BUILDING ROOTS IN COMMUNITIES
ABOUT
Thank You The pursuit of this project has been a long and tiring process, one that I have countless friends and family that I need to thank for their support. It was 3/4 of the way into this process that I had a striking revelation. I’m obsessed with tomatoes. My obsession with growing tomatoes comes from the summers I spent at my grandparent’s house in Alliston, Ontario. Unknowingly, I have set upon a path of providing accessible farming to disadvantaged urban areas that comes from a deeply embedded inspiration. My Grumpa taught me so many useful day-today skills throughout the years that I didn’t realize how deeply they had affected me; childhood experiences including eating huge tomatoes that I had to hold with both hands on the couch as if they were apples, and building air-conditioned cages for my pet rabbit so that he could live an absurd 16 years. I also credit my stubbornness, love of hard work, and overall lets get dirty demeanor primarily to those years. I would like to take this opportunity to thank my Grumpa for being a true inspiration and providing me with the ground work to create and pursue this dream. While the onset of dementia over the past couple of years will keep me from sharing this book and project with him, I hope that I can redirect
this gratitude into the energy and perseverance I foresee needing in the coming years. The root of BRIC is to provide that same experience that I was so lucky to enjoy as a child. The joy of discovering what warm fresh-picked produce tastes like, watching something grow from nothing, and then the opportunity of having too much and trying to pawn it off onto every passing neighbor. BRIC aims to provide the safety and security of fresh food with the comfort of growing something yourself. If nothing else, I hope to inspire other people to associate tomatoes with the same happy feelings that I enjoy.
Thank you for your continued support.
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BRIC
ABOUT
Andrea Brown Born in Toronto, Canada but raised on the mean streets of Columbia, Maryland. Andrea holds an Associate Degree of Interior Architecture and Design from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. Currently, she is finishing a Bachelor of Interior Design from Ryerson University in Toronto. Her passion for food, urban centers, and humour can be seen in the majority of her work. She believes that a hands-on approach to design is the first step of any project, and that a kinetic process can connect the design to the end user by distilling ideas to their simplest form and is applicable to any program. Effective design should have equal footing in business and design sense. In the coming year Andrea will be working towards a Masters of Art in Social Design at the Maryland Institute College of Art where she hopes to combine all of these passions into a social agriculture initiative for under-served neighborhoods affected by vacancy under the name BRIC. This idea and its process is outlined in the following pages.
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CONTENTS
ABOUT THESIS INTRODUCTION GROW Proposal design Plan VOICES timeline
4-9 14 - 27 28-31 34 - 37 38 - 45 46 - 57 58- 61 64 - 67
16,000 VACANT BUILDINGS + 14,000 VACANT LOTS 30,000 VACANT PROPERTIES in baltimore city
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THESIS
“To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow.” As a result of one of the largest percentage declines in population among major U.S. cities from 1950 to 2012, Baltimore Maryland is now challenged with approximately 16,000 vacant buildings, roughly 25% of which are city owned. Baltimore Housing estimates that more than 5,700 of the vacant structures are in areas with existing or emerging development demand. Urban blight in Baltimore suffers from a simple problem of too much supply and not enough demand. This deterioration of urban buildings and relocation of the rich population has also lead to a rise in crime.
1 in 4 Baltimore residents live below the national poverty line. In 2006, Baltimore was at it’s highest crime rate in 50 years ranking 5th in the most dangerous city’s in America. The current plan for the City of Baltimore is to demolish a portion of these houses in neighborhoods deemed too far gone. Broadway East, located in East Baltimore’s infamously portrayed neighborhoods by HBO’s The Wire is
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a worst case scenario of the city’s current decay. The poverty, malnutrition, family structure and education of residents in this neighborhood are bleak at best. The goal of the BRIC is to reconnect people to their food source. This project will capitalize on the readily available building stock and vacant land in the area. By providing a community food centre that educates residents, provides supplemental food sources, and after school education opportunities it will be a model that other satellite locations around Baltimore can follow. This infrastructure will lure residents from around the city that care about sustainable food practices and also want the opportunity to be a part of an urban redevelopment plan that is not directly related to municipal control. Regeneration of a neighborhood through food production meets the needs within a community without asking much from the residents. This plan does not involve relocation, gentrification, or demolition but exemplifies how grass roots movements can ignore hurdles and rebuild a community by giving it tools to build hope.
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location
MARYLAND, USA
Maryland A U.S. state located in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, the region has a humid subtropical climate. The USDA has labeled Maryland as Hardiness zone 8a. As is typical of states on the East Coast, Maryland’s plant life is abundant and healthy. Maryland receives 3.5–4.5 inches (89–110 mm) per month of rain.
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Baltimore, MD 39°17’N 76°37’W
Baltimore Baltimore is the largest city in Maryland and the 24th largest city in the U.S. It is located in the central area of the state along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is the second largest seaport in the Mid-Atlantic United States.
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issues
poverty The 28 organizations that comprise the Maryland Alliance for the Poor see the impact of widespread poverty every day in their programs and clinics. The realities of poverty in Baltimore are stark: 11.1 percent of the labor force is officially unemployed, and even those who work full-time at the minimum wage have incomes below the poverty line. Nearly half of households with very low incomes are severely housing burdened — that is, they pay more than 50 person of their income on housing costs. More than 4,000 people are homeless every day, and thousands more are in unstable situations “doubled-up” with friends or family.
own requirements for the creation of affordable housing, as Mr. Kilar reported on the same day the newpoverty statistics came out (“Affordable housing requirement waived for Superblock,” Sept. 20).
One in four households receive food stamps, and 83 percent of children enrolled in the Baltimore City Public School system are so impoverished that they qualify for free or reduced-price meals.
I may not be part of “the 47 percent” but I still believe that simple human decency entitles everyone have adequate food and shelter, even those working minimum wage jobs or with disabilities.
What’s more shocking is that when times are this tough, some members of Congress are considering cuts to the social safety net. Reduced funding for the food stamp program would harm the most vulnerable members of our community. Many of our neighbors — the working poor and their children, people with disabilities, and the elderly — need this program to put food on the table. At a time when Baltimore City ostensibly is committed to ending homelessness, it’s waiving its
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Federal proposals to cut programs like food stamps show a utter indifference to the tens of millions of people who are struggling to meet basic needs. For local officials to sidestep rules set up to create affordable housing for the poor calls into question their commitment to the very people who they’re supposed to represent.
The decisions of our elected and appointed leaders will show what they believe. Do they believe poor kids should be able to eat? Do they believe lowincome families should be homeless? In these tough times, we need to make our voices heard in support of programs and policies that meet people’s basic needs and build better futures.
Broadway East
Baltimore
United States
SOCIOECONOMIC Median Household Income: Percent unemployed: Percent of families below poverty level: Single Parent Households:
$22,277 21.0%
$37,395 11.1%
$51,914 7.9%
40.9% 36.9%
15.2% 26.0%
30% 13.7%
Elementary School Middle School: High School:
7.3% 21.5% 45.8%
10.1% 16.3% 39.2%
25 years and older with a bachelors degree or more:
6.2%
25.0%
EDUCATION Percent of absenteeism: (Students missing 20+ days )
HOUSING (The number of vacant lots per 10,000 units) Vacant Building Density: 2411.5 Vacant Lot Density: 1507.1 Median Listing Price: $37,491 (town houses or attached units)
567.2 593.1 $68,026
$150,000
FOOD ENVIRONMENT
(per 10,000 residents) Alcohol Store Density: Corner Store Density: Carry-Out Density:
8.1 56.1 19.6
4.6 21.8 9.0
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issues
VACANCY United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) report published in 2011 stated that Baltimore would need to spend about $180 million to demolish all of its dangerous vacant buildings and clear the lots: “Officials in Baltimore, Detroit, and Chicago, in particular, stated that the resources required to demolish the large number of long-term vacant properties in those cities exceeds local budgets,” the GAO wrote, adding: “Baltimore officials estimated that the city would need approximately $180 million to demolish the inventory of unsafe, unattended properties in the city.” By their count, about 16,000 buildings need to come down. That means each demolition would cost an aver-age of $11,250. In 2006 Jerome Dorich, the city’s demolition master, estimated that taking down the 2,000 or so buildings then on the city’s demolition list would cost about $15 million—or $7,500 per building. This estimate appears to have been low—and so is the $180 million figure. In the GAO report itself, city officials estimate each building would cost between $13,000 and $40,000 to take down. Between 2006 and 2009, the city spent an average of more than $24,000 for each of the 89 “emergency” demolitions undertaken. That price included a $2,500-per-job surcharge, so figure $21,500 for a typical non-emergency take down of a whole house. The GAO report says the 16,000
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are not necessarily demolition candidates, just “unattended and blighted”: Because developing precise counts of the number of vacant properties that are creating problems for communities using national data sources is difficult, various local governments and non-governmental organizations have undertaken their own tabulations of the number of unattended or abandoned vacant properties in their areas. However, differences in data collection methodologies mean that they cannot be directly compared to national data. Baltimore’s code enforcement department tracks vacant properties through its code violation system, and officials stated that city housing inspectors have identified 16,000 long-term vacant properties— many or most of which were vacant prior to the foreclosure crisis that began between 2005 and 2006—that the city considers unattended and blighted. Still, the report says that the number of vacant properties in Baltimore increased by 11.4 per-cent between 2000 and 2010. This despite multiple city programs—SCOPE, Project 5000, and now “Vacants to Value”– designed to convey empty buildings to developers. The cost of not demolishing them, calculated at $1,472 per vacant in fire and police costs annually. The city’s long-term vacants are costing taxpayers about $24 mil-lion a year. At a more realistic $20,000-per-building removal fee, getting rid of those 16,000 would cost $320 million.
EAST BROADWAY One yellow dot represents a density of 10 vacant houses.
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issues
food security Food security is defined, “when all people at all times have access to sufficient, safe, nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life”. Commonly, the concept of food security includes both physical and economic access to food that meets people’s dietary needs as well as their food preferences.
Fewer than 5% of adults eat the recommended daily amount of fruits and vegetables.
Food security is built on three pillars: Food availability: sufficient quantities of food available on a consistent basis. Food access: having sufficient resources to obtain appropriate foods for a nutritious diet. Food use: appropriate use based on knowledge of basic nutrition and care, as well as adequate water and sanitation. Food security is a complex sustainable development issue, linked to health through malnutrition, but also to sustainable economic development, environment, and trade. Issues such as whether households get enough food, how it is distributed within the household and whether that food fulfills the nutrition needs of all members of the household show that food security is clearly linked to health.
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70%
of the world’s water consumption is due to agriculture production.
Indoor farming cuts plant growth from 12 to 6 weeks.
1 Diabetes 2 Cancer Leading medical conditions directly related to poor nutrition:
3 Heart Disease 4 Stroke
“Much more has to be done to democratize the food movement. One of the reasons that healthy food is more expensive than unhealthy food is that the government supports unhealthy food and does very little to support healthy food, whether you mean organic or grass-fed or whatever. The incentives we have make processed food or fast food or junk food very cheap. I mean we subsidize high fructose corn syrup. We subsidize hydrogenated corn oil. We do not subsidize organic food. We subsidize these four crops—five altogether, but one is cotton—and these are the building blocks of fast food. One of the ways you democratize healthy food is you support healthy food.” — Michael Pollan
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site
EAST BROADWAY
SINCLAIR LN
N
GA Y
ST
BALTIMORE CEMETERY
E NORTH AVE
HEADSTART ACADEMY
HUMANIM
E FEDERAL ST FORT WORTHINGTON ELEMENTARY
COLLINGTON SQUARE ELEMENTARY
E OLIVER ST
E PRESTON ST
COLLINGTON SQUARE PARK
HOFFMAN PARK
E BIDDLE ST
E BIDDLE ST
E CHASE ST
BERYL AVE
N KENWOOD AVE
DR RAYNER BROWNE ELEMENTARY
N MILTON AVE
MADISON SQUARE PARK
N WASHINGTON ST
N WOLFE ST
N BROADWAY ST
N PAT TERSON PARK AVE
E CHASE ST
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LUZERNE AVE PARK
EAST BALTIMORE COMMUNITY SCHOOL
BALTIMORE RECYCLING CENTER
N FULTON AVE
N WOLFE ST
RUTLAND AVE
There are many locations within the neighborhood that could accommodate an urban garden infill project. Future locations should consider these three ideal conditions:
ROUTE 1 HIGHWAY
Proposed BRIC SITE W LAFAYETTE AVE
W LANVALE ST
E BIDDLE ST
BALTIMORE TALENT DEVELOPMENT HS
1813 E BIDDLE ST EDMONDSON AVE
HENNEMAN AVE
East Broadway Community School W FRANKLIN ST
1 GreenSpace In 1950 urban planners for the city of Baltimore demolished lane way lean-tos and created inner block parks to promote small-scale community centres. However, lack of city maintenance and funding have turned these under utilized spaces into hot beds for drug use and homelessness. These green spaces provide an average of 8,000sqft of space.
ROUTE 40 HIGHWAY
E CHASE ST
LEGEND
2 SCHOOLS A 2 minute walk from East Baltimore Community School, the project location also has the ability to be accessible to other neighborhood schools: Head Start Academy Fort Worthington Elementary Collington Square Elementary Dr. Rayner Brown Elementary
LEGEND HIGHWAY ROADS PATHWAYS DISTRICT BOUNDARY BUS ROUTES COMMUNITY GREEN SPACE INNER BLOCK PARK SCHOOL COMMUNITY BUILDING PROPOSED BRIC CENTER 1/4 MILE RADIUS = 7 MIN WALK
3 BUILDING STOCK 75% vacancy in the area averages to 25 available homes per block. Also, the typical row houses in the area are some of the biggest in square footage in Baltimore. The backyards, not including the inner block parks, are 40 feet deep. Baltimore’s building stock features simple quickly constructed post-war red brick row homes with white marble steps, totaling 30,000 of this specific typology within the city’s core. 23 BRIC
“To Change the community, you have to change the composition of the soil.� -RON FINLEY South central guerilla gardener
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grow
urban agriculture Food systems are interconnected systems of people, infrastructure, soils, business relationships, and national policies – and so they are not amenable to single solutions. But one role that cities are uniquely suited for is in creating the infrastructure to enable sustainable food distribution. Which is one of the most significant barriers to sustainable urban food systems. Urban agriculture provides a broad range of socioecological benefits, from putting vacant urban sites to productive use as community spaces to absorbing storm water that would otherwise be discharged untreated into nearby waterways. The most common risk of growing food in the city is from soil that is contaminated with lead and other heavy metals, building raised beds is a simple solution. Another environmental concern that will become more significant as urban agriculture expands is the use of potable water for irrigation. Cities generally use a lot of energy to treat and pump water from distant sources. Relying on municipal sources to water plants is more wasteful than harvesting rainwater, but rainwater harvesting requires infrastructure that many community
25 sqft
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gardens lack. These two issues suggest the need for additional municipal policies: (1) municipal composting of organic matter to create clean soil for gardens; and (2) support for rainwater harvesting infrastructure in urban farms and gardens. A central urban design question is whether and to what extent agriculture is an appropriate use of city space, and if so, how food production can be incorporated into the built environment. Public support for these initiatives will become ubiquitous when the possibility to eliminate disparities in food access is through urban farming is apparent. Urban agriculture contributes to food security and food safety in two ways: 1) it increases the amount of food available to people living in cities 2) it allows fresh vegetables, fruits, and meat products to be made available to urban consumers.
8,000 sqft = available land 4,000 sqft = dedicated to growing 235 = people fed
Start Your Own Vegetable Garden When you’re ready to try growing your own food, there are several ways to start. You can purchase young plants from a nursery or a local garden, or you can begin from scratch with seeds. There;s something to be said for the satisfaction of participating in the complete growing cycle- it’s both inspiring and educational to watch a sprout emerge from the soil and become something delicious to eat. Starting your seeds is easy to do on a kitchen windowsill or in a greenhouse. The incubation area should be between 65 and 70 degrees- to keep it consistent, an electric bulb can be used. Begin with a plastic or biodegradable container with drainage holes at the bottom- clean yogurt cups or egg crates work well. Fill the container with a soil-free potting mix or a combination of compost, peat moss, and perlite. Perlite is a naturally occurring siliceous rock that encourages quicker germination, improved seedling growth and less check when pricking-out or potting on. Wet the “soil” and compress it gently before inserting seeds. Seeds should be placed shallowly, at a depth of two or three times the height of the seed. Keep them covered with plastic to maintain the heat and moisture of the soil, and avoid exposing them to bright, direct sunlight. However, once the seeds sprout, sun exposer is important. If there is no threat of frost, the smalls plants can be taken outside to acclimate and eventually be transplanted into the ground. A few common starter plants for the beginner gardener include herbs like basil and oregano, leafy greens like spinach and kale, and the overwhelming favorite, the heirloom tomato.
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grow
Proposed Block Plan
Raised Container Gardens
Pre-Fab Greenhouses
Permeable Surface
Ultimately, BRIC will be both an urban farm that grows for our community, and a community of farms that grow for our city. Supporting farms in our region to keep both land and people employed in agriculture and to preserve open spaces. This is an investment in our future, and our opportunity to have a voice in our food production. We aim to address the critical problem of the consumer’s separation from the production of their food. We vote with our dollars. We believe our food is a community effort, and a shared responsibility.
money where your mouth is. Accountability. We have real face to face relationships with our farmers that creates transparency, builds community, and helps insure a safe and resilient food system.
Support local farms, and have a say in their farming practices in order to preserve our soil, air quality, open spaces, genetic diversity, wildlife, and watershed.
BRIC is an open invitation think tank that aims to eat well, and directly invest in our local living economy of food. So come on, put your
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Investment. Supporting local farms helps insure a present and future healthy and affordable food supply, and more of your dollars spent will go to the farmers who we need to keep growing for us. Lower fossil fuel input. Less food miles and less packaging conserves a lot of energy. Investing in our local food infrastructure also provides insurance against rising fuel costs. “This land is your land. . . ” Use it wisely.
N WOLFE ST
RUTLAND AVE
1813 E BIDDLE ST
W
E BIDDLE ST
Threshold connecting street to inner park Limit laneways through block center Raised container gardens accomodate neighborhood residents Permeable surface
HENNEMAN AVE
Walking path around the perimeter distinguishesbetween public and private Prefab green houses for high-density production
E CHASE ST
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PROPOSAL
BRIC BUILDING ROOTS IN COMMUNITIES
B A L T I M O R E 32 BRIC
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PROPOSAL
THE GOAL To inhabit the vacant building and adjacent lot at 1813 E Biddle St with a community food bank. A place for the neighborhood to come that teaches about nutrition, healthful cooking, and makes cheap produce available. The vacant lot adjacent to the building will turn into a green house for growing temperamental plants and to house the supplies and materials needed to tend the community garden plot in the inner block park. This precedent addresses the poorest and most challenging neighborhood that Baltimore faces. By addressing every hurdle in this specific case, when the system is replicated in other neighborhoods throughout the city it will more than accommodate their conditions.
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STREET VIEW
BUILDING
ROW HOUSE
PROGRAM
LEARNING COOKING MEETING MANAGING GATHERING STORAGE
INSTALLATIONS SEEDING RECYCLING GROWING GATHERING
RAIN WATER COMPOSTING RECYCLING GATHERING GROWING
ROOFTOP TERRACE
STAIR INSTALLATION GLASS SCREEN BUILDING CONNECTION
THRESHOLD PERMEABLE SURFACE
VALUE ADDED
GREENHOUSE
GARDEN
ROWHOUSE ROOFTOP CLASSROOM
OFFICE
ROOF
2
GATHERING SPACE
1
STORAGE
B
GREENHOUSE 3
2
1
GROWING
SEEDLINGS
INSTALLATIONS
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Design
North Elevation
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South Elevation
[ Irrigation ]
[ Seeding ]
[ Feature Installations ]
Branding in Corridor
Permeable Surface Rainwater Collection
West Section
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Design
Kitchen
OFFICE
Water pump
washroom
Meeting area
washroom INstallation area Classroom INstallation area Garden CorridoR
Classroom
LOUNGE
Ground Floor
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Second Floor
2,700 SQFT Rowhouse
Integrated Classrooms and Office
2,300 SQFT
Roof Classroom
INstallation area
+
GREENHOUSE Learning Center
5,000 SQFT TOTAL Building Footprint
Third floor
8,000 SQFT Laneway Grow Area
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Design
screen construction
5’-0” COLOURED FILM PATTERN
9’-0”
4” Thick “spindels” pop and hide the frame that holds all the panels together.
CONNECTION DETAIL BRIC has the potential to provide an opportunity for investors to customize the facade of their community buildings with local artisans. This facade featuring the concept of fractured roots exemplifies a collaboration between a local metal fabricator and the up-cycling of two readily available materials in Baltimore, aluminum and glass.
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Design
DEMOUNTABLE GARDEN SYSTEM
1
12”
6
2
8
3
1
Thermal barrier
2
Irrigation system
3
Soil container hooks onto grid
4
Structural grid
5
Height adjustable legs Lattice hooks onto side of grid
6 7 8
4
7
7’-0”
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5
5’-0”
Water tank storage structure Rain water collection tank
RUBBER LINED BURLAP SEED SOIL IRRIGATION PEBBLES
Based on the square foot gardening system, this garden system is a cheap and simple solution for low-income families in urban areas. Many cities are seeing the rise of homemade agricultural systems. However, there is a significant amount of individual initiative required for that to work. A single person must become educated in agriculture, obtain the materials, and execute the system without guidance. This amount of effort pushes homemade gardens out of reach of your average family. A pre-constructed system with a built-in community network makes growing your own produce attainable. The urban garden for people that don’t like to garden.
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PLAN
meet the stakeholders
Henry Posko Humanim CEO
ROB DYSON
CEO
Architect
One Green Home at a Time
Quadrangle Architects
MIKE WEIKERT
EARL JOHNSON
JENNIFER HESS
Director of Social Design
Co-Founder
Director of Administration
MICA
Come Home Baltimore
Humanim
ERIC BOOKER
DYONNE FASHINA
ABBY COCKE
Code Enforcement
Interior Designer
Environmental Planner
Baltimore City
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DAVID BORINSKY
Quadrangle Architects
Baltimore City, Sustainability
“The funny thing about sustainability is that you have to sustain it.�
- ron finley
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plan
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY BRIC Broadway East, an idea farm, is a nursery, an incubator for initiatives, programs, ideas, and trials that are still growing. Projects are given a few years to flower, to reach a level of sustainability and productivity. They then are planted out on their own and contribute to our mission. The idea farm projects allow us to try out things like the Mobile Markets where we are bringing top quality local produce into under-served areas.
Visitors to the farm are greeted by expansive raised beds of organic soil filled with an ever changing range of vegetables, a well stocked farmstand, our own version of a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) and a nursery that grows and nurtures a variety of plants. A small but dedicated staff runs our multifaceted operation, proving that abandoned land is only abandoned if we choose to leave it that way.
We are dedicated to promoting social entrepreneurship through the reuse of land once deemed useless. In the process we are reconnecting city dwellers with rural food producers and promoting the greening of Baltimore’s homes and gardens. Together we are building a better, more progressive and sustainable Baltimore.
Eventually BRIC hopes to have created jobs, improved local food access, re-energized once abandoned land and set a standard for excellence in urban farming and building relationships that directly impact both the rural producer and the urban consumer
As the premier urban agriculture project in Baltimore, BRIC takes over what was at one time trash-strewn vacant lots into vibrant, active centers of the community where entrepreneurship and sustainability thrive. BRIC is a powerful model for our nation’s cities, proving that contaminated urban sites can be fully rehabilitated for community benefit.
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After proven success in one neighborhood BRIC hopes to develop exciting, affordable and workable plans for growing food and flowers on land that was once deemed unusable throughout the region. This humble yet scalable project remains dedicated to developing profitable urban green businesses that grow the best products, people and neighborhoods.
Our mission: BRIC is leading the growth of a green industry that improves the environmental health of our communities in Baltimore and across the Chesapeake Bay Watershed by restoring and renewing the habitats and communities – unlocking long-term economic opportunities for the region and its inhabitants.
Our vision: BRIC imagines a society where the conservation of vacant land is an integral part of everyday life for the health and wellbeing of all living things and the environment and where supporting technologies, both traditional and innovative, combine to create green jobs, a vibrant ecosystem, and robust communities.
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plan
Collective Gardening what’s the great thing about collective gardening? when one’s excess becomes another’s filled bed. Collective gardens and community gardens: two different concepts that should not be confused Collective gardening is distinguished from community gardening by the fact that it is practised by groups of people who grow a vegetable garden together instead of each person tending their own individual plot. Collective gardens involve the pooling of many small garden plots, with all participants assuming joint responsibility. Planting, tending and harvesting tasks are shared among the members of the group. In collective gardens, the rich harvest includes not only vegetables, but also social assets such as selfreliance, mutual-support and respect.
Why? The first collective gardens were established by community agencies working in the field of food security. The idea was to go beyond donating food by giving people in their local community the capacity to feed themselves. Since 1997, some 20 collective garden networks have developed in Greater Montreal, and several of these were initiated by Centraide-supported agencies.
What? A collective garden is a gathering place for the residents of its local neighborhood. Participants meet there to garden, to obtain information about 48 BRIC
food production and consumption, and to share— not only their gardening skills and experiences, but also their life experiences. In collective gardens, people not only grow fruits and vegetables, they also lay down the roots of a solid mutual-support network.
How? In collective gardens, participants get together on a regular basis to do the work that needs to be done. A garden supervisor provides them with technical support and oversight. Collective gardens also offer workshops on biological gardening, pot gardening, seed conservation, nutrition, fruit and vegetable processing, food conservation and so on. Most of the gardens offer activities for children as well. The collective gardens work in collaboration with the community agencies in their respective neighborhood: the food banks, collective kitchens, family agencies, neighborhood community centres, etc. They are also the doorway to a vast mutualsupport network: once participants register, they are directed according to their needs to other services, such as homework assistance, support for immigrant families, etc.
Who? The collective gardens are accessible to everyone because they aim to promote social mix. The network of collective gardens managed by BRIC Baltimore has the potential to reach of 100,000 residents living in Baltimore.
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PLAN
Sources of income
RETAIL
Wholesale
Government Funding
Value-added processing can provide a key source of revenue and help decrease food waste. This would help decrease food waste before it is consumed (e.g., over-ripe fruit and bruised vegetables that can’t be sold from local grocers) and provide a diversity of local food products.
The possibility of providing local food businesses with organic native produce while requiring a 50-lb minimum (combined weight) for wholesale orders. These large quantity buyers could include:
An agricultural subsidy is a governmental subsidy paid to farmers and agri-businesses to supplement their income, manage the supply of agricultural commodities, and influence the cost and supply of such commodities. Competitive grant opportunities are growing as a response to the growing demand for local food initiatives:
COMMUNITY-SUPPORTED AGRICULTURE
Local Farm to Table Restaurants
LOCAL Farmer’s Market
Grocery Store Initiatives
Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program
REGIONAL FARMER’S MARKET
City-Wide Produce Buyers
Residential / Commercial
BRANDED PRODUCT SALES
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REGIONAL INDUSTRY
MunicipaL / National
EPA: ECO-Education Grants USDA: Community Food Projects Competitive Grants Program
Community-supported agriculture, or CSA, has proven to be an effective model to generate regular, year-round income and a useful method for connecting urban farms with suburban and rural operations. Thriving CSAs have members of all backgrounds coming from around the city to pick up their weekly box of local food. In order to offer a diverse variety of vegetables, fruits, and value added products, more successful CSA’s partner with farms outside of the city, enabling them to include dairy, baked items, and even locally raised meat. Becoming a CSA member means a weekly supply of freshly picked produce straight from our farm!
SPRING/EARLY SUMMER
SAMPLE SHARE: A bunch of radishes, a bunch of turnips, a bunch of baby Bok Choy, a bag of salad mix, a bunch of kale, a bag of spinach and a bunch of mixed herbs.
MID-Summer
SAMPLE SHARE: A bunch of kale, a bunch of chard, a bunch of mixed herbs (thyme, mint, sage),sweet peppers, eggplant, a head lettuce, a bag of purslane, a head or two of heirloom garlic and a couple cucumbers.
Late Season
SAMPLE SHARE: A bag of salad mix, a bunch of turnips, a bunch of radishes, a few eggplants, a bunch of kale, scallions,carrots, a bunch of lavender, a bunch of thyme, a bunch of baby celery, cherries, habaneros.
DURATION: 24 weeks Saturday, May 18 - Saturday, October 26 PRICE: $24.00 per week for 24 weeks = $576.00 51 BRIC
PLAN
BRAND STRATEGY
PANTONE 368 G
PANTONE 368 G
C76 M2 K100 Y0
C36 M28 K0 Y27
R69 G177 B72
R167 G169 B172
35B148
A7A9AC
BR IC
BRIC BUILDING ROOTS IN COMMUNITIES
b a l t i m o r e
B A L T I M O R E
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Novecento Wide - Bold 52 BRIC
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Exposure OPPORTUNITIES BRIC BUILDING ROOTS IN COMMUNITIES
B A L T I M O R E
Street Front
GARDEN CORRIDOR
TOMATO SEEDs
6”
Volunteer T-Shirts
3’
GROWING INSTRUCTIONS: *Keep in mind the more sun your tomato plant is exposed to the more Vitamin C your harvest will have.
BRIC ROOF TOP
Growtime: 80 Days
Takeaways
CARROT SEEDs
53 BRIC 1/2”
6”
PLAN
MARKET GOALS SHORT TERM
TARGET MARKETS
Phase 1: Establish a grow centre and head office in a
vacant lot adjacent to an available row house within the neighborhood of Broadway east with the backing of the community association.
Phase 2: Build community support for BRIC through
the revitalization of the surrounding block through grow plots, pre-fab greenhouses, and outdoor gathering spaces.
1
K-12 EDUCATION
2
SKILLED LABOR TRAINING
3
ELDERLY EMPOWERMENT
70%
20%
10%
Broadway East, utilizing other vacant plots adjacent to the inner block parks. These locations will feature raised beds and prefab green houses. The ultimate goal is to create a thriving agriculture throughout the community, resulting in a local farmers market at Collington Square Park.
HOUSING
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th
AT OR BELOW GRADE 5 LEVEL
330 344
PHASE 4: Create a community innovation toolkit,
highlighting the successful programming of BRIC, and partnership establish a partnership with a new chapter in the region to test out just how well their projects can be reborn in a different city, culture, and community.
5
AVERAGE LITERACY
VACANCY RATE
75%
MEDIAN HOUSEHOLD INCOME
$22,227 ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENTS REQUIRE FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE FOR LUNCH
RACE DISTRIBUTION 96.9% BLACK
25
Phase 3: Implement smaller farm sites around
SQFT OF GARDEN FEEDS FOUR PEOPLE
LONG TERM
PROGRAMMING
Growing livable communities using living materials.
YOUTH EDUCATION
WORKSHOPS
Opportunity / EMPOWERMENT
Field Trips to the Farm
Growing Workshops are open to the public. Each is a 2 hour long workshop right on our farm about various aspects of gardening or cooking. Whether you are beginner to advanced, we welcome all levels to the workshops for a fun, unforgettable learning experience. Sample workshops:
Green infrastructure can be an ecological resource that returns money to the city and provides jobs for residents. Urban ecosystem management could create tens of thousands of jobs and save millions of dollars for urban communities around the country.
Schools in the Baltimore/DC metro area can visit the farm for a field trip, where students have the chance to learn where their food comes from while engaging in hands-on activities.
LEAF After-School Program Youth between the ages of 6 and 12 are welcome to participate in our after-school program, where they will get the chance to perform garden maintenance and use our outdoor kitchen to prepare healthy snacks.
Eating on a Budget
Summer Youth Program
The importance of eating “real,” nutrientdense foods such as whole fruits, vegetables, and herbs. Through interactive demonstrations, we will discover why it’s better to eat real foods over processed food
BRIC offers a six week long paid program for high school age students.
Are you interested in improving your health, but concerned about the cost of nutritious foods?
Whole Food
Green collar training not only provides much-needed expertise in urban landscape management, but also supplies a reliable, qualified labor force of employees to our city’s parks, landscapes, and gardens. By teaching green skills through hands-on landscape and LID installation projects, it is easier (and more fun) to learn landscaping skills and best practices. As an added benefit, the projects done during the program provide needed services and lasting beauty to the local sites we use for training.
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voices
Precedents
Farnsworth
OUR SCHOOL AT Blair GROCERY
Detroit, Michigan
New Orleans, LA
On Farnsworth Street, most of the run-down houses have been bought up either by young transplants inspired by the possibilities of urban decay. In the backyards of the houses the fences have been stripped away to create an oversized lane way with vegetable beds, chicken coops, and pig pens. The residents claim to be foremost composters and then farmers, with their main goal of remediating contaminated soil. Originally, asking for food scraps from local businesses was pioneering. Now, the businesses drop off barrels at the end of the week, while also picking up a box of produce, reinforcing a cyclical system of social change within pockets of Detroit.
Our school at Blair Grocery is a three-year old urban farm and education center. In exchange for a long-term lease for the building and corner-lot that Blair Grocery sat on, the owner promised to renovate both. The building houses the grocery and a classroom on the first floor and a residence on the second floor. The 2/3acre lot houses garden plots, chickens, ducks, bees, worms, and aquaponic tanks with carp. Starting with six full-time students in their first year, OSBG now has an ideal learning program supporting 30 kids that have had problems navigating the public school system or have been released from juvenile detention centers. The kids learn biology, horticulture, algebra, and construction. By running the farmer’s market they learn economics and Spanish.
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CITY FARM CHicago, IL
City Farm is the urban agriculture program of the Resource Center, a 40-year-old organization that focuses on improving the quality of life in Chicago through recycling, urban agriculture and other creative reuse of neglected or overlooked resources in our urban environment. It is our belief that by offering services that promote sustainable living we can directly and positively affect the quality of life and help the progress toward equality in our city. City Farm turns fallow, vacant land into amazingly productive farmland. Using our chemical-free, small plot intensive production farming technique, we produce 25,000 lbs of high-quality produce per acre. City Farm is a full circle approach to farming, from food scrap collection and composting, to growing, harvesting, selling and then back to food scrap collection.
Brooklyn Grange Queens, New York
Brooklyn Grange is the leading rooftop farming and intensive green roofing business in the US. On top of a largely vacant, seven-story building, rows of vegetables, and beehives span a full acre of rooftop, in Long Island City. They operate the world’s largest rooftop soil farms, located on two roofs in New York City, and grow over 40,000 lbs of organically-cultivated produce per year. In addition to growing and distributing fresh local vegetables and herbs, Brooklyn Grange also provides urban farming and green roof consulting and installation services to clients worldwide. From excel files that all them to model the farm at six times the size,or increasing certain growing areas, or delegating more space for high profit generating crops. They found that keeping the farm constantly open to the public detracted from productivity and profitability.
Edible Schoolyard
Hollygrove market and farm
Berkeley, CA
New Orleans, LA
The mission of the Edible Schoolyard Berkeley is to teach essential life skills and support academic learning through hands-on classes in a one-acre organic garden and kitchen classroom. The Edible Schoolyard curriculum is fully integrated into the school day and teaches students how their choices about food affect their health, the environment, and their communities. Students participate in all aspects of growing, harvesting, and preparing nutritious, seasonal produce during the academic day and in after-school classes. Students’ hands-on experience in the kitchen and garden fosters a deeper appreciation of how the natural world sustains us and promotes the environmental and social well-being of our school community.
Hollygrove Market and Farm is a urban farm, local produce market, and community garden space located in the heart of New Orleans. It exists to increase accessibility of fresh produce to Hollygrove, surrounding under-served neighborhoods, and all of New Orleans while promoting sustainability through support of local farmers and the local economy as well as acting as a demonstration site for environmentally sustainable practices. In addition to supporting the development of community gardens and providing training programs, the farm serves as a demonstration site for visitors interested in adopting environmentally sustainable practices. Features such as composting, cistern irrigation, recycling, chicken coops, and sustainable gardening all serve this purpose and are vital components of the farm. 57 BRIC
Voices
local initiatives
COMMON GOOD CITY FARM
Greensgrow farm
DC Greenworks
In the LeDroit Park neighborhood of Northwest DC, Common Good City Farm sits on the former site of an elementary school that was slated for demolition in 2008. The community fought for the space to be used as a park with the farm as the anchor. Based on permaculture principles, the eighteen-thousand-squarefoot farm relied on a farm that was resource efficient. Run as one unified growing operation, with volunteers and students sharing the yield. They created a work-trade CSA, where lowincome community members could come lend a hand and leave with food in exchange for their labour. Collective cultivation is central to Common Good’s vision, particularly for kids within the community, where collaboration is a key life skill.
Greensgrow operates a for-profit business, making a living off of the land is important to the owners, who started solely with growing lettuce, which continues to be one of their primary growing outputs. All of Greensgrow produce is planted in raised, hydroponic beds, which require no soil and have a permanently recirculating water system that keeps resource use to a minimum. The roofs atop permanent structures on the farm are planted with sedum and wildflowers to prevent water runoff and to attract beneficial insects to support their apiary. Greengrow prides itself on growing into its size, never overcapitalizing, they own their land, owe no debt.
Several major cities, including Washington, D.C., are exploring how an urban green infrastructure can be an ecological resource that returns money to the city and provides jobs for residents. More studies are showing that cities with healthy environments also have healthy economies. Effective urban ecosystem management could create tens of thousands of jobs and save millions of dollars for urban communities around the country.
Washington, DC
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Philadelphia, PA
washington, DC
Green collar training not only provides much-needed expertise in urban landscape management, but also supplies a reliable, qualified labor force of employees to our city’s parks, landscapes, and gardens.
Real Food Farm
BUGS
Farm alliance of Baltimore
Baltimore, MD
Baltimore, MD
Real Food Farm is Civic Works’ innovative urban agricultural enterprise engaged in growing fresh produce on six acres of land in Clifton Park in northeast Baltimore. Since breaking ground in October 2009, they have been busy growing food, educating youth, partnering with community organizations, and bringing more real food to Northeast Baltimore. Their project goals include: improving neighborhood access to healthy food, developing Baltimore’s vibrant agriculture sector, to provide handson education opportunities to Baltimore’s students, and to protect the environment and improve the watershed
The Baltimore Urban Gardening with Students (BUGS) Program of Living Classrooms Foundation works with children from under-served Baltimore City communities throughout the year with an after-school program as well as a summer program. The program’s primary goal is to empower and inspire our children to develop academically, creatively, and socially. The BUGS program serves 60 students from the Butchers Hill/Patterson Park/Fells Point community. Many of our students reside in public housing and low-income neighborhoods. These students have little access to green space and few extra-curricular activities available to them. The program engages youth in learning while providing them with a safe and healthy alternative to the streets.
Farm Alliance of Baltimore City is a community network that works to increase the vitality of urban agriculture here in Baltimore and improve access to locally grown produce. The Farm Alliance coordinates efforts to unite urban farmers in practices and principles that are socially, economically, and environmentally just.
Baltimore, MD
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timeline
Project Milestones Project milestones
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october 2012
december 2012
december 2012
Building typology research book brings inner city blight to attention.
Presented Harlem Park thesis proposal to panel.
Sent email to Henry Posko to meet when I’m in town about external advising.
september 2012
november 2012
Chose IRN section
Designed Gronsaker, home demountable garden system.
february 2013
april 2013
Attended TEDActive in Palm Springs and conducted a think tank on urban agriculture.
Presented BRIC at YES.
january 2013
march 2013
may 2013
Met with Henry Posko and Eric Booker regarding feasibility of project.
Constructed protoype of Gronsaker, created projected ROI. Finalized proposal.
Presented BRIC to Broadway East Community Association.
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TIMELINE
The Rise of A new Baltimore Phase 1: Establish a grow centre and head office in a
vacant lot adjacent to an available row house within the neighborhood of Broadway east with the backing of the community association.
Phase 2: Build community support for BRIC through
the revitalization of the surrounding block through grow plots, pre-fab greenhouses, and outdoor gathering spaces.
Phase 3: Implement smaller farm sites around
Broadway East, utilizing other vacant plots adjacent to the inner block parks. These locations will feature raised beds and prefab green houses. The ultimate goal is to create a thriving agriculture throughout the community, resulting in a local farmers market at Collington Square Park.
PHASE 4: Create a community innovation toolkit,
highlighting the successful programming of BRIC, and establish a partnership with a new chapter in the region to test out just how well these projects can be reborn in a different city, culture, and community.
64 BRIC
65 BRIC
“ the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The next best time is today.� -Chinese proverb