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
2
ENERGY STORAGE
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GROWHOUSES
3
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)
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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.