THE STORY

This was an assigned exercise aimed to grow an understanding of the Philadelphia-Baltimore Transportation Corridor through student-led interviews with key informants identified by the studio professors and journalist Jared Brey. Following a 3-hour long workshop with Jared on interview strategies, we interviewed public servants, practitioners, and researchers over the first few weeks of the semester. When possible, a city planning student was paired with a landscape architecture student to carry out these semi-structured interviews. We further built on the story through meeting people on our weeklong studio trip to Baltimore.

Rather than synthesizing the interviews and our studio trip through words, we were tasked with creating at least three artifacts in response to the stories we heard. Along with each artifact, we submitted a brief statement describing their intent.

This booklet lists the people we were in conversation with, whiteboard diagramming on how we strategized interviewing some of them and the resulting artifacts from the stories we heard.

Conversation Partners

Cut

Artist: Ben Regozin

Illustrated in detail to us throughout the trip and interviews was the role of highways destroying neighborhoods by cutting through them, isolating them, and disconnecting them from each other.

Wire boxes

Artist: Zoe Kerrich

KeyInformant(s):PetraMessick

Motivated by Petra’s description of aligning of different systems related to the 10-mile stretch between NYC and NJ. In our interview, she said (edited for clarity):

Once we build a new tunnel under the Hudson River and expand infrastructure in New Jersey, we will also have to expand Penn Station itself. Penn Station, New York has 21 tracks...There’s not really any excess capacity... We basically have to increase the bucketforthatnewstreamoftrainsflowingintoManhattan.And sothat’saninterestingandverychallengingprojectinwhichwe’re nowdealingwiththeurbanscale.Andlayering,ataverylocallevel all the systems that we have to cram into this basically an entire blockofManhattanandportionsof2adjacentblocks.It’sreal.It’s tracksforthetrains.It’salltherealsystems.It’sallthesystemsthat supportthestation,liketheventilationplants,severalofthem,to vent the station in the case of a fire. It’s electrical substations. It’s baysfortruckstobringgoodstotheretailofthestation,andthen it’s structural support for massive skyscrapers that will be built above the station and then carving out civic space. And enough publicspace[sothatthe]stationhasapresenceatthestreetlevel, and that we have light and air that could potentially reach the platform.Andpotentially,greenspaceontheblockaswell,anda proper interface with the surrounding district. So that’s all like... urban planning, or station planning. [There are] all the last mile considerationsconnectingbikes,pedestrians,hiredcars,andthe connections to the subway to connections to New York City bus system, [which is] all hyperlocal. But then it’s within the context ofthisintercityrealcorridorthatprimarilyservesWashingtonto Boston,butalsoconnectstoFloridaandChicago,andalltheother placesthatAmtrakserves.

How do you capture essential pieces of your work that are intangible -- like, that the HVAC needs to work (but it’s not in the details of where it should or shouldn’t be). These wire pieces only fit together and balance because of the spaces between the framework, and because of how little substance there is to them. The wire was surprisingly hard to bend into the standard corners -- the changes of direction necessary to have planes of a cube required that I wrap each corner with focus (something that I did not always achieve).

Patches

Artist: Cece McCrary

Key Informant(s): Steward T.A. Pickett

Dr. Steward Pickett referenced “patches” during our interview, referring to the patch-corridor-matrix model. The Patchcorridor-matrix is an ecological model that conceptualizes landscape fragmentation. For this artifact, I decided to take this quite literally, creating patches made of natural materials to represent these spaces in the landscape. Likewise, there is a corridor of twigs connecting two of these patches, while a third remains isolated from the others. Intersecting these patches is a different kind of corridor—one forged with metals. The piece is meant to highlight how these types of transportation corridors can isolate habitats from one another. However, simultaneously, transportation corridors have the potential to connect rather than sever. As corridors, they could have a place in the patchcorridor-matrix model.

Patch Dynamics

Artist: Riddhi Batra

Key Informant(s): Steward T.A. Pickett

Steward Pickett mentioned the concept of ‘patch dynamics’ in relation to our study of ecology. As someone with a limited knowledge of ecological systems, this made me curious about the patterns that underlie habitat (re)-construction, and how they can serve as references for reimagining future infrastructure. This artifact presents historical, present, and future land cover imagery for the Delaware River Basin – a key region intersecting with our study area. The 6 layers, starting from the bottom, display the DRB in the years 1700, 1800, 1900, 2000, and two Global Change Analysis Model (GCAM) scenarios for 2100– the first assuming the RCP 4.5 model estimated by the IPCC as moderate - where emissions peak around 2040 and then decline; and the second assuming “business-as-usual” without specific carbon or climate mitigation efforts1. These models have been developed by the USGS and for the purpose of this prompt, show the differences in habitat fragmentation and the number of different “patches” that appear as a result. It led me to further think about how humanmade patches interact with natural ones, and what might be some ways to plan and design with the purpose of creating positive interdependencies.

1 Dornbierer,

Long-term database of historical, current, and future land cover for the Delaware River Basin (1680 through 2100): U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/ P93J4Z2W.

Barriers to Somewhere

Artist: Simps Bhebhe

KeyInformant(s):BillSwiatek

Bill Swiatek on barriers to engagement and community apprehension in historically divested communities: “Respond to that community where it is” and “Come with mindset that you don’t have all the answers you are there to understand and support what those needs are.”

This art piece portrays a maze and serves as a commentary on the challenges of navigating through historically racist community barriers. Rather than seeing these barriers as insurmountable obstacles, the maze represents a process of finding a way through. To progress, we need to keep moving in the right direction, even if that means changing course, turning around, or taking a new path.

Ultimately, this piece speaks to the importance of actively participating in the process of overcoming these barriers. We must be willing to navigate through discomfort and challenge ourselves to rewrite the wrongs of the past. By staying focused on our goals and persevering through the maze, we can emerge on the other side with a renewed sense of purpose and the knowledge that we can overcome any obstacle that stands in our way.

Melt

Artist: Alex Cartwright

KeyInformant(s):KaraOldhouserandMorganGrove

Heat is the silent killer, responsible for more annual deaths than any other meteorological phenomena. The planet is steadily warming and raising the level of heat stress on people and infrastructure. Sustained high temperatures cause rail tracks to warp and catenary lines to sag, as well as put a substantial energy demand on electric grids. Amtrak already has policies in place that force trains to reduce speeds when rail temperature thresholds are exceeded. Unless steps are taken to cool or shade the tracks and catenary lines, Amtrak and other passenger rail operators are sure to experience more schedule disruptions and infrastructure degradation.

This model captures the influence of heat on two materials while suggesting the forms of powerlines and rail track. Heat was raised by several of our key informants as the greatest climate threat for people and infrastructure in the Mid-Atlantic region over the ensuing decades. reroute and/or refashion what currently exists along the corridor.

Silicone cast rainstorm

Artist: Zoe Kerrich

KeyInformant(s):MorganGrove

This artifact is a response to Morgan Grove’s statement that urban green stormwater infrastructure is insufficient alone to address high-intensity rainstorms (cloud burst events). As he said (edited for clarity):

This idea of many green infrastructure systems [is] Because the rate at which water falls from the sky far exceeds what the system can handle. So, we have to confront the fact that we have these micro bursts -- they’re highly unpredictable -- spatially, temporally, and up the magnitudes, and a lot of the EPA screen infrastructure is designed for suburban systems where you have [large areas of undeveloped land]. If you draw a graph, you have lots of [high] and low performance [systems]. And that works fine, right, maybe in the suburban areas. But in urban areas we need we have small areas. We need high performance. We don’t have the systems. You need to design those systems.

Here, I was looking for a porous material (pantyhose) to demonstrate semi-permeability to a material that could pour slowly and cast in-place (silicone). Interestingly, I was so sure this silicone mold cure had failed day-of, but two days later, it was such a surprise to see that the silicone poured over the pantyhose slope and the excess that pooled on the tarp below and both cured in place.

Feed the Soil

Artist: Cece McCrary

KeyInformant(s):IsaacHametz

I was inspired by the words of Isaac Hametz’s mentor: “Feed the soil, not the plants.” To me, this symbolizes the value of slow, meaningful work. Building healthy, fertile soil takes time—weeks, months, and even years of contributing organic matter, practicing little or no till. I believe this mindset can also be applied to any project that shapes one’s physical environment. Building trust and fostering relationships with communities takes time and care.

In this piece, the soil feeds you! The idea manifests itself in two ways. First, and most obviously, the piece is supposed to resemble soil while also being edible—pecan brownie topsoil on top of pecan shortbread bedrock, topped with rosemary and thyme garnish. In another sense, the soil feeds you by providing you with this good in the first place. The flour, the cocoa powder, the almond extract, the butter, and every other element in this dish is made possible by topsoil.

The Roots

Artist: Yining Wang

KeyInformant(s):IsaacHametz

“Baltimore flood risk plan is poorly conceived. Emphasis on infrastructure can deemphasize the impact on human beings.”

—Isaac Hametz

The artifact “Roots” is consisted with three: the flood plane, the rail line and the root structure. The roots structure which is made of copper wires is a new attempt for the design of the railway structure. Just as the roots of the trees, the wires present the a solid structure that deal with the heavy flood and transfer the cold temperature to the ground the level during the hot days.

Barrier, Connection, Development

Artist: Yining Wang

KeyInformant(s):KaraOldhouser

During the interview, Kara Oldhouser mentioned several challenges:

• Density within the Northeast region

• Managing upstream development-nor managing storm water properly, risk of hurricanes…

• Multi-model transit centers/ connectivity between systems

• Alternative fuel types of displace the diesel

• Environmental stressors amongst communities around the rail

The black rail road and yellow high way of the artifact cut the community and ecosystem into several parts, but the station bring the economic development at the same time. This artifact also contains a proposal to add connection such as trial systems, pedestrian bridge and other public transportation to connect different communities with ecosystem, and resolve the barrier caused by the railway and highway for the habitat.

Flow

Artist: Jules Venuti

KeyInformant(s):MichaelB.Kelly

In conversation, Kelly used the example of Ellicott City, MD’s annual flooding to describe climate change’s impact on the state of Maryland and how locals perceive the risk. Ellicott City was founded as a milling town due its proximity to the Patapsco River. Flow depicts a water mill at odds between two currents. Flowing water once generated economic activity for the area, now it inundates the city’s core in flashes on an annual basis. What was once a strength for Ellicott City has become its greatest weakness. How can we capitalize on our existing weaknesses to strengthen the region into the future?

Erode

Artist: Jules Venuti

KeyInformant(s):KaraOldhouser

Erode is a quite literal take on rail line vulnerability between Baltimore and Philadelphia, specifically the bridge across the Susquehanna River in Northeast Maryland. Erode depicts a train line over a suspended line of infrastructure that hollows at the center, splaying at either ends of its foundation. Through the creation process, the splay itself began to resemble the Greek symbol π which curiously reinforces erosion in SLR and flash flood vulnerable areas as destructive and compounding, π is a mathematical constant with a never-ending decimal representation. The curve can either represent another symptom of the infrastructure’s erosion, or an opportunity to reroute and/ or refashion what currently exists along the corridor.

Adapt-in-Place

Artist:

Riddhi Batra

KeyInformant(s):KaraOldhouser

In our interview with Kara Oldhouser, Sustainability Director at Amtrak, we learnt about Amtrak’s strategy to “adapt-in-place” in response to sea-level rise along the Northeast Corridor. This stood out to me as a huge design and planning constraint, one that has emerged from decades, if not centuries, of anthropocentric practices that have imposed human-made systems so far onto natural ones that even our imaginations have a hard time realigning towards a more symbiotic approach. The artifact I made for this prompt symbolizes the idea of the Amtrak rail line (the metal rods) embedded into the ground (the plaster base) – so much so that the communities and ecosystems surrounding it seem to be faced with no option but to move around the line.

This model captures the influence of heat on two materials while suggesting the forms of powerlines and rail track. Heat was raised by several of our key informants as the greatest climate threat for people and infrastructure in the Mid-Atlantic region over the ensuing decades. reroute and/or refashion what currently exists along the corridor.

Suspense

Artist: Jules Venuti

KeyInformant(s):BrianTraylor

An abstract take on one of AMTRAK’s approaches to master planning priority station development and rehabilitation, I.e., ground leasing. Specifically, Suspense models the relationship between AMTRAK owned land and the ground leases it engages in with private real estate developers to plan for the rippling commercial demand and activity that encircles major rail stations. The plaster base represents AMTRAK land while wood rods embody partnerships and AMTRAK’s relationship with other private parties. Moreover, it imagines the physical separation between land and structure and how future development along the AMTRAK corridor will adapt through evolving relationships and structures.

Platform on legs

Artist: Zoe Kerrich

KeyInformant(s):BrianTraylor

Brian Traylor described how Hurricane Ida flooded the rail yard at 30th St station -- “after Hurricane Ida, the station needed a lot of cleaning.” The hazards of this flooding can have large detrimental impacts on rail infrastructure -- yet from a layout perspective, it makes total sense that this box of space so close to the river would flood. This piece contains no details identifying the platform as 30th St station, and looks as if it could be a proposal for elevating properties out of harm’s way from nuisance and storm surge flooding. But the station is already elevated -- the problem is that so much critical infrastructure is below, as is the necessary design for a train station.

Invisible connections

Artist: Alex Cartwright

KeyInformant(s):KellyFlemingandBrionyHynson

What does collaborative design between community and practitioner look like? Does community engagement build agency, or relegate residents to the role of reviewer? Designers and planners can be invisible connections between residents, local government agencies, non-profit organizations, community groups, and a neighborhood vision that emerges from the neighborhood itself.

This model is a reflection on our studio’s discussion with Kelly Fleming and Briony Hynson at the Neighborhood Design Center in Baltimore. Kelly and Briony put forth the phrase “invisible connector” when framing the work of the Neighborhood Design Center.

Hollow Egg

Artist: Ben Rregozin

KeyInformant(s):DavidBramble

When meeting with David Bramble’s firm, MCB, we were pitched a vision of the identity of Baltimore through the lens of their acquisition of property of the Inner Harbor. The presentation depicted the Inner Harbor as holding the entire city on its shoulders. There was discussions of a “starchitect” that would be doing the redesign and it made the process seem disengaged from the constellation of neighborhoods that would be utilizing the space.

Build Networks

Artist: Riddhi Batra

Key Informant(s): Mike Middleton, Donzell Brown, Kim Lane and Ethan Abbott

Overheard during our meeting with representatives of the South Baltimore Gateway Partnership, this idea forms the basis for much of our research in the past few weeks. What relationships exist within the Northeast Corridor? What areas, communities, or ecologies have greater access to resources, and which of them stand to be studied and strengthened? How can establishing links and sharing existing resources guide the region towards a more sustainable, equitable future?

Top: “Nobody Asked You! And They Won’t, Until You Tell Them To.” by Petition for a Vote (c. 1975).

Bottom: “The MAD Coloring Book” by Mary M. Rosemond (1972).

Highway to Nowhere

Artist: Nicole Cheng

Key Informant(s): Mike Middleton, Donzell Brown, Kim Lane and Ethan Abbott

The “Highway To Nowhere” was first mentioned by David Bramble as an important infrastructural marker of racist disinvestment in Baltimore’s Black neighborhoods. The structure was “designed to connect the downtown business district to interstates surrounding Baltimore, and officials used eminent domain to demolish nearly 1,000 homes in the 1960s and ’70s, cutting a wide swath through predominantly middle class neighborhoods in majority-Black west Baltimore. But construction of the thoroughfare was never finished — partly because residents in whiter, more affluent communities successfully campaigned against it — and the endeavor became largely pointless1.”

I created a clay sculpture as an expression of the fight between two forces–the government and community opposition to expressway construction. The University of Baltimore Special Collections & Archives hosted an exhibit in 2012, Stop The Road! Records from the Road Fights, and used organizational records of the Movement Against Destruction (MAD) from the archives to tell the story of this opposition. “Founded in 1968 as a coalition of 25 neighborhood and community groups, MAD’s leaders included George and Carolyn Tyson, Barbara Mikulski, Walter Orlinsky, Norman Reeves, and Parren Mitchell2.”

1 Skene, Lea. 2023. “Baltimore to Invest in Black Communities Ravaged by Highway.” AP News. February 23, 2023. https://apnews.com/article/baltimore-01bb5c649318 4a47718b7a3593c55277.

2 Bell, Laura. 2019. “Stop The Road! Records from the Road Fights.” Exhibits from the Archives, University of Baltimore. 2019. https://ubarchives.omeka.net/exhibits/ show/movement-against-destruction/exhibit-about.

Similarly Unique

Artist: Simps Bhebhe

KeyInformant(s):DonzellBrown

“There is a saying that the black people who ended up in Baltimore were the people who ran out of gas”. Donzell speaking to the ties of Maryland with the South and the differing cultural relationships of black people in Maryland compared to the black communities further north and east.

This model is a commentary on the shared yet differing challenges that black people face in America. It highlights the need to respect the unique histories, conditions, and mindsets of each community, even if they are subject to similar struggles. Rather than assuming that all black communities, individuals, and challenges are the same, we must acknowledge and embrace the diversity that exists within these communities.

Zero Sum Game

Artist: Nicole Cheng

Key Informant(s): Mike Middleton, Donzell Brown, Kim Lane and Ethan Abbott

Listening in on a panel arranged by Brad Rogers from the South Baltimore Gateway Partnership the term that characterized the mentality of communities within this “city of neighborhoods” was described as a zero sum game. Communities are distrustful of the government and were described to operate on a scarcity mindset, where resources going to one neighborhood would mean resources unavailable and taken away from another.

This performance piece is an interpretation of the tension felt between communities, where people are expected to build relationships while fighting each other.

Full Eggs

Artist: Ben Regozin

KeyInformant(s):KellyFleming

Contrasted with some of the developer meetings and interviews we had meetings with nonprofits as well as community members. Overlooked in the developers’ narratives, save for David Bramble, the most disinvested neighborhoods form and keep important bonds. I remember at our meeting with the Neighborhood Design Center, Kelly Flemming mentioned a neighborhood that wanted to maintain privacy or be harder to discover. This reflects acts of protection, self-interest, or autonomy, and understanding value and worth which already exists in these neighborhoods. Mike Middleton spoke lovingly about his neighborhood that he grew up in and its this value that gets lost in the narratives of historic and current racism and disinvestment.

The Black Butterfly

Artist: Nicole Cheng

KeyInformant(s):DavidBramble

The Black Butterfly was mentioned as a shorthand for racial inequity at a meeting with David Bramble at MCB Real Estate and again once or twice during the trip. It was coined by Lawrence T. Brown in his book of the same name, which is “a reference to the fact that Baltimore’s majority-Black population spreads out like a butterfly’s wings on both sides of the coveted strip of real estate running down the “center of the city”1. The term “White L” is used to describe the white neighborhoods that run down the center of the butterfly.

These two drawings depict the Black Butterfly and White L using different methods. One drawing uses tape to delineate the shape for the charcoal and is then neatly colored in, whereas the White L in the other drawing is erased out from a ground of black.

What is the ground you start from and what stories are unearthed as a result of it?

Daylighting

Artist: Cece McCrary

KeyInformant(s):ChristopherStreb

One of my favorite moments of our Baltimore trip was stomping around a speck of woods in Druid Park with Chris Streb. At the end of our trek, we stopped in a grove of pines to discover a storm drain grate—and down this dark hole was a stream. You could hear the stream clearly, and barely see the sunlight reflect off the water’s surface. Behind the grate, the stream almost looked like it was in a jail cell, or locked in a cage. Chris told us that this stream would eventually be daylighted.

This piece reflects on this very moment. I wanted to recreate the feeling of looking past the darkness and the iron to sense what had been buried and lost. The term “daylighting” refers to the process of unearthing buried, hidden streams— quite literally bringing daylight back to the streams. I wanted to inverse this idea to highlight that light—or value—within the stream itself. Streams provide some of the most rich, diverse ecosystems in the United States. Its ecosystem benefits are boundless. The act of daylighting insinuates that we are saving the stream—when in reality, the stream saves us.

Coastal plain fall line

Artist: Alex Cartwright

The fall line between the Piedmont and the Atlantic Coastal Plain is one of the most defining natural features of Northeast Megaregion below New York City. The result of an eons long mosh pit between Earth’s plates, the fall line drives patterns in soils, vegetation, and hydrology that shape the Mid-Atlantic. Over the past 250 million years, Pangea ripped apart and the Atlantic Ocean opened, establishing the conditions for differential erosion between the metamorphic Piedmont and the sedimentary coastal plain.

Historical Paradigms

Artist: Simps Bhebhe

This artifact was inspired by my reflection of our time in Baltimore in general. We learned a lot about historic perceptions that persist and influence the present. Maryland is one of only two megaregion states that was part of the confederacy. On the ground in Baltimore the reality of racial segregation still divides community’s interconnectivity and connection between neighborhoods (separated by highways and railway lines or lack of public transport routes). The transport system is underinvested in, and a Governor stopped a light railway system plan from being implemented.

This artifact serves as a commentary on the lack of progress in the development of black communities and the ongoing struggle for integration in America. The chair, as a symbol, represents the deeply ingrained racism that has become normalized and is now viewed as the status quo. It underscores the fact that true progress can only be achieved by confronting and dismantling these entrenched attitudes and biases.