Gabriella Rowe's Capstone

SITOPIA = sitos (food) + topos (place); using food as a transformative tool to create vital urban spaces centered around eating.

Acknowledgement(s) I want to thank all my professors and advisors: Tina for teaching me the foundation of design Dan for always being supportive, encouraging and positive Alpa for always pushing me past my fullest potential Tim for boosting my ego through critiques and recommendation letters Costis for encouraging bolder design thinking Kevin for listening and being fully transparent And lastly, my capstone advisor, Yi for being patient and supportive through the entire capstone process And most of all, I want to thank my family, friends and classmates, who I will attempt to describe in two to four words: Kelsey, an eloquent cat lady Ivy, a fierce queen Sarah, a free bird Leena, a beautiful soul Matt, an encouraging friend Mitch, a wise listener Elliot, the class dad Carlos, a selfless nomad I want to say thank you to the University of Florida for affording me the opportunity to meet the most amazing individuals and providing me an outstanding education. As always, Go Gators!

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3

INDEX Project Statement and Narrative

4

8 - 11

Data and Statistics

12 - 21

Literature Review

22 - 25

Case Studies

26 - 31

Site Introduction, Inventory and Analysis

32 - 45

Design Synthesis, Concepts, and Final Design

46 - 83

Reflection

84 - 87

Conclusion

88 - 91

“Context and memory play powerful roles in all the truly great meals in one’s life.”

Anthony Bourdain, chef, author, and world traveler

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“Next to breathing, eating is perhaps the most essential of all human activities, and one with which much of social life is entwined.� from The Anthropology of Food and Eating, Sidney W. Mintz and Christine M. Du Bois

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Project Statement and Narrative

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PROJECT STATEMENT + NARRATIVE Project Statement

diverse demographic in the near future.

In a society that has often been referred to as a ‘melting pot’ of cultures, we’ve surprisingly become fragmented and separated, rarely ever overlapping. American food culture has increasingly become dominated by fast food and convenience with meals being eaten in cars, on the go, or at our desks between phone calls. Food culture is about communal gathering and social connection, but we’ve lost touch, with both, in our daily lives. In the United States, landscape architects are broadly studying how we will produce nutritious food for urban areas, but paying less attention to how we consume food as a culture and socially bond over it.

Because of this, there is a disconnection between people, food, space, and society. This disparity causes increasingly divided communities and an increasingly divided food culture.

This project considers the potential of creating public spaces centered around eating in an incremental manner for a more sustainable and adaptable growth. It applies the knowledge of public space principles, different consumption sites and their spatial analyses, as well as the emergence of food mobility to imagine food as a catalyst for interaction. By introducing different food typologies (open-air markets, street food, food trucks/carts, alfresco dining) and overlapping them with designed public space, this can create opportunities for different groups to interact, constructing vibrant encounters along Point Breeze Avenue. This project attempts to bring back the social relationships that emerge from eating. In a larger vision, this can bring more awareness to the idea of using food as a tool to not only unify us, but also as a means to view the city and design a city for a better, more inclusive and adaptable tomorrow.

Carolyn Steel, the author of the book Hungry City, describes a ‘Sitopia’ as a place we live in that is shaped by food, a utopia embedded in reality through food. She believes a ‘sitopia’ acknowledges the ways that food influences our lives and how we as a society can move toward a better, imperfect world through using food as a transformative tool.

This project considers the opportunity to study how people experience the cityscape through food consumption and the relationships that emerge between food and public space, allowing the opportunity for landscape architects to take a more holistic, multi-dimensional approach when designing outdoor food environments, and rethinking the way food is being used and designed in the urban fabric.

Project Narrative - Introduce Site, Applying Solution to Context This project reclaims a neglected commercial corridor in Philadelphia named Point Breeze Avenue. In recent years, the neighborhood has been increasingly pressured to develop and residents are skeptical about rising housing costs and displacement. Graduate Hospital, the neighborhood to the north of Point Breeze, has already seen signs of gentrification and has experienced a great influx of young professionals due to lower (than center city’s) rents in the area.

Point Breeze houses a large population of African Americans, but has seen more migration from other parts of Philadelphia, leading to a more 10

Concept / Introduction The design introduces food spaces that will facilitate food vendors such as markets, food trucks, and food shipping containers and relate to the existing restaurants and fast food joints along the street, while also allowing the surrounding public space to cater to that and reinforce interaction. By creating dynamic, overlapping spaces and encouraging incremental design, this street can begin to revitalize communities and neighborhoods, create a sense of pride, bridge the gap between people of different groups, become a destination, improve the economy, and reconnect people with their food and others.

Phase 01 First the plan resolves the unused street corners at the edges of the site, by activating them and transforming them into a plaza and communal green space. Both spaces are heavily designed to anchor the site and direct users from one end to the other at various times of the day, week and month, while also promoting more sustainable growth in the middle.

Phase 02 Throughout various parts of the street, the sidewalk extends from 10’ to 20’ wide. These extensions occur where there is little to no food place. Because food occupancy changes often and street food is temporary, this phase

introduces flexible opportunities with the changing environment. The base design includes intimate seating areas for gathering, street trees to reframe the landscape, space for al fresco dining and other pop-up interventions, and small ramps that allow food trucks and people to be on the same level during food festivals and celebrations.

lens of food. My hope is to use food as a tool to unite us and help us to recognize our humanity in the face of the world’s most complex challenges.

Together, we can begin to join each other at the table and create the meaningful exchanges that will persist long after we’ve broken bread.

Phase 03 As more gentrification creeps into the northern end of the corridor and new development occurs throughout the neighborhood, it is important for local business owners and residents to be at the forefront of the design process. Vacant lots are dispersed throughout the street, creating an opportunity to repurpose lots for more informal gathering and green spaces. Tactical urbanism guidelines in conjunction with public space principles and current spatial elements of consumption areas, can be combined in a toolkit to be given to local business owners and neighborhood residents as they begin to create their own identity of place and combat gentrification.

Conclusion I believe that by designing great public space centered around eating and providing spaces that are flexible and incremental over time, the notion of using food as a tool can not only unify increasingly divided communities, but bring back the joy, happiness, love, pleasure and above all else, social and cultural connection between people and their food.

Sitopia’s vision creates a dynamic food experience along a currently neglected commercial corridor which will become diverse, convivial and adaptable with food culture overtime, while also adding value to the economic, social and cultural fabric of Point Breeze Neighborhood. As time goes on, Philadelphia can create larger connections to other food corridors in the city comprising a citywide food network. Therefore, food will become an expressive tool, determine how individuals experience the city, and connect divided communities.

Landscape architects are uniquely positioned to offer much more than designing beautiful spaces; they have the power to improve the quality of life for people and connect communities through the

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Data and Statistics

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What is a food system? “A food system is how we get our food. The food system includes all processes involved in feeding people: growing, harvesting, processing, packaging, transporting, marketing, consuming and disposing of food and food packages. It also includes the inputs needed and outputs generated at each step. The food system operates within and is influenced by the social, political, economic and natural environments.

Each step is also dependent on human resources that provide labor, research and education. The food system is connected to many other areas of life, such as nutrition, food, health, community economic development, and agriculture.�

Source: https://cpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/blogs. cornell.edu/dist/f/575/files/2016/03/newlogoDiscovering-Our-Food-System-2lyk76c.pdf The food system is highly complex and it is up to landscape architect’s to take a more holistic approach when designing environments that house food. My project focuses on food consumption and how we must think about designing these places more intentionally and more integrally.

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Obesity in Adults (over 15 years of age) 2015 or nearest year

41%

favor food and restaurants as the most important aspect of cities that drive people to visit them, according to a survey done by Sasaki.

(Source: http://www.sasaki.com/media/files/cities_survey_final-1.pdf) Time Spent Eating and Drinking (daily per capita) 2015 or nearest year

Landscape architects rarely address how we eat now and how we will design for consumption in public space, but the main reason people are visiting cities are because of food. What is our role in all of this?

46%

percent of adult eating occasions — that's meals and snacks — happen alone.

(Source: https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/08/13/431994725/party-of-one-we-areeating-a-lot-of-meals-alone)

Source: OECD or Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development

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America’s current food culture values convenience over quality and conversation and you can see a lot of that in the built environment.

Time is money and people are eating behind their desks saving time and making more money if they skip out on a walk to lunch. Anyone can get their groceries and meals delivered to his or her door without ever having to step outside or even connect with the person that cooked his or hers food, causing an even greater fragmented and isolated society.

CURRENT FOOD CULTURE convenience over quality and conversation

fragmented, isolated

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But trends and designs are emerging, such as food halls which are essentially food courts but feel more vibrant and welcoming, they also house local food businesses and greater variety of food, from asian cuisine to mexican and so forth, as well as the emergence of food trucks (which isn’t so new). But interestingly enough, a lot of these more socially connected places are often times in middle to high income neighborhoods.

How can we introduce them into low-income neighborhoods and how we can bridge the divide between different groups of people through food?

CURRENT FOOD CULTURE quality, conversation AND convenience

overlapping, social

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Adapting

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Consumption patterns are often changing in American culture and highly unpredictable. Instead of trying to change the way we eat, we need to be more intentional about how we design food environments and become aware of the current trends so that we can accommodate for them. This will help us move into a more sustainable, resilient and adaptable future and improve the experience of cities and the lives of humans that inhabit them.

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So much of our lives are surrounded by food and so much of our relationships are linked by food, what is our landscape doing for that? How do we make that connection how do we make it more intentional, meaningful and adaptable over time? How do we include a larger pool of demographics/make these spaces inclusive to all?

How can we design public space to better supplement these current food environments?

My goal is to bring back the social relationships that emerge from eating by designing vital urban spaces centered around food.

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Literature Review

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LITERATURE REVIEW

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Food and Design Susan Parham Food and Urbanism, 2015.

Market Place, 2015.

Exploring London’s Food Quarters, 2008.

Designing the Gastronomic Quarter.

Susan Parham currently works as the University’s Head of Urbanism and Planning at the School of Life and Medical Sciences (LMS) in the Geography, Environment and Agriculture (GEA) group. Her books have recorded on her primary research into food-centred regeneration processes that are transforming physical spaces and social practices in dying market areas in contemporary London. Important quotes to consider in her literature: “Various architectural and design typologies can be employed to create workable public spaces, centred on nodes of intensity of activity around food, that are human scaled, mixed use, fine-grained and diverse. For sustainability and for pleasure, this should be the way forward.” + “A key conclusion from the research is that architecture and design contributes to a rich sociability at each site.”

Anna Marie Fisker and Tenna Doctor Olsen Food, Architecture, Experience Design, 2008.

Important quotes to consider in her literature: “A transcended experience not necessarily exclusively belonging to the space of the dinner table, but potentially drifting off the dining room finally merging with the city where it becomes an architectural means; a sensuous impression in combination of food with design and architectural form in scales of both cityscapes, buildings, room, interior, furniture, and tableware, creating a total experience forming social relations among strangers as argued above.” + “The higher intentions behind the paper and the above case studies have been to examine and draw attention to how the meal and architecture are related, as well as clarifying how the combination of food and architecture or an architectural-food based design approach can potentially enhance the development and design of future experience cities.”

Karen A. Franck Food + Architecture, 2002.

“Much of the built world is designed around food; for storing, producing, transporting, selling, serving and eating. We recognise the regeneration of a neighbourhood through its new cafes, restaurants and grocery shops. This title features new restaurants in London, New York, Sydney and Tokyo; the design of markets; provocative essays by architects, historians, and social scientists; and interviews with designers and entrepreneurs.”

“People have always come to markets in order to socialise as well as to buy food, and the need for such spaces in which to mingle is as great now as it has ever been – arguably greater, since so few such opportunities exist in modern life.” + “It is food culture, not just food, we need to be worrying about preserving, and that means everything that surrounds food, not just food itself. If we lose sight of that, we might just as well get all our nourishment in tablet form and have done with it.

Of course restaurant chains are perfectly aware of our innate need for ‘ambience’ when we eat – that, after all, is what they chiefly sell.” + “There is always a danger, when thinking about food, of getting nostalgic for the past: for ‘good old days’ that probably never existed. But there is still a lot that we can learn from it. The history of the table is full of injustice, manipulation and snobbery; it is also full of pleasure, fellowship and joy. It is a reflection, in short, of society itself. To ignore its power is to deny our humanity.” + “We have yet to discover what a strong, local, post-industrial food culture could be like, but there has never been a better time to find out.”

Public Space Jan Gehl The Life Between Buildings: Using Public Space, 1971.

Ray Oldenburg The Great Good Place, 1989.

Ray Oldenburg, a sociologist, talks about the demise of our third places. Third places consist of every place outside of your work and home. These are where social life occurs and because of our loss of them, we’ve become isolated and fragmented.

William H. Whyte The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces, 1980.

Urban Food Culture Street Food - Food Trucks, Cultural Identity, And Social Justice from Loncheras to Lobsta Love. Julian Agyeman, Caitlin Matthews, and Hannah Sobet. 2017.

Health - Food Shaping Cities for People, Gehl, 2018.; Inclusive Healthy Cities, Gehl Institute & Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, 2016.; The Determinants of Food Choice, The European Food Information Council, 2006.

Gastronomy - Food and the City, Ina Yalof. 2016.; Evolving Gastronomic Experiences: From Food to Foodies to Foodscapes, Greg Richards, 2015.

Carolyn Steel Hungry City, 2008.

Important quotes to consider in her literature: “Rather than asking how we’re going to feed ourselves in the future, we ought to be questioning the way we eat now.”+

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Case Studies

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Bonaire Street Market Bonaire Street Market is a temporary space located in Valencia, Spain. The strategy was to create an oasis space closed with re-used walls made from containers and pallets.

Creating a Mediterranean atmosphere was the main objective, with illumination & illustrations by a local artist gives the spaces a dynamic image to the project.

Source: https://www.architonic.com/en/project/ mesura-bonaire-street-market/5104569

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Pittsburgh Market Square Originally known as “Diamond Square,� Market Square is at the heart of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

The area is a social and cultural hub, with a great number of restaurants that range from fast casual to fine dining, cafes and retailers.

During most of the 19th and 20th centuries, the central location hosted much social and economic activity, but by the 1970s, Market Square was in a state of decline.

Major overhaul went into the square to renovate the area into a European-style piazza, and Market Square reopened in 2010.

Source: https://www.pps.org/projects/pittsburgh-market-square

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Smorgasburg In a sense, the community interactions valued in traditional marketplaces are partially lost in Smorgasburg. Consumers visiting are not generally community-based, but rather are comprised of mostly tourists. Smorgasburg is a destination market for young people who want great food experiences, with many visitors coming after hearing about the market on Instagram. Although it is filled with tourists from around the world, it also attracts residents from around the city, so in a way it is inclusive.

Source: https://gehlinstitute.org/dialogue/streetfood-markets-inclusion-nyc/

Shake Shack at Madison Square Park In 2003, the Madison Square Park Conservancy launched a new initiative to bring a high-quality food kiosk to the park. In less than a year, the Conservancy financed and built the $750,000 Shake Shack, the new zinc-clad, ivy-covered “green” building designed by renowned architect James Wines of SITE Environmental design, built

by Kullman Industries, and operated by the Union Square Hospitality Group. An instant classic, the Shake Shack’s overhanging roof is a throwback to the old roadside stand —while the angles of the Shake Shack are a tribute to the neighboring Flatiron Building.

Source: https://www.madisonsquarepark.org/ mad-sq-food/shake-shack 30

Exmouth Market Exmouth is in London, England and compromised of three case study sites that support the making of a new food space phenomenon of urban food quarters.

Eating and drinking is the medium for which social interaction occurs in Exmouth Market. With minimal specific physical infrastructure in the way, seats and other street furniture is used to support the social richness.

“Food is the medium for social interaction, through eating, drinking and talking in the street and at stalls and stands. The strength of the urban design context means that minimal specific physical infrastructure in the way of seats and other street furniture is needed to support this social richness.” (246).

Source: https://metro.co.uk/2012/07/27/exmouthmarket-is-a-thriving-street-in-the-heart-of-thecity-512270/, Susan Parham’s Exploring London’s Food Quarters

Salt, Pepper, and Ketchup (Play)

Roy Choi, Local and Food Truck Revolution

Salt, Pepper and Ketchup is a play that observes the effects of clashing demographics in a gentrifying neighborhood. The setting takes place in an Asian restaurant in Point Breeze, a South Philadelphia neighborhood, and follows the new American citizen owners, a feisty single mother, and their clash with a store co-op. Josh Wilder, the playwright, examines the human consequences of neighborhood redevelopment – who benefits and who gets chewed up and spit out?

Roy Choi, the godfather of the Food Truck Revolution, started Locol, a fast-food joint with his friend in Watts, Los Angeles. He believed that good food should be accessible to all and at an affordable price point.

Source: https://www.madisonsquarepark.org/ mad-sq-food/shake-shack 31

Site Introduction, Inventory and Analysis

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INTRODUCTION TO SITE CONTEXT, PHILLY FOOD CULTURE

Permanent Food Places that are iconic to Philadephia’s food culture include, but not limited to: Philadelphia Bourse (a new food hall), Reading Terminal Market (one of the United States’s oldest continuously operating farmers market that first opened in 1893), South 9th Street Italian Market (is one of the oldest and largest open-air markets in America), and last but not least, Philadelphia’s staple food, the cheesesteak.

Temporary Food Spaces that have also emerged and have contributed to Philadelphia’s food culture include: tailgates, beer gardens and pop-up parks that house food, food trucks and festivals.

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1750

Center City Philadelphia

1808

1843

1855

Site Point Breeze Avenue

1903

N

35

INVENTORY LAND USE, VACANCY, ACCESS

Neighborhood

Land Use

Vacant Lots + Buildings

History 1855

1901

1912

1930

1960

First settled by Eastern European Jews in 1855. Italian and Irish immigrants soon followed.

Sold to private owner.

Sold for an amusement park.

African-Americans from the Deep South came to Philly looking for work and escape from Jim Crow.

PB w for fr ance a hun The r the d selfneigh

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Site

Land Use Transportation Residential Commercial Industrial Civic/Institutional Green Space Vacant

Access + Mobility 0

0.05

0.1 Miles

Bus Routes Bus Stops Bike Network Streets + Roads

0

1970

Current

was relatively stable. Had stores resh produce, clothes, applies, etc. There used to be over ndred stores on “the Breeze”. race riots of the 1960s: signaled decline of Point Breeze as a sustaining, relatively integrated hborhood.

Then like Grays Ferry, Point Breeze was hit by the heroin epidemic of the 1970s and then crack scourge of the early 1990s.

Residents went into alleys to shoot up and never came out alive.

Houses were abandoned and fell into disrepair.

During past few decades, immigrants from Korea and Southeast Asia have moved to PB. In recent years, South Philadelphia H.O.M.E.S. and the Universal Companies built new affordable housing to replace some of PB’s dated and deteriorating housing stock, as well as help entrepreneurs start new businesses on the Breeze.

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The Tasty Toast

Good Morning Breakfast Restaurant

60’

Point Breakfast Restaurant

Choy Yung Inn Restaurant

South Side Chicken & Seafood Philly Pizza

INVENTORY FOOD PLACES

40’

20’

40’

20’

40’

20’

60’ 40’

Family Dollar

20’

section of the street

side walk

10’

demographics

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parking

one way

30’

parking

side walk

10’

Population Point Breeze Neighborhood: 22,832 Philadelphia: 1.5 million (2017)

Average Age Median Age: 35 years old Median Age Philadelphia: 34 years old

Race + Ethnicity Black: 70% White: 18.5% Asian: 4.5% Hispanic: 3.5% Other: 3.5%

past photos from 1960, same character, more vacancies

Kim’s Buddy Seafood

San Lok Chinese Restaurant

Point Save Super Market

deli

Halal Crown Fried Chicken

section

plan

section

60’ N

39

OCF Coffee House

On Point Bistro

Beer Town

Mattei Family Pizza

northern end (closest to Center City)

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existing character of Point Breeze Avenue

41

southern end (farthest from Center City)

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ANALYSIS The northern and middle section of Point Breeze Avenue between Federal st. and Dickinson st. houses a large concentration of commercial use.

Because of this there needs to be a transition from commercial to residential in the southern half. The community already faces pressure to develop and is skeptical about incoming residents. The three existing green spaces near the site only have open lawns, trees, and basketball courts. Point Breeze Avenue experiences medium to high vehicular traffic and forms underutilized triangles where the avenue and the city’s grid meet.

Wharton Square Playgroun d

er

cia

lu

se

co

nc

en

tra

t

Wharton Square Playground

<m us ore e res

ide

nt

ial

co

mm

Chew Playground

Ralph Brooks Park

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Chew Playgroun d

Federa

l st.

KEY

tio

n

Traffic Direction Main Transportation Roads Current Informal Gathering Spaces Buildings Facing Street Current Playgrounds, Plazas, Parks

Dickinson

st.

Vacant Lots Buildings that currently house food

Ralph Brooks Park

1/4 mile radius (street edges)

Cross Walks

60â&#x20AC;&#x2122;

N

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Design Synthesis, Concepts, and Final Design

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SYNTHESIS

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Edges + Triangular Intersections of streets.

Current places of consumption facing Point Breeze Avenue.

Activate edges by designing a meeting plaza in the northern end, closer to an industrial corridor and main roads (federal street and washington ave.), and a communal green space in the southern end because of the heavier residential land use surrounding the south edge.

Currently the street is one-way with parking on both sides with a 10 ft sidewalk on both sides.

Buildings are from 25 to 35-40 ft tall. Re-frame street by placing more street trees, slow down traffic by creating bump-outs and extending sidewalk. This creates opportunity for parklets, outdoor dining, and interesting intimate gathering spaces adjacent to food trucks and annual festivals.

Vacant lots along commercial corridor.

Re-purpose lots for more informal gathering and green spaces along corridor.

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CONCEPT

PHASING: INTRODUCE + OVERLAP

Integrate different types of food, not just restaurants, but introduce food trucks, food vendors and markets in the winter and summer months, while also allowing the surrounding public space to cater to that and reinforce interaction.

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CONCEPT

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Phase 01 - Activate Edges

Phase 02 - Extend Sidewalk

Activate nodes to allow users to flow from one end to the other. Utilize nodes as meeting points for the local community and incoming tourists.

Widen sidewalk to slow down traffic and allow for more gathering spaces along Point Breeze avenue. Use street trees to reframe landscape. Implement subtle ramps as flex spaces for food vendors, outdoor dining spaces as well as various tactical urbanism opportunities.

Phase 03 - Repurpose Lots Use public space principles, spatial analysis of consumption sites, and tactical urbanism ideas as a toolkit for local business owners and neighborhood residents.

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PHASE 01

Christopher Alexander, A Pattern Language, â&#x20AC;&#x153;if the edge fails, then the space never becomes lively.â&#x20AC;?

(152) Activate Edges to promote healthy growth within the corridor.

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60â&#x20AC;&#x2122;

N

55

NORTH EDGE

sketches

site plan

Inspiration The northern edge of Point Breeze Avenue faces a restaurant, cafe, yoga studio and corner store grocery. It is the first space one sees when first entering the commercial corridor.

This intersection becomes an important location because it acts a meeting ground between streets and among people. These are places where people are most likely to congregate.

I drew inspiration from the nearby building facades that face the intersection. I wanted to draw out the building space and have the â&#x20AC;&#x153;building facadeâ&#x20AC;? face the street three times so I created a water feature in the shape of that. On the side that faces federal street, a community bulletin is placed so that passerbys can make their mark and update people when market events and other festivals happen.

community bulletin or art wall

Water cascading on steps (representative of social life of stoops) become reflective during the winter months. The water feature masks the noise from the busy intersection. Throughout the year this fountain can function as a reflective surface, a playful fountain, or even as a platform (if fully turned off) for voices in the surrounding neighborhood.

waiting area with benches

Movable seating near a potential outdoor market (a firefighting and police station currently) creates a seamless connection between building and outdoor landscape during warmer weather months.

parameter seating

The grove of trees becomes more forested near the street, re-framing the views of the corridor and welcoming new and old guests to the area. Seating below the tree canopy creates opportunity for meeting with friends, neighbors, strangers or simply for a ride to somewhere else.

PRO

grove of trees

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK STUDENT VERSION

inspiration

section of water feature

stoops

water

corner buildings

56 N

cafe

building

restaurant flex space

corner store

water feature

bollards for protection

ODUCED BY AN AUTODESK STUDENT VERSION

flex space convert fire station into indoor market

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK STUDENT VERSION

N

57

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK STUDENT VERSION

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK STUDENT VERSION

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK STUDENT VERSION

5’

10’

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK STUDENT VERSI

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late spring The northern edge of Point Breeze Avenue is activated by a plaza space that becomes a meeting ground for the community and tourists visiting. Benches along the street are used as places to wait for friends, family or strangers and also function as areas to consume food when summer markets are present. The grove of trees form an outdoor ceiling as the canopy connects. This frames views into the corridor and gives users an option to discover more of Point Breeze Avenue.

before

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late fall, first snow The northern end plaza adapts with the seasons creating a reflective water feature during the colder months in Philadelphia. This allows neighborhood residents to look back on the changing environment of the corridor and how the functions of the â&#x20AC;&#x153;stoopsâ&#x20AC;? have changed as more public seating becomes available along Point Breeze Avenue. Lights illuminate the tree canopy and create a welcoming forested area when users first enter the space. Kiosks and Christmas markets give vitality to the plaza during winter months.

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SOUTH EDGE

site plan

Continuing the element of water from one node to the next as if it feels like its merging into the nearby Schuylkill River. The southern node acts as a communal green space for the nearby residential housing and surrounding commercial buildings. This space functions as a place to bring food from nearby fast food joints, restaurants, food trucks or street food vendors, and a viewing point for the surrounding buildings. An overhead structure splits the two large areas of the site, an open lawn and an open plaza space. The water feature further delineates the great lawn from the open plaza and gravel seating area. Events take place in both the great lawn and plaza space daily, monthly and annually.

month O

J J

buildin sidewa

A

art installation or playground

month O

J J

water feature with parameter seating

A

markets

Scanned with CamScanner

lawn

buildings sidewalks

plaza month O

J J

A

section of wat

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PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK STUDENT VERSION

ice rink

open lawn

ngs alks

pergola gravel, movable seating

sidewalk and private green space

open plaza space for events, installations, outdoor markets

bollards for protection PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK STUDENT VERSION

ter feature and trellis PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK STUDENT VERSION

5â&#x20AC;&#x2122;

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late spring The southern edge becomes a communal green space. It functions to provide respite and relaxation for residents and workers in the area. The open plaza toward the southern tip acts as a flexible space to host large events, art installations, playground installations and summer and winter markets. The lawn area functions as an enlarged picnic area and becomes a small ice skating rink in the winter months. The gravel seating provides optimal shade during the warm summer days and plenty of seating for when food trucks and other types of food mobility enter the space.

before

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PHASE 02

“The street cafe provides a unique setting, special to cities: a place where people can sit lazily, legitimately, be on view, and watch the world go by […]. Build the front of the cafe so that a set of tables stretch out of the cafe, right into the street. - Christopher Alexander et al., A Pattern Language, p. 437,439” Phase 02 consists of streetscape improvements dispersed throughout Point Breeze Avenue.

These improvements are adjacent to buildings that do not currently house food. This will promote more opportunities for residents and tourists to invest and use these flexible spaces to create 66

their own reality and future for Point Breeze Avenue.

60â&#x20AC;&#x2122;

N

67

Base

Base

Scenario 1: Pocket Parks + Sidewalk Dining

Facin Benc Scenario 2: Food Festival

Existing Sidewalk Existing Street with Parallel Parking

68

Restaurants, cafes, grocery stores and fast food joints can become extensions of the street forming more intimate spaces along sidewalks, making the connection between streets and food seamless. These bump-outs occur along Point Breeze Avenue surrounding buildings that currently do not house food. This can promote more food types and gathering opportunities, such as food trucks and outdoor dining, throughout the corridor. Flex spaces can be used as spaces for performance and entertainment.

Street trees and rain gardens can re-frame the bare landscape and control pollution, conserve and purify rainwater.

ng ches Parking

Ramp Bollards Flex Space + Parking Rain Garden + Flex Space

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Perspective during the late spring, early summer months of Phase 02. Pop-up interventions and widened sidewalks disperse throughout Point Breeze Avenue. As more food options move in, seating and flexible space shift with food culture.

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Perspective during a night food festival, when food trucks and other different forms of food vendors fill the space giving life to the street.

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PHASE 03

According to Christopher Alexander, small incremental changes will enhance the spirit of the place and encourage the accumulation of further changes.

As more gentrification creeps into the northern end of the corridor and new development occurs throughout the neighborhood, it is important for local business owners and residents to be at the forefront of the design process. Vacant lots are dispersed throughout northern, southern, western Philadelphia creating an opportunity for tactical 74

urbanism projects to be implemented. The term tactical urbanism is defined as â&#x20AC;&#x153;an approach to neighborhood that uses short-term, low-cost, and scalable interventions and policies to catalyze long term change.â&#x20AC;? (11, Tactical Urbanistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Guide).

Tactical urbanism guidelines in conjunction with public space principles and current spatial elements of consumption areas in Philadelphia can be combined in a toolkit to be given to local business owners and neighborhood residents as they begin to create an identity of place and vital public spaces centered around eating.

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Public Space Principles (William Whyte + Jan Gehl) Elements of Consumption Sites (Susan Parham) Tactical Urbanism Guidelines (Tactical Urbanism Guide 2016) 76

Sun Protection from sun, wind and noise (use trees and water)

Promoting contact: No walls, short distances, low speeds, one levels, face-to-face orientation

Trees

Overlapping trees provide a combination of sun and shade

Usual distance between stalls in market place is 6 to 9 ft

An open space of 5000 ft, a minimum of 6 trees

Concrete Buttons Parking Spots Straw Wattle Landscaping Elements

Small Trees Small to Medium Plants

Food Availability of food, more food = more activity

Barrier Elements: Curbing

Sod (Live Grass)

Water

a tree for every 25m walk 3.5â&#x20AC;? dia

Parklets: Seating (Different variations of Tables + Chairs) Plants to buffer traffic

Astro Turf

Shade

Lighting

Movable Chairs

Most popular pla sit can be found edges of open s where the sitterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s is protected, the unobstructed, an local climate favo

Places for sitting facades and spa boundaries.

Re-purposing shipping containers

Barrier Elements

Public restroom availability

Des qua the and rest mar stre veg allo

Food trucks, food carts, various forms of food vendors along street

Barrier Elements: Planters

S

Traffic Cones

Wooden Crate

Cardboard Cylinders

Tire Planters

Delineators

Custom Wood Planters

Traffic Tape (Foil Backed)

Raised Lane Seperator

Galvanized Steel Planters

Sidewalk Chal

Traffic Control Barricades

Large Polymer Plastic Planters

Plastic Barriers Concrete Jersey Barriers Granite Blocks

Self-watering Planters

Duct Tape

Home-made Stencils

Tempera Paint

Acrylic Asphal Paint

aces to on the spaces, s back e view nd the orable.

g along atial

Sitting places in niches, at the ends of benches, or at other well-defined spots and sitting places where one’s back is protected are preferred to less defined spaces.

Seating area should be approximately 10% of the total open space

A good rule of thumb for a good city or residential environment is that suitable places to sit should be located at regular intervals.

Primary, need for seating is limited so there is a demand, this seating should be strategically placed and offers individuals/users as many advantages as possible

Secondary, in the form of stairways, pedestals, steps, low walls, boxes, so on, are needed for times when demand for seating is particularly great

People feel cuddled, protected very much as they do under awnings of a street cafe

Movies, Ice Skating, and a Cafe draw people into the park Invitation - something to do Common activities and experiences as well as unexpected or unusual events serve to initiate and generate conversation

Place benches that allow for more choice of action - Front, Back or Side Seating not materially comfortable but socially

Sense of choice - in groups or alone

Susan Parham’s Food and Urbanism Guide

signing the gastronomic arter includes any or all of e following: “market halls d streets, food stalls, cafés, taurants, bars and food shops, rket gardens, productive eet trees and other planting, getable gardens and otments.”

A series of well-configured outdoor rooms (usually urban squares) that demonstrate the appropriate level of enclosure.

Surface Treatments Traffic Tape (Contractor Grade)

Street Bond Pavement Coating

Government/ lk Contractor Stencil

Epoxy Gravel

t

Activities

Enclosure

Seating

Spray Chalk/ Spray Paint Cornstarch Paint

lt Pigment Polymer Cement

(Preformed) Thermoplastic

Spaces are three-dimensional and complex allowing people to sit, pause, and take in their surroundings and contemplate the changing scenes.

Street Furniture Milk Crates

Picnic Table

Bench - Hay Bale

Movable Tables + Chairs

Bench - Cinder Movable Block + Wood Umbrella City Bench Shipping Pallettes

Signs

“creating human-scaled walkable areas that relate in density and texture to the surrounding townscape, while external connectivity is increased by good public transport links to the rest of the city.”

Programming

Homemade Signs Information Signs Walk (Your City) Signs

Music

Art

Official Traffic Signs

Games

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PHASE 03 sq-ft: 2500

sq-ft: 1900

sq

sq-ft: 1000

sq-ft: 6800

sq-ft: 2800 sq-ft: 9000

sq-ft: 1700

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sq-ft: 6500

note: squarefootage is approximate

q-ft: 6800 sq-ft: 1200

sq-ft: 12000 sq-ft: 1800

sq-ft: 1000

sq-ft: 31000 79

PHASE 03

example of phase 03 // vacant lot re-design

small trees to give privacy from adjacent buildings and lots

standing bar

wood beams with hanging lights and planters

living wall

movable seating change of material for outdoor games

street art

seating and barriers

sq-ft: 1200

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adjacent condition(s): between two buildings, fence to back and side, next to food and across from northern plaza area.

toolkit applied

Movable Seating

Art + Games

Small Trees

Cafe Lights

Granite Blocks

Gravel

It is important to be creative in all of this (go outside of the toolkit and bring culture and place into design)and to work with multiple people during the design process including but not limited to horticulturists, other community members, government, business owners, local artists and designers. It is also important to consider the surrounding land uses and local context to ensure that the space becomes successful.

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Food Network throughout Philadelphia

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As time goes on, Philadelphia can create larger connections to other food corridors, streets, districts, hubs in the city. Eventually food will no longer be a problem that needs fixing, but an expressive tool to determine how individuals experience and live in a city.

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Conclusion

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Moving Forward Through the lens of landscape architecture and design, I want to understand what characteristics contribute to these inclusive spaces, better recognize what it is about these food spaces that help foster human relationships, and clearly define landscape architectureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s role in all of this.

I would love to take this capstone further and be able to discover and explore different cultures through food consumption and to understand how surrounding contexts can enhance or inhibit the experience of users when they eat.

Further questions to consider: What physical and spatial elements or characteristics of food places and spaces can be extracted as successful models of study? Compare and contrast different food corridors in cities (through data like demographics, food access and health, physical context, aerial imagery, vacancy). How can the lessons from this capstone be applied to other cities?

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Reflection(s) When I first explored the topic of food, I had no idea the final outcome. If you talked to my professors, my peers, my family, they all were as clueless as I was on my capstone journey. I was trying to figure it out; to find, research and design what I was truly passionate about in the span of just one semester. I had to re-evaluate my life experiences because that is where, in the past, I’ve drawn the most inspiration from. Those life experiences, I realized, always revolved around food. And before I knew it food was the anchor and focus to my project.

I began reviewing a lot of literature that had the words “food” and “design” in it. Little did I know, there were no guidelines to this way of designing for food consumption in public spaces. There was no body of research that was used to inspire design and no way of knowing what people were using as inspiration to design consumption sites such as markets, food halls, food truck parks and food courts. The different types of consumption sites were almost always separated from one another. For example, food truck parks only had food trucks and restaurants along streets only had restaurants. I realized that there was not a space that everyone could come to, to eat together, from all different kinds of consumption sites. All the places that did sell food were only providing seating for that certain place. The relationship between food, public space and society was nonexistent. So, I knew that this project was really an exploration and a learning experience, but I still struggled with grounding my concepts and design thinking in previous case studies and literature.

a more interconnected class system, improve the lives of everyone, to be more social in a fragmented country, and to sit down and enjoy good, affordable, and accessible food, together.

I believe this could be done by designing food environments, these ‘sitopias,’ if you will, more intentionally, more holistically, more integrally.

My project and this whole process is a continual experiment and it will always be open-ended.

Capstone is this great exploratory process that is meant to break you down, challenge you, frustrate you, enlighten you and teach you. It is the process that is so vital, not the final outcome. During this journey is where I learned the most about how I wanted to move forward in my landscape architecture career and I am so thankful that I was able to do it with my best friends (classmates) by my side. I want to thank everyone that was involved in helping me realize my potential. Lastly, I want to thank the University of Florida for being the stepping stone to my next great adventure.

During my design phase, I was sifting through this information, this extensive research and prior life experiences, looking for the solution (essentially backtracking), when I realized the solution was right in front of me and it was food. Food was always the solution before I even had a problem.

I was trying to create this amazing capstone that, for a second, I forgot the whole point of this project. The point was to introduce a new way of thinking to the profession of landscape architecture that Carolyn Steel mentions in her book, Hungry City. It is especially relevant to landscape architects, who deal with the outdoor environment and the people that inhabit it. It is so important for us to realize the potential of looking at how we want to live, being really critical about that and then using food to create that reality.

The way I want cities to be in the future is to have

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â&#x20AC;&#x153;Our tastes are driven by the architecture around us, the pace and the rhythm of a world of work and leisure that cannot be sustained. One of the deepest and long-term projects of food sovereignty involves addressing our built world. Challenging a local food architecture means rethinking open space.â&#x20AC;?

(320, Patel). From the book, Stuffed and Starved.

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