Madison Schmidt

JACKSON ARTS CENTER

PRESERVING AND ENHANCING COMMUNITY

Madison Schmidt

CONCEPTUAL

DRIVERS

COLLECTIVE MEMORY PLACEMAKING

The collective memory of a population refers to how a group of people remember the past through the lens of their culture and identity. Collective memory and specifically memory of a place cements specific places and emotions attached to that place into our brain. These positive or negative attachments immortalizes a place into our mind along with our emotions. These emotions can vary greatly based on your own experience or thoughts The collective memory also means that there a collective forgetting within a community. Experiences or places that were not as widely impactful become left behind as time moves on. Without a community to rally behind the memory it becomes forgotten and left behind.

The key to designing public spaces lies in the voices of the community who are growing or outgrowing their current urban environment. Placemaking keeps the communities’ opinions at the core of its design process while aiming to create useful and engaging spaces for people. It is a reaction to the problems faced by people, and it is the direct opposite of current American cities that were built to accommodate cars and infrastructure that divided thriving communities. The intention of placemaking is to promote people’s wellbeing and happiness while also utilizing the wants, needs, and skills of the current population.

exploration of publicness

WASHINGTON PARK MANICURED

My search for publicness took me to Washington Park and Music Hall downtown. I started out by walking a block away from the park and walked a loop a block out from the park just to fully understand the surrounding area around the park. It was honestly more jarring than I expected just because Washington Park and Music Hall are so well kept and even just half a block away from the park felt like a completely different neighborhood. Even though nothing or nobody made me feel unsafe the neglect that I felt the neighborhood was experiencing in comparison to the park and its immediate surroundings made me more aware. The closer you get to the park the more well-kept the streets are, there are murals painted, and just overall It felt a lot cleaner.

exploration of publicness

FINDLAY MARKET

When thinking of interior urbanism, I think of a bustling interior market space with vendor stalls and the spaces between them acting as buildings and streets. So, for this exercise of exploration of urban interiority I chose to go to Findlay Market. Findlay Market is the only market standing in Cincinnati and was named not after the streets that it spanned between, but after the man who started the market in 1852. It was one of nine markets, but when the inclines were built and population density decreased, the other markets began closing. The market now has seemed to expand and encompass the adjacent streets as they’re closed off to vehicles and now house seating and walkways for those enjoying the market. The market’s success and popularity also help support the businesses surrounding it as all of them are widely different small businesses that get lots of foot traffic from the market.

exploration of publicness

URBAN ARTIFACT

Urban Artifact is a local Cincinnati brewing company specializing in Belgian fruit ales that occupies the basement of an old Catholic Church in Northside. It’s not the flashiest brewery from the outside or inside, but it feels authentically Cincinnati. With the dominant German population in Cincinnati, our urban landscape is covered in breweries and Catholic churches. What makes Urban Artifact feel so authentic to me is that it felt like you’re going into a parish fish fry. The brewery is in the basement of the church and feels like you’re going into a speakeasy that you wouldn’t know was in there. The vintage lights, old wood bar, and wood doors that look original to the Church enhance that feeling. The owners take great pride in their Cincinnati roots and strive to portray that through how they make their beers and engage with their community.

capstone site

JACKSON BREWERY

The Jackson Brewery was first built in 1845 by George Schmelzer who sold the building in 1854 to the Kleiner brothers. These brothers put the brewery on the map locally and built the Jackson Brewery building at the top of Elm Street today. Five years into the Kleiner brothers’ ownership the original building lower on the hillside suffered from a fire, and they immediately rebuilt further up the hill near Mohawk Street which was completed in 1865. The Jackson Brewery is located down the street from Findlay Market and looms over the street as its position on the hill set back from Elm Street makes it private and hard to get to from Elm. The smoke damage from the 2019 arson fire is noticeable even from Elm Street making it a very haunting-looking building.

capstone site

JACKSON BREWERY

design development

Embedded into the hillside in the historic Mohawk district of Over the Rhine, the Jackson Brewery building has been a looming reminder of the neglected history and architecture of OTR. What was once a bustling brewery, ranked 5th largest of the 36 breweries in OTR in the 1870s, it has become a physical reminder of Cincinnati’s declining urban core. The brewery building has not been used as a public space since 1943 and has remained abandoned since the 1960s. Its Romanesque revival façade has stood proudly on the hillside surviving years of abandonment including a devastating fire in 2019 that destroyed the roof and top level of the building. While the Jackson Brewery has remained stagnant over the years, OTR has been undergoing new development. This has brought new life into the neighborhood, but it has pushed away many community members and left them without homes and resources. As a result, approaching this site through the context of adaptive reuse and placemaking was integral to keeping the community members of OTR at the forefront of this project. Based on community engagement reports, maintaining arts and culture was incredibly important to OTR residents as well as their lack of “third places” for families and specifically children. The Jackson Arts Center will serve as a Third Place where all ages are welcome to come learn and be creative.

CONTEXT

HISTORY

NEIGHBORHOOD WANTS

PROGRAMMING

FLOORPLANS

aerial view

section perspectives

section perspectives

first floor renders

coworking space

second floor renders

second floor renders

third floor render

artist studios

rooftop renders