Kiera Townsend

FREEDOM TO GROW:

THE PAST AND FUTURE OF RIKERS ISLAND

Kiera Townsend Drexel University B. Arch, Senior Project 2022 Advisor: Rachel Schade

“As the United States moves away from the criminalization of cannabis, giving rise to a major new industry, there remains the fundamental injustice inflicted upon those who have suffered criminal convictions and the consequences of those convictions.”

The War on Drugs is not over.

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BRONX

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HOUSEHOULDS WITH AT LEAST ONE MEMBER INCARCERATED 1,000 out of every 100,000 residents in South Bronx

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EAST RIVER

RIKERS ISLAND CORRECTIONAL CENTER

JAIL BUILDINGS

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JAIL BARGE

QUEENS 4

N INTERSTATE HIGHWAY 278

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RIKERS ISLAND 2020

HOW CAN A FORMER SITE OF MASS INCARCERATION...

CRIMINALIZATION OF CANNABIS

LEGALIZED CANNABIS

incarcerated millions of POC

opportunity for justice and POC leadership

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HOW CAN RETURNING CITIZENS BECOME PART OF THE INDUSTRY THAT LEFT THEM BEHIND?

BRONX

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HOUSEHOULDS WITH AT LEAST ONE RETURNING CITIZEN to become cannabis entrepreneurs

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EAST RIVER

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CANNABIS GROWHOUSES

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CANNABIS DISTRIBUTION WAREHOUSE

QUEENS 4

N GREENWAY BIKE PATH

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RIKERS ISLAND 2030

BECOME A SITE OF COMMUNITY EDUCATION AND GROWTH?

500 years ago

1600s

1860s

1920

1925

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HISTORIC ISLAND FOOTPRINT

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4 5 2 1

UTILITY BUILDING (1978)

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HISTORIC PENITENTIARY (1933)

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POWERHOUSE (1933)

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ADOLESCENT REHAB (1959)

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HISTORIC INFIRMARY (1933)

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MENTAL HEALTH & DETOX JAIL (1978)

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MAXIMUM SECURITY JAIL (1959)

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FACILITY FOR SHORT SENTENCES (1959)

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EXISTING SITE PROGRAM: RIKERS ISLAND JAIL COMPLEX

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930

1932

1960s

1970s

Rikers Island has a multilayered history, beginning 500 years ago as Lenape land filled with chestnut trees, coyotes and birds.

In the 1600s, the island was colonized and eventually expanded from 100 acres to 400 acres with trash. Finally, in 1932 the landfill was capped and the island became used for the city’s primary jail complex. Rikers has become a notorious place of brutality.

JAIL/INDUSTRY

LANDFILL

NATIVE LAND

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BIKERS ISLAND

BY PERKINS + WILL

INTERBOROUGH ISLAND

BY MAGNUSSON ISLAND

CITY BLOCKS

BY CURTIS + GINSBERG ARCHITECTS

URBAN DESIGN FORUM

EXTENDING LAGUARDIA

BY RETHINK NYC

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TIDAL WETLAND

6 7

4 5 2 1

PROPOSED EDUCATIONAL BUILDING

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ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICES & CAFETERIA

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ENERGY STORAGE

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GROWHOUSES

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HISTORIC PRESERVATION OFFICES

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JAIL CELL MEMORIAL

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JAIL CELL MEMORIAL

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PROCESSING FACILITIES

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PROPOSED SITE PROGRAM: CANNABIS PRODUCTION + HISTORIC SITE PRESERVA

REIMAGINING RIKERS

BY VOLUNTEER ARCHITECTS OF NYC

ATION

NEW RIKERS

BY MARK-HENRY DECRAUSAZ

ECO ISLAND

BY FX FOWLE

CANNABIS ENTREPRENEURSHIP HISTORIC PRESERVATION & TOURISM

COMMUNITY GROWTH & EDUCATION

Since the City of New York announced the closing of Rikers Island, designers and activists have been working to propose a future use for the site.

This project proposes to use the preserved and repurposed jail infrastructure to create a cannabis growing operation (led by formerly incarcerated individuals) and a historic tour (to educate the public) on the original island footprint.

RECREATION

RENEWABLE ENERGY (GAS VENT PIPES)

N

RETURN TO NATURE

PRECEDENT: Landschaftspark by Latz + Partner

INDUSTRIAL ARTIFACTS AS A FRAMEWORK FOR NATURAL GROWTH

REPOSITIONING OF EXISTING INFRASTRUCTURE

JAIL CELL MEMORIAL

PROPOSED SITE PROGRAM: CANNABIS PRODUCTION + HISTORIC SITE PRESERVA

ATION

VIEW OF JAIL CELL MEMORIAL

ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICES

PRESERVED JAIL BLOCK

TIMELINE OF RIKERS ISLAND

In focusing on the proposed educational building on the north edge of the island - the building that will serve as both visitors’ center and cannabis entrepreneurship center - I wanted to design a building to represent the transformation of the site, emerging from the dark underground of the past into a more optimistic future.

BUILDING ELEVATION NORTH

A TRANSFORMATIONAL BUILDING: EMERGING FROM THE PAST, GROWING TOWAR

RD THE FUTURE

Early conceptual ideas focused on the building as a transitional point between land and water.

PRECEDENT: Yad Vashem by Moshe Safdie

USING SUNLIGHT TO GUIDE CIRCULATION

THE BUILDING AS A CUT THROUGH EARTH

PLAN SKETCH SHOWING THE IDEA OF AN EXHIBIT WING BURIED IN THE LAND, AND A CLASSROOM WING RISING ABOVE THE WATER

PROCESS: INITIAL CONCEP TUAL DEVELOPMENT

PAST ASSOCIATED WITH EARTH, HEAVY

FUTURE ASSOCIATED WITH WATER, LIGHT

PRECEDENT: BAIT UR ROUF MOSQUE

INTERIOR CONCEPT SKETCH: LINEAR EXHIBIT LIGHTING

PRECEDENT: BEIJING OLYMPIC STADIUM

COLLAGE OF HISTORIC RIKERS LANDFILL PHOTO WITH JAIL BARS: RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HEAVY AND LIGHT

PROCESS: MASSING + BUILDING SKIN DEVELOPMENT

CONTINUOUS SKYLIGHT OPENING TWO-WAY STRUCTURAL SYSTEM

ONE-WAY STRUCTURAL SYSTEM

EXTERIOR CONCEPT SKETCH: STRUCTURAL EXOSKELETON

As I continued to develop the building form, I began to focus on the building skin as a continuous framework to hold the histories and futures of the island.

MASSING + SKIN STUDY SKETCHES

STEEL TUBE EXOSKELETON

EXHIBIT WALL SECTION: THERMAL MASS

ZINC RAINSCREEN CLADDING SKYLIGHT

Visitors walk down the corrid which shows the site’s histor As they continue down the co through the site’s history as t the layers of earth.

EXTERIOR WALKWAY

GLASS-ENCLOSED SOIL DISPLAY

The exhibit wing, buried along developed as a heavy concre slabs, featuring the use of he

HEMPCRETE WALL

CLASSROOM WALL SE STEEL TUBE EXOSKELETON ZINC RAINSCREEN CLADDING STOREFRONT GLAZING

EXHIBIT WING

MASS INCARCERATION EXHIBITS

-ADD SERIAL SECTIONS -RENDER FLOOR PLAN IN CUT AREA

CROSS SECTIONS

LANDFILL EXHIBITS

STRUCTURAL SUMMARY: horizontal spans: 1-way reinforced concrete roof and floor slabs (typical span 20’) vertical loads: reinforced concrete walls PARTI orientation: parallel to site contours, in order to show soil layers and site history

IL SO

NATIVE EXHIBITS

Y LA P S DI

CONCRETE PIERS

SO IL D ISP LA Y

SOIL DISPLAY

ORIENT TO LAND CONTOURS

CORRIDOR

EXTERIOR WALKWAY

ORIENT TOWAR

PROGRAM BREAKDOWN: (3) 1400 SF exhibit rooms (3) 700 SF reading rooms

PROCESS: TECHNICAL DEVELOPMENT

32' 0'

96' 64'

FERRY DOCK

160' 128'

N 192'

PLAN PARTI SKETCHES N

ENTREPRENEURSHIP WING

g the earth’s contours, was ete form with one-way structural empcrete.

CLASSROOM

LOUNGE

LOUNGE

dor along the soil display wall, ry through the layers of soil. orridor, visitors go back in time they become more submerged into

CLASSROOM LOUNGE INFORMATION

ECTION: INDOOR - OUTDOOR SPACE CORRIDOR

EXTERIOR WALKWAY

AUDITORIUM

UNINSULATED ROOF EDGE ARRIVAL PLAZA EXTERIOR WALKWAY HEATING VENT

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AUDITORIUM WALL SECTION: DAYLIGHTING STEEL TUBE EXOSKELETON

CURTAINWALL GLAZING

SKYLIGHT REPURPOSED JAIL BAR SCREENS

CIRCULATION

REINFORCED CONCRETE BEAMS

RD BRONX

CONCRETE PIERS

The entrepreneurship wing, lifted above the water, was developed as a light form with multi-directional concrete beam structure and large glazed openings.

Formerly incarcerated individuals learn how to become cannabis entrepreneurs in the classroom facilities, culminating in a large auditorium which features a skylight and repurposed jail bar screens.

The site’s remaining infrastructure can be reconceived as either artifacts or resources.

Artifacts - soil and jail bars - become displayed as symbols of the site’s past. Resources - gas vent pipes and recycled concrete artificial reef (from the demolished site buildings) - are used to create new sustainable systems by pulling from the site’s past.

GAS VENT

SOIL WALL

HISTORY REVEALED

BURIED HISTORY

SECTION PERSPECTIVE: ARTIFACTS + RESOURCES

LIFTED, PATTERNED

REPURPOSED JAIL BAR SCREENS

PIPES

RECYCLED CONCRETE ARTIFICIAL REEF

VERTICAL, ANCHORED

BEFORE RIKERS ISLAND BECAME NOT ITS JAIL COMPLEX, IT HELD TALL MOU BROUGHT ON BARGES FROM MANHAT

SITE JOURNEY: PAST

TORIOUS FOR UNDS OF TRASH TTAN.

AS WE STUDY THE SITE’S HISTORY, WE ALSO WORK TOWARD A FUTURE WITH JUSTICE AND FREEDOM BY ALLOWING FORMERLY INCARCERATED INDIVIDUALS TO TAKE THE PLACE THEY DESERVE IN OUR SOCIETY.

SITE JOURNEY: FUTURE

SITE JOURNEY: PAST

RIKERS ISLAND HAS DONE UNMEASURABLE DAMAGE TO THE NYC COMMUNITY WITHIN THE LAST CENTURY.

SITE JOURNEY: FUTURE

NOW THE ISLAND WILL BE RETURNED TO NATURE AND RETURNED TO THE COMMUNITY AS A RESOURCE. YOU WILL SEE BEFORE YOU A GRID OF OVER 500 VENT PIPES, WHICH GENERATE ENERGY FOR THE SITE BY PULLING METHANE OUT FROM DEEP WITHIN THE LAYERS OF TRASH BELOW OUR FEET. IN ADDITION, THESE 500 LIGHT POLES BECOME ILLUMINATED AND REPRESENT EACH KNOWN DEATH ON RIKERS ISLAND WITHIN THE LAST CENTURY.

“A whole lot has to get built to end mass incarceration.” -Deanna van Buren “Why don’t you imagine little pieces of how your project will be in the end. I know you’ll make something beautiful.” -Morgan

I developed this project because I needed to start imagining a world beyond mass incarceration and police brutality. At every critique, the conversations we were able to have around these topics truly inpired me.

Thank you so much to Rachel Schade, my wonderful advisor who helped me to consider the whole picture of my design decisions. Thank you to Kris Harris, Sally Elk, Sam Emory, Jeremy Voorhees and Alan Greenberger for your thoughtful expertise and critique of my project throughout the year.

Lastly, thank you to my family and my girlfriend Morgan for your endless support. I know you will always be proud of me and that inspires me more than anything.