Saravia 2015 Thesis Book

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Reanimating the Gateway City This Final Project is presented to The Faculty of the School of Architecture by Jorge Saravia In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Architecture Kennesaw State University, Marietta, Georgia Spring Semester 2015

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Thesis Collaborative 2014-2015 Request for Approval of Project Book Department of Architecture School of Architecture and Construction Management Southern Polytechnic Sate University

Student’s Full Name: Jorge Alberto Saravia Mercado II

Approved by:

Thesis Project Title: Reanimating the Gateway City

Internal Advisor 1 _______________________

Date ______

Internal Advisor 2 _______________________

Date ______

Thesis Summary:

Peter Pittman

Durham Crout

Student Signature _______________________

Date _______ Thesis Coordinator _______________________ Professor Elizabeth Martin-Malikain

Date ______

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Dedicated to: Teodoro Mercado 1943-2015 Father, Mentor, Best Friend

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Acknowledgement

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Contents

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Table of Contents 1.1:: DesignTheorem 1.2.1::Case Study: Ville Contemporaine Plan 1.2.2::Case Study: Garden cities 1.2.3::Case Study: Le Parc de la Villete Plan 1.3::Proposed Project Nature, Context and Rationale 1.4::Underlying Principles of the Design Hypothesis to the Proposed Project 1.5.1::Relevance of the Precedent Analysis to the Proposed Project 1.5.2::Roswell Mills and Old Mill Park 1.5.3::Historic Helen Family Events

2.1:: SiteContext 2.1.1::Site Selection of Proposed Project 2.1.2:: Usage Patterns 2.1.3::Site Potential 2.1.4::Geographical, Natural and Topographical Studies 2.1.5::Historical Time Line 2.2::Site Analysis 2.2.1:: Demographics and Age Analysis 2.2.2:: Refugee and Transportation Analysis 2.2.3::Education in Fitchburg 2.2.4::Fitchburg State College 2.2.5::Old Mills 2.2.6::Fitchburg’s Old Mills Spacial Analysis 2.2.7::Old Mills Visited 2.2.8::Mill Analysis 2.2.9::Fitchburg’s Vernacular 2.2.10::Beginnings of Fitchburg’s Urban Plan

2.3.1::Movement 2.3.2::Street Sections Public and Private Ratios 2.3.3::Zoning Ordinances and Density

3.0:: DesignProcess 3.1.1::Interviewing Citizens 3.1.2::Interviewing Citizens 3.2.1::Programmatic Points of Interest and Connectivity 3.2.3::Contextualism 3.2.4::Program Spatiality 3.2.5::Overlapping Contextualism 3.3::Inexplicit Scapes 3.4::Analysis Integration 3.5::Analysis Design Integration

04:: DesignSynthesis 4.1::Preliminary Documentation 4.2::Final Documentation

05:: Conclusions Appendices Class Notes Glossary Terms Bibliography List of Images, Figures and Charts

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01::Theorem A Persuasive Thesis Statement on Design Proposal for river based mill town: the relationship from the antiquated mills to both Main Street and the river front is necessary in order to create a cohesive design that in turn benefits the usage of the river as well as producing a programmatic solution of the empty mills. The decaying urban structure of Fitchburg can utilize these mills as programmatic opportunity to create a simple renovation that can promote Fitchburg’s growth. Other Mill Towns such as Lowell, have begun to renovate themselves and their success is astronomical while still keeping a strong sense of historical identity.

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Reanimating the Gateway City Redesigning a Dying Historic City

Fitchburg is a city that holds a series of complex urban decay issues, which is an inevitable result of its flawed city plan created in the early 1900’s. Located less than 40 minutes outside of Boston proper, the development of Fitchburg’s vehicular infrastructure now dominates the street scape and for the last 70 year Fitchburg has restricted its own urban growth. Since the Great Depression, the Fitchburg has moved away from its ideals of being an agricultural and industrial production center, to now commercialize based city. Fitchburg was never meant to hold commercialized programs within its infrastructure; therefore the city is on a collision course with poverty ridden streets.

The solution to this dilemma begins through the introduction of a 15 year step-by-step Urban Renewal Plan that connects the existing successful elements while simultaneously revoking the privileged of the vehicle and re-purposing the old textile mills to create the density that it once had, utilizing the flex spaces that were once used by the city. This creates an interchanging network of successful programmatic nodes that evokes the poignant historical responses and continue being: The Gateway City to Boston.

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1::INTRODUCTION 1.1::DESIGNHYPOTHESIS Fitchburg was once a a flourishing community that was the center of attention for over 25 smaller towns nearby.

Established along the banks of the Nashua River, Fitchburg utilized the current of the river to power the 28 mills that produced machine engine steel parts, guns and ammunition, textiles, cotton and wool for the soldiers during the Civil War, dimensional lumber, plastics and pharmaceuticals.

During the mid 1800’s, Fitchburg was the home of over 55,000 immigrants who worked in the mills. Today the cities infrastructure is still in its expansion of being capable of holding 55,000 residents but with only 39,000 residents, Fitchburg is empty and has no programmatic or cultural significance.

The town is primed for a radical intervention to attract new mercantilism and begin to produce jobs and housing for the local Fitchburg State University in order for the Down Town area to create its long lost identity.

Image 01: Down town Fitchburg

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1.2.1::Case Study: Ville Contemporaine Plan The Street The street of today is still the old bare ground which has been paved over, and under which a few tube railways have been run.

The modern street in the true sense of the word is a new type of organism, a sort of stretched-out workshop, a home for many complicated and delicate organs, such as gas, water, and electric mains. It is contrary to all economy, to all security, and to all sense to bury these important service mains. They ought to be accessible throughout their length. The various storeys of this stretched-out workshop will each have their own particular functions.

If this type of street, which I have called a “workshop,” is to be realized, it becomes as much a matter of construction as are the houses with which it is customary to flank it, and the bridges which carry it over valleys and across rivers.

The modern street should be a masterpiece of civil engineering and no longer a job for navies.

The “corridor-street” should be tolerated no longer, for it poisons the houses that border it and leads to the construction of small internal courts or “wells.”

Image 03: Case Study Wolfe, Ross. “Le Corbusier’s “contemporary City” (1925).”

The City, as a business and residential centre. The Industrial City in relation to the Garden Cities (i.e. the question of transport). The Garden Cities and the daily transport of the workers. Our first requirement will be an organ that is compact, rapid, lively and concentrated: this is the City with its well organized centre. Our second requirement will be another organ, supple, extensive and elastic; this is the Garden City on the periphery.

Wolfe, Ross. “Le Corbusier’s “contemporary City” (1925).” The CharnelHouse. N.p., 03 June 2014. Web. 29 Apr. 2015.

Population This consists of the citizens proper; of suburban dwellers; and of those of a mixed kind. (a) Citizens are of the city: those who work and live in it. (b) Suburban dwellers are those who work in the outer industrial zone and who do not come into the city: they live in garden cities. (c) The mixed sort are those who work in the business parts of the city but bring up their families in garden cities.

To classify these divisions (and so make possible the transmutation of these recognized types) is to attack the most important problem in town planning, for such a classification would define the areas to be allotted to these three sections and the delimitation of their boundaries. This would enable us to formulate and resolve the following problems:

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1.2.2::Case Study: Garden cities Garden cities: their aesthetic, economy, perfection, and modern outlook. A simple phrase suffices to express the necessities of tomorrow: WE MUST BUILD IN THE OPEN. The lay-out must be of a purely geometrical kind, with all its many and delicate implications.

The city of today is a dying thing because it is not geometrical. To build in the open would be to replace our present haphazard arrangements, which are all we have today, by a uniform layout. Unless we do this there is no salvation.

The result of a true geometrical layout is repetition. The result of repetition is a standard, the perfect form (i.e. the creation of standard types). A geometrical lay-out means that mathematics play their part. There is no first-rate human production but has geometry at its base. It is of the very essence of Architecture. To introduce uniformity into the building of the city we must industrialize building. Building is the one economic activity which has so far resisted industrialization. It has thus escaped the march of progress, with the result that the cost of building is still abnormally high.

The architect, from a professional point of view, has become a twisted sort of creature. He has grown to love irregular sites, claiming that they inspire him with original ideas for getting round them. Of course he is wrong. For nowadays the only building that can be undertaken must be either for the rich or built at a loss (as, for instance, in the case of municipal housing schemes), or else by jerry-building and so robbing the inhabitant of all amenities. A motorcar which is achieved by mass production is a masterpiece of comfort, precision, balance arid good taste. A house built to order (on an “interesting” site) is a masterpiece of incongruity — a monstrous thing. We must build in the open; both within the city and around it.

Image 04: Case Study: “Le Corbusier’s “contemporary City” (1925).”

Wolfe, Ross. “Le Corbusier’s “contemporary City” (1925).” The CharnelHouse. N.p., 03 June 2014. Web. 29 Apr. 2015.

Delbaere, Denis, and Frédéric Pousin. Table Rase Et Paysage Projet D’urbanisme Et Contextualité Spatiale Dans Le Plan Voisin De Le Corbusier (1925) Et La Cité Concorde De Le Maresquier (1954). S.l.: S.n., 2004. Print.

Then having worked through every necessary technical stage and using absolute ECONOMY, we shall be in a position to experience the intense joys of a creative art which is based on geometry.

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1.2.3::Case Study: Le Parc de la Villete Plan Architectural deconstructivism and the park There have been many criticisms of the park since its original completion. To some, the park has little concern with the human scale of park functions and the vast open space seem to challenge the expectation that visitors may have of an urban park. Bernard Tschumi designed the Parc de la Villette with the intention of creating a space that exists in a vacuum, something without historical precedent. The park strives to strip down the signage and conventional representations that have infiltrated architectural design and allow for the existence of a “non-place.” This non-place, envisioned by Tschumi, is the most appropriate example of space and provides a truly honest relationship between the subject and the object.

Visitors view and react to the plan, landscaping, and sculptural pieces without the ability to cross-reference them with previous works of historical architecture. The design of the park capitalizes on the innate qualities that are illustrated within architectural deconstructivism. By allowing visitors to experience the architecture of the park within this constructed vacuum, the time, recognitions, and activities that take place in that space begin to acquire a more vivid and authentic nature. The park is not acting as a spectacle; it is not an example of traditional park design such as New York City’s Central Park. The Parc de la Villette strives to act as merely a frame for other cultural interaction.

The park embodies anti-tourism, not allowing visitors to breeze through the site and pick and choose the sites they want to see. Upon arrival in the park, visitors are thrust into a world that is not defined by conventional architectural relationships.

The frame of the park, due to its roots in deconstructivism, tries to change and react to the functions that it holds within.

Image 05: Case Study: le Parc de la Villette (Princeton Architectural Press, 1987)

Bernard Tschumi, Cinégramme folie: le Parc de la Villette (Princeton Architectural Press, 1987) p. 32.

A. Papadakēs Deconstruction in Architecture (Academy Editions, 1988) p. 20-24.

Bernard Tschumi Disjunctions (MIT Press, 1987.) p. 108-119.

Bernard Tschumi and Yokio Futagawa Bernard Tschumi “Parc de la Villette” (A.D.A. Edita, 1997) p. 32

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Different to the diagrams with explanatory purpose we looked at, there are diagram as a generative devices using layering method. Peter Eisenman’s diagram for Wexner Center for the Arts is an example. Eisenman overlapped the university grid and city grid. He used this diagram as a generating scheme of the project, so he made the city grid to be continued in the site, so the two grid could actually meet as in the diagram.

Another example is Daniel Libeskind’s diagram for Urban Competition. In the first diagram, there are strips of texts, sometimes working as a bridge, and as a long box in other cases. They rotate around a plane and layered on top of another, but it is still very conceptual diagram. In the next one, the idea of text and diagram is evolved and articulated according to time. The 3-dimensional historical narratives are now arranged according to time, and a building form is generated by overlapping the forms made from the past.

Layering method has widely used in diagrams because of its ability to show information in clear, legible way. In diagrams for explanatory purposes, layering helps to see components of the building and structural systems in it. When a layer of information is highlighted than another, layering method can also effectively show specific information. As in Alan Berger’s diagrams, some layers of information can be rearranged to reveal another layer of idea. When layering method is used in generative diagram, the layered diagram is evolved into the actual design and the diagram itself becomes a design strategy.

Among other methods, the reason why layering is so broadly used might be that because it enables us to see in the ways what we think. What we actually see is not the individual layers, but the overlay of numerous layers which we even do not acknowledge in many times. However when we visualize the layers separately, we can see what it is more clearly and understand the project better. Also, the layered information itself becomes stimuli and allows us to observe new possibility or potential of the project. Although technology rapidly develops and new way of visualizing information is introduced, layering method will be extensively used in architectural diagrams for these reasons.

Image 06: Case Study: tschumi_ parc_de_la_villette_diagram

https://ksacommunity.osu.edu/system/files/tschumi_parc_de_la_villette_diagram.jpg “Layering Information.” KSA Community Ideas. Ohio State University, n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2015.

Garcia, Mark. “Layering Information.” The Diagrams of Architecture: AD Reader. 1st ed. Chichester: John Wiley and Sons, 2010. N. pag. Print.

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1.3::Proposed Project Nature, Context and Rationale Fitchburg is one of the many “Gateway City’s”, but the location of this city was one that helped supplement Lowell’s trade route with Canada but it was unique to the fact that if there was any trade done with the northeast parts of Massachusetts it passed through Fitchburg. It began as an agricultural community and then it was one of the centers of Massachusetts during the the Industrial Revolution. Since then, 92% of the once vibrant production mills have been abandoned and the city is failing in terms of maintaining its original identity.

The proposed nature of this project is a new a step-by-step Urban Plan that focusses on the existing successful programs of a dying Historic City and linking them using new pedestrian corridors. This solution will begin to integrate a comprehensive ideal of the existing buildings that are marked Historic to the City of Fitchburg and utilize those lots that are empty, burned, or unused. This begins to create a new avenue into the Main Street area where inhabitants or visitors can park, walk and are invited to be pulled through the progression of the street. By integrating programmatic festivities that are welcoming to the youth, Fitchburg State College students are more likely to move within the Historic District, thus promoting new specialized work to move into the larger mills to be reproposed and allow retention within Fitchburg’s Historic Main Street.

1.4::Underlying Principles of the Design Hypothesis to the Proposed Project The Industrial Revolution was a catalyst for the downfall of Fitchburg economic and population density, as residents were now moving towards the jobs that were located in Boston Harbor.

Meanwhile, Fitchburg’s population was quickly decreasing and the once Historic District had then fallen into an out-of-date municipality with no new industry moving in.

Civic development has since then put on hold as the commercialized revolution had never interfused with the city’s infrastructure. In order to propel this community there has been an advanced development in the way that Fitchburg promotes their rich History and re-introduce specialized work into the city limits. Re-purposing the Old Mills into a place professionalism will help to develope the social construction. Newly developed areas will promote housing due to the mere fact that college students attending Fitchburg State College will be more inclined to staying within Fitchburg. Through the process of historical analysis the understanding of Fitchburg’s complex decay issues the understanding of what the city actually needs. Each move is made as a precedent from Lowell’s Master Plan.

In conclusion, creating a new urban life that encourages safety and small business development while taking away the attributes of the privileged vehicle and increasing urban connection.

These areas will flow into the Nashua River as it once did during the Industrial revolution creating a new Rivera program that helps push a pedestrian moment that pays homage to where Fitchburg began.

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1.5.1::Relevance of the Precedent Analysis to the Proposed Project The Lowell Story: Connecticut Representatives Visit Transit-Oriented Development in Massachusetts The Partnership for Strong Communities’ workshop “How the Knowledge Corridor’s Towns Can Make TOD Work for Them” drew almost 100 attendees. New Haven residents heard about the mixed-use redevelopment plans for the former Coliseum site, located within walking distance of Union Station. In Meriden, the state Department of Transportation met with the public to share a proposed design for the new train station, which includes enhancements to attract private development around the station.

And on June 4, a group of twenty TOD advocates and Connecticut officials travelled to Massachusetts to see TOD projects in Lowell and Melrose, followed by a visit to the Metropolitan Area Planning Council in Boston. The bus trip was organized by Tri-State Transportation Campaign, and was co-sponsored by Connecticut Fund for the Environment, Partnership for Strong Communities and Regional Plan Association.

Image 07: hamilton-canal-districttod-priority-development-sitelowell-ma

The City of Lowell Surges Forward Adam Baacke, assistant city manager for Lowell, credited the city’s resurgence to a number of strategies. “Historic preservation has been our core driver of economic growth,” remarked Baacke, noting how the creation of the Lowell National Historical Park sparked surrounding downtown development. “We drew upon our industrial past and turned it into an asset.”

The park and the city have worked together to assist in the rehabilitation of over 250 historical downtown structures during the last quarter century.

“City-wide partnerships have been crucial,” said Baacke. He explained how CEOs in the Lowell area came together to form The Lowell Plan, Inc., a private non-profit economic development organization which crafted a vision and plan for Lowell’s comeback. The Lowell Development & Financial Corporation, a partnership of banks, has provided much-needed, low-cost start-up loans to 36 businesses.

“The city provides parking too,” Baacke reported, “and we remove this expense from the developer’s cost equation, creating an incentive for development.”

Posted by Chris Cryder, Special Projects Coordinator for CFE/Save the Sound and coordinator of Growing CT Around Transit, CFE’s TOD workgroup. “The Lowell Story: Connecticut Representatives Visit Transit-Oriented Development in Massachusetts.” Green Cities Blue Waters. N.p., 26 June 2013. Web. 29 Apr. 2015.

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1.5.1::The State of Massachusetts’s Role in Reviving Lowell By 1845 the City of Lowell had grown to a population of almost 30,000. This map shows the canal system, boardinghouses, and mills that had been built by the textile corporations in only ten years time. Tens of thousands of women and men left farms and small towns to find work in Lowell. In 1845, Boston was the only city in Massachusetts with a larger population.

The men who built Lowell thought it would make them rich and it did. They also thought it would be a model industrial city, free of the problems found in English factory towns. They built schools and churches, planted flowers and trees, and arranged for lectures, concerts, and other forms of cultural enrichment.

The state has been an invaluable partner in Lowell’s revival, said Baacke. Massachusetts has recognized a state interest in places like Lowell for two key reasons. First, attracting and retaining millennial-generation talent requires compelling, authentic urban environments that they find attractive to live and work in. In this regard, gateway cities like Lowell are less expensive alternatives to Boston/Cambridge. Second, the state feels strongly that housing production, especially multifamily housing production, is essential to the state economy. Unfortunately, it’s very difficult to develop housing in much of Massachusetts due to local control and tight land use regulation. As a result, the state is eager to support places where the municipality welcomes housing development. The Connecticut tour group was able to see firsthand Lowell’s vibrant and walkable downtown retail district.

For these reasons, the state has provided grant funding for infrastructure design and construction, housing assistance to mill redevelopment projects, state historic rehab tax credits for various projects, and funding under their Growth District program to support the Appleton Mill redevelopment in the Hamilton Canal District.

Image 08: City of Lowell 1845

“Lowell Mill Girl.” Lowell Mill Girl. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2015.

Mr. Geary mentioned the previous Director of Planning and Development, Adam Baacke, left a memo recommending using a consultant to complete a parking study and laying out the steps to complete it.

Posted by Chris Cryder, Special Projects Coordinator for CFE/Save the Sound and coordinator of Growing CT Around Transit, CFE’s TOD workgroup. “The Lowell Story: Connecticut Representatives Visit Transit-Oriented Development in Massachusetts.” Green Cities Blue Waters. N.p., 26 June 2013. Web. 29 Apr. 2015.

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Intersection Improvement (More/different turn lanes, changed signal, etc)

1.5.1::Lord Overpass: A 150 Year History Between 1821 and 1825, the first large-scale mills were built in Lowell. Dutton Street was built along the new Merrimack Canal and Thorndike Street was built to connect this intersection with a west-east highway toward Chelmsford at what is now Gallagher Square, previously Davis Square. Even then, it served as an important connection between highways leading to other cities and the downtown. Its importance only grew as the Boston and Lowell railroad was constructed soon after, crossing the canals at the same point as Thorndike.

Street Extension New Sidewalk/Crossing

Significant Traffic Intervention Master Plan By the mid-1930s, the railroad had been extended to Nashua and the roads looked largely like they would for the next hundred years. This image is from the 1936 atlas, the last atlas to be made before the Lowell Connector and Lord Overpass were built. Here’s some points of interest:

Image 09: Image 10: Image 11: Image 12: Chris. "Learning Lowell." Learning Lowell. N.p., 01 Feb. 2015. Web. 29 Apr. 2015 “Digital Map Collection.” Digital Map Collection. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2015.

Untitled Document. Digital image. Www.U.S. History.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Mar. 2015..

1825_map_markedup-0 lordoverpas trinitystreetk Lowel Mills Industrial Rev 1908

::Thorndike, which had been designated Route 3, ran where the east ramp is now, lined with commercial buildings on its east side. ::The area that is taken up by the Lord Overpass used to be a train station and the Hotel Merrimack.

North of Pawtucket Canal, Dutton Street curved westward and made a 5-way intersection with Western, Thorndike, and Fletcher. ::Western Avenue used to continue over the railroad tracks to connect what is now Western Ave Studios with Thorndike Street. ::Middlesex crossed the railroad tracks at-grade, but Chelmsford Street bridged over them as it does today Jackson Street never met Thorndike, but a smaller “West Jackson Street” did.

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1.5.1::Is Downtown a Good Place?

The critical question remains: is downtown on the right track? When the City Council discussed the January Vacancy Report, they seemed to be optimistic. Councilor Belanger said, “We have a fantastic planning and development dept. We will be getting another update in six months and believe it will further improve… Downtown is going in the right direction; there is no doubt in my mind.”

Their discussion focused largely on “problem” landlords. Councilor Kennedy said, “I know it’s difficult, because we don’t own that property, so it’s not like we can do anything we want. It’s really up to the landlords to determine just how aggressive they’ll be renting out their property, but I imagine everybody would like to be at full occupancy if they could,” and others echoed his sentiments.

City Manager Murphy agreed. He relayed a story of the City lining up a tenant for a large storefront downtown, but the property owner declined, planning on selling the building and believing that the property would be more valuable empty than with a tenant.

Councilor Kennedy suggested engaging a retail expert or commercial broker to provide suggestions, and the City Manager said that the City would provide a report on the efficacy of doing such.

An often-cited reason for optimism is the expansion of UMass Lowell and transformation of Lowell into a college town. The latest UMass Lowell alumni magazine described an event in which the Chancellor of UMass Lowell and the City Manager reached out to a crowd of 100 students on how to Lowell could better serve students. The article explored the question of what a “college town” is and what benefits colleges could bring. The article ended with a quote from Paul Marion: “It’s not going to happen on its own. And it will take time. But the right starting steps are being taken.”

Indeed, it does appear that new businesses are moving in to serve a college crowd. Bishop’s Legacy Restaurant is serving food in a more to-go than sit-down setting, and Jimmy John’s, a national sandwich chain famous for their campus locations, is moving in the Giovanni’s Trends space.

[1] Councilor Kennedy mentioned that Giovanni’s Trends mentioned a negative impact of the two-way conversion and wanted to survey business owners to better understand what impacts they experienced. Councilor Leahy also mentioned derelict storefronts, including those on Fletcher Street near the senior center. ↩ [2] Residential and commercial property can’t be compared directly. For example, residents don’t pay for common space like laundry rooms, while offices pay for common space like lobbies. Residents don’t pay for repairs, while offices might. An empty store costs less to build than an empty apartment. Finally, offices are almost always have more time between tenants than apartments. Therefore, property owners use more extensive analysis when considering converting commercial into residential units. ↩ [3] In a very large market, it’s possible to determine whether rents are appropriate by comparing them to the amount buildings sell for, but in a small market with only a few sales like downtown, it’s harder to make these estimates. ↩

Image 13: Lowell 1914 Image 14: Lowell’s CityPlan 2008

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1.5.1::Lowell and Investing in its Creative Economy Attracting and keeping creative individuals is a key component of the City’s comprehensive master plan, and a priority of the [Governor] Patrick Administration, which announced in 2008 the appointment of a first in the nation Creative Economy Director.

With a broad mix of uses, the thoughtful redevelopment of historic buildings, innovative, sustainable new construction, pedestrian oriented street scapes and canal walks, and access to public transit, the Hamilton Canal District development recognizes the importance of creating an environment that has by definition a high equality of place.

The Hamilton Canal District recognizes Lowell’s creative community as a key element to the development’s success and the continued success of the City.”

Image 15: Lowell Zoning Map 2066 Image 16: ma-lowell-hamiltoncanal Economic Development Impacts. HCD Master Plan Chart. N.p.: Economic Development Impacts, n.d. Print Takemoto, Neil. “New Old Canal Loft District for Creative Economy.” Cooltown Studios. Cool Town Studios, 17 Sept. 2009. Web. 29 Apr. 2015..

“Appleton Mills.” Appleton Mills. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2015.

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1.5.2::Roswell Mills and Old Mill Park Roswell,Ga On the banks of Vickery’s Creek, ruins of the Roswell Mills can be found. The largest mill building was constructed in 1853 and the area is now a city park. A few hundred feet down stream from that location, is the site of Roswell’s first cotton mill which was built in 1839. These mills were burned by Union forces on July 7, 1864, with the help of some of the Roswell Mill employees. Only the 1853 mill was rebuilt after the war and used until destroyed by fire again in 1926. These mills were known as the Roswell Manufacturing Company. The mill seen today was built in 1882 as an addition to the complex. Today, the Roswell Mill houses offices and an events facility.

Roswell Town Square RoswellI repeat my orders that you arrest all people, male and female, connected with those factories, no matter what the clamor, and let them foot it, under guard, to Marietta, whence I will send them by cars to the North … The poor women will make a howl.

The 400 Roswell mill workers (mostly women and children) who were charged with treason were held overnight, under guard, in the Town Square until they could be sent by wagons to Marietta and transported by train to the north. The Town Square is also the setting for President Theodore Roosevelt’s visit to Roswell. The crowds gathered here and he also visited his mother’s childhood home, Bulloch Hall where he was reminiscent of the stories she had told him as a child.

Roswell PediCab Move through Roswell’s beautiful Historic District in a Roswell PediCab. Experience all the warmth that Roswell has to offer with charm and elegance while you create a wonderful memory.

Image 17: Roswell Historic District

Roswell Georgia Convention & Visitors Bureau. “Historic Attraction Tours : Visit Roswell Georgia Convention & Visitors Bureau.” Visit Roswell Georgia Convention Visitors Bureau. BlueBonnet Designs, 2015. Web. 29 Apr. 2015.

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1.5.3::Historic Helen Family Events The Helen Ga Tubing takes you up the river and drops you in for a ride that we call “tubin’ the hooch”! Enjoy nature’s beauty of the Chattahoochee River. On this ride you will experience it all, excitement, adventure, and leisure. The best ride for the dollar in Alpine Helen, GA. Helen, Georgia, the center of North Georgia vacation activity, is one of a kind - a Must See! It is a small, quaint, but very active Alpine Village for people of all ages. With over 200 shops, Helen is a shopper’s paradise with crafts, antiques, ethnic specialists and collectables. There are craftsmen at work and imports from around the world. The Cool River Tubing Company have extended their adventures to include zip lining for the thrill seeking kid in you( 70lb-250lbs) we were sorely tempted to try them, but were heading into North Carolina next for those speedier type of expeditions.

Image 18: Historic Helen 1 Image 19: Historic Helen 2 Image 20: Kids in Helen- Adventures of Mom Murugan, Vel. “Exploring My Life : Helen Georgia - River Tubing.” Exploring My Life. Http://www.marvelmurugan.com/, 8 Nov. 2012. Web. 29 Apr. 2015.

“Pumpkin Picking at Your Family Farm.” Adventures of Mom. WordPress, 2007. Web. 29 Apr. 2015.

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02:: DesignAnalysis

Redesigning a Dying Historic City

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Figures 01: Mesh Topography 1-3

2.1::SITECONTEXT 2.1.1::Site Selection of Proposed Project According to the United States Census Bureau, the city of Fitchburg has a total area of 28.1 square miles, of which 27.8 square miles is land and 0.3 square miles , or 1.07%, is water.

The city is drained by the Nashua River. The highest point in Fitchburg is the summit of Brown Hill near the northwestern corner of the city, at 1,210 feet above sea level. Fitchburg is bordered by Ashby to the north, Lunenburg to the east, Leominster to the south, Westminster to the west, and a small portion of Ashburnham to the northwest.

Figures 02: United States, Mass., Fitchburg, Main Street

U.S. Geological Survey 7.5 x 15 minute series, Fitchburg quadrangle

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2.1.2:: USAGEPATTERNS

FIGUREGROUND Figures 03: Figure Ground

STREETSTRUCTURE Figures 04: Street Structure

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DENSITY AROUND NASHUA Figures 05: Density around Nashua

TOPOGRAPHYNATURALELEMENTS Figures 06: Topographical Elements

LAST MILL F.S.U.

Hybrid Housing

Longsjo H.S.

Catalyst

ART DISTRICT

City Center

MILL DISTRICT ROLLSTONE

Train, Road, River

Mill in use

Figures 07: Site Potential

W. FITCHBURG

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2.1.3::SITEPOTENTIAL

DOWNTOWN FITCHBURG CORRIDOR

COMMERCIALIZED ROTARY

LINK

DENSITY

Most empty mills that are directly linked to the Nashua River and have the most potential for intervention.

Families live close by to their children’s school.

ENTRY POINT FITCHBURG STATE UNIVERSITY

Worked on by the University and creating a place for college students.

EAST FITCHBURG

Commercialism has also flourished but with the price that there is no Urbanism being developed on this side.

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2.1.4::Geographical, Natural and Topographical Studies Fitchburg’s location on the Nashua River led to its development initially as an industrial center where mills were built to take advantage of the readily available water power.

The construction of rail lines passing through Fitchburg on the Boston to Albany line increased the city’s position as a manufacturing center. Heavy industries such as machine and tool works, clothing, and paper mills were the engines of significant growth throughout the 19th century.

BUILTINVALLEY

These heavy industries attracted large numbers of European immigrants to Fitchburg. The families that came seeking work usually chose to settle close to others with the same background, producing ethnic neighborhoods which retain much of their identity today. The Nashua River is the original source of growth for the community. Starting at the banks of the river, factories that were built became the source of employment and income for even the neighboring city’s of Fitchburg. As the small Mill Town grew, it prospered and became a destination for the immigrant -- moving west from Boston, building the city and its future.

http://www.nashuariverwatershed.org/recreation/observe-nature-overview.html

EXITINGGREENSPACES Figures 08: Figures 09: Figures 10: Figures 11:

River Depths Built in Valley and Existing Green Sun studies Topography

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2.1.5::HISTORICALTIMELINE Historian: Linda Carlson argues that the managers of corporate towns in the early 20th century believed they could avoid the mistakes made by George Pullman in the 1880s.

She says they: wanted to create a better life for their employees: decent housing,

John and Salmon W. Putnam, from Mason Village (Greenville) N. H., begin as tenants of Alvah Crocker at old Leonard Burbank mill (Water Street) on Nashua River; textile/ paper machine building/repair, machine-tool building. Water-powered site.

good schools, and a “morally uplifting” society.

In return, they expected stable, hard-working employees who would eschew the evils of drink and, most important, not fall prey to the blandishments of union organizers.

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Charles H. Brown (steam engine builder from Otis Tufts, East Boston) joins the Putnams as partner; they start to build stationary steam engines (offered by 1851), as well as machine tools. Fire, Dec 7, destroys shop. Re-build at same site.

1838 1764 1841

Fitchburg was first settled along the Nashua River banks by the settler’s of Lunenburg to begin the first Gristmills and Sawmills.

MILLTOWNS often became a regular public town and as it grew it attracted other settlement, business enterprises, and pool transportation and services infrastructure.

Image 21-48: : Timeline-Images of America: Fitchburg-Fitchburg Historical Society Figures 12: Timeline-Images of America: Fitchburg

Walter Heywood Chair Factory began business with the Heywood Brothers shipping and moving lumber along the Nashua River from Rollstone Hill.

Charles H. Brown leaves Putnams; starts rival stationary steam engine co. by 1863C. H. Brown & Co. Louis DeBlais Bartlett (also a steam engineer from Otis Tufts) replaces Brown at Putnams. Newton Lane 18635, lower Main (Sawyer’s bldg) 1866-1873, Main at Willow 1873-1915.

1849 1859 1845 1850 1863-64

Putnams move to new building nearby, still as tenants of Crocker; machine tools are built by water-powered mill.

Charles R. Burleigh joins the Putnams, Putnam Machine Co. Firm is inc. 1858 as “The Putnam Machine Co.”, “Putnam” stationary steam engine and machine tools are produced.

Sylvester C. Wright leaves Putnam’s, establishes-Fitchburg Machine Works James L. Chapman joins 1864. S. C. Wright & Co. (1863-1867); (1863-1924) Fitchburg Machine Co. (1867-1877); Fitchburg Machine Works (1877-1924).

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Putnam’s moves to Main at Putnam St. Putnams buy the land, design main structure.

Steam powered site.

1868 1867

Burleigh Rock Drill Co. formed. Drills and assoc. Burleigh Rock Drill Co. John F. Haskins joins.

Fire destroys Heywood chair shop at Water St., Crocker rebuilds structure, but Heywood re-locates to River St. site later occupied by Iver Johnson’s Arms & Cycle works.

Putnam Tool Co.

Coleman & Drury Grocers imports Scotch Kisses, buscuits, and tea.

Orswell Mills and Rollstone Hill.

The Jenninson Plumbing Company expanded heating, vent, and industrial installations of pipping and heat.

Parkhill Manufactioring Company textile manutactioring was the largest industry having over 4,000 looms.

City Steam Laundry the newspaper reported that the laundry take over 50 cents a family to wash clothes.

New steel-frame structures.

Broad St. put through. Heavy machine tools built. First Windowless Factory, The SIndmons Saw and Stell Company made architectural history took up five acres of space, products still made.

The Fitchburg Municipal Airport occupies 335 acres off Airport Road in Fitchburg near Leominster. In 1940, the airport land was donated to the City of Fitchburg and serves the Fitchburg area.

1871 1882 1891 1907 1913-15 1932 1870 1886 1900-10 1912 1922

Haskins leaves Burleigh Rock Drill Co., Haskins Machine Co. at former Heywood site-Fitchburg Steam Engine Co. (leased from A. Crocker by Apr. 1, 1872), produces stationary steam engines verticals.

Putnam Tool Co. merges into Putnam Machine Co. Walnut St. site sold by 1910 to Stratton Machine Co.

Lewis Bicycle Shop and later worked on automobile repairs when bikes were no longer the craze. New Street put in, rail crossing at Putnam St. eliminated.

Inspecting Cloth at Parkhill Manufacturing Company, had the largest payroll.

Simonds Saw and Steel Company the business still exists today.

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2.2::SITEANALYSIS 2.2.1:: Demographics and Age Analysis

Chart 01: Demographics

Chart 03: Age Statistics

Chart 02: Total Population

Chart 04: Highland Lao Initiative

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2.2.2:: Refugee and Transportation Analysis

Image 49: Vietnam Map

Chart 05: Religious Dominations

Chart 07: Commuting Times

Chart 06: Transpiration to work

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2.2.3::EDUCATION IN FITCHBURG

Image 50: The Annex Plans

Chart 08: Education if Fitchburg

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2.2.4::FITCHBURGSTATECOLLEGE

Figures 13: Education Map Locations

Image 51: Fitchburg State College Chart 09: Average Education in the U.S

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Image 52-69: Antique MillsFitchburg Historical Society

2.2.5::OLDMILLS In the case of FITCHBURG, the primary company failed, outright or the industry fades in importance as is the way of societies over time, the communities contract and lose property value and then population as people move to find work elsewhere, and the youth of the community bears the children of their generation in another demographic region.

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2.2.6::Fitchburg’s Old Mills Spacial Analysis FITCHBURGMILLTOWN A place where practically all stores and housing is owned by the one company that is the only employer. The company provides infrastructure (housing, stores, transportation, sewage and water to enable workers to move there and live.

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Typically, such towns are founded in a remote location, so that residents cannot easily commute or shop elsewhere. Sometimes after a period of time the town attracts noncompany residents, relatives and small business entrepreneurs, and people with other employment, such as railroad or highway employees. The original company may sell off the housing. Company towns are often planned with a suite of amenities such as stores, churches, schools, markets and recreation facilities. In fast-growing remote areas companies planned housing to support the business’ needs, and then hired workers to build an infrastructure and more workers to staff the business needs.

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Figures 14: Fitchburg’s Old Mills Spatial Analysis

It began an ethnic and racial diversity increase even further over the last decade. In addition to the groups which came to Fitchburg during the Industrial Era (Irish, Italian, Finnish, German, English, Welsh, French-Canadian, and many others, Fitchburg has added substantial numbers of Hispanics, Southeast Asians, and African Americans.

Similarly to the land allocated to churches or government buildings, the land given to the factories in order to flourish in their industry was extremely significant. Much of the land that belongs to the mills has not been touched since the turn of the century. There have been a few locations where the land has been developed into that of a small park, attraction, or a smaller business has moved into the first floor of the factory itself, thus allowing for the future development of hybrid housing within these locations.

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Image 70-81: Antique Mills Visited-Personal

2.2.7::OLDMILLSVISITED When doing my site analysis in the midst of winter, it was apparent that Fitchburg Mills were so much more vast than the pictures actually portrayed. Most of them were inhabited only on the first level by small time businesses because there is so much allocated land to each mill, owners are able to store materials such as lumber and steel. Much of the upper parts of the structures are abandoned as seen in the (03) mill. They all had direct access to river connecting only the front and back entrances of the mill by bridge alone.

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2.2.8::MILLANALYSIS There are different jurisdictions for existing mill structures that may vary from toxic mold nesting inside of the old structures to lack of knowledge of who actually owns the mill.

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Figures 15: Mill analysis

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USABLEMILLS

Direct access to Urban Paths is one of the ways the Lowell Urban Renovation Plan appeal to the existing inhabitants but mostly to allure the Fitchburg State students and address the modern lifestyle of interacting with historic domains in an avantgarde fashion. As seen in the Lowell Investing Program, the progression of the city depends on the redevelopment of these empty spots within the city.

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BRIDGES Figures 16: Usable mills and Mill to Street Figures 17: Bridges

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2.2.9::FITCHBURG’S VERNACULAR HENRYM.FRANCIS While in the Fitchburg Historical Society, there was incredible amounts of information about the famous Henry M. Francis and his sons. There was a plethora of information on the cities history and clear documentation of the decedents of Fitchburg. Till this day, families are still coming into the Historical Society to track down family information that may range from tax records to date of death.

H. M. Francis was born in Lunenburg in 1836. In 1858 he graduated from Lawrence Academy. He designed buildings in Portland, Maine after the great fire of Portland in 1866.

Later in 1868 he opened his architectural firm on Main Street in Fitchburg. The firm would later include his sons, Frederick L. and Albert F. in 1902. He died in 1908. With his work he has left his mark through his designs of churches, public buildings, and many houses throughout Fitchburg as well as some other parts of New England.

His contributions to the architectural vernacular of Fitchburg was next to none. He marked all of the Main Street with his buildings that ranged from libraries, city hall, and markets.

He is important to mention in the development of this thesis because his buildings should be respected as an important part of the cities history. A bronze plaque has been featured outside of his buildings in order to celebrate the rich history that he had conceived with his business.

“BostonGringo.com.” Boston Gringo: United States: Massachusetts: Fitchburg: H. M. Francis, Architect. MMXV BostonGringo.com, n.d. Web. 01 May 2015.

Francis, Henry M. “Life, Times, and Work” Fitchburg Historical Society. Fitchburg Council, 1836-1866. Building. February 25, 2015.

Image 82: HM Francis Image 83-92: Vernacular FHS

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2.2.10::Beginnings of Fitchburg’s UrbanPlan When Fitchburg was first settled, land was allocated to the first families that came from Lunenburg. The mapping of the city was set up to grow around the central curve of the town.

That is when we start seeing seeing the division of blocks in front side of the river and on the sides is where the urban layout begins to triangulate.

Eventually the railroad came through to the city began to cut through the Nashua River. Main Street began to create itself into the hustling city. The Train Depot was made and thus a link from Boston to Fitchburg was established and strengthened the city. The later connections to Canada and west to Chicago and New York began passing through Fitchburg.

H.M. Francis designed most of the civic buildings along the Main Street depot of Fitchburg. Developing the architecture vernacular, the town began to make its identity as The Gateway City with a sorts of arts and crafts style. Most of the larger homes were for the wealthy families that owned the mills. Nevertheless, Henry’s contribution allowed for Fitchburg to create its unique identity.

Henry M. Francis Buildings along Main Stree Mill towns were planned with a social structure that work was always in proximity of housing, not vice-versa. This is because work was always in demand and lunch was often had at home with the family.

Figures 18: Historical Buildings Map

Image 92: Urban Plans of Antiquity

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2.3.1::MOVEMENT

PUBLICTRANSPORTATION Paths connecting are the direct lines for the bus system which only moves through every 3 hours and the commuter train line only moves through Fitchburg as a last stop: every 5 hours.

From Boston the train line took me 1:20 minutes and it cost me $3 to get from Boston Logan Airport to Downtown Fitchburg.

EXISTINGCIRCULATION Main Street are the fluctuations of Primary roads which eventually dilute to Secondary. Secondary roads hold primarily parking for those vehicles that did not find parking on Main Street.

Tertiary streets are for residential zoning where.

Figures 19: Movement Mappings

STREETHIERARCHY

Figures 20: Street Hierarchy

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STREETHIERARCHY

Figures 21: Public and Private Ratios

2.3.2::Street Sections Public and Private Ratios

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2.3.3::Zoning Ordinances and Density Much of the northern tier of the city is undeveloped.

Commercial uses are primarily along major arterial roads in the city. Industrial uses are predominately located along the North Nashua River, and in the areas of Princeton Road and Airport Road. Except for the Cleghorn neighborhood, which historically was a village unto itself, most of the multifamily neighborhoods are within close proximity to the downtown area. These neighborhoods include the College Neighborhood, the Elm Street Neighborhood, Intown, and the Water Street Neighborhood. Single family homes or more suburban neighborhoods are located throughout the city.

Figures 22: Zoning of 1922

DENSITYAROUNDZONING

“City of Fitchburg Master Plan.” By The Department of Community Development. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Rpt. of “Vision2020.” Planning BoardFitchburg Zoning Ordinance 41 Section 81A.Chapter 40A (2015): 10-26. Department of Community Development. Web. 12 Feb. 2015.

Current Board Members: Paula Caron, Chairperson, Paul Fontaine, Jr., Vice Chairperson, Michael Hurley, Michael DiPietro, John DiPasquale, Andrew Van,, Hazinga, Kristin Sweeney, Aaron Tourigny, Associate Member, (2) Associate Vacancies

Figures 23: Density around Nashua

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03:: DesignProcess

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3.0. DESIGNPROCESS 3.1.1::INTERVIEWINGCITIZENS INTERVIEW01: Principal for the Longsjo High School Jennifer Fischer grew up Fitchburg, as a child she remembers the hustle and bustle of Main Street and she begins to remember the city that was once the center of commerce and public life. She is married and lives five towns over from Fitchburg, as till this day she is known as “The Girl from Fitchburg.”

Interviewing the Principal for the Longsjo High School, Jenn Fischer says: “there is an unspoken dialogue that happens in Fitchburg every second of every day, especially amongst the parents whose kids go to this school; there is a strong division as a result of the Nashua River. People living north and south of the River are divided and it goes further than just the topographical separation, this is a serious socioeconomical issue that is killing the social integrity of the city. Some kids do not feel like they belong in this school and not because they are rich but rather because they are poor.

They are ashamed of coming to school simply because they live north of the river.

The northern part Fitchburg has suffered the most because of the Fitchburg Rehab Program located in the center of Main Street. Folks get help with our free services and then after they are done with there rehab there is no way of them finding work here, so they end up staying on the streets and getting back into the mess that they once were in. This city is basically dying, no one that works here lives here. I would never want to live in a place that when the sun goes down the “druggies” come out. And so, the continues the vicious circle of the death of Fitchburg.

Image 93-100:Fitchburg Site-Flickr:Boston Gringo

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3.1.2::INTERVIEWINGCITIZENS INTERVIEW02: Dean of the McKay Arts Middle School Lourdes Mercado moved Massachusetts to begin her teaching career at the old B.F. Brown School as an 8th grade teacher teaching language arts. “The old school is now closed down and boarded up as a condemned building that is adjacent to the old fields for the middle school students as well as the Fitchburg Arts Museum. The city is planning on utilizing the building as a repurposing project for artist studios that is facing the museum itself.

As far as the city is concerned, I would never live inside of it. I have a daughter that is eight years old and there are no parks, places to shop for new clothes, or even a good after school program for her. The mayor is trying extremely hard budgeting and working on a new plan for the city bring in college students from Fitchburg State College. The money is in the college students and the Gateway City Program is looking for the opportunity to bring in housing and revitalize the old mills that were so significant in the initial growth of the city.

Safety is key, with the social services offered here and the Methodone Clinic there is a lack willingness for the neighboring cities to help support the programs for children and for the arts.�

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3.2.1::Programmatic Points of Interest and Connectivity The lack of transportation available from Fitchburg’s East side to West side creates a divide for all businesses along the Main Street connection. The question begs to be asked: what brings people into Fitchburg?

A comprehensive plan that merges the existing with the necessary, in this case it is the connections of the hot points of the city: Fitchburg Sate College, Dorms, Churches, Popular restaurants, public schools, large local businesses, and transportation hubs. The unification of these things allows for easy reciprocity to better purpose the socioeconomic issues that Fitchburg is currently facing. The spots in between are then filled in with the necessary program criteria utilizing the flex spaces that the city once used as gathering spaces to be used up by the people.

Figures 24: Points of Interest

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3.2.3::CONTEXTUALISM

Image 101-124: Fitchburg Site-Personal Flickr

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3.2.4::PROGRAMSPATIALITY The introduction to strange spacial elements within Fitchburg are needing the instrument of organization that only architecture can recognize, rationalize and transform.

Sola Morales utilizes the urban necessity to take the never changing vacant spaces into a place for citizenship in order to strive for exactness and not strangeness. Political and social struggles will forever be a problematic endowment that effects the growth of the urban morphology and ultimately reduce the potentiality that these spaces have to cultivate a multi cultural experience. As seen in these images, there multiple forces pushing against each other because the vehicle has embraced the landscape.

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3.2.5::OVERLAPPINGCONTEXTUALISM In these images, the depiction of absolutely no urban expression is present. Lines of the city are drawn using Main sidewalks are markers and they lead to nowhere. Finding the historical homage is never found amongst the vast forms of the city line. There is residual space and continuity of vistas clearly shown and yet contradictory all at once. There is strong evidence of shattering and clashing of urban elements such as inhabited spaces. Spaces that were not meant to be inhabited, unveiling of a vista line of sight that leads to a void, an expression that is ambiguous to the an indescribable urban space. This dualism that is presented in Fitchburg’s street scape can be at times aggressive and redundant in the sense that the public now has to consistently asking, “is this our space, or a their space? But, who is (their)?”

There is also a lack of anthropological sequences. What I mean by this is the exhaustion of intentional incorporation of the implicit space, the product is one tireless assumption of what is now and what was then. In the Master Plan of Lowell, there were hard lines drawn between the antique and modern. These obvious impressions mark the chronological sequences that Lowell has clearly made in their new urban plan. Because of the manner in which Lowell planners behaved towards the ethical and esthetical notions of historical expressions of the city they began to make relationship between the existing architecture and mill-town anthropology. The existing construct needs to detested this is just simplify and to homogenize.

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3.3::INEXPLICITSCAPES These static photographs begin to explain the manner in which urbanstic qualities that Fitchburg’s public construct produces for its inhabitants. The existing landscape juxtaposes the historical, vehicular, and topographical. The challenge here is the narrative that the these contradicting attributes provide for me (the photographer) as the imagination takes over, the potential landscape that is now perceived as a space scape that needs order to create an expression that is obvious and safe for the pedestrian.

The accumulation of private to public realms devoid the town-scape and instead creates a sense place that converges experience and traffic into one construct of ambiguous territories. Thus creating a dangerous quality of life for the inhabitants of Fitchburg. These photographs begin to express the narrative of vacant strange places in the street scape that palimpsest and dominate the values of Fitchburg’s rich history of Industrial and Agricultural success. Although there are effective circuits and unblurred spaces, the fundamental paradox of dominating anthropological areas is always present.

Figures 25-37: Inexplicit Scapes

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3.4::ANALYSISINTEGRATION

Figures 38-44: Analysis Integration

CONNECTINGEXISTINGSUCCESS

PUSHINGINTONASHUA

LOTSFORINTERVENING

After visiting Fitchburg and taking analysis of when and where the existing programs were beings used, it became clear to me that the Images of America: Fitchburg documentation spoke about the development along the Nashua River. This is the true identity of The Gateway City.

Economic success originated in the Nahsua, I believe that there is still success to be captivated around these unclaimed territory. By connecting the town with its foundation and recreating a modernized program, Main Street can then find a new catalyst for preservation and restoration.

The largest problem with this intervention is how to create paths along the lines of dead space that the city has left for parking spaces. 62% of the Main Street environment along with the lots directly off of Main Street were completely empty and vague, in terms of programmatic contestability.

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BRIDGINGN/S

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INTERVENTIONRESULTS

The act of bridging the N/S parts of the Nashua have already been place in successful locations, so there was a need to connect these with the intervention. Each bridge connected to an important street that drove straight into the Riviera.

As strict analysis, the most basic shape would be drawn as straight vectors to each end of the city that held the most success in Fitchburg’s urban scape. Most difficult and most needed would be the ultimate connectivity from East Fitchburg to West Fitchburg.

As a culmination of programmatic successes, geographical challenges, empty lot potentiality, and historic preservation the result came about to promote an avant-garde solution to a problem that needs modernistic solution.

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3.5::ANALYSISDESIGNINTEGRATION

Figures 45-49: Analysis Design Integration

NODELOCATIONS

CONNECTINGNODES

After my site analysis I have concluded five points as being the most radical in terms of successful commercial, urban, and natural scape. The public and private ratios were the highest out of the entire site and they also held the most amount circulation traffic for the most amount of time, strangeness of the scape was the least imposing in these locations, taking conclusions of from the Building on What Works, The Gateway Cities Journal.

Modernizing the connections of the city to produce prototypical urban structure that begins to connect through a series of pedestrian and public transportation only corridors. Deriving notions from Le Corbusier’s Architectural Infrastructure and moving into the public street to interact with the existing Main Street and Nashua River similar to what Lowell’s Master Plan is utilizing building around the river’s meandering structure.

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NEWDISTRICTS

PROPOSEDINTERVENTION

Creating unification through public transportation as well as terminating vistas that end in significant stopping points such as: businesses, schools, etc. Progress begins to promote itself through simple ease-of-access and through the expansion of civic organization and strengthening local development through Community Fructification, Local Association, and Local Recognition.

Making use of the unused land and excessive parking spaces as seen in the Lots for Intervening Diagram. Thus, a result of precise control as a solution to the urban decay taking place in these ambivalent spaces. The Contemporary is the solution to a the antiquated system Fitchburg has due to the fact that precise driven lines create connections to the historic, successful, and give the abandoned mills the opportunity to succeed.

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04:: DesignSynthesis

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Figures 50: Preliminary documentation

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4.2::FINALDOCUMENTATION

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NODE01 YEAR 00-03 ::The city’s introduction to the intervention is essential to begin interning with the matters that are most affordable and still crucial. By utilizing a feasible bike path for the college students to use within the town’s Main Street connection beginning in the primary entrance of Fitchburg. ::Using spatial and functional inventory while using the detailed analysis of the existing area from both urban, as well as socioeconomic studies to finish Node 01 in the first three years of the intervention and attacking the most dire needs: transportation, agriculture, and historic preservation. ::Social health is the key for fate of the city, by benefiting those people who are homeless and who are attempting to recover from drug usage. As a sort of therapeutic transformation for the psychological and ecological. Make an evident restoration in order to create an intervention that is strong in the civic empathetic master plan. Awareness of the necessity of the local engagement.

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NODE02 YEAR 03-06 ::This is the Node that will host the city’s children, thus needing safety, green flex spaces, and an Educational Riviera. ::Creation of scenic spaces with differentiated character.

Definition of the park and incorporation of the Nashua River to form a meandering movement along the axis.

Spatial hierarchy and integration with surrounding green infrastructure. Programmatic activation and re-valuation of the area. ::De-cluttering and clearing of the area, removing visually obstructing elements in the landscape, pruning of trees to allow long views and safe paths across the park. ::Entry to the cities natural features allows for the municipal territory to be impacted in a reciprocal event in regards to the cities inhabitants. Social health is the key for fate of the city, by benefitting those people who are homeless and who are attempting to recover from drug usage; a sort of therapeutic transformation for the psychological and ecological.

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The key is to link to each other as well as feed into the unique features that are offered here and only here. The shape of the city begins to develop around the river bend and at times across it, those features are unique and need to be fostered in order to create a comprehensive connection with city and program.

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NODE03 YEAR 06-09 ::The conception of an agricultural community that is influenced by the architecture that also promotes sensitivity to Historical Vernacular is the focus of years 06-09. A comprehensive plan that begins to attack the problems with the mills being vacant and repurposing them with an industrial/agricultural hybrid. ::Creating the Arts District that the community has tried so hard to keep alive, linking the existing arts programs. In addition the reduction and optimization of vehicular infrastructure along the axis and cross linking of roads to the bypass road.

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RESIDENTIALURBANFARMS ::These new typologies will attack the ideals of the New Fitchburg. Communities will now be able to provide for themselves thus allowing the less privileged to be able to feed themselves in a micro-economy that is difficult to provide in. Associating with neighbors that grow different crops will begin a networking system of working together to put food on the table. For example: we grow sweet potatoes and the neighbor grows sage to season the potato, we both need each others crop/spice. Through the efforts of working together and driving to achieve a set of goals, will result in the macro typological system where the public now recognizes the problems and eventually the State will recognize it as well.

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NODE04 YEAR09-12 ::Housing and renovation of the mills follows the fertile crescent of the towns growth with greenery breaks for small parks that are land to monuments and are difficult to be accessed by the public realm. ::Evaluating new development along the New Mill District in order set out in the local area plan and proposal for complementary development and its integration within the hierarchy of green infrastructure. Creating “Green Mills”, the density that city will need in order to inhabit the city’s population.

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DEPTHNASHUA

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Potential programs can allow the city to grow around the river as it once relied on the river to provide life for the city of Fitchburg. A range of free and inexpensive programmatic events where small success can lead the city into a local hub for businesses to grow and share whatever they may have to offer the people. The functions of the Rivera Program in the site is crucial to give the Fitchburg its old identity back by paying homage to the Nashua. This is how one is attracted to social interactions where the growth is protected and managed in order to minimize outward urban sprawl, but instead rehabilitating and stimulating the increasingly accessibility for recreational services.

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NODE05 YEAR 12-15 ::Connecting East to West, through the mountain and above it. ::Effective use of existing public transport network linking the area and its integration with the proposed train-tram line. ::Optimal leading of the new tram-train line and definition of stops that will create interchange points / social exchange hubs ::A series of native/purifying wetlands is another reason why the fifth node will be so successful as it finally ties in the attributes of the previous Nodes of converging socioeconomic problems, creating new public realms, promoting community gardens, and finally creating a Natures Path to implement the breaking of the natural spaces that keep Fitchburg from exploring over the Roll Stone Hill. ::Traffic humps will also be implemented so that it slows the speed of the vehicles passing by at over 55 miles an hour in what was supposed to be an urban zone. The speeds will be reduced to 35 miles an hour. ::Transportation for the public will make the readily avalilble paths to utilized only by the masses and pedestrians, not the individual vehicle. By sharing the path with only public transit, this commence the minimizing of the privileged vehicle and increase the new framework for which habitants of Fitchburg will create their identity in safe urban paths that link the historical and the natural.

PROPOSEDINTERVENTION Making use of the unused land will result in precise control of the urban decay. The Contemporary is the solution to a the antiquated system utilizing the Riverfront City to promote commercial development and creating a new identity of expression and exploration.

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INTERVENTIONRESULTS ::Managing the future developments of Fitchburg is essential to the future preparation of the cities sprawl, growing inward towards its existing resources rather than outward away from the old complexities of the town. ::Discovering the hidden potential of the Main Street corridor will create the opportunity for a design sanction that will reconnect the developments of the town. This will in turn maintain the integrity of historical edifices and in the future will allow the opportunity for expenditure in their upkeep. ::Artist will soon use the old flex spaces as spaces of new intervention using installation and reinforcing what works in the city, and that is the art culture. ::Citizens of Fitchburg will be more obliged to communicate with one another seeing more face time utilizing the new paths provided for them. Nature is being used as a buffer for traffic and not a buffer for smart growth, that is one of the solutions in the proposed mapping of The Gateway.

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05:: Conclusions This research eludes to over arching problem that many historical towns are facing today. These towns are reaching their economic tipping point due to their lack of integration with social and historical connection. They have been established in a period where antiquity is an ideal of the present. By preparing a simple plan that mends the community into a single driving force with purpose and direction, to modernize and reanimate, these antiquated towns can find a place in the today. To reanimate these historically significant towns, is to preserve a physical piece of human kinds former passions.

Further developing connections of programmatic functions that already work, towns can begin to refer back to their original identities and begin flourish once again. Embracing the architecturally significant and respecting the edifices that refer back to the specific anthropological construct of town’s such as Fitchburg. A final conception of a repurposed typology that promotes the era that we are in: which is a combination of agriculture and industrialism within the context of historic.

Lastly, each town development (both micro and macro) has a unique character about their socioeconomic structure. With intentional bold panning one can begin to observe the nuances and create an intervention that links opportunity with the present.

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Appendices

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Glossary of Terms Node: a point at which lines or pathways intersect or branch; a central or connecting point Contextualism: integrating and harmonizing with the existing community Connecting: an explicit link to opposite or similar groups in order to create a network Fructification: planting and regrowing parts of a body of work Association: the act or state of connecting similar ideas and goals Recognition: identification of perception or realization of consideration Impaired: weakened or deficient objects or program Space scape: a panoramic view of space Architectural anthropology: an understanding of the social and cultural importance of architecture, as well as of the characteristics of an anthropological approach to its study.

Urban farm: urban agriculture is the practice of cultivating, processing, and distributing food in or around a town or city.

Flex points: a point of urban inflection Green Corridor: thin strip of land that provides sufficient habitat often within an urban environment, thus allowing the movement of wildlife along it. Common green corridors include railway embankments, river banks and roadside grass verges.

Riviera: the land facing the a riverfront

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List of Figures Figures Figures 01: Mesh Topography 1-3………………...............................................................................................................................…31 Figures 02: United States, Mass., Fitchburg, Main Street……………….........................................................................................………31 Figures 03: Figure Ground……………………...................................................................................................................................…32 Figures 04: Street Structure…………....................................................................................................................................................32 Figures 05: Density around Nashua……...................................................................................................................................……….33 Figures 06: Topographical Elements……...............................................................................................................................………….33 Figures 07: Site Potential………………..........................................................................................................................................…...34 Figures 08: River Depths…………….............................................................................................................................................……35 Figures 09: Built in Valley and Existing Green……….............................................................................................................................35 Figures 10: Sun studies………………..........................................................................................................................................…….35 Figures 11: Topography………………..............................................................................................................................................…35 Figures 12: Time line-images of America: Fitchburg…………...........................................................................................................……36-37 Figures 13: Education Map Locations…………….......................................................................................................................………41 Figures 14: Fitchburg’s Old Mills Spatial Analysis…........................................................................................................................……43 Figures 15: Mill analysis……….....................................................................................................................................................……45 Figures 16: Usable mills and Mill to Street……….........................................................................................................................……..45 Figures 17: Bridges……………...........................................................................................................................................................45 Figures 18: Historical Buildings Map…………...................................................................................................................................…47 Figures 19: Movement Mappings……………...................................................................................................................................…..48 Figures 20: Street Hierarchy……..................................................................................................................................................…….48 Figures 21: Public and Private Rations…......................................................................................................................................……..49 Figures 22: Zoning of 1922………..............................................................................................................................................….50 Figures 23: Density around Nashua……………..............................................................................................................................…..50 Figures 24: Points of Interest…………..................................................................................................................................................54 Figures 25-37: Inexplicit Scapes…….........................................................................................................................................……...58-59 Figures 38-44: Analysis Integration…….........................................................................................................................................…...60-61 Figures 45-49: Analysis Design Integration……...................................................................................................................…………….62-63 Figures 50: Preliminary documentation……….................................................................................................................................…..65

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List of Images Images Image 01: Down town Fitchburg………..............................................................................................................................................16 Image 02: Fitchburg 1906-Fitchburg Historical Society…......................................................................................................................17 Image 03: Case Study Wolfe, Ross. “Le Corbusier’s “contemporary City” (1925).” ...........…...................................................................18 Image 04: Case Study: “Le Corbusier’s “contemporary City” (1925).”………………................................................................................19 Image 05: Case Study: le Parc de la Villette (Princeton Architectural Press, 1987) …….............................................................................20 Image 06: Case Study: tschumi_parc_de_la_villette_diagram……………...............................................................................................21 Image 07: hamilton-canal-district-tod-priority-development-site-lowell-ma…………................................................................................23 Image 08: City of Lowell 1845………….............................................................................……..........................................................24 Image 09: 1825_map_markedup-01………….....................................................................................................................................25 Image 10: lordoverpass……………….............................................................................…….............................................................25 Image 11: trinitystreetkey…………….............................................................................……........................................................……25 Image 12: Lowel Mills Industrial Rev 1908……………......................................... ...........................................................................…..25 Image 13: Lowell 1914…………………….............................................................................…….................................................…..26 Image 14: Lowell’s CityPlan 2008…………….............................................................................……..................................................26 Image 15: Lowell Zoning Map 2066………………….............................................................................……....................................…27 Image 16: ma-lowell-hamiltoncanal……………...........................……....................................…...........................……............……….27 Image 17: Roswell Historic District……………..........................…...........................……...............................…......................…………28 Image 18: Historic Helen 1…………………..........................…...........................……...............................…...........................…….....29 Image 19: Historic Helen 2…………..........................…...........................……...............................…...........................……...………..29 Image 20: Kids in Helen- Adventures of Mom ………..........................…...........................……...............................…...........………….29 Image 21-48: : Timeline-Images of America: Fitchburg-Fitchburg Historical Society……………..........................…..............................…36-37 Image 49: Vietnam Map………………..........................…...........................……...............................…...........................…….....…….39 Image 50: The Annex Plans…………………..........................…...........................……...............................…...........................……….40 Image 51: Fitchburg State College…..........................…...........................……...............................…...........................……...………..41 Image 52-69: Antique Mills- Fitchburg Historical Society…..........................…...........................……...............................…....…………42 Image 70-81: Antique Mills Visited-Personal…..........................…...........................……...............................….........................………44 Image 82: HM Francis………..........................…...........................……...............................…...........................……....................…..46 Image 83-92: Vernacular FHS……..........................…...........................……...............................…...........................……....…………46 Image 92: Urban Plans of Antiquity………………..........................…...........................……...............................….........................…..47 Image 93-100:Fitchburg Site-Flickr:Boston Gringo………..........................…...........................……...............................…...............…..52-53

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Images cont.

Image 101-124: Fitchburg Site-Personal Flickr…..........................…...........................……...............................….......................……...55 Image 125-135: Larger Mappings of Site…..........................…...........................……...............................…..............................……...56 Image 136-143: Overlapping Contextualism…..........................…...........................……...............................…............................…...57

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List of Charts Charts Chart 01: Demographics………..................................................................................................................................................…….38 Chart 02: Total Population…….............................................................................................................................……....................…38 Chart 03: Age Statistics………………..............................................................................................................................…….............38 Chart 04: Highland Lao Initiative…….............................................................................................................................…….......…….38 Chart 05: Religious Dominations………….............................................................................................................................………….39 Chart 06: Transpiration to work………………........................................................................................................................………….39 Chart 07: Commuting Times……………….............................................................................................................................….……..39 Chart 08: Education if Fitchburg……….............................................................................................................................…………….40 Chart 09: Average Education in the U.S……….....................................................................................................................…………..41

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Class Notes

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