A COMMUNITY OF MEMORY / THE PLAYGROUND
HOW A CITY’S PAST CAN INFORM ITS FUTURE KENNA GIBSON
Abstract
Memory represents who we are, our habits, our ideologies, and our hopes
and fears, but it also gives an indication of who we will become. How do we move into the future and allow the weight of our past to not diminish, but grow?
In 1970, no one could have, or would have, predicted the deterioration of
Youngstown less than ten years later. The downfall of postwar vibrancy built on steel and the backs of mill workers seemed improbable and impossible. The end of federally-funded rebuilding, and overall lack of federal policy, in 1974 coincided with the beginning of severe population loss and economic decline throughout the United States. These once dense, active cities quickly lost their life, relegated to mere shells of their former selves. Rust Belt cities are defined by extreme post-industrial population loss in a region strongly identified with production and industry. It is because of this industry, the lifeblood of the city and the support of its economy and working-class neighborhoods, that such an abrupt and startling loss was created in Youngstown.
Rust Belt cities are a parallel universe where lives, economies, and industries
shift but the city remains. Rust Belt cities are essentially unraveling. People connect to a place through their memory of it. Memory of the Rust Belt, the glory days and what has been, is very important for residents of these lost and often forgotten cities. The Rust Belt is a place of loss, despair, and ruin, but connecting with a city and its residents on a personal level is much more telling than simply looking at statistics.
The two buildings on the site at 365 East Boardman Street serve as shelter,
backdrop, historical connection, and future investment. Details, objects, and components around the site are derived from the history of the former site as well as the inspirational layering of textures, materials, stories, and time found throughout Youngstown. The new built environment is created around and throughout the site from the remnants of train tracks, ghosts of buildings past, and reimaged industrial building typologies adaptive infrastructure within the greater context of the post-industrial environment of the Rust Belt. These new and reused structures feel reminiscent of the past while ushering in a new way to use, see, and experience the area once covered in soot and sweat. The distortion of memory allows the examination of cities of the Rust Belt in a new way. No longer are Rust Belt cities seen for what they were, but how the memory of them could shape the way they look in the future. The built, public landscape is a direct reflection of our shared societal values, and it is often an expression of aspirational values. What we build is who we are and who we want to become. 4
A COMMUNITY OF MEMORY
5
6
A COMMUNITY OF MEMORY
7
CAN A CITY’S PAS INFORM ITS FUTU
ST URE?
urban renewal advertisement
10
A COMMUNITY OF MEMORY
formerly furnitureland
11
steel mill
12
Memory represents who we are, our habits, our ideologies, and our hopes
and fears, but it also gives an indication of who we will become. How do we move into the future and allow the weight of our past to not diminish, but grow? Rust Belt cities are a parallel universe where lives, economies, and industries shift but the city remains. Rust Belt cities are essentially unraveling. People connect to a place through their memory of it and the memory of the Rust Belt, the glory days and what has been, is very important for residents of these lost and often forgotten cities. The Rust Belt is a place of loss, despair, and ruin, but connecting with a city and its residents on a personal level is much more telling than simply looking at statistics. History gives the perspective needed to better understand the present day and provides a necessary depth of knowledge to connect previous situations with those currently happening. Sometimes, though, history can be misleading. Projects are made up of a collection of data, the facts and figures, but the story is missing. You can sense this by looking at a map, and as you toggle into street view, you are suddenly looking at people carrying shopping bags. This is the human reality behind the ones and zeros, the urban renewal documents, and stories about the steel mills and the Rust Belt. What happens when you have plenty of data and no idea what it means? This leads us to ask: Can a city’s past inform its future?
A COMMUNITY OF MEMORY
train enterance into mill
13
urban renewal map
urban renewal directory of 1974
14
A COMMUNITY OF MEMORY
urban renewal document
15
top: palace theatre bottom: blast furnace workers at youngstown sheet and tube
16
A COMMUNITY OF MEMORY
shift change at a mill
17
map of the rust belt
18
Youngstown, Ohio is located at the center of the Mahoning Valley, halfway between Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Cleveland, Ohio and, in a larger context, is the halfway point between New York City and Chicago, Illinois. Youngstown is also found in the middle of the Rust Belt. The turn of the twentieth century, and the Mahoning Valley’s proximity to ports on Lake Erie, brought about the largest region of steel manufacturing in the world, and the impact of the steel industry reached far into the communities in which they were located. By 1920, seven steel plants were constructed in Youngstown, Ohio and its surrounding area. The city was filled with the sounds and smells of the mills..
A COMMUNITY OF MEMORY
mill workers
19
left and right:steel mills on the mahoning river
20
A COMMUNITY OF MEMORY
21
left and right: clippings from the youngstown vindicator
22
A COMMUNITY OF MEMORY
23
steel being poured in a mill
24
The 1970s saw the dissolution of urban renewal, but its downfall was joined by a field
of larger urban transformations. Destructive urban renewal developments and policies and the beginning of deindustrialization set the scene for urban shrinkage, neighborhood deterioration, and population decline like never before. There is a disconnect between urban renewal and urban shrinkage, but could one have happened without the other? Population and housing loss did not end alongside the end of urban renewal. Downtown abandonment may have been an effect of urban renewal, but it can be argued that it was unrelated to the shrinkage that occurred after 1970. In fact, shrinkage continued uninterrupted to century’s end in cities across the country, but after 1975 and the end of federal intervention through urban renewal, these cities were left to their own devices.
No one could have, or would have, predicted the deterioration of Youngstown, Ohio. The once
dense, active city quickly lost its life, relegated to a mere shell of its former self. Rust Belt cities are defined by extreme post-industrial population loss in a region strongly identified with production and industry. It is because of this industry, the lifeblood of the city and the support of its economy and working-class neighborhoods, that such an abrupt and startling loss was created in Youngstown.
A COMMUNITY OF MEMORY
legal arts building left: mid-century right: 2019
25
1970
1950
26
A COMMUNITY OF MEMORY
present
27
deyor performing arts center
28
A COMMUNITY OF MEMORY
stambaugh building top: 2019 bottom: 1909
29
THE PLAYGROUND
D
map of youngstown
32
Cities are doubles of themselves, references to the idea of the city they once
were. Nostalgia is a simulation of reality. History is presented as reality when it is actually an abstract idea created by the viewer. Everyone’s history is different. How two people remember the same thing will not be retold in the same ways. Throughout history, fact is betrayed by fictional details imperfectly pasted-on. The differences between fact and fiction become blurred with one foot in the field of reality and the other foot in the field of the past. The history engrained in the built environment often serves as a moment of abstracted reality. Buildings change and shift over time as they are affected by the people and world around them, holding onto the past but also presenting the future. The built environment found in Youngstown retains its inherent qualities while being subtracted from or added to throughout time. Architecture and landscape as a palimpsest shows the former meaning, the new meaning, and the hybridization created when the two are overlapped. The old and the new are superimposed, creating a new reading of time and history. What is seen now, and will it ever be seen the same way?
A COMMUNITY OF MEMORY
southeast of downtown
33
34
youngstown, ohio
A COMMUNITY OF MEMORY
35
36
existing buildings at 365 e boardman street
A COMMUNITY OF MEMORY
37
1884 sanborn map
1896 sanborn map
38
This project is located at 365 East Boardman Street in the southeast quadrant of downtown
Youngstown in an industrial part of downtown that has had little to no investment in recent years. Two vacant buildings currently sit on the site and are intended to be kept intact. The buildings occupy more than 25,000 square feet of built space while the total site takes up roughly 850,000 square feet. The two buildings on the site at 365 East Boardman Street serve as shelter, backdrop, historical connection, and future investment. Details and components around the site are derived from the history of the former site as well as the inspirational layering of textures, materials, stories, and time found throughout Youngstown. The new built environment entitled The Playground is created around and throughout the site from the remnants of train tracks, ghosts of buildings past, and reimaged industrial building typologies and adaptive infrastructure within the greater context of the post-industrial environment of the Rust Belt. These new and reused structures feel reminiscent of the past while ushering in a new way to use, see, and experience the area once covered in soot and sweat.
A COMMUNITY OF MEMORY
1906 sanborn map
39
event space
40
existing buildings
A COMMUNITY OF MEMORY
interior theater
41
42
site
A COMMUNITY OF MEMORY
site plan
43
objects on site
44
The Playground isn’t just surfaces but space created as you move around the landscape. The
landscape fills with meaningful points of view where illusionary spaces emerge, layers align, and objects and buildings come into view or disperse. The Playground emerges from images, graphic density, saturation, and illusion and translates it back into something physical. Visitors enter a world of imagery, where everything is somehow recognizable but a bit out of focus and distorted. The distortion of memory allows the examination of cities of the Rust Belt in a new way. No longer are Rust Belt cities seen for what they were, but how the memory of them could shape the way they look in the future. The built, public landscape is a direct reflection of our shared societal values, and it is
A COMMUNITY OF MEMORY
often an expression of aspirational values. What we build is who we are and who we want to become.
objects on site
45
object reminescent of industrial typologies
site looking north
site looking west
46
A COMMUNITY OF MEMORY
47
48
A COMMUNITY OF MEMORY
49
A C O M T