Katie McLaughlin Urban Planning and Design Portfolio

KATIE MCLAUGHLIN | URBAN PLANNING & DESIGN PORTFOLIO OF GRADUATE SCHOOL WORK

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KATIE MCLAUGHLIN | RESUME EDUCATION

EXPERIENCE

Master of City Planning, 2016 University of Pennsylvania | Philadelphia, PA Concentration in Urban Design

Teska Associates, Inc. Associate Planner | July 2016-Present

Bachelor of Arts in Urban Affairs, Honors, 2013 Saint Louis University | St. Louis, MO Minor in American Studies

Wallace Roberts & Todd Planning and Urban Design Intern | January 2016-May 2016

SELECT GRADUATE COURSES

PennDesign Development and Alumni Relations Office Assistant | August 2014-December 2015

Urban Design Studio: Suzhou, China River Park Plan Planning Studio: Los Angeles + Long Beach Waterfront Plan Planning Workshop: Astoria, Queens, NY Neighborhood Plan Site Planning Fundamentals of Urban Design Intro to Graphics for Urban Designers Graphic Design with Creative Technologies Public Health and the Built Environment Land Use Planning Downtown Development

SOFTWARE Illustrator InDesign Photoshop Premiere Pro ArcGIS Rhino SketchUp Microsoft Office

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Philadelphia City Planning Commission Urban Design Intern | May-August 2015 St. Louis County Department of Planning Planning Intern | February-May 2014 City of Webster Groves Planning & Development Planning Intern | January-May 2014

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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LOS ANGELES + LONG BEACH WATERFRONT PLAN SUZHOU, CHINA RIVERFRONT PARK PLAN ASTORIA, QUEENS, NEW YORK NEIGHBORHOOD PLAN NORTHERN LIBERTIES, PHILADELPHIA HOTEL SITE PLAN SAINT LOUIS UNIVERSITY CAMPUS CONNECTIVITY

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LOS ANGELES + LONG BEACH WATERFRONT PLAN PLANNING STUDIO | FALL 2015 A TALE OF TWO PORTS This plan revolved around the two largest ports in North America, The Port of Los Angeles and The Port of Long Beach, and how they affected their surrounding communities.

RESILIENCY Through a lens of resiliency, we visited and studied the data of the nearby neighborhoods and created a plan focusing on one strong region with a resilient landscape, economy, and community.

URBAN DESIGN Many of my projects for this studio involved the public realm of the area. I studied the design of each neighborhood, analyzed areas with the most need for redesign and potential, and created multiple site plans and graphics for our incoming projects that met the resiliency goals.

GROUP: Tamara Mittman, Shi-Yuan Yao, Matt Zapson, Jon Curtis, Ben Schmidt, Lindsey Shields, Guangda Gao, Qi Yang

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URBAN DESIGN AND SENSE OF PLACE ANALYSIS These maps show the study area’s and San Pedro neighborhood’s design strengths and weaknesses by displaying hard edges, connections, commercial corridors, and important institutions for each neighborhood.

CASE STUDY: CHICAGO WATERFRONT The studio began with case studies of various waterfronts. I created these diagrams to study Chicago’s waterfront and find what made it successful in order to apply it to our project.

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FRAMEWORK and MASTER PLAN The framework map connected our various projects in the study area regarding our themes of resilience. New transit access, green corridors, and new developments help create one region. The master plan map to the right displays the final plan projects.

PORTS O’CALL SITE PLAN The site connects to the region via a new light rail line down its pedestrian-oriented spine. It will be better connected to the rest of the San Pedro neighborhood through parking garages stacked along the bluff with rooftop parks. The uses of this new Ports O’Call plan meets the requirements of the California Tidelands Trust as no housing would being built on the site, it would be visitor serving, and it would reflect what is currently built in Ports O’Call. The area will feel more waterfront-oriented with an open plan and have opportunity for additional waterfront establishments.

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BANNING’S GATEWAY This new neighborhood will result from a port alliance that will free up land currently being used as storage for shipping crates. As the area will soon be inaccessible for port use, due to the increasing number of megaships that cannot fit under the area’s bridge, Banning’s Gateway has the opportunity to become a thriving port neighborhood. Keeping resiliency in mind, the area will use solar and tidal energy opportunities, while creating a new waterfront along the existing port channel. The neighborhood will accommodate the incoming population and create a new sense of place.

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OLD CITY GATEWAY URBAN DESIGN STUDIO | SPRING 2016 SUZHOU SITES The studio involved multiple sites within the City of Suzhou, China. Each student was to prepare a plan and urban design concept for their site.

A VACANT RIVERFRONT The entire site included various parts of a neighborhood with the focus being on a large, linear site along the Waicheng River that was not being utilized to its potential.

With the government’s desires to serve both the residents and tourists, I planned a park that would balance the area’s needs.

URBAN DESIGN The design of both the park and the site as a whole aimed to balance functions for residents, businesses, and tourists.

I drew inspiration from history, Chinese gardens, and patterns found throughout our studio trip.

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GOVERNMENT NEEDS FOR SITE 1. Lower population within Old City 2. Lower car usage 3. Create pedestrian-oriented areas 4. Focus on tourism 5. Emphasize Suzhou culture

MAJOR ASSETS

GRADIENT OF PUBLIC SPACES

SITE CONCEPT

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VACANT RIVER SITE DEVELOPMENT

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1. City Wall 2. Yipu Garden 3 Performance center 4. Shopping center 5. Shilu Road Metro Station

ALLEYWAY DESIGN + WAYFINDING

CANAL DESIGN GUIDELINES

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Design guidelines for canal

Wayfinding elements

Major development site

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WAYFINDING SIGNAGE

RIVERFRONT DEVELOPMENT SITE CONCEPT

Alleyway improvements would be extremely limited to preserve existing character. New wayfinding signage would be placed only at key locations to better guide tourists and provided lighting where needed.

The riverfront site was once a hub for trade with a large marketplace along the City Wall and plenty of boat docks. In recent years, the site became home to a large factory but has since been torn down.

While the site as a whole as many strong assets such as the city wall, waterways, a UNESCO World Heritage Garden, a few other parks, and some newer waterfront developments, much of the site is not being used to its potential.

Scale comparisons to Philadelphia parks.

I was inspired by Suzhou’s Humble Administrator’s Garden’s varying but still connected experiences.

N SPACE

EXHIBITIO

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PLAZAS

PARKS

The final design concept turned the linear, riverfront site into a park with unique, complimentary spaces. The new park acts as a gateway into the Old City of Suzhou from both the nearby Metro station and City Wall entrance. It better connects the area across the river with additional boat docks and a new pedestrian bridge. As an open space amenity and exciting site to visit, the park allows Suzhou a place for both its residents and future tourists.

The amphitheater concept was inspired by the many statues I photographed on the trip with repeating swirl patterns.

Existing riverfront

CAFE + RETAIL EXHIBIT SPACE

MARKET SPACE

OPEN GREEN SPACE

AMPHITHEATER

WATER REMEDIATION + ACCESS

PEDESTRIAN BRIDGE

WATER REMEDIATION

While some spaces are meant to attract tourists, most benefit locals

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ASTORIA, QUEENS, NY NEIGHBORHOOD PLAN PLANNING WORKSHOP | SPRING 2015 AN ALREADY THRIVING NEIGHBORHOOD The first challenge of Astoria was finding its problems. As an upcoming neighborhood in Queens, most of Astoria benefitted from transit access, strong commercial corridors, and an obvious sense of place.

WAYS TO IMPROVE Our research led us towards high and rising housing prices in Astoria. Additionally, the neighborhood had many public housing developments in dire need of upgrades. The lack of development and deteriorating public housing towards the west of the neighborhood led us to a waterfront plan.

WATERFRONT PLAN The plan took advantage of the underutilized area near the waterfront to construct mixed-use and mixed-income housing that would accommodate the incoming population and make Astoria more affordable. In doing so, we also upgraded the public housing through a specific phasing process avoiding displacement. Finally, a new light rail line would allow this new, large population better city access.

GROUP: Grace Macdonald, Angela Eicholtz, Ivan Tereshchenko, Kiko Jiang, Yani Liang

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Signs like this throughout the established residential areas of Astoria led us to planning for one specific, mostly vacant and deteriorating part of the neighborhood.

PERCENT BELOW POVERTY LINE

EXISTING CONDITIONS Astoria as a whole suffers from high housing prices, while the waterfront area has some of the longest commute times in New York City. The waterfront is also home to the largest public housing development in the neighbohrood and is surrounded by many vacant industrial buildings and lots.

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EXSITING AND FUTURE SITE PLAN

EXISTING

The new waterfront area creates a more fluid site with through streets, smaller blocks, green and pedestrian-only spaces, and a new light rail line.

LIGHT RAIL INTERSECTIONS The key intersections the light rail will have to cross will result in a one-way loop around the waterfront site.

FUTURE

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PHASE 1

PHASE 2

PHASE 3

PHASE 4

PHASING As the largest public hosuing development in the neighborhood sat on this site, it was important not to displace anyone during the development. The phasing process we created avoids any displacement at any time and provides much more mixed-income housing than was on the site previously.

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NORTHERN LIBERTIES HOTEL SITE PLAN SITE PLANNING | SPRING 2015 DEFINING THE CONTEXT As Northern Liberties continues to be one of the fastest growing neighborhoods in Philadelphia, we studied potential uses for the site by researching incoming projects like the development of N3rd Street, the incoming Spring Garden Greenway, local attractions, the strong housing market, and the lack of hotels in the area.

SITE PLAN The plan resulted in a boutique hotel on Spring Garden with commercial and retail, and two types of housing developments towards the north.

PARTNER: Claudia Zarazua

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CONTEXT After studying nearby establishments, current land use, hotel locations, connectivity to the rest of Philadelphia, and historical street configurations, our site plan revolved around a hotel and adpated the older street grid that added through streets.

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HOTEL NEED I mapped tourist attractions, parks, major establishments, retail and restaurants, and the incoming N3rd Street that focuses on tech office space in order to show that a hotel would be useful for the site.

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FINAL SITE PLAN

FINAL SITE PLAN

Housing

Parking

FINAL SITE PLAN Phasing

LAND USE The land use adds a large amount of housing to the area as it is in high demand. A green roof parking structure provides much of the parking for the development. Commercial uses are kept towards Spring Garden to better activate the street.

DENSITY Higher density buildings are kept towards Spring Garden to create a stronger street wall and match exisitng buildings. The lower density housing behind them provides a better transition into the neighborhood’s residential areas.

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CAMPUS CONNECTIVITY INTRO TO GRAPHICS FOR URBAN DESIGN| FALL 2014

POTENTIAL CONNECTIONS Saint Louis University is a walkable distance from the large Forest Park and thriving Central West End neighborhood, however the conditions to get to those areas are not made for pedestrians.

WALKABILITY To improve the conditions, I designed a walking and bike path connecting from Saint Louis University’s exisiting pedestrian path on campus through the Central West End and into Forest Park. It changes cul-de-sac streets into through streets to increase connectivity. These changes will create a safer, more enjoyable environment to connect these prominent areas.

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CURRENT SITE PLAN FUTURE SITE PLAN

SITE LOCATION

FUTURE STREET

PEDESTRIAN SECTION

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Thank you!

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