Radical Preservation by Nathaniel Hammitt

Nathaniel A. Hammitt

Radical Preservation the transformation of a vacant Philadelphia school to address contextual urban opportunities

Radical Preservation

All images credit author unless noted

Nathaniel A. Hammitt

Radical Preservation the transformation of a vacant Philadelphia school to address contextual urban opportunities

Nathaniel A. Hammitt MArch MSHP 2016 University of Pennsylvania School of Design A thesis in Architecture and Historic Preservation

Advisors Srdjan Jovanovic Weiss, Ph.D. Lecturer in Architecture Randall Mason, Ph.D. Associate Professor and Historic Preservation Program Chair May 15 2015

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5 ii

A word of acknowledgement:

To Srdjan Weiss and Randy Mason, for impeccable feedback in the development of this work; to Annette Fierro, for illuminating a critical intersection of historic preservation and architectural design; To the 2014-2015 thesis cohort, PennDesign MArch and MSHP classmates, and RAGAs of Rodin College House for lengthy discussions on the role that design and heritage plays in the built environment; To my web of Philadelphia â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;gurusâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; for much needed guidance in understanding the School District of Philadelphia, the Philadelphia School Reform Commission, and the process by which school properties are assessed, sold, and tranformed; And to Sarah, David, Mark, and Susie, for helping me know well what leads me forward and what holds me back.

Nathaniel A. Hammitt

contents Acknowledgements 4

Thesis Questions

The Philadelphia School

Psychology and Place: A Need for Partnership

The Site in Question: Edward Bok AVTS

Reconciling Conservation and Transformation

Case Studies

Design Proposal

Bibliography

105

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300000 each year.400000 In addition, students in a few districts can use vouchers to attend Catholic or other private schools. 400000 InThese addition, students in a fewstudents districts canseats use vouchers to Catholic or private schools. trends led to 20,000 thousands of empty in eachofdistrict. Since 2000, theother Detroit public schools In Milwaukee, more than take advantage thisattend option each year. 200000 300000 0, the Detroit public schools In Milwaukee, more than students, 20,000 students take of this option each year. alone lost about 87,000 a decline of advantage nearly 54 percent. 300000 These trends led to thousands of empty seats in each district. Since 2000, the Detroit public schools 100000 200000 trends87,000 led to students, thousandsa of emptyofseats in 54 each district. Since 2000, the Detroit public schools aloneThese lost about decline nearly percent. 200000 FIGURE 1 about 87,000 students, a decline of nearly 54 percent. alone lost

2010–2011

Detroit

Milwaukee Milwaukee

Washington Washington

▼

Philadelphia’s public school enrollment fell from 201,190 in 2000 to 154,482 in 2010, a 23 percent decline, due to the falling school-age population and the rise of charters; charter enrollment rose from 12,284 to 43,901 over the same 10 years.4 District officials expect these trends to continue. Many local charters are seeking permission to expand, and the state legislature is considering making it easier to start new ones. Vouchers also are under consideration. It’s not just the size of the school-age population that impacts school closings. The changing distribution of that population creates mismatches between where school buildings are located and where children live. In Philadelphia, for instance, schools in the Northeast operated at 100 percent of capacity last year, while just 56 percent of available seats were filled in the North Central planning area, which includes North Philadelphia. See Figure 2.

▼ ▼

16,886

29,244

–34%

In Kansas City, despite a relatively small decline in school-age population, public-school enrollment fell from 30,000 students in 2000 to less than 17,000 in 2010. Causes included the growth of charter schools, a court decision that ended busing of suburban students into the city, and the annexation of seven city schools by a neighboring district.

FIGURE 2

seaTs in use bY PhiladelPhia sChool disTRiCT Planning aRea

–42%

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh

29,244 16,886

▼

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh

29,244

This is a national crisis 25,326

▼

Washington Washington

▼

25,326

45,631

▼ ▼

38,560 25,326 38,560

Milwaukee Milwaukee

▼

64,757 45,631

▼

▼ ▼

38,560

64,757

80,934

–17%

64,757

▼

97,985 80,934

75,263

97,985

▼

Detroit Detroit

▼ ▼

–17%

Shuttered Public SchoolS:

▼ Kansas Kansas City, City, Mo. Mo.

Kansas City, Mo.

The Struggle to Bring Old Buildings New Life Northeast

Kansas City, Mo.

100%

Northwest

Source: Individual school districts. Source: Individual schoolThe districts. Philadelphia Research Initiative | www.pewtrusts.org/philaresearch

68%in determining what to do with the build33% of Philadelphia The degree to which school districts engage neighbors ings varies from place to place, with most reporting no formal structure or process for collecting residentsinput. liveWhile within 1/2 alone can not make a desired project financially viable, strong opposiThe Philadelphia Research Initiative | www.pewtrusts.org/philaresearch public opinion The Philadelphia Research Initiative | www.pewtrusts.org/philaresearch tion can stop a development from happening. 56% mile of a closed school 62%

aresearch

North Central

West

In Atlanta, the district recently convened a “repurposing committee” made up of school and city

officials and community representatives. It draws on neighborhood-based city planning staff to lead This crisis affects meetings about the future of closed schools with local community organizations. Potential lessees 64% large urban areas or buyers present plans to the groups, which vote on the option they prefer, although the vote is South Central

Southwest

not binding on the school board.

55%

In Kansas City, the district organizes site tours, public meetings, and other efforts to ensure that prospective developers interact with the public. Officials there that getting residents to think Source: School District of Philadelphia, Master Facilitiessaid Plan Draft, April 2011. about, and sometimes propose, future uses for a former school has garnered community support The Philadelphia Initiative |into www.pewtrusts.org/philaresearch for specific projects. Developers have incorporated publicResearch feedback their projects, in one case adding a health clinic to a planned senior housing facility at the request of neighbors.

While a vacant building negatively impacts one block, a vacant school Philadelphia’s reuse policy calls for bids to be reviewed by an evaluation team composed of reprenegatively impacts sentatives from thean school district, the city planning commission, affected civic groups, FIGURE 4 entire community and the City Council member who represents

that part of the city. The School Reform ComThe effect of a single mission makes final decisions. large building is NeW uSeS For VAcANt substantial

Public SchoolS

Despite the hurdles, the school districts in the 12 cities studied have sold, leased or reused 267 surplus buildings. The structures are now used as charter schools, market-rate and subsidized housing, a movie theater and medical offices. See Figure 4. The popularity of educational and residential uses stems largely from two factors—the physical structure of the buildings and the availability of financing.

across the top 12 US cities, 42% of closed schools are converted to charter schools There may be a better way...

Nathaniel A. Hammitt

Lessons from Six Urban Districts

16,886

Detroit

–54% 75,263

154,482

Philadelphia

162,202 75,263 162,202

154,482

▼

Philadelphia Philadelphia

0 Source: Individual school districts. Chicago

▼

–23%

Philadelphia

Chicago

–54%

162,202

201,190 154,482201,190

359,880

Chicago Chicago

▼

97,985

▼ ▼

–23%

–17%

–54%

–23%

80,934

▼

Urban schools throughout the United States are –30% –34% –42% experiencing massive drops –30% –34% in district enrollment –42% –30% 45,631

–17%

201,190

432,000

Kansas City, Mo.

▼

359,880

300,000200,000 300,000 –42% 200,000▼100,000 200,000

2010–2011

▼ ▼

–17%

432,000 359,880432,000

400,000300,000 400,000

2000–2001 2000–2001 2010–2011

–17%

500,000400,000 500,000

0 100,000 100,000

Pittsburgh

2000–2001

Changes in enRollMenT in disTRiCT-Run sChools

16,886

25,326

38,560

▼

NumbEr of STudENTS

–34%

29,244 NumbEr of STudENTS NumbEr of STudENTS

0 100000 Changes in enRollMenT in disTRiCT-Run sChools 100000 FIGURE 1 FIGURE 1 0 2000–2001 Changes in enRollMenT in disTRiCT-Run sChools 02010–2011 500,000

Closing PubliC sChools in PhiladelPhia

The School District of Philadelphia has sold 10 schools since 2005; three for charter schools, four as housing developments, one combination shopping center and senior housing project, a small business incubator, and one use that is yet to be determined. It also sold a parking garage site, where the Community College of Philadelphia plans a mixed-use

NeW uSeS For School diStrict ProPertieS iN 12 citieS: 2005-2012 TO BE DETERMINED

9% OTHER

CHARTER SCHOOL

GOVERNMENT/ NONPROFIT

42%

22%

RESIDENTIAL

10%

OTHER EDUCATIONAL

12% Source: Individual school districts. NoTe: “other educational” includes private schools, universities, tutoring centers, and district uses such as “swing space,” storage, and training facilities. “To be determined”

1 i ii

Thesis Questions

how can the upgrade of an abandoned district school address contextual and political fluctuations in a challenged urban core? how can the architectural transformation of a vacant structure catalyze social and cultural vibrancy?

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HERITAGE A1 A1

REGION

A2 A2

A3 A1

A4 A4

S3 S1

MATERIAL

SWEET SPOT

DESIGN Honing in

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social and political currents

Philadelphia conditions

community analysis

site analysis

skin study: material history

organizational strategy

volume study

From the outset this thesis has approached its questions as

a system: understanding school vacancy and abandonment must be seen in the larger context of the city and state; building site and structural conditions have implications at the material and physical level.

While the goal of this thesis is to explore abandonment

and solutions of Radical Preservation vis-a-vis upgrade and architectural transformation at the intersection of heritage and design, the research of adaptive reuse strategies in a single school is approached with foundations in typological and systemic research into preservation and architectural design strategies, as well as precedent-driven awarenes for extant work and theory

This thesis reflects on points of study from Autumn

2014 (A1-A4) and Spring 2015 (S1-S3) illustrated in the diagram opposite, while leaving open to interpretation research and exploration beyond the scale and scope of Radical Preservation.

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Lindsey Scannapieco, Mat Triebner and Emma Rutherford. Scout Ltd.

Lea Oxenhandler Fels Public Policy Challenge winner â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;12. KieranTimberlake

Danielle Floyd Garth Rockcastle Director of Capital Programs, Architect, MS+R School Distr. of Philadelphia

Nate Bronstein Fels School of Government Staff worker, Brian Simms

Claire Landau SRC Chief of Staff

Sarah Besnoff Heidi Levy Philadelphia CDC Director of US District Court for Eastern District of Pennsylvania Design Services

Guy Thipen Director of Analytic Services Philadelphia Land Bank

Donald Manekin Seawall Development

Domenic Vitiello PennDesign Department of City & Regional Planning

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Danielle Wolfe Social Policy and Practive Fels School of Government

This simple matrix, with an X axis ranging from Regional (macro) to Material (micro) and a Y axis ranging from Heritage (reflective) to Design (projective), allows for a range of research while also maintaining a focused thrust toward the challenge and questions at hand.

In addition to a process of honing in research (along

the previous pageâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s axial spectrum) this thesis has also taken opportunities to consult with a range of Philadelphia experts knowledgeable about the political and social state of Philadelphiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s school system-- the School DIstrict of Philadelphia (SDP)-- which is managed in a state-city partnership via the School Reform Commission (SRC). The formation of the SRC is lagely tied to political and economic imbalances between funding of the SDP by City of Philadelphia and the State of Pennsylvania which will be discussed in the next chapter of this thesis.

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the Philadelphia School

Critical to our understanding of why Philadelphia district

schools have closed en mass is the two-fold involvement of the SRC over the past three years,

First, under successive school reformers and city politicians

the SDP has argued for fair funding in order to properly educate the city’s large school-aged population. Reformers in the 1990s argued that Philadelphia public schools were under-funded and spent to meet what they perceived to be the base needs. As bills accumulated, the State of Philadelphia refused to pay for expenses deemed ‘necessary’ by SDP reformers, and after a prolonged legal battle in which the City and SDP co-sued Pennsylvania for proper funding, the State finally agreed to fund the SDP. There was one caveat; the City of Philadelphia had to allow charter schools and

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end of last wave of school closings

schools open, 1985

NUMBER OF OPERATIONAL SCHOOLS

255

1985

1990

2000

CAST OF CHARACTERS CLAYTON

HORNBECK

VALLAS

SDP Superintendent

GOODE

RENDELL

STREET

Mayor of Philadelphia THORNBURGH

CASEY

RIDGE

SCHWEIKER RENDELL

Governor of Pennsylvania

End of early 80â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s labor troubles and school closings

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Options exhausted for resolving budget crisis; Hornbeck and City of Philadelphia file lawsuit against Pennsylvania

Charter-enabling legislation passed

State takeover. Creation of SRC

Illustration adapted from PennPraxis’ New Life For Old Schools, 2013.

had to accepted a state-led School Reform Commission to lead the SDP. This SRC gives, in effect, a state-level veto to all decisions

schools open, 2015

impacting the SDP.

215

Second, the appearance and emerging dominance of

charter schools coupled with a loss of Philadelphia school-aged population has driven the SRC to close SDP district (non-charter) schools, leading to the current state of vacancy and abandonment.

While this is a simplified account of political and economic

processes over the past fifteen years, it helps place into perspective 2010

ACKERMAN

2015

the immediacy of need that vacant schools be adapted to new uses that restore trust in political leadership (justice), confidence in

HITE

the community (psychological wellness), and stability (economic

NUTTER

and otherwise) in neighborhoods recently left to the tides of CORBETT

WOLF

disinvestment. But an understanding of Pennsylvania school typology is also necessary to grasp the physical evolution of

GFC

Corbett’s budget cuts

Hite cancels teachers’ contract

Philadelphia educational civic architecture.

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marking both building technology and the perceived role of education. An ov is discussed below.

The Historic Educational Resources of Pennsylvania (PDF), authored by Dome context organized in a Multiple Property Documentation Form. The context f evolution and history of public schools throughout Pennsylvania.

The PHMC's Bureau for Historic Preservation has initiated a comprehensive su schools still operating as schools, identifying the characteristics and evaluatin integrity. This initiative paired with the statewide context provides a framew individual schools across the Commonwealth to the National Register of Histo

1682-1818: Colonial and Early National Pennsylvania

This is the era before common school systems developed in

Pennsylvania. Schools were important institutions of colonization. The many diverse groups of European settlers in Pennsylvania founded educational institutions, usually tied to their churches. Germans, English, and other colonists used schools as vehicles for cultural preservation in the New World ; and they sometimes came into conflict when English educators attempted to impose their school systems upon other ethnic groups. In Pennsylvaniaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s cities, early charitable schools aimed to mitigate the troubles of growing urban poverty. Generally, schoolhouses of this period followed the patterns of residential and sometimes religious architecture, with elite academies modeled after elegant Georgian or Federal style homes, wood frame one-room schoolhouses in agricultural regions, and log cabin schoolhouses on the frontier.

Nathaniel A. Hammitt

1682-1818: Colonial and Early National Pennsylvania This is the era before common school system Pennsylvania. Schools were important institu colonization. The many diverse groups of Eu Pennsylvania founded educational institution their churches. Germans, English, and other schools as vehicles for cultural preservation and they sometimes came into conflict when attempted to impose their school systems u groups.

Federal School, In Pennsylvania's cities, early charitable schools aimed to mitigate the trouble poverty. Generally, schoolhouses of this period followed the patterns of reside Haverford, Delaware religious architecture, with elite academies modeled after elegant Georgian or County, wood frame1797. one-room schoolhouses in agricultural regions, and log cabin sch frontier.

1818-1867: The Rise of the Common School System During this period, common school systems Philadelphia and then, following the common across the state. Many Pennsylvanians oppo schools; but for their proponents the commo represented a necessary institution of a dem promising to create a literate and informed electorate. Additionally, common schools add changes in the labor market, training young literacy and arithmetic necessary to participa labor economy in which apprenticeship was of this period, the state system of public education had become a mature bur distinct hierarchy of schools had emerged. A few high schools in urban settin advanced curriculum in ornate buildings, two- or four-room schools with simp developed in working class neighborhoods or mid-sized towns, and one-room the children of farmers and miners in less populated rural regions. Their build variety of architectural styles, ranging from elaborate Italianate and Gothic fo elite architects of the period to simple vernacular construction. 1867-1930: The Long Progressive Era

The period between the end of the Civil War Depression was the era of great systematiza education, and in American social and econo general. School curriculums expanded in the industrialization, corporate reorganization of the rise of the professions. Progressive reform impacted education, inspiring schools to take a stronger role in the social live their communities through programs in public health, home economics, phys Americanization for the great waves of immigrants arriving during this period and the administrative consolidation of many rural school districts made this period of school construction in American history. Following more general tre architecture, new schools were commonly built in American and European hi of architecture. 1930-1969: From Depression to District Reorganization

their churches. Germans, English, and other colonists used schools as vehicles for cultural preservation in the New World ; and they sometimes came into conflict when English educators attempted to impose their school systems upon other ethnic groups. In Pennsylvania's cities, early charitable schools aimed to mitigate the troubles of growing urban poverty. Generally, schoolhouses of this period followed the patterns of residential and sometimes religious architecture, with elite academies modeled after elegant Georgian or Federal style homes, wood frame one-room schoolhouses in agricultural regions, and log cabin schoolhouses on the frontier. 1818-1867: The Rise of the Common School System During this period,The common school systems developed first in System 1818-1867: Rise of the Common School Philadelphia and then, following the common school act of 1834, across the state. Many Pennsylvanians opposed publicly funded but forDuring this period, common schools; their proponents the common schools school systems developed represented a necessary institution of a democratic society, promising to create a literate and informed first in Philadelphia and then, following the common school act electorate. Additionally, common schools addressed major changes in the labor market, training young people in basic literacy arithmetic to participate in a rising wage of and 1834, acrossnecessary the state. Many Pennsylvanians opposed publicly labor economy in which apprenticeship was declining. By the end Old Brownâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s of this period, the state system of public education had become a mature bureaucracy. Also, a distinct hierarchy of schools had emerged. A fewschools; high schools in urban settings offered an funded but for their proponents the common schools Mill School, advanced curriculum in ornate buildings, two- or four-room schools with simpler curriculums Franklin 1836. developed inCounty, working class neighborhoods or mid-sized towns, and one-room schoolhouses served a necessary institution of a ademocratic society, the children of farmers and miners in represented less populated rural regions. Their builders employed variety of architectural styles, ranging from elaborate Italianate and Gothic forms popular among elite architects of the period to simple vernacular construction.

promising to create a literate and informed electorate. Common

1867-1930: The Long Progressive Era

schools addressed major changes in the labor market, training young people in basic literacy and arithmetic necessary to

The period between the end of the Civil War and the Great Depression was the era of great systematization in public education, and in American social and economic participate in a rising wage laborinstitutions economyin in which apprenticeship general. School curriculums expanded in the face of rapid industrialization, corporate reorganization of the economy, and the rise the professions. reformers profoundly wasof declining. A Progressive distinct hierarchy of schools had emerged. A few impacted education, inspiring schools to take a stronger role in the social lives of students and their communities through programs in public health, home economics, physical education, and high schools in urban settings offered an advanced curriculum Americanization for the great waves of immigrants arriving during this period. Rapid urbanization and the administrative consolidation of many rural school districts made this the most active period of school construction in American history. Following more general trends in public in ornate buildings, two- or four-room schools with simpler architecture, new schools were commonly built in American and European historical revival styles of architecture.

curriculums developed in working class neighborhoods or mid-

1930-1969: From Depression to District Reorganization

sized towns, and one-room schoolhouses served the children of farmers and miners in less populated rural regions. Their builders

http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/school_preservation/2404/historic_educational_resources_of_pennsylvania/293122

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employed a variety of architectural styles, ranging from elaborate Italianate and Gothic forms popular among elite architects of the period to simple vernacular construction.

1867-1930: The Long Progressive Era

The period between the end of the Civil War and the

Great Depression was the era of great systematization in public education, and in American social and economic institutions in general. School curriculums expanded in the face of rapid industrialization, corporate reorganization of the economy, and

The period between the end of the Civil War Depression was the era of great systematiza education, and in American social and econo general. School curriculums expanded in the industrialization, corporate reorganization of the rise of the professions. Progressive reform impacted education, inspiring schools to take a stronger role in the social live Troy Public High their communities through programs in public health, home economics, phys Americanization School, 1850for the great waves of immigrants arriving during this period and the administrative consolidation of many rural school districts made this period of school construction in American history. Following more general tre architecture, new schools were commonly built in American and European hi of architecture. 1930-1969: From Depression to District Reorganization

the rise of the professions. Progressive reformers profoundly impacted education, inspiring schools to take a stronger role in the social lives of students and their communities through programs in public health, home economics, physical education, and Americanization for the great waves of immigrants arriving during this period. Rapid urbanization and the administrative

Nathaniel A. Hammitt

http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/school_preservation/2404/h

consolidation of many rural school districts made this the most active period of school construction in American history. Following more general trends in public architecture, new schools were commonly built in American and European historical revival styles of architecture.

1930-1969: From Depression to District Reorganization

Ultimately, the Depression and World War Two halted

most school building. When it picked up again in the late 1940s, Americans had adopted new ways of life that fundamentally

Bok Technical High School, 1934

altered the context of schools and their architecture. Automobile suburbs boomed in the postwar period, and large sprawling schools served by fleets of buses became the norm in both suburban and consolidated rural districts. In Pennsylvaniaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s cities, schools became the focus of Civil Rights, desegregation, and urban renewal campaigns. Like other public and commercial buildings,

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schools were built according to art deco and modernist designs. The narrative ends in 1969, when school districts across the state were reorganized into the geography that they mainly retain today.

1969-Present: Shifting local trends

Since 1911 educators had the vision, understood the

need and had the power to implement reform and stake out an enhanced significance for schools. But following World War II there emerged “a new conception of the functions of the public school,” declared District President Henry R. Edmunds. “There was a time when the public school was regarded as being simply a place for scholastic instruction. … To-day, a multitude of interests are being cared for by the public school system which no one dreamed of…medical inspection, vocational training, music, physical training, social centers, open air classes, evening lectures to adults, school gardens and summer playgrounds. … There is a growing

Nathaniel A. Hammitt

George Pepper Middle School, 1968

tendency for the community to regard the school as the center of much of its social life.” Edmunds added, “these things cannot be done without money, and that ultimately it rests with the people to pay the bill.” It’s a matter of supply and demand. In the 21st century we are bound to undo a significant amount of what the 20th century left behind. Future recommendations will doubtless result in additional closures. But it’s also a matter of debate and discussion. Closures evoke reaction from every quarter: reformers, bureaucrats, philanthropists, neighborhood activists, teachers, parents, students, and even preservationists, demonstrating that it’s not fast-- or easy-- to intelligently shrink a city.

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No other factor figures as heavily into the modernization

of Philadelphia schools than the man who brought about sweeping changes to the districtâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s architectural design and construction: Irwin T. Catharine.

In addition to his decision to forego timber-frame

construction in favor of steel, concrete, and non-combustible reinforcement Catharine also standardized the floor plan of schools to fit any lot: by moving schools away from alleys and into the center of lots, ventilation and light were also improved. At the time his choice of integrating latrine toilets into buildings was scandalous (as opposed to outdoor latrines which had been the norm prior to his tenure) and making space inside every school for a cafeteria ensured that students would not have to run home at lunch time for a midday meal but could rather stay within the campus confines in a protected academic environment.

While only acting as the School District of Philadelphia

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chief architect for 17 years, from 1920-1937, he is credited with the design of 104 public schools (including replacing thirty-seven existing buildings, adding wings to 26 others, and upgrades of no less than 50 in addition) each with a unique style and ornamentation based on the neighborhood and architectural styles deemed appropriate for the time and place of their implementation.

Catharineâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s modernization of Philadelphia public school

design and contruction is fortuitous in the case of this thesis project: his foresighted choice to make buildings firm yet adaptable is grounds for many adaptive-reuse projects in the city (one case study in particular will be discussed in Chapter Six). The concrete and masonry grid-form construction present in the Edward Bok school proves both challenging and opportunistic in the research and proposal following.

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Nathaniel A. Hammitt

Psychology and Place: A Need for Partnership

With an understanding of the mechanics of Philadelphia

schools in place it is next necessary to recognize the role that meso-psychology (the psychology of groups) plays in a community’s perception of abandonment and disinvestment.

In the case of urban Philadelphia, there is already a distrust

of political parties deemed ‘other’ by personal or group standards. Whether by political party, neighborhood, or racial affiliation, meso- level psychology leads communities to perceive personal injustice when those in power make decisions negatively affecting their group’s personal well-being. Robert Robbins puts it well:

“The fear of the stranger and projection of hatred upon

the other are the psychological foundation of the concept of the enemy. The crystallization of the shared comfort of the familiar

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is the psychological foundation of nationalism. Significant others -- parents, teachers, peers -- sponsor ‘suitable targets of externalization’ for the developing child. They teach whom and what to fear.”

However, what is often overlooked is the stress of decision

makers during times of crisis. Crisis, as defined by Jerrold Post,

include[s] time urgency, ambiguity or uncertainty, and

surprise or uniqueness. The political scientist Ole R. Holsti, for example, finds two elements concerning which there is broad agreement-- a severe threat to important values and finite time for coping with the threat-- and adopts this as his working definition (Holsti 1976). He also mentions the elements of surprise and probability of armed conflict, while Paul T. Hart identifies threat, urgency, and uncertainty (Rosenthal, Hart, and Charles 1989).”

In the case of the struggling SDP, policy-makers wrestle

with the very real crisis of under-funded education and have to

Nathaniel A. Hammitt

make difficult desicion about which buildings to save and which to shutter. While these decisions are often made out of reaction to real-world crises, sometimes the decisions are perceived as discriminatory or injustice to local communities and mesosociological groups. A community’s ability to perceive injustice (whether real or imaginary) is defined by Isaac Prilleltensky as Psychopolitical Literacy or “People’s ability to understand the relationship between political and psychological factors that enhance or diminish wellness and justice.”

The accuracy of this perception is known as Psychopolitical

Validity or “Whether research and action to improve the human condition takes political and psychological factors into account.”

Certain meso- and micro-sociological distotions warp

perceptions of wellness and justice, namely the five listed below (also by Prilleltensky).

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Wilson, James Q. and George L. Kelling. Broken Windows: The police and neighborhood safety, The Atlantic. 1982.

Thomas Edison High School, Seventh and Lehigh Photo credit Flickr: Aerofennec. 2012

OPPRESSION prolonged cruel and unjust treatment or control. (perceived or actual)

WELLNESS

RESISTANCE the refusal to accept or comply with something; the attempt to prevent something by action or argument.

the state or condition of being physically or mentally well (perceived or actual)

Prilleltensky, Isaac. Psychopolitical Validity and Psychopolitical Wellness in Community Psychology. 2005 30

Nathaniel A. Hammitt

Affective (primarily emotional source): Limited emotional energy prevents person preoccupied with own issues from seeing other aspects of wellness or justice. Acquired (primarily educational source): Socialization and disciplinary boundaries prevent consideration of other types of wellness or justice; individualistic assumptions bias socialization. Situated (primarily historical source): Contextual horizons prevent consideration of other types of wellness or justice because people canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t imagine them. Invested (primarily political source): To maintain privilege and prevent dissonance, power and selfinterest distort nature of wellness and justice and dismiss alternatives not to eliteâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s advantage. Polarized (primarily cognitive source): Limited attention distorts nature of wellness and justice into dogmatic either/or positions.

These distortions extablish a psychopolitical gradient,

seen on the opposide page. Prilleltenskyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s analysis provides a contextual and community-scale barometer for perceived and actual community well-being.

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Nathaniel A. Hammitt

The Site in Question: Edward Bok AVTS

This thesis originally began as an investigation into

the crisis of school closures and considerations for the reuse of multiple schools. However, given the vast portfolio of vacant properties it became most pressing to focus in on a single large site that was representative of the total school district portfolio and whose challenges and opportunities were appropriate to address within the scope of an architecture and historic preservation thesis project. Of the twenty schools surveyed at the outset of this project, (see next three pages for site visit and building research information) the best candidate for study is Edward Bok AVTS, a 320,000 sq. ft. technical high school in South Philadelphia. Constructed between 1934-1936 it is listed on the National Register and among one of the more impressive public schools in the city.

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FAIRHILL SCHOOL 2800 N 6th St

WILLIAM PENN 1301 N Broad St

OLD SAMUEL FELS 1001 Devereaux Ave

OLD FRANCIS WILLARD 1920 E Orleans St

SHERIDAN WEST 3701 Frankford Ave

CHARLES CARROLL 2826 Salmon St

GEORGE PEPPER 2801 S 84th St

ABIGALE VARE 1619 E Moyamensing Ave

ROBERT FULTON 56 E Haines St

THOMAS FITZSIMMONS 2601 W Cumberland St

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JOSEPH LEIDY 1301 Belmont Ave WALTER SMITH 1300 S 19th St

BEEBER WYNFIELD 1818 N 53rd St

M HALL STANTON 1523 W Cumberland St

COMMUNICATIONS TECH 2900 S 81st St

EDWARD BOK 1901 S 9th St

ELIZABETH GILLESPIE 3901 N 18th St

GERMANTOWN HIGH SCHOOL 5901 Germantown Ave

JOHN WITTIER 2600 W Clearfield

RUDOLPH WALTON 2601 N 38th St

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POPULATION POPULATION CHANGE, CHANGE, 1990 1990 - 2010 - 2010

POPULATION POPULATION CHANGE, CHANGE, BY CENSUS BY CENSUS TRACT TRACT -100% -100% -50%-50% -50%-50% to -25% to -25% % % -25%-25% to 0%to 0% 0% to0%25% to 25% 25%25% to 50% to 50% > 50% > 50%

75%75% OF OF NEIGHBORHOODS NEIGHBORHOODS SURROUNDING SURROUNDING CLOSED CLOSED SCHOOL SCHOOL SITES SITES EXPERIENCED EXPERIENCED POPULATION POPULATION LOSS LOSS BETWEEN BETWEEN 1990 1990 ANDAND 2010 2010

POVERTY POVERTY CONCENTRATION, CONCENTRATION, 2010 2010

PEOPLE BELOW FEDERAL PEOPLE BELOW FEDERAL POVERTY POVERTY LINE,LINE, BY CENSUS TRACT BY CENSUS TRACT 0% to0%31% to 31% 32%32% to 62% to 62% 63%63% to 94% to 94%

34%34% OF OF RESIDENTS RESIDENTS WITHIN WITHIN A HALF A HALF MILEMILE RADIUS RADIUS OF OF CLOSING CLOSING SCHOOL SCHOOL SITES SITES LIVELIVE BELOW BELOW THETHE POVERTY POVERTY LINELINE

Closed and and closing closing schools schools are are concentrated concentrated in the in the lowest lowest Analyzing Analyzing population population change change across across neighborhoods neighborhoods in the inRESISTANCE the Closed OPPRESSION WELLNESS income income neighborhoods neighborhoods in the in city. the city. As the As map the map above above shows, shows, prolonged cruel and unjust the refusal to accept or comply with the state or condition of being citycity shows shows howhow neighborhoods neighborhoods withwith declining declining populations populations treatment or control. something; the attempt prevent somephysically or mentally welltracts thetothe majority majority of closed of closed school school sites sites are are in census in census tracts havehave experienced experienced the the greatest greatest number number of school of school closures. closures. (perceived or actual) thing by action or argument. (perceived or actual) had had a significant a significant proportion proportion of residents of residents living living below below The The correlation correlation between between declining declining population population and and school school thatthat theWellness the poverty poverty line line inPsychology. 2010. in 2010. Prilleltensky, Isaac. Psychopolitical Validity and Psychopolitical in Community 2005 closure closure is not is not surprising. surprising. The The declining declining population population nearnear closed closed and and closing closing school school sitessites makes makes these these sitessites lessless desirable desirable for developers, for developers, and and thusthus a challenge a challenge to sell. to sell.

Need for short-term approach Need for long-term approach PHILADELPHIA PHILADELPHIA SCHOOL SCHOOL REUSE REUSE STUDIO STUDIO Possible thesis sites (see next page)

Nathaniel A. Hammitt

GEOGRAPHIC POSITIONING Schools clustered in North/Central and Southl Philadelphia

GILLESPIE

STANTON

VAUX

9 4

FAIRHILL

FURGUSON

PENN

City Hall

17 19 18

BOK

1 20 Radical Preservation

VAUX SCHOOL YEAR BUILT:1936 LOT SIZE: 2 Acres BUILDING FOOTPRINT: 1.5 Acres # OF STORIES: 5 floors ZONING RSA-5

EDWARD BOK AVTS YEAR BUILT: 1938 LOT SIZE: 97,985 sq. ft. BUILDING FOOTPRINT: 78,967 sq. ft. BUILDING SIZE: 338,000 sq. ft. # OF STORIES: 8 floors ZONING: IRMX FERGUSON SCHOOL YEAR BUILT:1921 LOT SIZE: 2.5 Acres BUILDING FOOTPRINT: 1 Acres # OF STORIES: 4 floors ZONING RSA-5

ELIZABETH GILLESPIE SCHOOL YEAR BUILT: 1927 LOT SIZE: 81,270 sq. ft. BUILDING FOOTPRINT: 43,043 sq. ft. BUILDING SIZE: 137,000 sq. ft. # OF STORIES: 5 floors ZONING: CMX-2 FAIRHILL SCHOOL YEAR BUILT: 1969 LOT SIZE: 117,434 sq. ft. BUILDING FOOTPRINT: 33,295 sq. ft. BUILDING SIZE: 67,000 sq. ft. # OF STORIES: 4 floors ZONING: RM-1

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MARGARET H. STANTON SCHOOL YEAR BUILT: 1902 LOT SIZE: 51,746 sq. ft. BUILDING FOOTPRINT: 25,741 sq. ft. BUILDING SIZE: 83,300 sq. ft. # OF STORIES: 4 floors ZONING:RSA-5

Edward Bok AVTS was tendered to Scout Ltd. on October

8, 2014 by the PIDC on behalf of the SPD and SRC. Scout Ltd., managed by Lindsay Scannapeico, has excellent experience developing short-term uses for properties and public space.

This thesis recognizes that Scout Ltd.â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s proposal for the

reuse of Bok AVTS is well-researched and well-prepared in its own right, and the author is grateful to all due assistance provided by the members of Scout Ltd. during the research and development of this thesis. While the following research into transformation, conservation, and adaptive-use case studies can be applied to any building appropriately, the work and due dilligence carried out thus far by Scout at Bok is separate from the research done in the design proposal at the end of this thesis document.

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EDWARD K BOK AVTS (TECHNICAL HIGH SCHOOL) Statistics: 2012 [prior to closure] Demographics Percent Black Percent White Percent Asian Percent Hispanic Percent Special Ed Percent Gifted Reduced Lunch Percent Female Percent Male

72.9% 5.1% 13.7% 7.1% 18.8% 1.8% 97.8% 41.5% 58.5%

Students per Grade 9 381 10 217 11 224 12 196 Total Students 1018 Academics Student Performance Graduation rate Dropout rate College rate

65.9% 2% 48%

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Named for Dutch-born Edward Bok, a Pulitzer-winning

writer who popularized plans for building houses through his editorial role in Ladies’ Home Journal. Plans for these houses cost as little as a dollar, and the one-and-a-half story dwelling soon became a dominant form of domestic architecture in the country.

Bok is credited with coining the term ‘living room’ as the

name for room of a house that was commonly called a drawing room. Bok believed it was foolish to create an expensively furnished room that was rarely used, promoting the new name to encourage families to use the room in their daily lives. “We have what is called a ‘drawing room’. Just whom or what it ‘draws’ I have never been able to see unless it draws attention to too much money and no taste...”

Bok’s overall concern was to preserve his socially

conservative vision of the ideal American household. To this end, (in a twist of fate) he promoted the suburbs as the best place for well-balanced domestic life.

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1843

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1962

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early concept sketches

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Reconciling Conservation and Transformation

Steward Brand, in his book How Buildings Learn discusses

that the physical components of architecture mode at different rates: the ‘stuff’ and ‘skin’ of a building change must faster that the same building’s structure and services. For historic buildings, often successive layers of arterations significantly alter the character and integrity of the original structure. Bok has been minimally altered from its original state but its ‘layers’ are connected in such a way that the building’s stuff and space plans are flexible enough to accomodate a wide variety of uses within the building’s structure and service systems.

However, it is not enough to discuss the physical rates

of change within a building. There is also a cultural dimension to shearing rates of change which takes into account perception

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FASHION COMMERCE

INFRASTRUCTURE GOVERNANCE CULTURE

NATURE

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Adopted from Stewart Brand’s The Clock of the Long Now, p. 37

and acceptance of change. Brand illustrates this concept with his diagram on â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Pace Layeringâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; in The Clock of the Long Now. In the diagram below, fashion and commerce move with the greatest speed and fluctuate the most rapidly in society, while infrastructure (architecture and the built environment) lags commerce and is guided by governance and culture. In this view of change, inftrastructure is the built representation of cultural and governance models and in turn infrastructure shapes commerce and fashion. But if a building outlasts certain forms of governance or lives through myriad commercial cycles, the building can become a living time capsule bearing through time the ideas and beliefs of previous social customs, norms, and representational methods

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Adopted from Stewart Brand’s Shearing Rates of Change diagram in “How Buildings Learn”

SKIN STRUCTURE

SERVICES

SPACE PLAN

STUFF

HERITAGECULTURE GEOGRAPHY/NATURAL FEATURES

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For a building like Bok, its use as a school has been

overtaken by shifting forms of culture and governance (technical schools replaced by charter schools, city school district governance replaced by state school reform commission governance). However economic models that once precluded mixed live-use buildings have faded in favor or more liberalized strategies of integrating industry and residential programs.

In the United States, rehabilitation efforts within the

professional field of Historic Preservation are guided by the Secretary of the Interiorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Standards for Rehabilitation (excerpted on the following page). Charles Bloszies distills rehabilitation efforts down into three categories: Extreme, Restrained, and Referential. For my design proposal, the best and fullest use for the Bok AVTS building is in the addition of eight stories, stacked vertically above the existing structure. This calls for a challenge to the Secretary of the Interiorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Standards for Rehabilitation.

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EXTREME

RESTRAINED

REFERENTIAL

Morgan Library Renzo Piano Building Workshop Contemporary Jewish Museum Studio Daniel Libeskind 58

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1 Kearny Street Office of Charles Bloszies

Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation •

Purpose “requires minimal change to defining characteristics”

•

“Character of a property shall be retained and preserved”

•

“Changes that create a false sense of historical development...shall not be undertaken”

•

“Changes that have acquired historic significane in their own right shall be retained and preserved”

•

“Distinctive features, finishes, and construction techniques”

•

When possible, “repair rather than replace” historic features

•

“Chemical or physical treatments... shall not be used”

•

“Archeological resources... shall be protected”

•

“New work shall be differentiated from the old and shall be compatible with the massing, size, scale, and architectural features”

•

“New additions.. shall be undertaken in such a manner that if removed... the essential form and integrity of the historic property and its environment would be unimpaired”

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NON-USE VALUES

USE VALUES

option value willingness to pay for maintaining an asset or resource even if there is little or no likelihood of the individual actually ever using it

jobs impact involving building construction/operation

bequest value willingness to pay for maintaining/preserving an asset or resource that has no use now, so that it is available for future generations. existence value the benefit received from knowing that a particular resource exists. altruistic value value arising from others’ use of the asset or resource.

property value real estate and urban economic benefits of property use tourism benefits generated by visitors and tourism industry environmental impact environmental benefits derived from building use social impact ‘halo effect’ social benefits of building use

INTEGRITY

Location Design Setting Material Workmanship Feeling Association 60

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Physical location of building Respect for building’s original design Reference to original setting Quality of material (or material equivalent) maintained Quality of workmanship (or equivalent) maintained Does the rehabilitated building respect the ‘feel’ of original Social, historical, and cultural references maintained

Among architects and designers, metrics of acceptance

are still contested. Charles Bloszies’s book Old Buildings, New Designs sorts architectural design in historic contexts into three categories: Extreme, Restrained, and Referential. Although most buildings fit easily into one of these three categories, it is far more of a spectrum of contextuality than a three-tiered system of design.

What Charles Bloszies does well in his book is reconcile

architectural design with the Secretary of the Interior’s standards for rehabilitation. While historic preservation professionals are familiar with the Secretary of the Interior’s standards, designers often see the ten points as hancuffs rather than guidelines. This thesis asks how contemporary architectural design can challenge cultural standards for architectural transformation and in doing so also provide new opportunities of adapting the secretary of the interior’s standards forrehabilitation into the built environment.

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Case Studies

As this is a design thesis, I have also included case studies

that I believe exhibit purposeful rigor in their design processes. To tackle an adaptive reuse project necessitates a successful repurposing of a project to meet the needs of the present, but more importantly an ability to propose designs that can adapt to potential future uses. These case studies will serve as a jumping off point for successful adaptive reuse and new-construction strategies toward my proposal for reuse of Bok AVTS in South Philadelphia.

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*derived from Francois Astorg Bollackâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Old Buildings New Forms

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SCHOOL BUILDING TYPOLOGIES Arts and Culture MoMA PS1 New York, NY Institutional MARY CHANNING WISTER SCHOOL Philadelphia, PA Commercial ITHACA HIGH SCHOOL Ithaca, NY

ADAPTIVE TYPOLOGIES* “Insertions” NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PHILOSOPHY DPT. New York, NY “Parasite” “Symbiosis” CAIXA FORUM Madrid Spain “Wrap” WOLFAHRT-LAYMANN HOUSE Frankfurt, Germany “Juxtaposition” TATE MODERN London, United Kingdom “Weaving” MILL CITY MUSEUM Minneapolis, MN

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MoMA PS1 New York, NY Although it was never an outright Public School, MoMA PS1 was established in 1971 by Alanna Heiss as the Institute for Art and Urban Resources Inc. IAUR recognized that many younger or less established artists were being priced out of Manhattan studios, and that property owners (especially the City of New York) had an excess of abandoned buildings that were expensive to maintain and magnets for vandalism and urban blight. Placing artists in these neglected buildings created a win-win situation for both parties: artists were provided with affordable space to create and exhibit their works, and the landlords were relieved of the burden of building upkeep and security by IAUR, which acted as a middleman in these arrangements. In the case of the 80th Precinct Building, in 1972 the 80th and 77th precincts were consolidated into a new headquarters on Utica Avenue, leaving the precinct building on Grand Avenue operating at less than half capacity. By renting out the remainder of the station house to local artists in exchange for art instruction for neighborhood children, IAUR and the police department hoped to foster a creative spirit within the community and improve relations between local youth and the police force. In 2000 the Institute formalized an agreement with the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and the City of New York (the buildingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s owner) to update the facility into a dedicated contemporary art center. Retreived from http://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2011/10/24/from-the-records-of-momaps1-space-is-the-pla 80th Precinct Building. Exhibition and studio space on top two floors operated by Institute for Art and Urban Resources (I.A.U.R.), later known as P.S.1. Photograph by Nancy Moran. 653 Grand Avenue, Brooklyn, New York (December 1972). Resin-coated print. MoMA PS1, 2299. The Museum of Modern Art Archives, New York Radical Preservation

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MARY CHANNING WISTER SCHOOL Philadelphia, PA The Mary Channing Wister Public School was a historic school building located in the Poplar neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was designed by Irwin T. Catharine and built from 1925-1926. It is a three-story, three bay, brick building on a raised basement in the Art Deco-style. It is named for the civic leader Mary Channing Wister, the wife of Owen Wister. In 2003, the building reopened, after many years of neglect, as a new state of the art forensic science laboratoryfor the Philadelphia Police Department. While the facade remains true to the original design with little change, the inside of the building was completely renovated and designated a Green building. The new laboratory is called the Forensic Science Center, operated by the Office of Forensic Science within the Philadelphia Police Department. Compared to the cost of constructing an entirely new facility, rehabbing the school cost 20 percent less.

Retreived from http://www.aiatopten.org/node/150 Photos credit Cecil Baker & Associates

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DEWITT JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL/DEWITT MALL Ithaca, NY Built in 1914 in downtown Ithaca and originally designed to hold 1500 students, DeWitt Junior High School was used until shifting population trends forced its closure in the late 1960’s. In 1970 local architect William Downing transformed the school into a multipurpose space. DeWitt Mall occupies the ground floors, while 47 apartments, 15 offices, and one penthouse fill the upper floors. While DeWitt Junior High School was among the largest in the state when it was completed, the city has suffered similar problems to Philadelphia (suburban migration, disinvestment in city core, changing requirements for rapidly-outdated educational facilities) and its current use as a mall and apartment complex does not compete with the original building form. The history of the building provides a ‘voice from the past’ that a contemporary mall or apartment complex could not duplicate.

Retreived from HOLT Architects: http://holtarchitects.wordpress.com/2013/03/18/dewitt-building-2/ Images credit: Ithaca High School Alumni Association http://www.ithacahighalumni.com/gallery_show.php?gallery=10

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WEAVING MILL CITY MUSEUM Minneapolis, MN Mill City Museum is built into the ruins of the Washburn A Mill, along the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The original A Mill, built in 1874, was leveled by a flour dust explosion that claimed 18 lives. That explosion and the resulting fire destroyed much of the riverfront business area, cutting Minneapolisâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; milling capacity in half. The A Mill was rebuilt by 1880, with state-of-the-art machinery that permitted safer operations while producing higher quality flour. At the time it was the largest and most technologically advanced mill in the world, featuring new automatic steel rollers instead of traditional millstones. During its heyday, it was said that the mill ground enough flour to make 12 million loaves of bread a day. As technology and consumer preferences evolved, the A Mill became obsolete, and was shut down in 1965. In 1991, it was nearly destroyed by fire. During the late 1990s, the Minneapolis Community Development Agency cleaned up the rubble and fortified the walls. Shortly thereafter, the Minnesota Historical Society announced its plan to develop a museum on the site Designed by Tom Meyer, principal for the architectural firm Meyer, Scherer & Rockcastle, the museum is a new building built with the ruin walls of the 1880 Washburn A Mill. Efforts were made to retain as much of the historic fabric of the building as was possible. Many features of the Washburn A Mill were left intact, including turbine pits, railroad tracks, a train shed and two engine houses. Retreived from http://www.millcitymuseum.org/ Photos credit: Minneapolis Historical Society

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JUXTAPOSITION TATE MODERN London, United Kingdom The future of the redundant power station was uncertain following closure in 1981. Bankside was too new for official listing as a building of architectural or historical importance despite the precedent set in 1980 when Battersea power station was listed. In 1988 the Department of the Environment adopted the 30-year rule for newer buildings, but Bankside was not included because following privatisation of the electricity industry the site ‘had been given to Nuclear Electric as an asset to exploit’. Listing would have constrained the uses to which the building could be put. The campaigns to have the building protected exemplify the change in attitude to industrial architecture that had occurred since the 1940s. Scott’s cathedral of power was now seen as of major architectural importance. What was fought against so strongly on amenity and visual grounds was now regarded as something to be preserved. The new debate was about how the building could be saved and reused. After a decade of uncertainty the Tate Gallery acquired Bankside power station in 1994 to house a collection of modern art. The development of Tate Modern is in keeping with government policy on regeneration: the reuse of old buildings is important for the revitalisation of urban areas. Tate Modern opened in May 2000 and brought an economic benefit of £100 million and about 3,000 new jobs to a relatively poor London borough. In 2009 it attracted 4.74 million visitors. Tourists are also drawn to the area by the neighbouring Shakespeare’s Globe and the Millennium Bridge. Although these projects are independent of the development of Tate Modern it is also true that ‘much of what has been possible has been a by-product of the Tate’s decision to locate in the former power station’. The Millennium Bridge now physically links the old power station to St Paul’s cathedral which the critics of the 1940s had wished to separate as far as possible. Retreived from http://www.glias.org.uk/gliasepapers/bankside.html Teedon, P. (2001) ‘Designing a place called Bankside: on defining an unknown space in London’, European Planning Studies, vol.9 issue 4 (June 2001), p.459

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INSERTIONS NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PHILOSOPHY DPT. New York, NY The Dean of the Faculty of Arts & Sciences and a committee of Philosophy Professors collaborated in the selection of Steven Holl Architects to design the complete interior renovation of an 1890 corner building at 5 Washington Place for the consolidation of the New York University Department of Philosophy within a concept which organizes the new spaces around light and phenomenal properties of materials. A new stair shaft below a new skylight joins the 6-level building vertically with a shifting porosity of light and shadow that change seasonally. Prismatic film was installed on the south-facing stairwell windows which occasionally break the sunlight into a prismatic rainbow. The Ground level, utilized by the entire University, contains a new curvilinear wooden auditorium on a cork floor. The upper level floors contain Faculty Offices and Seminar Rooms which are done in different shades and textures of black & white, according to the texts in Ludwig Wittgenstein’s book ‘Remarks on Colour’. The building exists within the NoHo Historic District and is within the jurisdiction of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. The building is part of the main NYU campus within New York City’s Greenwich Village and is sited on access to Washington Square Park. Retreived from http://www.stevenholl.com/project-detail.php?id=21 Photos and image credit Steven Holl Architects

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PARASITE CAIXA FORUM Madrid Spain CaixaForum Madrid is a museum and cultural center in Paseo del Prado 36, Madrid. It is sponsored by La Caixa. It was constructed by the Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron from 2001 to 2007, which combined an old abandoned electrical station with new construction of floors which are encased with oxidized cast-iron, which was meant to be of a similar color and weight as the brick below. On the house next to it, there is a green wall designed by French botanist Patrick Blanc. The red of the top floors contrasts with the plants on the wall, which match the character of the neighbouring Real Jardín Botánico. Retreived from Obra Social “la Caixa” http://obrasocial.lacaixa.es/nuestroscentros/caixaforummadrid/caixaforummadrid_es.html

Images credit Herzog & DeMeuron

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Images Credit Meixner Schluter Wendt Architekten

Nathaniel A. Hammitt

WRAP WOLFAHRT-LAYMANN HOUSE Frankfurt, Germany The Wohlfahrt-Laymann dwelling is situated in a heterogeneous residential area in the Taunus hills area outside Frankfurt am Main. The house which was already present on the site was built in the 1930s and the first idea was to replace this building with a larger house. However, after a detailed inspection of the site and the quality of this very picturesque, traditional “simple country cottage”, the idea was born to use this existing building as the initial point for further planning. The concept of a complex transformation of this archetypical house is developed out of the necessity for both extensions and the optimisation of the building physics. In fact a new shell is built round this house – thus a new interior and intermediate space is created which can be used as new room. The position of the shell and thus its individual distance at different points from the “inner“ house is dictated by the functional requirements of the ground plan structure. The inner house is opened or rather broken open where light or space are required for its interior – these light or room extensions are projected onto the outer shell in the form of “light connections“ or “space connections“ and transferred to this as perforations. The roof of the inner house is opened – the rooms in the roof are extended upward with vertical spacing connections. Inner/ outer/ intermediate/ and un-rooms of manifold and sometimes “curious“ kinds are generated. Complex and seemingly simple rooms alternate with each other. Paradoxes occur – from inside and outside – a seemingly normal reality becomes distorted. The inner house becomes a “wooden insert/furnishing within a shell which is in accordance with the modern achievements of building physics. The form of the light and space connections and their perforated outlines on the facade, are derived from the existing openings of the inner house, the new necessary apertures or the superimposition of both old and new openings. Retreived from Meixner Schluter Wendt Architekten http://meixner-schlueter-wendt.de/index.php?id=162

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temporal Limited activation of a historic building

TEMPORARY PROGRAM

physical

Structure adapted/modified to enhance existing spaces

AMALGAMATE Significant structural/material addition and adjustment

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TRANSITIONAL

interior re-programming

Minimal alteration. Simple addition of program/activation

MODIFICATION

Sustained activation of a historic building

sculptural/installation

built fabric modification

Invested activation of a historic building

‘PERMANENT’

change in use

While this Case Study section focuses on physical

transformations of architecture, it is important to also remember the opportunities of temporal transformations of architecture.

Temporal transformations range from the Temporary

(limited activation of a building) to the Transitional (sustained activation of an existing building to the ‘Permanent’ (invested activation of a historic building). ‘Permanent’ in quotes, as even the most long-sighted proposal for design or reuse must face the inevitable shearing of time -- the application of those forces illustrated earlier in Stewart Brand’s diagram.

With this research in mind, now experience the design

process and product: an extension of an academic institution (likely a university or college) into the transformed Edward Bok AVTS building (and addition).

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Design Proposal

Maintaining focus on an architectural design that

addresses volume, organization, and skin, this thesis sought to recursively analyse all three components through the medium of study models (shown on pg. 60) and study diagrams (shown on next pages). The models seek to investigate the upgrade of Bok through previous transtofmation typologies, while the diagrams and drawings (shown at the end of this chapter) lead through a recursive design process toward an end architectural result (renderings shown on final pages).

The formation of volume is in reponse to solar and

circulation conditions; the alignment of interior and exterior organization is in response to cues provided by circulation and the existing Bok building, and the wrap of truss and paneling ties it all together through an inhabitable envelope of deterritorialized skin.

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[

social environment

]

Enclosure of the commons

Traditional envelope

Contemporary deterritorialization

School typology (section diagram)

Limited connections

Organizational territorialization

Current status: removal of inhibitors 86 Nathaniel A. Hammitt

Breaking the envelope

Upgrade and transformation

Panelized skin wraps both new and old buildings in a protective additive and subtractive membrane.

Inclusion of new organizational program within the structural grid allows for a spatial functioning that can be reprogrammed for future use.

Wrapping sleeves act as a continuant of underlying urban fabric, stitching the surrounding web of streets and sidewalks up and into the historic and contemporary buildings above.

The historic building is perfectly preserved, except for interior reconfigurations and puncturing of skin where sleeves meet facade. Radical Preservation

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North (primary) Elevation

South (rear) Elevation 91 Radical Preservation

Studying the extant fabric of Bok AVTS led

to an understanding that the building, although historically Art Deco, required a contemporary reinterpretation of verticality. Breaks in the building’s skin at apertures and points of ingress/egress informed a strategy of ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ wrapping-each taking as clues the underlying structural logic of the existing building as well as a study of rubbings conducted at accessible building locations.

The images at right are 123D Catch renders of

selected elements of the existing building, shown in such a way to illustrate the hard and soft breaks in the existing masonry skin that informed the wrapping of the new, contemporary skin.

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The rubbings shown at left are indicative of

a large collection of rubbings taken of various points of pressure and degredation of the original building fabric. The two rubbings at left are both of granite blocks-- the upper shown in an undeteriorated state and the lower deteriorated. This deterioration, rather than being cleaned and masked over as is the usual custon in rehabilitation, is instead magnified and re-applied to the skin of the contemporary addition, using the vertical cut-lines derived from the rubbing as points of aperture in the additive and subtractive skin meshes as a means of blurring the lines between interior and exterior spaces. This blurring accentuates the decay, rather than seeking to obfuscate it.

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Bibliography Alschuler, Lawrence R.. The Psychopolitics of Liberation:political consciousness from a Jungian perspective. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006. Aquilino, Marie Jeannine. Beyond Shelter: Architecture and Human Dignity. New York, NY: Metropolis Books :, 2011. Bloszies, Charles. Old Buildings, New Designs: Architectural Transformations. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2012. Bollack, Francoise. Old Buildings, New Forms. New York: The Monacelli Press, 2013. Botton, Alain. The Architecture of Happiness. New York: Pantheon Books, 2006. Bowman, Ann O, and Michael A. Pagano. Terra Incognita: Vacant Land and Urban Strategies. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 2004. Bozeman, Barry. Public Values and Public Interest: Counterbalancing Economic Individualism. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 2007. p92-6. Brolin, Brent C. Architecture in Context. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Co., 1980. Byard, Paul. The Architecture of Additions: Design and Regulation. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2005. Campbell, Jan, and Janet Harbord. Psycho-Politics and Cultural Desires. London: UCL Press, 1998.

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Canizaro, Vincent B., ed. Architectural Regionalism: Collected Writings on Place, Identity, Modernity and Tradition. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2007. Davidson, Cynthia A., ed. and Mark Jarzonbeck. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Metaphysics of Permanence-- Curating Critical Impossibilitiesâ&#x20AC;?. Log 21 (Winter 2011). pp. 125-135. Glaeser, Edward L.. Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, and Happier. New York: Penguin Press, 2011. Goldsmith, William W., and Edward James Blakely. Separate Societies: Poverty and Inequality in U.S. Cities. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1992. Knox, Paul L., and Linda M. McCarthy. Urbanization: an Introduction to Urban Geography. 3. ed. Boston, Mass.: Pearson, 2012. LeFaivre, Liane and Alexander Tzonis. Critical Regionalism: Architecture and Identity in a Globalized World. New York: Prestel, 2003. Levine, Murray, Douglas D. Perkins, and David Perkins. Principles of Community Psychology: Perspectives and Applications. Third Edition. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2005. McGrath, Brian. Urban Design Ecologies Reader. Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley, 2013. National Trust for Historic Preservation. Old and New Architecture: Design Relationship. Washington, D.C.: Preservation Press, 1981. Nelson, Geoffrey and Isaac Prilleltensky. Community Psychology: In Pursuit of Liberation and Well-being. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.

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Papanek, Victor J.. Design for the Real World; Human Ecology and Social Change. 1st American ed. New York: Pantheon Books, 1972. Post, Jerrold M., and Alexander L. George. Leaders and Their Followers in a Dangerous World: The Psychology of Political Behavior. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2004. Powell, Kenneth. Architecture Reborn: Converting Old Buildings for New Uses. New York, NY: Rizzoli Books, 1999. Prilleltensky, Isaac and Geoffrey Nelson. Doing Psychology Critically: Making a Difference in Diverse Settings. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002. Robins, Robert S., and Jerrold M. Post. Political Paranoia: the Psychopolitics of Hatred. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997. Rugare, Steve, and Terry Schwarz. Cities growing smaller. Third ed. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative, College of Architecture and Environmental Design, Kent State University, 2008. School District of Philadelphia. Facilities Master Plan. 2013. Semes, Steven W. The Future of the Past: A Conservation Ethic for Architecture, Urbanism, and Historic Preservation. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2009. Zaera Polo, Alejandro. The Politics of the Envelope: A Political Critique of Materialism. Colombia University C-Lab. http://c-lab.columbia.edu/images/0128.pdf. New York. 2011.

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â&#x20AC;&#x153;the bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgottenâ&#x20AC;? -Benjamin Franklin

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Nathaniel A. Hammitt

History and structure are traditionally seen as barriers: blockades between zones of occupation. But in fact both melt and dissolve even as they are formed. Structure and history are not blockades, rather thresholds-- themselves fully occupiable. The interaction of contemporary and historic systems allows for radical and otherwise unattainable transformations. This project is the total upgrade of an existing building. A subversion of traditional adaptation. Investigating beyond existing means of preservation, the upgrade and recasting of Bok High School projects a catalytic process and product: the synthesis of volumetric, organizational, and material recursions toward an architecture that challenges modes of design within a historic framework.