In Transit Fostering civic awareness through reintegrated public space.
In Transit
Jeff Hammerquist Senior Thesis, Jackson Studio College of Architecture and Environmental Design Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo
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Thesis
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Precedent
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Site
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Form
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Product
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. Fostering Civic Awareness Varied Urban Space
The Seattle Waterfront
Dynamic Environments Integrated Public Space
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Thesis: Fostering Civic Awareness Through Reintegrated Public Space
Reintegration Our conception of ourselves as bodies and minds located in the city has fallen behind the realities of the modern metropolis. Today’s city, as distinct from earlier human civilizations, is characterized by a disintegration of its population into groups divided by class, ethnicity, and age, causing a loss of a greater civic identity amongst its citizens.
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Instead, we as citizens are increasingly aware of ourselves as individuals interconnected through global networks in a virtual space outside of and invisible to the city around us. However, because our day to day lives still occur in the space of the city, we share a common stake in the welfare of our cities and in the forces that shape them.
A successful architecture will encourage civic engagement amongst citizens by maximizing the effect of visual and phenomenal adjacencies occuring in the city.
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The Four Corners: an example of a location given relevance by abstract political boundaries.
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Regional Identity How is regional identity defined? The American Heritage Dictionary defines a region as either “1) A large, usually continuous segment of a surface or space,” or as “2) An area [or sphere] of interest or activity.” The former definition is what we think of most commonly when we consider regions: one describing our physical whereabouts and how they are geographically defined. For example, the term ‘Greater Puget Sound’ refers to a region in Washington State geographically defined by the Cascade Range to the east and the Puget Sound to the west, and is easily drawn on a map. However, geographic borders and boundaries are rarely adequate to describe the complexity of how regions are defined in the minds of their residents.
Psychologically, a region is defined by how aware we are of it. The extent to which we are aware of our environment depends on how visible it is to us, how accessible it is, and how much we actually choose to look at it. Imagine shading the total area of space you see or experience in one day or one month on a map. This is the space encompassed in your gaze, or the space that is visibly accessible to you. Everything you are aware of that occurs outside of this space is due to a secondary source of information, which you understand by basing it on your immediate surroundings and on memories of spaces you have previously occupied. 9
Anyone who has shown out-of-town visitors around their hometown knows the feeling of rediscovering a familiar place through new eyes. This occurs when one’s gaze expands to encompass additional perspectives or times of day. An experiment conducted by Guy Debord, a key figure in the Situationist movement of the 1960s, tracked and mapped the daily motions of a girl along the streets of Paris for one month. The resulting map demonstrated that although her daily destinations were in disparate locations around the city, her psychogeographic gaze encompassed only a small portion of the city. Though the girl likely thought of herself as a citizen of Paris, how much of the city did she truly identify with? Perhaps the girl was aware of the city in other ways.
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Los Angeles is a good example of how
a region’s understanding of itself can be transformed by new technology. Before the ubiquity of aerial imagery, the collective gaze of Los Angelenos had been previously complied from their everyday one-on-one encounters with the those in world around them. This changed dramatically when the first news helicopter began rebroadcasting images of the city from above back to its residents; Suddenly Los Angeles was aware of itself as a orthograhpically mapped mega-region connected, divided and defined by a system of freeways. Although the condition itself was not new, the people’s understanding of themselves as part of a region was fundamentally transformed, their gaze having been artificially extended.
Aerial photograph of Burbank in 1983
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How do virtual connections affect a region?
The Good: New connections formed between geographically disparate people can bring a region together.
The Bad: Connections made with people outside the region perpetuates cultural divisions within.
Now that our digitally augmented gaze extends across borders and continents, the way we identify ourselves as belonging to a region is changing. •••
Opportunities for chance encounters in our everyday lives are an essential part of widening our gaze: they are the roots of the city’s potential as an educational entity. From the French Revolution to the birth of jazz, some of mankind’s richest cultural inventions 12
were born from the generative potential of urban life. As people of different origins, ages and cultures mix and build new relationships across divisions and differences, their understanding of others and of themselves deepens and lets human vitality and ingenuity flourish. However, it is also human to crave the familiar or to avoid the uncomfortable, and not all things encompassed in our gaze are familiar or comfortable. While machine- and information-age technologies have introduced new and novel ways to bring us together, they have also given us opportunities to remove chance from our lives and to ignore things we would rather not see.
Some argue that the telephone marked the beginning of the end to face-toface communication. No longer did businessmen need to leave the confines of their office to communicate with someone in another office: executives could deliver intrapersonal messages themselves, emptying the street of couriers and messenger boys. Perhaps this change was welcomed by all, but the streetscape suffered a reduced cast of characters nonetheless. Television and film brought foreign settings and ideas to new audiences and were lauded as being the key to a more educated populous, but they too had their effects on interpersonal contact: entertainment became less of a community event and more something enjoyed from the comfort and security of ones own living room. The motorcar, however, was never seriously touted as being universally beneficial to society; rather it was seen as a means for individual escape, of complete personal freedom. This fit nicely with the American dream, and so
at the end of the century the average American family owned 1.9 cars. Not many understood the true value of what an asset they had posessed in their urban conditions, and even fewer understood the devastating effects the car would eventually have on those very conditions. •••
The car itself has always functioned as a “viewing machine”, allowing us to bypass places or conditions we find unpleasant while remaining safely inside a miniature environment completely under our own control (Networked Publics, 21). While one could argue that we maintain visible access to our surroundings when we travel by car, we do so as a passive observer and only in traumatic circumstances does the environment outside our windows affect us directly.
Freeway under construction ca. 1950. The city streets below are left in neglect and shadow
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Today’s typical workday consists mostly of sedentary, solitary activity. Email has allowed us to avoid unnecessary desk visits, while automated commerce means less face time with employees. Even social life now takes place largely online, reducing our need to keep up with people in person. So, with little room in our lives left to chance and most of our day spent alone in front of a screen, steering wheel or shopping cart, where is it best to intervene and nurture a new awareness? This task would best be accomplished during an idle time in our day when we have the closest physical proximity to each other: our time in transit.
Where do we still brush up against eachother in everyday life?
or 10% of wakeful hours.
Average time spent in the car: 1.482 hr/day
The freeway and the car became america’s transportation method of choice partly because it allowed city businessmen to move untouched through the less pleasant, often impoverished fringes of the city to the verdant, virgin landscape waiting just beyond. Thus they could have the best of both worlds without riding a crowded trolley through the third. However, now that suburbs in the US have swelled to hold half of
its growing population, land use habits resulting from the freeway itself have in many cases loaded it beyond its useful capacity, ending the freedom of mobility previously enjoyed by car owners. Once rich with social potential, transportation today is often a solo affair.
74.8
77.5
80.3
69.0 63.3 56.1 44.6 34.0 28.4
13.8
47.8 15.3
23.3
30.9
37.6
44.8
46.2
50.0
Suburbs
Central cities
9.2
7.1
21.2
24.8
1910
1920
30.8
1930
32.5
32.8
32.3
31.4
1940
1950
1960
1970
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, decennial census of population, 1910 to 2000.
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30.0
31.3
30.3
1980
1990
2000
Bicyclists reclaim the Alaskan Way Viaduct in Seattle during an event called critical mass.
Space at Different Speeds Due to both physiological and psychological reasons, we experience the same space differently at different speeds. While physical impediments such as a curvy road can slow us down, our reduced speed is partly due to the fact that as we move more quickly, our eyes lose the ability to focus on nearby objects and our gaze extends further in front of us. We also spend less time in any one place when moving rapidly, giving us less time to process it as a unique space. Often we are aware of the composite effect of these spaces as seen in rapid succession: that is we are aware of our immediate environment as a condition rather than a space itself. Psychologically, moving at an elevated speed through an environment has an
isolating affect. It as a phenomenon is born of trying to minimize the time spent between point A and point B, therefore bypassing the stuff in between. However, while ‘slow’ space keeps us in touch with the city around us, the ability to move quickly through a dense area allows us better physical access to the city’s diverse geography, letting us expand our gaze. Perhaps there is a happy medium:
a means of travel which does not isolate us from the space we pass through, but still allows us to do so quickly. 17
Precedent: Varied Urban Space
A rich variety of uses make the Galata Bridge in Istanbul, Turkey much more than just a way across the water.
Galata Bridge Istanbul, Turkey
The Galata Bridge in Istanbul exemplifies how transportation infrastructure can enrich its urban surroundings instead of detracting from them. The bridge’s success is partly due to its utility: it is a bottleneck that provides one of the only routes across the golden horn. It is used by pedestrians, cars, and a tram line running across the city, giving it the requisite foot traffic to sustain commerce successfully. The bridge’s lower deck, perched underneath the upper car deck and just above the water’s surface, houses dozens of vendors that take advantage of the high volume of traffic. To allow a place for boats to pass under the bridge, all foot traffic crossing the bridge must climb stairs to the upper deck to cross its entire length. However, these staircases, born from necessity,
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have a fortunate consequence; Foot traffic wishing to bypass the crowded lower deck can cross on the upper deck, but can still change halfway across the bridge. The bridge’s prominent location on the water is visible from the water’s edge up and down the horn, and the bustle of the commerce on the lower deck is prominently displayed. By maximizing the spectacle of the bridge crossing, the bridge serves as an advertisement for the shops below as well as providing onlookers with an intuitive understanding of their options for crossing the water. It focuses the urban activities of transportation and of commerce into a highly visible node, encouraging chance occurrences by letting activities overlap.
The Highline New York City, New York
The Highline, New York City’s new linear park, is sited atop an abandoned rail line which used to serve the city’s meat packing district. Once reserved exlusively for noisy freight trains, the elevated platform when complete will let the public experience the city from an entirely new perspective. Winding above, alongside and through buildings, the landscaped pathway allows its users a verdant break from the chaos of the street below. While the fixed width of the abandoned railway does not allow for much spacial variation throughout the line, idiosyncratic spaces are carved from branches and nodes along the way. These spaces are instrumental in the park’s success: by providing a varying visual and spacial experience they serve as landmarks for navigation as well as inspiration for playfulness and curiosity. Although the park’s linear nature suggests primarily kinetic use such as jogging or walking, the spaces provide opportunities for different sedentary activities as well. Equally important to the park’s success was the design of the city codes shaping future modifications to the park and its surrounding buildings. Interestingly, these codes restrict connections to the park from adjacent buildings, citing the potential risk of the park to be taken over by private uses as a concern. While this restriction does prevent the park from becoming just another busy street, perhaps a synthesis between public and private space could allow for further variation in form and function.
The Hudson River as viewed from the Highline Park.
A couple appropriates auditorium-style seating for personal use.
Wooden lounges roll on the old tracks, letting park patrons reconfigure them.
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The Pike Place Market Seattle, Washington
As one of Seattle’s most precious cultural and historic gems, the Pike Place Market is renowned for its numerous sights, sounds and idiosyncrasies. It is Seattle’s most visited destination for tourists, but also manages to attract an equally large crowd of city natives with its fresh produce, diverse array of restaurants and excellent crowd watching. The market’s success, however, is not due to its reputation alone: its spacial diversity together with its rich history ensures its continuing success. While other historic areas of the city such as Pioneer Square undergo periods of boom and bust, the Pike Place Market rarely sees a downturn. This is partly due to the diverse makeup of the market’s visitors; Between its barbershops, restaurants and bars there are destinations for a wide array of people during the day and night. Pioneer square, while it hosts a similar variety of shops and venues, is less concentrated and varied than the market and thus does not always achieve the critical mass needed to sustain a vibrant streetlife. Since places such as the market evolve slowly over time, it is impossible to achieve such a rich variety of use and space in new development. However, its success is certainly a good model to consider when planning new, successful urban spaces in a modern city. The key lies in the cooperation of local government, private industry and the citizens, which requires civic awareness of all parties. 22 The Market’s covered main arcade allows patrons a break from the rainy weather outside
A mixture of indoor and outdoor spaces, as well as street widths as narrow as an alley and as wide as a boulevard, give the market the diversity of use with which it thrives.
Car and foot traďŹƒc coexist without explicit direction from signs thanks to the high concentration of pedestrians.
A convoluted maze of shops under the main arcade allow discovery in a world with too little mystery.
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Site: The Seattle Waterfront
Puget Sound Bainbridge Island
Seattle
Vashon Island
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Bellevue
Redmond
Seattle, Washington Part of the Greater Puget Sound Region.
Seattle’s unique geography and aging waterfront make it an ideal site for an investigation of spaces in transit. Because both the city of Seattle and the greater Seattle area are mountainous and nestled between several bodies of water, population centers are relatively dense and sprawl has occurred mainly to the north and south of the city. Improvements to the bridges spanning Lake Washington as well as Microsoft’s eastside location have led to the rapid growth of the population centers east of the lake, and while these cities have attracted large employers with their cheaper real estate prices, many people still commute into Seattle on a daily basis. Since the region has only recently begun significant investment in regional transportation, most trips taken are by private car. While the region’s geography has saved the region from excessive sprawl, it has also forced the region’s arterial transportation routes into a few narrow bottlenecks, causing some of the worst highway congestion in the nation.
While the interstate highway system will remain essential to the city for the foreseeable future, however congested, a new light rail system planned for the region will give people another way to get around which does not involve being confined to the walls of their automobile in a traffic jam. However, it is not enough to solve the region’s transporation challenges. The city has recently launched a Bike Master Plan aimed at reinstating the bicycle as a viable means of transporation around the city. While the plan promises to make biking a little easier,
changing the way people get around will require significant changes to the city’s streets, policies, and priorities after years of car-centric road and infrastucture design. 27
Commercial reuse of piers vacated by industry has shaped the modest successes of today’s waterfront; The piers’ interesting histories and unobstructed harbor views make them valuable components of the waterfront’s future.
Some buildings in the shadow of the viaduct outdate it, and are therefore well suited to a waterfront without it. Howerver, most buildings have turned their good sides away from the waterfront towards Western Avenue and will need significant modifications to take advantage of a new Alaksan Way.
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The Central Waterfront And adjacent Alaksan Way Viaduct
The Seattle Waterfront, once the busy economic center of one of the west’s larger port cities, has long laid in neglect under the shadow of the Alaksan Way viaduct. Built in 1953 at the climax of America’s love affair with the motorcar,
the viaduct now stands as a noisy barrier between Seattle and its Maritime origins. Its twin elevated highway decks carry 110,000 cars a day above a dense urban center with the highest population density in the northwest, leaving the
streets below lifeless and in shadow. Attempts have been made to reconnect the city with its harbor, such as the George Benson Streetcar that ran between Pioneer square and the northern waterfront, but the waterfront’s problems run deeper than limited access; Due to the increasing size of container ships and a dwindling fish supply, industry has vanished entirely from the waterfront. The few remaining piers, now filled with a strange assortment of chain restaurants and tourist shops, struggle to remain relevant to the rest of the city.
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Pine Pike
Bainbridge Islan
td Ferry
Bremerton Ferry
Potential Waterfront Foot Traffic Existing High Foot Traffic > 10% Slope
Pioneer Square
10’ Contours 0
400’
800’
1/4 mi.
The waterfront’s potential to create a vibrant corridor between the Pike/Pine neighborhood and Pioneer Square.
Fortunately, change is imminent. In 1999 the Alaskan Way viaduct was structurally compromised by the Nisqually earthquake and it became clear that the structure, no longer deemed safe for public use, needed to be replaced. The city of Seattle together with government at county and state levels has voted to move forward with a plan to replace the viaduct with a bored tunnel by 2016. At that time, the viaduct will be demolished and the streets below will once again see the light of day. However, there is not yet a consensus about what to do with the two mile long swath of valuable land the viaduct will leave behind when it goes. Preliminary visuals released by The State of Washington, while only schematic, 30
show the area covered by a vast expanse of nothingness. While self-admittedly incomplete, these images show a dearth of creative solutions to the waterfront’s unique challenges at the state level. The city’s plan for the waterfront, though more developed than the state’s, is still vague and inconclusive, suggesting the viaduct be replaced with a strip park of primarily open space. While nothing is wrong with a little open space,
little will be added to the waterfront to get at the root of its real crisis: a lack of diversity in use.
The Washington State Department of Transportation’s proposal for the Seattle Waterfront is clearly all about the car: the roadway lies directly in the middle of an otherwise indiscriminate and useless open space left for ‘other uses’.
The City of Seattle’s plan isn’t much better: it is equally vague about how the vast space between exsiting buildings and the road’s edge is used, but make it look smaller with grossly out of scale pedestrians.
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Republic Parking Lot between Seneca and Spring streets.
Currently tucked away behind the Alaskan Way viaduct is an undeveloped parcel of land rare in the heart of downtown Seattle. It is two car decks and several years away from one of the best views in the city, and is perfectly situated between the successful Pike Place maket and Pioneer Square neighborhoods. These qualities, along
Alaskan Way
Eliott Bay
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The city block between Seneca and Spring streets is currently used as a parking lot. When the viaduct is removed, the lot will increase half again in size and enjoy frontage to a new Alaksan Way, making it a prime candidate for redevelopment.
with its full block footprint, mean the site is ripe for something more than another office builing. Downtown Seattle lacks a decently sized park as well as a sizeable outdoor venue to host large events. If only the park were a little higher to capture the view of Eliott Bay over the low roofs of the piers.
Highway 99 Viaduct
ine
Original Shorel
Western Avenue
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Pier 49
Original site of the Denny Mill
This particular section of the waterfront has been witness to every stage of Seattle’s growth from a native american fishing village to today’s urban center. Its current state of decay gives few clues as to its rich history, save for the pergola entrance to the old Washington Street Boat Landing. The site was the original landing point of the Denny family upon their arrival in Seattle, as well as the site of the Denny mill which processed timber logged inland. Years of ballast unloaded from freight ships slowly moved Seattle’s shoreline from its previous location just south of first avenue southward to its current location. Alaskan way was built
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The Seawall’s poor state of repair is evident in this picture of a condemned dog park alongside pier 49. If designed appropriately, new development on the waterfront could soften the edge between land and water and avoid the expense of maintaining such a hard edge.
shortly after the turn of the century, serving the waterfront’s numerous commercial piers, and Pier 49 became the primary non-commercial access point to Eliott Bay as a public boat landing. Because the bay in this area is relatively shallow, the site not only provides a unique opportunity to develop a facility to showcase Seattle’s diverse history,
it also allows the possbility of restoring the shoreline and reconnecting Seattle with the the waters of Eliott Bay.
Original Denny Sawmill Historic Boat Landing Original Shoreline
All that remains of the public boat landing that was once located at pier 49 is its pergola. The decrepit structure reminds us of a time when the bay was a much bigger part of the average Seattleite’s city experience than it is today.
The rock wave-break piled against the seawall near pier 49 shows that the seafloor is relatively shallow in this area. Such a site is ideal for re-establishing public access to the water’s edge and reaquainting Seattle’s citizens with the vitality of their harbor.
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In the 1970’s, several piers were cleared to make room for Seattle’s current ferry terminal. Lost were the original streetfront facades of the piers’ sheds, only to be replaced by a parking lot and a few hundred feet of barbed wire fence.
As an attempt to make the terminal more attractive to walk on commuters, a skybridge carries passengers across Alaskan Way and Western Avenue directly to First Avenue. It effectively isolates the ferry terminal from its surroundings, giving no reason for commuters to set foot on the waterfront even in passing.
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Washington State Ferry Terminal Serving routes to Bainbridge Island and Bremerton.
As the third largest auto-carrying ferry system in the world, Washington State Ferries carry thousands of cars per day across the Puget Sound. Technically considered to be a part of the state highway system, the ferries were once thought of as an interim solution put in place until the state built bridges across the sound. Building such a bridge today would be prohibitively expensive, and the benefit gained from doing so is questionable. Many of the Puget Sound’s ferry terminals are not near major population centers and thus are mostly used by drive-on passengers. The Seattle waterfront is a strange location for such a terminal: its dense urban location makes access by car difficult, and it cannot easily provide the large amount of space required by cars waiting to board the next ferry. The illogical placement of today’s terminal is probably due to the fact that the region’s reliance on the automobile evolved over time, and
the expansion of the ferry system’s car carrying capacity was equally as incremental. Walk on ferries have been been tested by the state for popularity, but no route has had overwhelming success due to the lack of good transportation options at either end of the route. While the state is currently developing plans for a new, larger ferry terminal with increased car capacity, the imminent redevelopment of the waterfront corridor provides a great opportunity for the opposite approach; If the waterfront’s new design is truly inclusive of all forms of transit and walking or biking are given priority,
the terminal’s footprint could instead be reduced, allowing more space on the waterfront for people instead of cars.
The pedestrian entrance to the Ferry Terminal as it appears today. The terminal itself is visually inaccessible from the street, making it uninviting to passers by on Alaskan Way.
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Form: Dynamic Environments
Vaugue Space
0
200’
400’
800’
Spacial Compression The benefits of varied spacial density
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The proposed plan for the Seattle waterfront calls for a linear park to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct after it is demolished in 2019. At over 120 feet wide and nearly a mile long, the space created by the elevated highway’s removal allows for a much richer diversity of uses and users than can be afforded by a single use park. Instead, a comprehensive plan for the waterfront should accomodate a rich variety of functions and varying spacial conditions
suitable for different kinds of urban activities. While open space is a valuable asset to any city, its value is maximized when it is adjacent to densely populated spaces. Dense spaces too are valuable to city life, as evidenced in Seattle by the Pike Place Market and Pioneer Square. By modulating the spacial density of the new waterfront, a maximum variety of uses are accomodated and encouraged.
Swap
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400’
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To provide the central waterfront with the varied spactial density essential for its success, open space is concentrated in nodes idiosyncratically sutied to a specific genre of activities or interests. This gives each node a unique sense of place and helps showcase particular events or activities to the passing public. Paths for vehicles, bicycles and pedestrians are woven between these nodes, maximizing proximity between path and node while minimizing the
width of the paths’ collective footprint at the space in between nodes.
Together, open space nodes along with woven circulation provide a dynamic, continually changing experience for those travelling past the waterfront as well as diverse destinations for those travelling to the waterfront itself. 41
Formal Studies
Drawing From The Natural Environment
Through a series of explorations, I investigate the functional and effectual potential of four distinct spacial conditions within the context of the waterfront. Each is based on an analogue condition occuring in the natural environment and is achieved by manipulating a different formal element, such as a path, field, surface or canopy.
By drawing formal inspiration from the rich natural environment of the pacific northwest, a new scheme for the Seattle Waterfront will mediate the harsh edge between the downtown cityscape and Puget Sound by playing off of the spacial cues we already know from our surroundings.
Study 1: Path Varied circulation
A path’s width and curvature both affect the speed and comfort at which it can be traversed. Long, straight paths which are of a consistent width allow faster and more direct travel than those which have varying widths or curvatures. This happens regardless of the mode of travel, affecting pedestrians, bikes and vehicles similarly. However, due to scale differences the same path can feel drastically different when experienced via different modes and speeds.
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Study 2: Field Density and exposure
A path moving through a field of solids is no longer an object to travel along but a field through which to move. Variations in object size and spacing give the field varying spactial characteristics, allowing different routes through the same medium to vary in time or density.
along with the variable nature of a field’s density, makes it a good strategy for maximizing the ‘streetfront’ facade space required by commerce or retail along the new waterfront.
Moving through a field, rather than alongside a barrier or edge, maximizes the surface area of the boundary separating field and object. This quality,
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Study 3: Surface
Focused space and seamless transitions
Varied, non-planar topographies create unique opportunities across a surface for moving in/under or out/over. Much like object fields, contoured spaces create variable conditions along a consistent surface when traversed. This affords more possibilities and spacial conditions than conventional, stacked space does. Contoured surfaces can focus or defocus space by their concavity; Concave spaces focus views, motion and sound while
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convex spaces dissipate or decentralize them. Connections between elevated or nonelevated space on the waterfront should take advantage of contoured surfaces to facilitate seamless transitions between the two and to focus views in open spaces.
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Study 4: Canopy Light and visual access
A challenge inherent in creating outdoor spaces underneath elevated surfaces is keeping them well lit, comfortable and visually permeable. Most over- or underpasses in urban environments fail at this task, creating cold and lifeless spaces which attract crime and neglect. Typically, elevated surfaces get better views, better light, and better accessibility, subordinating the space underneath them to second class status. For mode seperation to work on the
Seattle waterfront, spaces created when one path crosses over another need to be open, well lit, and attractively unique in some way. A light supportive structure, a reflective or lighly colored underside, and permeations in the upper surface can provide light and visual access to the spaces underneath.
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Product: Integrated Public Space
Integrated Public Space
Maximizing the effect of physical and visual adjacencies.
The new Seattle waterfront focuses urban activity in several nodes along its length, each one specially suited to a particular use. Individuals travelling through the waterfront skirt around or through each node, keeping them aware of activities occuring in the city around them. A new elevated pedestrian and bike path provides a fast way in and out of the city for these low impact modes of travel, making their convenience competitive
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to that of the car. The path also affords its users a new way to view the city from above, a privilege now reserved for those travelling north on Highway 99. Additions and modifications to existing structures minmize waste and help older structures take full advantge of the new urban environment being created along Alaskan Way.
Alaskan Way is pushed toward the water in some places and pulled back in others, creating useable areas on alternating sides of the road instead of dividing the waterfront into two useless strips.
Building facades also create wider and narrower spaces along the waterfront, creating spacial interest and focusing open space in nodes.
Multiple changes in direction along the length of the road and the elevated causeway provide constantly changing views of the city and its surroundings.
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1
1
Fast Space This path provides a fast route in and out of the city for people on foot or bike, making these low impact forms of transit equally as convenient as the car.
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2 3 4 5 6 7
Aerial Farm A new permaculture facility close to the Pike Place Market provides the city’s residents education about how to grow their own produce in an urban environment.
Watch & Perform A new indoor/outdoor theater draws art patrons to the waterfront while allowing passing individuals to participate in their own spontaneous performances.
Shop & Work Terraced platforms and double level shops draw the commerce of the waterfront up into the adjacent buildings rather than keeping it isolated to the street level.
Stay & Go A new commuter hotel and adjacent square provide benefits for ferry commuters. The square encourages all modes of transit using the ferry system to mix, keeping individuals aware of eachother’s needs, while the hotel provides a place to sleep for those just missing the last ferry.
Play & Rest Shoreline access, a new beach and a barge-top pool facility create a space for Seattleites to recreate in the heart of the city, while the adjacent grove of evergreen trees provides a place for rest and reflection on the city’s unique history.
Bike Commuter Station Bike commuter stations spaced out along the raised causeway allow bike commuters to store their bikes in automated storage facilities and shower before walking into the city core to their workplaces. 0
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100’
200’
500’
7 3
4
7 4
7 5
6
7
55
1
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Fast Space An elevated path for pedestrians and bicyclists A new elevated causeway provides a quick route along the waterfront for pedestrians and bicyclists but still allows ample access to the street level. The space below the causeway is visually connected to activity on its surface through grated holes, which also allow light through.
Causeway railings, at their full height, encase trusses, allowing the causeway to span long distances at street crossings with minimal deck thickness.
Grated holes allow light and sound to pass through causeway to the sidewalk below, visually and aurally connecting the two spaces.
The causeway’s unibody steel casing uses ship building technology, serving both as skin and structure. Individual segments can be built offsite and assembled in place.
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Potential Scenarios
Early studies in possible functions for the elevated causeway.
Kiosk The small structure to the side of the causeway in this scenario functions both as a way to enter or leave the elevated path as well as location for a small kiosk.
Seating Variations in the causeway’s profile provide an opportunity to rest and watch the activity of the street below.
Ramp A circular ramp in the center of the causeway provides an easy way for bicyclists to enter and leave the elevated path. By spanning both levels, the columns that support overhead canopy help connect the space below the causeway with the space above it. 59
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Looking north along Alaskan Way
Aerial view of the southern waterfront and ferry terminal
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3
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Watch & Perform A new performance venue for Seattle’s burgeoning music scene.
Despite its burgeoning music scene, Seattle lacks good outdoor venues for large or medium performances. A new ampitheater park would allow planned and spontaneous performances to occur in a high profile location highly visible to the adjacent pedestrian and bicycle artery.
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During normal daytime conditions, Alaskan way operates as a through street, keeping traffic light on Spring and Seneca streets for primarily pedestrian use.
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During evening concerts or special events, traffic from Alaskan Way can be temporarily rerouted to Western Avenue to provide more space for the ampitheater’s pedestrian plaza. Se
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Rooftop Park To maximize the usefulness of the site, easy rooftop access provides space for a park above as well as an indoor performance venue below.
Views The causeway’s location behind the stage of the ampitheater puts its users on stage, making biking and walking highly visible to spectators from the park.
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A section showing the indoor performance venue, the tiered outdoor amitheater seating, and the rooftop park.
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Outdoor Ampitheater
A new outoor ampitheater on a rooftop park provides a much needed venue for live performances in downtown Seattle while allowing a view over the existing piers to the bay beyond.
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Shop & Work New mixed-use development to attract a diverse array of users to the waterfront.
While the Pike/Pine corridor at the Viaduct’s north end and the the Pioneer Square District at its south end both sport a diverse array of uses and inhabitants, today’s waterfront lacks such diversity. Previously used for industry, the buildings lining the waterfront turn east away from its dirt and din towards western avenue and the rest of the city. In the wake of the
viaduct, these buildings will have premium views and street exposure to a newly rebuilt Alaskan Way. To take full advatage of this condition, existing buildings would get new ‘front ends’, opening their facades to the street and providing terraced rooftop space for private and public uses.
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Crossroads The building serves as a connection between the slow space of the street and the accelerated space of the elevated causeway, giving it relevance and visibility to both user groups. a Al a sk n ay W ison
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The building’s tiered design allows it to host a diversity of tenants or uses. As is typical for mixed use buildings, the ground floor is amenable to retail. Two sets of stairs, an elevator and proximity to the elevated causeway elevate public access to the second floor, allowing for additional retail or services. The existing office space also benefits from more well lit floor space and roof access.
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A glass curtain wall facade showcases the diverse contents of the tiered structure, allowing instant legibility from the street. Open facades on the upper levels of new development on the waterfront take advanage of the uninterrupted views present at these heights.
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Human Scale
New waterfront development hosting retail and oďŹƒce space creates an appropriately scaled streetscape by hugging the side of the street. A publically accessbile terrace at the level of the elevated causeway pulls streetlife up to another level by providing an additional level of retail.
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Stay & Go A new commuter hotel, a transit square, and a new entrance to the existing terminal.
Seattle’s ferry terminal is the largest hub of the Washington State Ferry System, the worlds third-largest ferry network. Ferries carry over 23 million riders annually both in cars and on foot to various destinations in the puget sound. While originally thought of as a stand-in for vehicle bridges across the sound, the ferry network and Seattle’s terminal is primarily designed for vehicle commuters. With on-foot ridership on the rise and the state’s plan to significantly reduce vehicle miles travelled statewide by 2030, the existing terminal needs an overhaul to better accomodate pedestrian traffic.
A commuter hotel extends the useful hours of the ferry system, allowing commuters to stay in the city past the last ferry and catch one the next morning. This will serve not only downtown employers but also the city’s nightlife establishments.
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Pedestrian Access
Entrances to the ferry terminal and the hotel are both located on the central plaza, engaging pedestrians and adding life to the street.
Vehicle Access The waiting lot’s vehicle entrance is situated in the square but its surface is materially simliar to the pedestrian space surrounding it. This is done intentionally to bring all ferry users in to the same space when entering the terminal to maximize their awareness of each other.
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Plaza space on the roof of the new terminal building provides space for bicyclists and pedestrians travelling on the elevated path to stop and enjoy the views of the square below and the bay beyond.
Fast Space The elevated causeway provides easy bike and pedestrian access to the ferry terminal at its level.
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A section through the commuter hotel and adjoining restaurant.
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Mixed Traffic
A new commuter hotel and adjacent square provide options for commuters just missing the last ferry. The square encourages all modes of transit using the ferry system to mix, keeping individuals aware of eachother’s needs.
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Play & Rest New beachfront access, an evergreen grove, and a barge-top swimming facility.
As industry has left Seattle’s waterfront, the water of Elliott Bay has become increasingly attractive to recreational uses. However, accessing it is still difficult: a large seawall, previously necessary for the deep hulls of cargo ships, prevents the public from reaching the water’s edge. North of the waterfront, the new Olympic Sculpture park includes a small beach where people are able to reach the water, but its size and location keep it as
a novelty. A new recreational harbor in Seattle will showcase new recreational opportunities including a barge-top floating swimming pool and spa, sport facilities in a new evergreen grove, and of course water access for boating.
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Water Access
Shoreline access, a new beach and a barge-top pool facility create a space for Seattleites to recreate in the heart of the city, while the adjacent grove of evergreen trees provides a place for rest and reflection on the city’s unique history.
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Swiss Army Chair The workings of the toy embody a kind of moral lesson, rewarding its user for patience and cunning while penalizing the unreasoned application of more strength. The toy itself is in this way a physical manifestation of a riddle, which through its solution can be owned by its solver. A riddle intrigues us by constructing a fictional world whose logic must be followed to arrive at an answer. The solver of the riddle must accept the projected realities of the fiction and play the game of the riddle to solve it, else face defeat: not playing along with the riddle is an admission of inability. The finger trap works in the same way: It does not allow one to give up but traps him and forces him to discover its logic. The words ‘Chinese finger trap’ are in fact used as a metaphor for a belief system that includes punishment for disbelief in itself. Once the initial challenge of solving the riddle itself is over, its fun then lies in posing it to others to solve. This puts the solver in a position of power, letting them posses and utilize a specific kind of 88
knowledge which is satisfying in much the same way that opening a padlock is. How can furniture embody a tradition, riddle, or idea? A double handled sugar pot in a tea set is an example of an object surprising in its fitness for its specific use, which in its case is passing sugar between tea drinkers. One handle is for the passer, and the other is for the recipient to grab when receiving the dish. The object anticipates and facilitates the act of passing sugar more so than a normal dish without handles would. The swiss army chair is at first glance only a cube of limited functionality, but hints visually at other possibilities. In every configuration, functional remnants from other configurations remind us of the chair’s multiple functions. Once one ‘figures out’ the chair’s workings, he develops a sense of ownership much like a craftsman and his well worn tools. There is then sense of play in demonstrating this new skill to others.
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