures that people have adequate access to amenities provided by infrastructure, whether they be direct access to jobs, healthcare, education, or even social space. Throughout his book,

2 BACKGROUND

Fig. 2.13 Yoga group participating in PARK[ing] day by taking over streets for public activity. http://oxnardcpg.com/2016/01/03/the-official-guide-to-tactical-urbanism/ Where we Want to Live Ryan Gravel outlines the process that the redevelopment of the Atlanta Beltine went through and his place in the re-imagining of a forgotten railine that was to be turned into a new connective public realm. He describes that from its inception, it was a community organized effort, and that through the communities persistent vision and drafting of the city they want to live in, significant change was made on the urban fabric 16. Informal citizen planners have, and should, become a vital part of the design process in the renewal of an area. Again, this new citizen planning directive is outlined by David Harvey in his writing: “In the realm of political action therefore, the right to the city claims a new kind of urban politics that asserts that everyone, particularly the disenfranchised, not only has a right to the city but as inhabitants, have a right to shape it, design it, and operationalize an urban human rights agenda.�

-David Harvey, The Right to the City17 By studying tactical urbanism and full scale redevelopment projects such as the High-line or Atlanta Beltline, it can be seen that communities have the opportunity to be empowered to make significant changes to the urban fabric that. In fact, the most equitable and socially impactful planning projects are fueled by the communities desire to change and reclaim their rights to the city and what infrastructure and the public realm means to them. Sadly, the years if dis-investment in these communities through misappropriation of infrastructure and investments has lead to a sentiment of apathy in some areas, by both citizens and investors. However, it can be seen that the most important factor to catalyzing meaningful, people oriented change in these neighborhoods relies on engaging the community first and foremost and empowering them to manipulate infrastructure to make the spaces that are most impactful to a places sense of identity, functions, vitality, and relationships to other places. Community engagement is key to designing successful public spaces, but how can this be translated into an infrastructural system that allows for change in the public realm, while supporting an infrastructural and ecological function?

14. Gravel, Ryan. Where We Want to Live: Reclaiming Infrastructure for a New Generation of Cities. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2016. 10.

15 Harvey, David. Rebel Cities: From the Right to the City to the Urban Revolution. New York, NY: Verso, 2012.

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2.9 Archi[tech]ture: Architecture, Infrastructure and Technology Connected Historically, infrastructure has been viewed as something that serves a single purposes and provides one function or resource as efficiently as possible. Facilities such as energy plants, highways, agricultural centers, and waste centers all operate independently and without connection to one another. While these infrastructures do provide resources, they may not do so in a completely effective manner. Due to the industrial age and rapid advancements of automobile technology, the infrastructure required to support rapid growth needed to be built as quickly and efficiently a possible without consideration of the effects on the environment or realization of the true potentials of the systems. Similarly, development of highway infrastructure allowed for industrial sectors to be moved away from cities and away from the eyes of citizens, allowing them to continue to provide resources in an ecologically unsustainable way. Designers of the industrial era assumed an endless supply of energy to fuel these, and did not consider the effects that this mass production thinking would have, and therefore advancement in the technology did not seek ways of developing ways to produce that were efficient as well as sustainable. Author Hillary Brown in her book Next Generation Infrastructure outlines why it is important to move away from single functioning infrastructure. They have deeply harmed the environment, contributed to the fracturing of cities, and perpetuated the reliance on sprawl planning and highway construction. Shes describes that these infrastructures are deteriorating, and now there is a possibility to explore facility design that incorporates sustainable practice as well as synergistic couplings of systems that can utilize the waste produced from one systems as the energy for another to reduce carbon and waste emissions. She describes how the processes that nature takes to maintain its ecosystems and resources can be mimicked in design and translated into a city. If we think of the city as an ecosystem, we can better utilize infrastructure to support cities18.

The argument of combined programs of infrastructure not only extends to resource management systems, but also public spaces and ecological design. Brown outlines the benefits of bringing in infrastructure into the public eye to change the perception of the role that it plays in the lives of the communities. When combining infrastructure with environmental practices and mimicking natural processes through energy and resource production, infrastructure can become more sustainable and valuable within city centers.

Projects that take on these considerations create a new mix of infrastructure, ecology, architecture, and urban design. If we move away from designing single purpose systems, we can solve many problems effectively and eloquently, allowing infrastructure to play a more vital role in establishing and uniting communities.

It is of further importance to note that the segregation of functional programs cannot support the rapid urbanization that 18. Brown, Hillary. Next Generation Infrastructure: Principles for Post-industrial Public Works. Washington: Island Press, 2014

cities are beginning to face, and because of this it is even more important to join utilities together to create an interconnected network of functions. Many systems benefit from proximity to each other, and segregating functions outside of city limits only perpetuates unsustainable practice. Bringing public program into infrastructure design also allows for the facility to be maintained more effectively, and increased importance in the roles they play in urban communities will make them more sustainable and more responsive to change. If our networks of resource facilities are to become more resilient, efficient, and less environmentally damaging, separate systems should be joined with close proximity into each other and brought into urban center.

There has always been a link to infrastructure and technology, one influences another’s growth, and often both share similar terminology. In modern times it can also be see that there is a direct link with architecture, infrastructure, and technology. Systems and concepts of each are brought into design. Architecture within urban centers is beginning to produce resources, infrastructure is beginning to include architectural and public programs, and technology is unifying both fields together. They share relationships in how space is programmed, and how communities can benefit their joining. Today’s crumbling infrastructure and fractured urban centers can begin to join these fields and incorporate them into design that reconnects society and provides communities with the resources they need, both economically, socially, and environmentally. Joining these together can also influence change in the environment by reducing carbon emissions and creating new ecology within its program, creating relationships between the user, resources, design, and technology. The unification of these systems and the interaction of them with the user and environment can allow us to move away from design trends that have broken cities and harmed the environment. Though, it is easily recognizable that new methods of designing infrastructure in urban centers are needed, what projects have approached this problem architecturally?

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[

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“ Forget the damned motor car, build the cities for lovers and friends“ - Lewis Mumford

]

SECTION 3

CASE STUDIES

How can infrastructure and architecture combine to be used as a catalyst for designing the cities we want to live in?

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3 | CASE STUDIES

3.1 Selection Criteria

1. Reclaiming Infrastructure : Represents the reclaiming of existing, forgotten or obsolete infrastructural space to better meet the needs or desires of a community.

Project: Jauregui’s Manguinhos Complex, Freeway Park- Seattle, WA 2. Architecture, technology, and infrastructure: Represents an architectural and user friendly approach to infrastructure that establishes meaningful connections and provides spatial resources to communities.

Project: BIG’S Slussen 3. Interconnected Resource Infrastructure: Reflects resource or waste management architectural facilities with incorporated public functions toward an that models synergistic functional and social programs.

Project: Willamette Water Treatment Plant Other Considerations- Tactical Urbanism: Projects presented here represents community organized design or tactical urbanism. These spaces reflect the conscious manipulation on the built environment directly by its users to claim rights to the city and public realm to serve a community, better meet its needs, or make a statement about the state of urban planning.

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3 | CASE STUDIES

Due to the complex and layered problem that obsolete infrastructure creates in urban communities, each case study serves as a different example that aims to rethink the role that architectural urban infrastructure has in communities. Each individual case study was selected because of its unique take on infrastructure that links to the focus of the research. Each case study may represent a different scale, user, organization or type of infrastructure designed architectural for its users with goal of creating environments that we want to inhabit. Each design emphasizes user rights to the city and operates as a catalyst for social and economic programs. The case studies each represent one or more of the following criteria:

Manguinhos Rambla Location: Leopoldo Bulhões avenue ,Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Date: 2005- 2012 Serves: Aprox 50,000 Inhabitants

3 | CASE STUDIES

Project Type: Infrastructural, cultural , environmental, urban reclamation.

Program: Elevation of existing Railway Public space beneath railway, reconnection of pedestrian paths, new transit stations, social housing, water and environmental treatment stations, cultural centers.

Total Project size: 1,400 acres.

Architect: Jorge Mario Jaregui

“Amid the divided society, public space works as a number-one factor of socio-spatial regeneration.”

-Jorge Jaregui

Fig. 3.5

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Overall Plan of the complexi [ https://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2010/smallscalebigchange/projects/manguinhos_complex.html

3 | CASE STUDIES Fig. 3.6

Rendered view of Manguinhos Rambla by Jorge Mario Jaregui

Project Overview Rio de Janeiro’s favella, or slum, communities pose a difficult setting in the attempt to provide adequate urban planning and infrastructural facilities for all of its inhabitants, many who live there informally . The Manghuinos district is a collection of 10 of these informal settlements, all in close proximity to industrial sectors. In these areas, railway infrastructure and outdated, environmentally harmful industrial plants divide the slums from the city. Thus, the inhabitants suffer from a high crime rate, poverty, environmental degradation, and a lack of public space and community facilities19. Architect and urban planner Jorge Jaregui has been active in slum upgrading programs since the early 1990s and as part of Rio’s Favella- Barrio project, Jaregui began exploring ways to intervene in the Manghuinos district. He recognized that current infrastructure and planning was leading to what he described as a “ divided city.” Jaregui and his colleagues began studying the physical and social context of the favelas and engaged with the community directly, taking input as to what the community needs directly from its inhabitants. After a detailed social and physical analysis of the area, the architects developed the Manghuinos Complex proposal. The urban plan calls for the elevation of the main rail line that goes through the area, creating a new “ connective space” under the railway that combines new community, social, economic, transit, environmental and infrastructural programs. The project’s main goal is to integrate favelas into the city by establishing new connections, introducing infrastructure, developing functional facilities, and building cultural centers and landmarks. The project also aims at using the Favela’s existing potential and conditions, considering its user’s needs and wants, rather than starting from a scratch.

19. “Broken City - Manguinhos Complex | Jorge Mario Jáuregui.” Broken City - Manguinhos Complex | Jorge Mario Jáuregui. Accessed November 5, 2016. http://www. jauregui.arq.br/broken_city.html.

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3 | CASE STUDIES

1- Street Upgrade and reconfiguration 2- Urban Park Implementation 3- Implantation of aeration systems / fountains within the waters remediation program 4- Reconfiguration of the Fish men colony 5- Bike path extension along the channel road 6- Proposed new access to Rio de Janeiro’s Port 7- Implantation of UPUs adjacent to the expressway 8- Waters treatment 9- Linkage Overpass construction 10- Proposed Rail track configuration to allow new connections 11- Relocation Housing Units with commercial and services 12- Creation of new subway stations and adaptation of the existing bus station into an inter-modal terminal 13- Relocation Housing Units with commercial and services

Fig. 3.7. Overall Plan of Intervention http://www.jauregui.arq.br/broken_city.html.

Fig. 3.8-9. Sections through transport node

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Goals Outlined by Architect

Fig.3.11 Station along complex

20. ”Broken City - Manguinhos Complex | Jorge Mario Jáuregui.” Broken City Manguinhos Complex | Jorge Mario Jáuregui. Accessed November 5, 2016. http:// www.jauregui.arq.br/broken_city.html.

The site of the main intervention in the Manghuinos planning project is in a place called the “ Gaza Strip “ of Rio. Here the railway and rivers drastically divide the city, causing a conflicted space where the crime rate is high and the environment harshly affected.

The most significant intervention described by Jaregui that aims to reconnect the favelas with the city is through the creation of a new connective space at the intersection of these conditions called the Rambla. The design lifts the existing railway, creating a new public promenade and pedestrian paths that are interconnected with new cultural, community, and infrastructural facilities that provide the favelas with social and physical resources. Included in the design are new schools, civic centers, legal offices, and a new multi-modal transit station that connects the favelas to the city and gives the community access to jobs and resource facilities. All of these pieces of program are interconnected along the public promenade and pedestrian walkways. Along these pedestrian paths, green space and new ecological services are added to help reverse the environmental degradation of the area, each becoming a resource and amenity for the community. Though the project provides a service to the favelas, the construction was initially at risk of destroying existing homes for its implementation.

However, the designers limited the instances of relocation and provided new social housing as part of the program. The end result is the development of new transportation infrastructure, important public space, connective pathways, community facilities, and resource production and management facilities, all organized around a connective public realm.

“·To enhance the connectivity of the urban structure as a whole while discouraging the broken city perpetuation, the lack of urbanity, particularly but not solely in the poor areas · To democratize the enjoyment of urbanity, making it accessible to all the citizens · To guarantee the accessibility of each place and enhance its connections with the surroundings taking the areas from isolation · To do not remove anybody from their place in order not to break existing ties (except for he areas of risk or in cases where it is necessary to create clearings to permit conviviality) · To open clearings in the existing fabric introducing spaces and edifications as urban and environmental re-qualifiers with legibility and pertinence · To respect the history of the development of each place as well as the investments made by ach dweller with their own effort · To search for community participation through a careful listening of their demands · To give opportunity to new centralities and potentialize the exiting ones by increasing their connectivity · To produce a drastic change in the image of the area, allowing its re-subjectivation · To produce cohesion articulating heterogeneous logics, stitching the city without flattening it in homogeneity, searching for the coexistence of the city of fluxes with the city of places.20”

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3 | CASE STUDIES

The Rambla

Lessons Learned

3 | CASE STUDIES

The Manghuinos complex is closest with the goals of this thesis and presents a project that tackles many of the issues that infrastructure development in America has created. The Manghuinos Complex sets precedent for infrastructure planning that carefully considers the physical, social, security, and ecological context of a site and the impact that the meaningful re-purposing of infrastructure has on a community that has been a victim of infrastructure in the past.

The main focus in this project is the development of a new public realm that interconnects several resource facilities, proving that infrastructure can again be claimed as a catalyst for change and social connections. The placement of this new connective space eliminates the barriers created by infrastructure, promoting meaningful connections. The programs propose bold new facilities and the re-purposing of existing infrastructure to better serve a community. It also presents an approach to infrastructure and community planning that is tied to the identity of a place, recognizing the need for architecture to affirm the identities of the communities it serves and allow them to voice their desires of what a city should be. The architects directly engaged with the community to produce this intervention, and this approach to user focus, socially, ecologically, and economic minded appropriation of infrastructure has the potential to positively impact urban communities in a variety of ways.

Fig.3.11 Construction on connective promenade.

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The project shows that quality, sustainable, public infrastructure is achievable, and shows a planning method that combines architectural principles, community organization, infrastructure planning, and technological advancements. All of the proposals of the project lead to a better urban environment that is equitable to all citizens, and promotes a direction that doesn’t compromise the social value of cities for profit. What can be learned from the Manghuinos complex is that architectural appropriation of infrastructure can heal fractured cities through the implementation of a variety of amenities, empowering communities engage with development, develop an active and important public realm, and uncover the identity of a community that degraded infrastructure has attempted to homogenize.

3 | CASE STUDIES

Fig.3.12 Overview of Site

Fig.3.13 Transportation terminal

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Freeway Park Location: Seattle, WA Date: 1976 Serves: Residents of First Hill neighborhood and Seattle Downtown, Tourists and Visitors.

3 | CASE STUDIES

Project Type: Brutalist, Infrastructural, Urban Planning, Highway Airspace reclamation, Public and Cultural space, Pedestrian Pathways.

Program: Public Park and pedestrian bridge over I-5, reclamation of interstate right of way for public space.

Total Project size: 5.2 Acres Architect: Angela Danadjieva and the office of Lawrence Halprin.

Fig.3.14 Freeway Park from overpass

Fig.3.15

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3 | CASE STUDIES

Project Overview The freeway park in Seattle designed in 1976 by the office of Lawrence Haplin is a large parkway that bridges the 1-5 highway, connecting Seattle’s First hill neighborhood to downtown. Adjoining the park is a large convention center that rests along the highway and becomes accessible through the elevated park. The freeway in this area became a barrier to pedestrian travel in the city, and designers in the 1970s, not too long after the large process of suburbanization that created the highways, looked for ways to repair broken cities and ailing public realm within cities. The park is designed with a strange mix of brutalist principles and landscaping that provides the interior city with a green-space that reclaims the interstates right of way and airspace for pedestrian use. The project consists of large blocked groupings with landscaping within that became walls that block the pollution, noise, and sight of the highway that it rests over.

The center of the pathways contain an open courtyard complete with fountains and programmable cultural space. The project is prided as single handed proposing a new land use typology for American cities, one that reclaims infrastructural interstice space for improved community use and protection of the urban fabric. However, the designer’s use of sight blocking elements and contained pathways have created some unsafe conditions within, and thus public use has not been used to full potential.

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3 | CASE STUDIES Fig.3.16 The design utilizes large cube brutalist structures to create sheltered spaces and water features

Fig.3.17

40

Lessons Learned

21. “Freeway Park: Past, Present, and Future?� Freeway Park: Past, Present, and Future? | The Cultural Landscape Foundation. Accessed November 5, 2016. http:// tclf.org/content/freeway-park-past-present-and-future

3 | CASE STUDIES

The freeway park became one of the first projects that introduced the concept of reclaiming space surrounding infrastructure for connective public architecture as a land use typology in American Cities. The park was ambitious in its aims to reconnect a side of Seattle that became disconnected from the city by highway infrastructure, and this goal is at the heart of this thesis exploration.

However, the exact methods that the architects used to design and reclaim the space for the community and protect it from the hazards of the highway become examples of things to avoid in catalyst infrastructure design. One of the main problems with the freeway park is the hazardous conditions within due to the lack of sight lines and large unimpeded open areas. The designers wished to create an isolated environment, shielded from the noise and air pollution caused by the highway, and to do this, a brutalist and cube like array of planters and concrete shield walls line every corner of the path ways. Because of this, the environment within is contained, but in a way that makes it unsafe for lone passerby. The project was ambitious in its goals, but because of the unsafe atmosphere that can be created here when people abuse its walls, it is seldom used by the larger community, and instead serves homeless populations and occasional crime. In the past, it has even become the site of murders, prompting community action to redesign it 21 The design of Freeway park is an entry point to understanding how the interstice space of highways and existing infrastructure can be reclaimed for a community, however, even more knowledge about proper design can be gained from its downfalls. Upon closer inspection, one can realize that the method employed here to protect the environment within from outside sources is not effective in providing the community with a safe public realm to reconnect with the city. Similarly, due to the materials and patterns created within, it is a static monument serving only one purpose, though it aimed at bringing greenery back into the city, its rigidity makes it difficult to change and program multiple uses into, eventually becoming another obsolete infrastructure with honest functional motivations.

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The Slussen Location: Stockhom, Sweden Date: Unrealized Serves: Residents and visitors of Stockholm, pedestrians and automobiles.

3 | CASE STUDIES

Project Type: Infrastructural, cultural , environmental, transportation.

Program: Pedestrian and vehicular pathways bridging over river. Creation of public and cultural spaces.

Total Project size: 1,400 acres.

Architect: Bjarke Ingels and BIG.

Fig.3.19

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3 | CASE STUDIES Fig.3.18

Project Overview The Slussen is a proposed project by architects B.I.G. and NOD for the redesign of the current slussen system , one of the busiest intersections in all of Stockholm, Sweden. The main aim of the project is to reconnect the historic Gamla Stan districts with the sodermalm.

However, the current intersection is home to both pedestrian paths, bike paths, automotive paths and critical subway junctures within the city. Thus, a simple redesign of a bridge would not be effective. Instead, the architects developed an infrastructure system that incorporated all of of the preexisting functions together, made them more pedestrian oriented, and programmed new social and culture space into the design. The project is described as “ Social Infrastructure” by the architects22. The architects employ a layer approach, reserving the top level to the public and sinking all other access below, connecting them with ramps and bi-ways. The project is unrealized.

22 . Ingels, Bjarke. Yes Is More: An Archicomic on Architectural Evolution. Köln: Evergreen, 2010

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3 | CASE STUDIES Fig.3.20

Fig.3.21

44

Lessons Learned

3 | CASE STUDIES

The project serves as an example of how architecture can incorporate several functional necessities into a synergistic system. It incorporates technology and the public realm into the design to create a system that while serving a functional purpose, creates an architectural landmark that joins together two separated sides of the city. The project also takes into consideration several environmental factors, and does a detailed observation on how the site will be used through all of its separate functions. The design develops infrastructure in a way that is beneficial and inviting to interact with, rather than becoming a single purpose means to an end.

Fig.3.22

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Willamette Water Treatment Plant 3 | CASE STUDIES

Location: Wilamette, Oregon U.S. Date: 2007 Serves: Nearby neighborhoods, park visitors Project Type: Infrastructural, cultural , environmental, resource, water treatment Program: Water treatment plant with incorporated Public Space Total Project size: 12 Acres Architect: Miller Hull Fig.3.23

46

3 | CASE STUDIES

Project Overview Willamette Water Treatment plant, designed by Miller Hull architects is a water treatment facility in Oregon. Its main functional purpose is to filter water along the Willamette river for residential use by the surrounding communities. However, the program does not stop with its function. The facility incorporates public park space surrounding the facility and community space within. It incorporates the natural ecology it uses into the park program, and integrates this with it resource functions to encourage public interaction with the processes within. It seeks to educate the public on the role the infrastructure has with the community while simultaneously creating a sustainable environment surrounding it 23. Similarly, the technology and architectural systems of the plant are established as sustainable examples of infrastructure design and operation.

23. . Brown, Hillary. Next Generation Infrastructure: Principles for Post-industrial Public Works. Washington: Island Press, 2014

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3 | CASE STUDIES Fig.3.24

Fig.3.25

48

Willamette Water Treatment Plant serves as an example of resource based infrastructure that includes public space and interaction into its program . This inclusion allows the plant to become a synergistic environment that establishes infrastructure as something that exists to improve the lives of people, rather than becoming a means to an end. By doing this, it aims to change the perception on the role of infrastructure on peoples lives. The joining of the water treatment facility with public functions also establishes a renewed and sustainable water way, requiring the processes within the plant to have only positive environmental impact. This project proves that environmental , functional, and social programs can be joined together to create meaningful infrastructure that synergies to create an environment that while it serves a functional purpose, it provides space architecturally that can improve the lives of its users in multiple ways.

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Fig.3.26 Places 16.3

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3 | CASE STUDIES

Lessons Learned

[

50

“ Rediscovering ourselves as neighbors, we can also discover new ways of relating in the city“ - Jorge Jaregui

]

SECTION 4

Conclusions Research shows that obsolete urban infrastructure planning has fractured cities, leading to social divides, physical disconnection, and a dependency on an inefficient built environment. However, an opportunity exists to reclaim theses spaces for people and the environment and follow methods of technological iteration where an old function is reprogrammed following a communities needs and desires, creating a new [ Beta Space ] that eliminates barriers and claims a more socially responsible and community focused role for catalyst infrastructure and public works.

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Key Points • • • • • •

4 CONCLUSIONS

•

Research indicates that our collective shift to suburban lifestyles and dependency on infrastructural developed to support it has drastically altered the way we design cities and caused a socially divided, inefficient, degrading, and homogeneous society that strips citizens of socio spatial rights.

Infrastructure is described as the basic organizational structures needed for the operation of human life, and if we understand the need for social relationships as a basic facet of urban life, we can begin to see that infrastructure design should take a more conscious role in facilitating connections through the development of the public realm.

Urban design for areas affected needs to simultaneously consider physical, social, and ecological impacts of architecture and infrastructure .

Opportunities exist to reclaim infrastructural spaces as places for renewal and community engagement. Identity of an area can be reclaimed through existing or forgotten infrastructural spaces and can be reprogrammed to serve communities.

To develop a more efficient and people focused society, the coupling of different infrastructural and social programs needs to be explored to alter the perception of the role that infrastructure and the public realm plays in urban areas.

Community involvement in the planning and future evolution of public works is key to the design of equitable and successful catalyst infrastructure. Opportunity exists to provide communities with spatial tools that empowers citizens to create the spaces that benefit them most Reclaiming infrastructure as a place for people can be approached architecturally, socially, and technologically in a way that allows the users of the area to reprogram an existing obsolete , or alpha, space into a new connective,public, synergistic, and sustainable Beta space.

Section 4.1 The Problem

Decades of planning for sprawl communities and an increasing dependence infrastructure to support it has negatively effected urban communities to a degree that has created some of the most apparent social problems in America. The development of infrastructure has created physical borders in cities that foster segregation, fragmented cities, homogenized the identity of a place by making infrastructure its most important spatial gesture, created a trend of disinvestment in urban communities by focusing development on suburban communities and the required supporting facilities, and polluted natural and urban environments.

Both designers and citizens have forgotten the original purpose that infrastructure serves, a reason for being and a place that serves lifestyles, and because we allowed our lifestyles to be dominated by consumerism, economics, and segregation of functions, our infrastructure has responded accordingly. Alpha infrastructure has directly caused the marginalization urban centers in America, and if a new approach to public minded infrastructure is not approached, the trend will continue. Investment will solely focus on mono functional infrastructure, and cities will continue to be scarred.

Today, people are reversing suburbanization by migrating to the cities again. If the cities are to sustain this growth, the infrastructure near urban communities needs to be rethought and socio-spatial rights must be returned to citizens so that these spaces are reconnected to the city and no longer are separated from the growth that is being barricaded within cities. Spaces along strategic corridors of infrastructure can be focused on by organizing growth around existing assets that originally helped

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create a spaces identity or function. Changing how we view infrastructure is also instrumental in stopping sprawl. Public works are often viewed as a means to an end, and therefore their public impact on urban communities is not explored. This causes a trend of only designing them for singular functions and does not allow us to see the potential that architecture and infrastructure has in shaping our lives.

Communities affect throughout the world are organizing their own interventions and experimenting with what public space and infrastructure can do for them, and now it is apparent that architecture should engage people with city shaping to allow this to happen. An approach to architectural infrastructure reclaiming is needed to allow communities to experiment with place-making, and a more responsible, synergistic, and truly public role of public works must be explored to halt the devastating impact that industrial and suburban works have had on cities and their populations.

Section 4.2 Proposed Approach: Beta Space

Urban infrastructure can become a place that reflects our desires and lifestyle goals. Again looking at the link of design with technology, in today’s software and other tech industries, old forms of technology are taken and reconsidered. The first form is considered the alpha, and it is altered to suite a new goal. After, it is presented to its users, and they give feedback on what the design should be. This new form is called the beta. This pattern can be used architecturally in sites affected by obsolete infrastructure. The existing marginal space’s function can be rethought, and communities can be empowered to change it into a space that better serves them . By relinking the original public role that infrastructure places in society and allowing people to experiment with place making and identity through its design, architecture can follow new technological thinking, taking an existing alpha space, and transforming it into a new Beta Space. By considering the users needs and arguing for the public role that infrastructure plays in the public realm, reprogramming what infrastructure is can mitigate the consequences of obsolete infrastructure planning. Infrastructure can then become a testing ground for what public works can do for communities and the environment. Architecture can become a place where communities experiment and grow together, and it can also be programmed and reprogrammed to better serve them. The method of creating Beta space proposes that infrastructure considers simultaneously the user, social, physical and ecological context and promotes an architecture that provides socio spatial resources to a community. This can take the form of community spaces, connected and synergistic resource facilities, a reestablished public realm that eliminates barriers and creates meaningful urban connections, transportation and access, space for experimentation. By linking these programs and different resources together along a common public space, a more efficient and social society is created around public works, changing the perception their roles in creating better social and economic lives for urban communities. By thinking of infrastructure as a catalyst for change in urban environments, public works can become important assets to a city that creates a more connected and optimistic lifestyle.

+

=

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4 CONCLUSIONS

After analyzing how infrastructure has affected cities, a connection between technology and public works can be seen. As our lifestyles shift, infrastructure shifts to support it, and similarly if our technology advances, opportunities for changing our lifestyles comes with it. In the past technology and infrastructure was inherently linked, and public works were designed to support communities and were altered to better suite the way we want to live. Sadly, today the opposite is true, urban communities are forced to adapt to infrastructure that we have developed as we changed our lifestyle to meet technology. However, again an opportunity is presented to reverse this and to reclaim infrastructure and architecture as something that assists the public realm and claims a more socially active role.

[

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“Let’s Build Bridges, Not Walls.“ - Dr. Martin Luther King JR.

]

SECTION 5

Project Outline Rust Belt cities in the United States contain a concentration of the problems created by crumbling infrastructure, resulting in highly fractured cities. Cities such as Cleveland, OH can be valuable testing grounds for creating Beta Space by reclaiming infrastructure and the natural and artificial environments around to catalyze change that leads to a resurgence of these cities.

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THE SITE

Fig. 5.1 Map of the “ rust belt” with corresponding industries.

5 | SITE

5.1The Rust Belt The term “ Rust Belt “ refers to the former industrial heartland of north American that has declined following the shrinking of the industrial sector and loss of manufacturing businesses that defined these areas. The Rust-Belt includes cities surrounding the Great Lakes region, and much of the Midwest. Prominent cities included in the Rust-Belt are Detroit, MI, Pittsburg, PA, Milwaukee WI, and Cleveland OH. These cities were established due to the close proximity to the Great lakes and other waterways that made transportation and manufacturing of goods efficient. Following the rise of transportation infrastructure such as railway, separate cities in what was then called the manufacturing belt were linked, allowing for the abundant natural resources found in one spot to be transferred to another for manufacturing. For instance, coal mined in the Appalachian mountains was linked with Iron ore found in the north to create steel and then was distributed to other manufacturing centers to be produced into automobiles and other goods24.

Today, the rust belt cities are characterized by declining populations, vacant industrial sectors, heavily segregated urban centers, poverty and environmental decline. Some cities such as Cleveland and Detroit have seen their populations drop 40% 24 “Rust Belt.” About.com Education. 2014. Accessed November 20, 2016. http:// geography.about.com/od/urbaneconomicgeography/a/Rust-Belt.htm

in the last 4 decades 25 . This can be attributed to a number of economic factors, primarily the decline of the steel and iron industry, automation, moving of the factories to the sun belt and oversees, decreased need for manufacturing jobs, and foreign trade agreements influenced by globalization . Urban communities within Rust-Belt cities have become victims of this trend, and have become sites of disinvestment and decay. Large swaths of inner city land has become vacant, and the infrastructure that the manufacturing has relied on has crumbled.

In many ways, Rust-Belt cities were defined by their infrastructure, all being established to support an industrial economy. Highways were prioritized over neighborhoods, waterways industrialized, and urban centers fragmented. Now, these cities are struggling and the infrastructure within no longer contributes to the livelihoods of the urban communities. These cites can become an important testing ground for reclaiming the infrastructure that gave these cities a reason for being, and instead of serving an industry that no longer exists, they can become catalysts that heal the communities that became segregated and disenfranchised by the loss of the industrial sector.

25. Hartley, Daniel . “Urban Decline in Rust-belt Cities.” Clevelandfed. Accessed November 20, 2016. https://www.clevelandfed.org/newsroom-and-events/publications/economic-commentary/2013-economic-commentaries/ec-201306-urbandecline-in-rust-belt-cities.aspx

Fig. 5.3 Abandoned train terminal in Buffalo, NY.

5 | SITE

Fig. 5.2 Man searching for scrap metal in Flint, MI where 41.5% live in poverty.

Fig. 5.4 Abandoned Richman Bros. factory in Cleveland, OH.

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5.2 A City Divided by Infrastructure: Cleveland, OH

5 | SITE

Cleveland, OH grew to be a central city in the now Rust-Belt during the industrial boom prior WWII. The city was established along the western edge of the Erie canal of the Great Lakes, and used the bay along with the Cuyahoga river to become a major transportation and shipping hub in the American north .In the 19th century, the development of transportation infrastructure such as railroads and highways allowed Cleveland to be connected with large amounts of natural resources, such as iron, to be manufactured in the city and shipped out as finished products.

This lead to Cleveland becoming one of the most important industrial centers for the production of steel, and also later became a center for oil refinement. The infrastructure that allowed for this industrialization, its rivers, roadways, and railways, became Cleveland’s reason for being, and its identity was established through the jobs and opportunities that the manufacturing provided, and the systems that supported it.

Fast forward to today, Cleveland faces challenges caused by the de- industrialization of the Rust-Belt. Many manufacturing plants left Cleveland and ones that stayed decreased the jobs that they made available, leaving behind and abundance of vacant lands, high unemployment, segregated urban communities, polluted environments, and fractured urban centers. The infrastructure that these sectors relied on have become obsolete, since they were established solely with economic functions. Cleveland has an abundance of bridges over the Cuyahoga river, but they only serve automobiles and divide urban communities along their borders, creating harsh barriers. Similarly, the Cuyahoga River, once home to many important industrial sites is lined with abandoned industrial red-fields and polluted natural environments. The spaces along the river have become unattractive to development, and the waterfront, instead of becoming a unifying environment within the city, becomes another barrier to growth and communication to the city. The reliance on obsolete infrastructure, the lack of a connective public realm, the degradation of the water front, and the high concentration of vacant industrial sites in the major urban centers has led to Cleveland becoming the most segregated city in America, both racially and economically, according to statistics provided by Huffington Post. 55.1% of the population lives in segregated areas, and 20.2% percent of blacks and 5.4% of whites live in poverty26. One of the most striking separation occurs along the Cuyahoga, where the east and west sides of the city are divided along its banks.

26 Kent, Alexander, and Thomas C. Frolich. “9 Most Segregated Cities in America.” Huffington Post. August 27, 2015. http://www.huffingtonpost. com/entry/the-9-most-segregated-cities-in-america_us_55df53e9e4b0e7117ba92d7f

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“Cleve-landers don’t cross the river, and when we do, we don’t go very far27” In an effort to bring the east and west sides together and encourage transport between them, more highway infrastructure was developed through the city center and across the river.

Instead of reuniting the marginalized communities, it further fractured them, and neighborhoods such as Tremont suffered deeply. Along with this population division, the freeways also cut off the city with its most important waterfronts, separating the urban centers from Lake Erie and furthering the divide along the river. Large elevated bridges extend over them, rather than creating a public realm that engages them. This infrastructure also contributed to an unsustainable trend of sprawl in Cleveland, and recently the city has become one of the fastest sprawling communities in America28. All of these factors combined have attributed to the depopulation of the city, which further contributes to many of the challenges that the city faces.

Many of the problems that Cleveland has struggled with recently can be linked to its patterns of infrastructural and urban planning.

In the past, infrastructure was developed for solely economic motivations, and established Cleveland reason for being and growing. However, today this infrastructure no longer contributes to a growing city, but instead influences its decline. Cleveland, OH thus becomes an important testing ground for the new catalyst infrastructure systems that this thesis proposes. By reprogramming the existing infrastructure and vacant within the city and utilizing some of the challenges as assets, a new space can be created within Cleveland that uses infrastructure and architecture as a means of renewal and as a method to reconnect the city.

Creating catalyst infrastructure within the city can allow the city to once again become a competitive and attractive place to live, and the shifting of the perception of the areas affected by infrastructure as assets can allow the city to functionally create resources for the surrounding communities, as well as become attractive environments that contribute to the well being of the city. Reprogramming these spaces aims at improving the lives of its citizens and seeks to become a destination for people outside the city. The Beta Space here has the opportunity to become an economic, social, and ecological asset to the community.

27. Hallal, Billy. “Cleaving the Crooked Mirror: What’s Really Behind the East & West Side Rivalry.” Thrillist. 2016. Accessed November 20, 2016. https://www. thrillist.com/lifestyle/cleveland/cleveland-ohio-east-west-side-history 28. “Sprawl Grew the Most in Cleveland, Other Rust Belt Metro Areas.” Crain’s Cleveland Business. 2015. Accessed November 22, 2016. http://www.crainscleveland.com/article/20150218/BLOGS03/150219851/sprawl-grew-the-most-in-cleveland-other-rust-belt-metro-areas

5 | SITE

Fig. 5.5 Vacancy in Cleveland. Abandoned lots shown in red and empty lots in grey.

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CUYAHOGA RIVER

Fig. 5.6. Lines of segregation by infrastructure in Cleveland.

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PROPOSED SITE Location: Cleveland, OH along Cuyahoga River, between East and West Neighborhoods Population: 440,000 and falling Utilizing: Vacant lots, existing infrastructure framework, Cuyahoga river

5 | SITE

Site Considerations Separation of east and west Cleveland, Red sites created by previous industrial buildings, several existing bridges, needed connection to river and lake waterfronts, food deserts created within marginalized communities.

Environmental Concern: Pollution of land and waters from industrial valley, pollution from highways, potential flooding, continued use of waterway.

Fig. 5.7. Guardians of Transportation statues that line highways in Cleveland

Fig. 5.8. Empty lots surrounding infrastructure along Cleveland Water Way

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5 | SITE

Vacant Lots ge id Br ail r o em M pe 0 Ho I-9

Fig. 5.9

5.3. Testing Ground The chosen site is along the Cuyahoga River between east and west Cleveland. This site faces a combination of challenges produced by poor infrastructure and urban planning, and thus becomes an important testing ground for architectural reprogramming of these systems. This area has become degraded by past industrial abuse, and has several vacant and unused sites along its borders. This area is also home to several bridges and highways that cross the river that do not promote public realm interaction and have become obsolete. The combination of the vacant industrial sites, the polluted water front, and the lack of pedestrian access across the river has contributed to the intense segregation seen in Cleveland. This site is chosen because of its existing infrastructures and environments that can be reclaimed and reprogrammed to install a new catalyst infrastructure that bridges the river and reconnects the communities with themselves, the city center, and the environment of the river and lake water fronts. The project will utilize the challenges of the site as assets to develop a new infrastructural corridor, and thus the site is a large linear section along the river that uses infrastructure and portions of the river as strategic locations for placing program.

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THE PROGRAM

Highways/ Brigdes

Reclaim and Reprogram

5 | PROGRAM

Industrial/ Vacant

Waterfronts Alpha Spaces

Reprogramming

The chosen site is home to existing infrastructural spaces that have become obsolete, misused, or degraded. These become the alpha spaces that the program seeks to utilize and reprogram. This includes the few existing bridges such as the Detroit- Superior Bridge, the vacant industrial zones and empty lots, and the exiting waterfronts of both the Cuyahoga river and lake Erie.

The program takes the existing infrastructural assets found in the site, reclaims the spaces for people and the environment and reprograms them to become an space that enhances the lives of the people, aiming to rediscover the true role infrastructure has in a community. The original functions are re-imaged based on the benefit they could provide for people, social, economically, and environmentally.

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Connective/ Social Infrastructure New Public Realm

Pedestrian Paths/ Bridges Public/ Event Spaces Transportation Hub Vocational Shops

Incubation Space Food Production

Business Incubator Community Space Culture/ Rec. Center

Water Treatment Facility

Waterfront Park

5 | PROGRAM

Renewed WaterFront Ecology

Aquaculture Farms

Synergy

Beta Space

New infrastructure programs are produced that either provide resources or environments that aim to reconnect fragmented cities and catalyze sustainable and equitable change within them . Then the programs are grouped together and joined based on functions that could synergize together, for instance,food production, water treatment and a public realm could be linked together into a new aquaculture ecology and park that seeks to repair the waterfront both naturally, socially, and economically. By grouping the systems, this new infrastructure proposes multiple, joined functions that benefit from interaction.

A new catalyst infrastructure is developed that utilizes the existing infrastructure spaces and reprograms them for public use. The redesigned spaces aim to become a resource for the community economically, socially, and environmentally. It also becomes a new connective tissue for the city, creating an identity focused on infrastructure similar to what gave the community a reason for being, but now on an architectural infrastructure that is user focused, sustainable, and multi-functional.

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5.4 Design Objectives The main objective if the program is to reprogram the existing infrastructural spaces along the Cuyahoga river and install a new public focused catalyst infrastructure that reconnects the communities in Cleveland that have been fragmented by poor urban planning and decline. The program proposed aims at providing spatial resources for the urban communities that can be broken down into social, environmental and economical. The design also aims to join these separate functions together to create a multi-layered system that benefits from the adjacency and coupling of program. The project seeks to reunite the city with its citizens, introduce green infrastructure and ecology , and promote sustainable change that will invite community and tourist interaction, spurring growth. The grouping of social programs and functional infrastructure focuses on changing the perception on the role that infrastructure plays in urban centers.

Design Goals: Social

1. Reconnect the segregated and marginalized communities in Cleveland with a catalyst infrastructure and public realm through the Cuyahoga River.

2. Reprogram existing infrastructure spaces to better serve the surrounding communities 3. Create programmable public space for community and cultural events

5 | PROGRAM

Economic 4. Create an incubator for economic development and growth 5. Generate resources for the community such as water, food, and jobs to directly benefit marginalized communities 6. Create a public destination for interaction, both locally and from tourists

Environmental 7. Revitalize the waterfront ecology and surrounding vacant red-field sites through green infrastructure 8. Group programmatic spaces together that benefit from interaction 9. Promote a new form of infrastructure that encourages investment in existing urban spaces and stops the trend of sprawl

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5.5. Program Breakdown While the exact square footage has yet to be determined, the programmatic spaces will be comprised of nodes joined together by a connective public realm, utilizing the existing assets of the sites. The programmatic spaces will also be grouped together to benefit from each other. For instance, the water treatment facility will blend with the new ecological park space and then to the public realm. Similarly the public realm will link with cultural spaces, incubation spaces, and community spaces. The linking of these systems promotes a multifunctional resource and public based infrastructure. Each space may be broken down to serve specific functions, but the overall systems will be joined through public space.

New Public Realm • • • •

Pedestrian paths and bridges linking communities, urban centers, and waterfront Transportation Hub for access through city Public Park Space for recreation Public event space for cultural and community events and for public art and expression that can be programmed by the community

Community Space

Incubation Space • • • •

Business incubator Vocational work and craft shops Framework for mixed-use development Informal testing ground that allows the community to experiment with design, placemaking, and art to define what they want where they want to live.

Waterfront Park

• Renewed ecology/ park space to revitalize waterfront - linked with aquaculture • Link with Public realm through city to waterfronts

Resource Production/ Aquaculture Farms • • • •

Water treatment Facility- linked with public realm Community Gardens Aquaculture Laboratory/ educational facility

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5 | PROGRAM

• Meeting Space for community groups , allows for individuals to unite to engage with urban planning and the city • Recreational/ Health and Wellness Space, to alleviate the health strains caused by sprawl infrastructure • Multi Use-Space to be rented

Bibliography “Broken City - Manguinhos Complex | Jorge Mario Jáuregui.” Broken City - Manguinhos Complex | Jorge Mario Jáuregui. Accessed November 5, 2016. http://www.jauregui.arq.br/broken_city.html.

This source is a reference forthe Manghuinos Complex precedent, including architects description and goals for the project Brown, Hillary. Next Generation Infrastructure: Principles for Post-industrial Public Works. Washington: Island Press, 2014.

This is one of the main sources of information for the project on the technological side. The book describes the need for synergistic, and sustainable infrastructure systems and outline the opportunities to replace current crumbling systems with more efficient and equitable ones.

Crisman, Phoebe. “Inhabiting the In-Between.” People.Virginia.edu. Accessed September 6, 2016. http://www.people.virginia.edu/~pc4v/pdf/004_inhabiting_in_between.pdf.

Crisman’s essays explore the detriments of infrastructure on cities and questions if the spaces above can be claimed to build new architectural interventions.

Design like You Give a Damn: Building Change from the Ground up. New York: Abrams, 2012.

This book is a catalogue of projects that place the needs of people and communities above projects. Many projects are included that involve healing communities through architectural and infrastructural interventions “Freeway Park: Past, Present, and Future?” Freeway Park: Past, Present, and Future? | The Cultural Landscape Foundation. Accessed November 5, 2016. http://tclf.org/content/freeway-park-past-present-and-future.

The saftey and importance of the Freeway Park precedent are discussed within this article.

Explores historical architecture that aims to engage the user with its design and functions, both physically and socially Fo. “THE HIGH LINE.” Field Operations - Project_details. Accessed November 5, 2016. http://www.fieldoperations.net/project-details/project/highline.html.

Architect’s record of the high-line project.

Fox, Michael. “Catching up with the Past: A Small Contribution to a Long History of Interactive Environments.” Footprint (1875-1490) no. 6 (March 2010): 5-18. Art Full Text (H.W. Wilson), EBSCOhost (accessed September 12, 2016).

Explores historical architecture that aims to engage the user with its design and functions, both physically and socially

Gravel, Ryan. Where We Want to Live: Reclaiming Infrastructure for a New Generation of Cities. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2016.

Gravel’s book served as an important inspiration to the concepts that drove this thesis. The book describes the need for a new way of infrastructural thinking, and proposes that communities have the power to take action in defining the places they want to live. It also describes the authors process of making his thesis project into a real life project.

Hallal, Billy. “Cleaving the Crooked Mirror: What’s Really Behind the East & West Side Rivalry.” Thrillist. 2016. Accessed November 20, 2016. https://www.thrillist.com/lifestyle/cleveland/cleveland-ohio-east-west-side-history.

The motivations and causes of the east west split of Cleveland along the Cuyahoga river are discussed.

Hartley, Daniel . “Urban Decline in Rust-belt Cities.” Clevelandfed. Accessed November 20, 2016. https://www.clevelandfed.org/ newsroom-and-events/publications/economic-commentary/2013-economic-commentaries/ec-201306-urban-decline-in-rust-belt-cities. aspx

This article was used as a reference to the causes and effects of the decline of rust belt cities. It provided statistics that were used in the thesis.

Harvey, David. Rebel Cities: From the Right to the City to the Urban Revolution. New York, NY: Verso, 2012.

Harvey’s writing is key to exploring the cause of the loss of control of public spaces within and outside cities, it describes in depth the process of public space taken away from he users and instead being used for specific, rigid purposes and not for public discourse or resource.

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Hook, Martyn. “The Affirmative Qualities of a Temporal Architecture.” Architectural Design 85, no. 3 (May 2015): 118-123. Art Full Text (H.W. Wilson), EBSCOhost (accessed September 12, 2016)

Explores how temporary and user driven architecture allows a space to transform to fit users needs or to arrange during specific events. Important case studies in user driven architecture transforming rigid spaces.

“How Railroads, Highways and Other Man-made Lines Racially Divide America’s Cities.” Washington Post. Accessed October 10, 2016. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/07/16/how-railroads-highways-and-other-man-made-lines-racially-divide-americas-cities/.

This article provided the maps that showed the segregation lines created by infrastructure in cities.

Ingels, Bjarke. Yes Is More: An Archicomic on Architectural Evolution. Köln: Evergreen, 2010.

This book was a reference for projects done by Bjarke Ingels Group, including the Slussen precedent.

Lydon, Mike, Anthony Garcia, and Andres Duany. Tactical Urbanism: Short-term Action for Long-term Change. Washington, DC: Island Press, 2015.

Tactical Urbanism is a manual for communtiy and user based interventions in the public realm . It served as a reference that shows that communties have the power to reclaim and reprogram space to better suite their desires.

Kent, Alexander, and Thomas C. Frolich. “9 Most Segregated Cities in America.” Huffington Post. August 27, 2015. http://www. huffingtonpost.com/entry/the-9-most-segregated-cities-in-america_us_55df53e9e4b0e7117ba92d7f.

This Reference provided information that showed Cleveland had become the most segregated city in America, and provided evidence that infrastrucutre and urban planning was contributing to this.

Nnmandi, Kojo. “Infrastructure, Architecture And Urban Identity - The Kojo Nnamdi Show.” The Kojo Nnamdi Show. Accessed September 6, 2016. http://thekojonnamdishow.org/shows/2013-04-25/infrastructure-architecture-and-urban-identity

The site links to a talk show were professionals discuss the impact of infrastructure both large and small on urban identity and how the users interact with it.

Mollard, Manon. 2015. “Colombia’s infrastructure reclaimed as public space.” Architectural Review 237, no. 1420: 38-40. Academic Search Elite, EBSCOhost (accessed September 12, 2016).

Case studies on infrastructural space that is no longer functional being reused for a public gathering space.

“Reprogramming the City: Opportunities for Urban Infrastructure.” Home. Accessed September 6, 2016. http://www.architects.org/ bsaspace/exhibitions/reprogramming-city-opportunities-urban-infrastructure.

This web page links to a collection of projects that explore urban interventions that use existing assets and redesigns them to improve the urban environment. Many projects focus on sustainability and resource production.

“Rust Belt.” About.com Education. 2014. Accessed November 20, 2016. http://geography.about.com/od/urbaneconomicgeography/a/Rust-Belt.htm.

General information on the rise and fall of the Rust-Belt areas of the U.S. Laila Seewang. “Skeleton Forms: The Architecture of Infrastructure.” Scenario Journal. May 02, 2013. Accessed September 6, 2016. http://scenariojournal.com/article/skeleton-forms-the-architecture-of-infrastructure/

This website is a collection of articles and projects that discuss new ways of design infrastructure, some involving

existing. This particular article argues for a new way of establishing amalgams of both infrastructure and architecture into one form.

“Slussen in Stockholm by BIG and NOD.” Designboom | Architecture & Design Magazine. 2008. Accessed November 15, 2016. http://www.designboom.com/architecture/slussen-in-stockholm-by-big-and-nod/.

This site provided information of the Slussen precedent.

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“Sprawl.” Early Sprawl, an Excerpt from Sprawl: A Compact History by Robert Bruegmann. Accessed November 29, 2016. http:// press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/076903.html

General information and statistics on sprawl in America, from its causes to its effects.

“Sprawl Grew the Most in Cleveland, Other Rust Belt Metro Areas.” Crain’s Cleveland Business. 2015. Accessed November 22, 2016. http://www.crainscleveland.com/article/20150218/BLOGS03/150219851/sprawl-grew-the-most-in-cleveland-other-rust-beltmetro-areas.

This site provided statistics and charts that showed how Cleveland has become the most rapidly sprawling city in America.

“Surprise! Los Angeles Is the Least ‘Sprawling’ Metro Area in the Country.” CityLab. 2015. Accessed November 5, 2016. http:// www.citylab.com/commute/2015/02/a-new-index-to-measure-sprawl-gives-high-marks-to-los-angeles/385559/.

This article included charts on the sprawl index scores of American Cities.

“The Definition of Infrastructure.” Dictionary.com. Accessed November 28, 2016. http://www.dictionary.com/browse/infrastructure.

The exact etymology and meaning of infrastructure in literal terms.

“The Rust Belt: Once Mighty Cities in Decline.” Msnbc.com. Accessed November 5, 2016. http://www.msnbc.com/interactives/geography-of-poverty/ne.html.

Visual information and first hand accounts of the decline of rust-belt cities and they challenges it created.

“What Is Placemaking? - Project for Public Spaces.” Project for Public Spaces. Accessed November 28, 2016. http://www.pps.org/ reference/what_is_placemaking/.

Charts that outline the value of the public realm in cities.

“What Is Public Realm? - Arc.” What Is Public Realm? - Arc. Accessed September 22, 2016. http://www.arc-online.co.uk/public-realm/ what-is-public-realm.

Charts that outline the value of the public realm in cities.

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Image Credits Cover: Re-elaboration by the author of the original image from http://elemontart.com/my-town 2016 Copyright by Marija Lemon, Cleveland, OH 2.1 rekandshoot [http://www.dezeen.com/2015/08/10/ ] 2.2 [ https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/claude-monet-the-gare-st-lazare] 2.3 http://www.msnbc.com/interactives/geography-of-poverty/ne.html 2.4“How Railroads, Highways and Other Man-made Lines Racially Divide America’s Cities.” Washington Post. Accessed October 10, 2016. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/07/16/how-railroads-highways-and-other-man-made-lines-racially-divide-americas-cities/ 2.5 Ibid 2.5 Ibid 2.7 http://porcarorama.eu/dir/?p=192 2.8 http://www.pps.org/reference/what_is_placemaking/ 2.9 https://blogs.worldbank.org/endpovertyinsouthasia/files/endpovertyinsouthasia/public-spaces-benefits.jpg 2.10 http://kalw.org/term/gentrification#stream/0 2.11 http://www.fieldoperations.net/project-details/project/highline.html 2.12 Lydon, Mike, Anthony Garcia, and Andres Duany. Tactical Urbanism: Short-term Action for Long-term Change. Washington, DC: Island Press, 2015.

2.13 http://oxnardcpg.com/2016/01/03/the-official-guide-to-tactical-urbanism/ 3.1 http://www.jauregui.arq.br/broken_city.html.

3.2 https://freewayparkassociation.org/map-brochure/?ak_action=reject_mobile 3.3 Ibid 3.4 Ibid 3.5 [ https://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2010/smallscalebigchange/projects/manguinhos_complex.html 3.6 Ibid 3.7 http://www.jauregui.arq.br/broken_city.html.

3.8 Ibid 3.9 Ibid 3.10 Ibid

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3.11 Ibid 3.12 Ibid 3.13 Ibid 3.14 https://freewayparkassociation.org/map-brochure/?ak_action=reject_mobile 3.15 Ibid 3.16 http://markcareaga.tumblr.com/post/49247263390/freeway-park-seattle-by-lawrence-halprin 3.17 Ibid 3.18 https://www.big.dk/slussen 3.19 Ibid 3.20 Ibid 3.21 Ibid 3.22 Ibid 3.23 http://www.architravel.com/architravel/building/willamette-river-water-treatment-plant/ 3.24 Ibid 3.25 Ibid 3.26 Ibid 4.1 Diagrams by Author 5.1 Data from https://futureofutica.wordpress.com/thesis/, manipulated by author.

5,2 http://www.msnbc.com/interactives/geography-of-poverty/ne.html 5.3 Ibid 5.4 http://nypost.com/2014/04/24/haunting-pictures-of-decay-from-the-american-rust-belt/#21 5.5 Created by Author with HUD maps https://egis.hud.gov/affht/# 5.6 Created by user with https://wrneff.carto.com/me?utm_source=Footer_Link&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=Embed_ v1&utm_content=wrneff 5.7 http://elemontart.com/my-town 2016 Copyright by Marija Lemon, Cleveland, OH 5.8 Google Maps 5.9 Created By Author with Google Maps

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Alexander Reeves 2016 M. Arch Thesis | Hammon’s School of Architecture