Savannah: A Map of Perceptions

savannah

a map of perceptions Emily Geppert Draw 115 Winter Quarter 2012 Professor Montgomery

project one Entries at 1”:3000’ Paths at 1”:500’ Cultural Places at 1”:500’ Recreational Places at 1”:500’ Civic Places at 1”:500’ Historic Places at 1”:500’ Walking Radius at 1”:500’

project two Jasper Ward Site Plan at 1”:80’ Jasper Ward Street Sections at 1”:80’ Jasper Ward Elements of Imageability

project three Green-Meldrim House at 1”:10’ Gothic Revival Elements at 1”:10’ Formal Ordering System at 1”:10’ Green-Meldrim House Diagrams Green-Meldrim House Freehand Oblique Drawing

Emily Geppert Draw 115 Winter Quarter 2012 Professor Montgomery

Talmadge Bridge

Bay Street

Greyhound Bus Station Abercorn Street 37th Street

Entry

Though the interlocking Ward System of the Historic Downtown of Savannah, Georgia provides a plethora of routes into the city, only a select few are utilized often by either those returning or those first entering the city. These well-traveled entries give one insight into the area, providing glimpses that portray the city as a whole.

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Emily Geppert Draw 115 Winter Quarter 2012 Professor Montgomery

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River Street

Bull Street Broughton Street Oglethorpe Avenue

Path

As cities grow, they tend to develop paths that embrace certain traits. Savannah was no exception, and she developed paths that represent her cultural, recreational, civic, and historic aspects.

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Emily Geppert Draw 115 Winter Quarter 2012 Professor Montgomery

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Cultural Path River Street

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Recreational Path

Civic Path

Broughton Street

Oglethorpe Avenue

Emily Geppert Draw 115 Winter Quarter 2012 Professor Montgomery

Historic Path Bull Street

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Cultural Places River Street

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Recreational Places

Civic Places

Broughton Street

Oglethorpe Avenue

Emily Geppert Draw 115 Winter Quarter 2012 Professor Montgomery

Historic Places Bull Street

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1. Live Wire Music Hall 2. The Village Craftsmen 3. Visitor’s Information Center 4. Old Wyeth Branch Library 5. Factor’s Row 6. Gallery 209

Cultural Place

7. Old Town Trolley/Simply Savannah

River Street

8. Artsy’s Gallery 9. Olde Harbour Inn

With a plethora of tourist shops, art galleries, and historic buildings, River Street hosts the most concentrated picture of Savannahian culture. The building of this street are steeped in history, yet their modern uses give insight into the culture of the area.

10. Morrell Park

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Emily Geppert Draw 115 Winter Quarter 2012 Professor Montgomery

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1. Marc by Marc Jacobs 2. Locos Grill & Pub 3. La Berry Frozen Yogurt 4. Urban Outfitters 5. Gap

Recreational Place

6. Go Fish Clothing & Jewelry Co.

Broughton Street

7. Paris Market & Brocante

Broughton Street offers many choices for recreation.

Restaurants can be found down the entirety of this pathway as well as a variety of clothing shops and specialty stores. Located in the heart of the downtown area, this commercial street offers a number of activities to entertain the tourists and locals that pass through here.

8. Ruan Thai Cuisine 9. Panera Bread Company 10. Starbucks 11. Primary Art Supply 12. Sekka Bicycles 13. Juarez Mexican Restaurant

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Emily Geppert Draw 115 Winter Quarter 2012 Professor Montgomery

1. Chatham County Superior Court 2. Savannah Civic Center

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3. Bendigo Aquatic Centre 4. Savannah-Chatham County Public School 5. Savannah Fire Department

Civic Place

6. Colonial Park Cemetery

Oglethorpe Avenue

7. Police Department

Oglethorpe Avenue is lined with the most significant civic buildings in Savannah, giving people a direct route that provides a variety of public use spaces. All of these places are open to both the local and more distant communities, helping them to intermingle.

8. Chatham County Public Defender

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Emily Geppert Draw 115 Winter Quarter 2012 Professor Montgomery

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1. Palmer & Cay Insurance Building 2. Christ Church 3. US Courthouse 4. Lutheran Church of the Ascension 5. Old Chatham County Courthouse 6. Wayne-Gordon House

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Historic Place Bull Street

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7. First Baptist Church

Bull Street gives one a historic view of the city of Savannah. The buildings that line this pathway have rich backgrounds, though many of have been repurposed to more current uses, providing one with the impression of the city as it used to be.

8. Savannah Theatre 9. Philbrick-Eastman House 10. Old Sorrel-Weed House 11. Green-Meldrim House 12. St. John’s Church 13. SCAD Poetter Hall

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14. Mercer-William House 15. Temple Mickve Israel

Emily Geppert Draw 115 Winter Quarter 2012 Professor Montgomery

Walking Radius Madison Square

The Five Minute Walking Radius gives one an idea of the scale of a city. In Savannah, five minutes in any single direction can get you to a variety places, making the city a very pedestrian friendly environment.

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Emily Geppert Draw 115 Winter Quarter 2012 Professor Montgomery

In order to understand how the city of Savannah was first put together, one must look back to the founding of the city. General Oglethorpe created the city plan using the Ward System. Each ward consisted of a central square surrounded by four trust lots, generally used for public buildings and churches, and forty tithing lots, generally used for private residences.

Presentation Board

As the city grew, the ward pattern was easily replicated and added to the existing wards, allowing the city to expand in a systematic way and creating the section of Savannah now called the Historic District. Though the Ward System was replaced by the Grid System and later the Suburban Sprawl, the effect of the city’s original plan remains.

V iew of Savannah facing South 1734

View of Savannah facing South 2012

savannah: a map of perceptions “If you w ant to u nd erst and to d ay, you have to s e arch yesterd ay.”

- Pe arl Bu ck

Savannah Wards 1733

Savannah Wards 1735

Savannah Wards 1790

Savannah Wards 1815

Savannah Wards 1856

DRAW 115 Graphics for the Building Arts Winter Quarter 2012 Emily Geppert Professor LaRaine Montgomery

Emily Geppert Draw 115 Winter Quarter 2012 Professor Montgomery

Jasper Ward Site Plan

Jasper Ward, located on the historic path of Bull Street, is one of twenty-two wards in Savannah. This particular ward has an interesting combination of civic, commercial, and residential buildings that combine to give it a unique site plan.

Emily Geppert Draw 115 Winter Quarter 2012 Professor Montgomery

Jasper Ward Street Sections

The street sections of Jasper Ward reveal the mixture of spatial relationships in this ward. It houses a variety of buildings with vastly different heights, from the oversize Hilton De Soto to the human scale GreenMeldrim House, giving it a dynamic visual appeal.

The dense tree canopy acts as a ceiling of sorts, with a height comparable to the surrounding buildings, providing pedestrians with protection from the sun and rain.

Emily Geppert Draw 115 Winter Quarter 2012 Professor Montgomery

Jasper Ward

Elements of Imageability

For an initial impression, one looks to the edges of a city. These boundary lines give a clear marker as to where the city is and where the city is not.

In Savannah, General Oglethorpe’s historic Ward system is delineated by the streets that enclose it. Within this pattern, the streets define the edges of the individual Wards.

The next look reveals the districts within a city. These zones, which hold people with unique traits and places with specific purposes, combine to characterize the city as a whole.

Though the a single Ward can itself be considered a district of Savannah, there are a variety of different districts within each Ward. Jasper Ward, in particular, is home to a variety of different zones.

Civic/Public

As one travels the paths of a city, he may identify the common as well as not-so-common routes of the people who reside there. These routes can be categorized and provide a grid work for the city.

These traversable spaces clearly define each Ward. The main street through Jasper Ward, Bull Street, is a historical route that attracts a number of people.

This well-known path contrasts with the lesser traveled lanes in this Ward.

Commercial Residential Mixed Use Vacant

Emily Geppert Draw 115 Winter Quarter 2012 Professor Montgomery

Along these paths are places where people congregate. These nodes add color and vibrancy to an otherwise flat image of a city.

Each Ward in Savannah has its own individual personality that is largely dictated by the people who converge there. Jasper Ward’s mix of local and foreign users that gather in its nodes to enjoy the food, study the history, or simply take in the view, lends it a unique and dynamic personality.

Nodes often reveal landmarks, or buildings or monuments that have significance to the city. Landmarks are the defining characteristics of a place, the face of the more subtle features of a city.

Each Ward in Savannah has at least one point of interest that leaves an impression in the minds of all that see it. Jasper Ward has several. These historically significant landmarks, such as the Green Meldrim House and the SCAD Poetter Hall, leave the viewer with a distinctive image of this Ward.

Presentation Board

For an initial impression, one looks to the edges of a city. These boundary lines give a clear marker as to where the city is and where the city is not.

In Savannah, General Oglethorpe’s historic Ward system is delineated by the streets that enclose it. Within this pattern, the streets define the edges of the individual Wards.

The next look reveals the districts within a city. These zones, which hold people with unique traits and places with specific purposes, combine to characterize the city as a whole.

Though the a single Ward can itself be considered a district of Savannah, there are a variety of different districts within each Ward. Jasper Ward, in particular, is home to a variety of different zones.

As one travels the paths of a city, he may identify the common as well as not-socommon routes of the people who reside there. These routes can be categorized and provide a grid work for the city.

These traversable spaces clearly define each Ward. The main street through Jasper Ward, Bull Street, is a historical route that attracts a number of people.

This well-known path contrasts with the lesser traveled lanes in this Ward.

Along these paths are places where people congregate. These nodes add color and vibrancy to an otherwise flat image of a city.

Each Ward in Savannah has its own individual personality that is largely dictated by the people who converge there. Jasper Ward’s mix of local and foreign users that gather in its nodes to enjoy the food, study the history, or simply take in the view, lends it a unique and dynamic personality.

Nodes often reveal landmarks, or buildings or monuments that have significance to the city. Landmarks are the defining characteristics of a place, the face of the more subtle features of a city.

Each Ward in Savannah has at least one point of interest that leaves an impression in the minds of all that see it. Jasper Ward has several. These historically significant landmarks, such as the Green Meldrim House and the SCAD Poetter Hall, leave the viewer with a distinctive image of this Ward.

savannah: a lasting image “Nothing is experienced by itself, but always in relation to its surroundings, the sequence of events leading up to it, the memory of past experiences.”

- Kevin Lynch

Edge

District

Path

Node

Landmark

DRAW 115 Graphics for the Building Arts Winter Quarter 2012 Emily Geppert Professor LaRaine Montgomery

Emily Geppert Draw 115 Winter Quarter 2012 Professor Montgomery

Green-Meldrim House

Many buildings within Jasper Ward have stories steeped in history. The Green-Meldrim House, located on the West Trust Lot above the St. John Church, is one such place.

This home was built by the architect John Norris in the 1850s for Mr. Charles Green. In 1864, Mr. Green offered it to General Sherman to be used as his headquarters. In 1892, the home was sold to Judge Peter Meldrim. Finally, in 1943, it was sold to St. John’s Church where it has been used as the rectory and parish house ever since. It is boasted as one of the best examples of Gothic Revival architecture in Savannah.

Emily Geppert Draw 115 Winter Quarter 2012 Professor Montgomery

Formal Ordering System

Formal ordering systems provide a framework in which a building can be conceived in an organized way. These systems help a designer to relate the spaces to one another and allows for a coherent form to be produced. In the Green-Meldrim house, Architect John Norris based his plans upon the Grid System with a 1.4 Golden Ratio.

Emily Geppert Draw 115 Winter Quarter 2012 Professor Montgomery

Gothic Revival Elements Pitched Roof Decorative Eave Molding

Dripstone Molding

The Gothic Revival style began in the mid-18th century as a reaction to the neoclassical style prevalent at the time. This romantic style incorporated many elements from Gothic architecture. Architect John Norris built the Green-Meldrim House in this style, and he utilized many characteristic Gothic Revival elements for his design.

Oriel Window

One-Story Porch Decorative Tracery

Emily Geppert Draw 115 Winter Quarter 2012 Professor Montgomery

Green-Meldrim House Diagrams

The parti is the central idea for the design of a building. It is the most basic schema that is the core and driving force of the entire design.

The Green-Meldrim House is based upon two juxtaposed rectangles, one to represent the public space and the other the private.

The hierarchy of a building allows it to be broken down into distinct spaces with varying functions. These spaces can be determined by all manner of different characteristics, depending on the focus of the design.

The entryway to the Green-Meldrim House plays the primary role to the social mingling of the space, whereas the rest of the building plays only a secondary role.

Proportion determines the relationship of parts of a space to the space as a whole. These spacial relationships are key to giving a building a coherent design.

The Green-Meldrim House is built with two similar, yet different, proportions. The elevation is related two to two to two, and the plan is related four to four to two.

Emily Geppert Draw 115 Winter Quarter 2012 Professor Montgomery

The circulation dictates the movement of users through a building.

The pathways are largely determined by the function of a building and therefore correlate directly with the design scheme.

The circulation within the GreenMeldrim House is dictated by two central pathways, one for primarily public use and the other for more private uses.

Geometry , like proportion, dictates the spatial relationship of a building, but it is different in that it governs the proportional system of a building as a whole. It adds regularity and clarity to the design intent.

The Green-Meldrim House is based off a series of squares and a 1.4 Golden Ratio.

Green-Meldrim House Freehand Oblique Drawing

Emily Geppert Draw 115 Winter Quarter 2012 Professor Montgomery