Where The Main Street Ends Visions for the future of Small Town Rural America
Samuel Busman
Abstract The project is a study of the dynamics of the rural pastoral landscape and the resultant decay of small town America. This study is actualized in the prairie of Southwest Minnesota in an environment of massive population decline and industrial instability across 62 towns in 11 counties. Complex intersections of existing rural typologies and shifting economic forces leave many of these small towns in somewhat of an existential crisis, fueling further decay. The project pushes narrative representation as a method of investigation into rural decay and aims to serve as critique of current societal trajectories. The goal of the project is to discuss this critique with pragmatic and absurdist narrative responses to the dialogue of rural typologies with new visions for rural living. LEFT: Glimpse of the Inventory of Rural Small Town Urban Forms in Southwest Minnesota
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Introduction
rural lifestyles are based is becoming increasingly dynamic and is more and
The investigation begins with a look at Main Street. At one point in time
more detached to the rural individual. As the towns lose their relevance to these
these storefronts held banks, post offices, tailors, drug stores, barbers, the local
greater systems, what does that mean for their residents? Rural populations are
diner, and the local ice cream shop. The street was frequented by your friends,
declining, and still the infrastructure remains. What happens with antiquated
your family, your neighbors, your doctor, your teacher, and your mayor. The scene
typologies? Are there strategies that can lend themselves for growth and decay?
portrayed by the same rural main street of today may look very different. The
To make growth out of decay? To leverage antiquated typology into new ways of
bricks and mortar may still stand, but never seem to have the same vibrance as
thinking and living?
they once did. Many rural main streets operate on a vacancy rate of above half,
With the impact of influences of evolving technology, new economies, and
and provide remarkably fewer services that they once did. This dystopic reality
shifting populations, issues of resiliency and self-sufficiency rise to prominence.
is a common scene portrayed in many rural main streets across the great plains
The possibility for addressing these issues with these evolving architectural
of the United states. The prevalence of suffering rural main streets is a common
ideas may not be best suited to a fixed design but can suggest applications of
affected typology that seems to be decaying nearly universally.
an architectural strategy that can be deemed appropriate for growing with rural
What does the future of Rural Midwestern America look like? Systems and
communities.
processes of corporate centralization across the rural landscape have continu-
The focus of this investigation is on 62 towns in 11 counties in Southwestern
ously worked to optimize and efficiently mechanize their way into maximized
region of Minnesota. The towns range in industrial foundation, population,
production and profits. From 2009 to 2016, a USDA National farm survey records a
footprint, and stages of decay. In this process the decay of one entity lays way
decrease in the number of farms from 2.17 million to 2.06 million and an increase
for the growth of a new one. An architectural response lies at the bifurcation
of farm size from 423 acres to 443 acres. This has created a unique dilemma in
of opportunity and agency. The Vision for the Rural has the freedom for new
rural small towns.
invention, and it may be this new vision that characterizes the future growth for
The Proliferation of existing small town infrastructures that have dwindling
Rural American Towns.
relevance to these centralized systems leave an existential crisis for entire
The project is an exploration into the relationship between Urban and Rural,
communities. The firm foundation of agriculture and industry on which these
symptomatic rural decay, and the relationship to the industrialization of the rural NEXT PAGE: Growth and Decay Time line, a conceptual basis for examining the future of small rural towns.
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2018 M.Arch Busman p2
Growth and Decay of Rural Midwestern Urbanism.
Conception Jeffersonian Grid. conceptualized in the Land Ordinance of 1785. Actualized in SouthWest along the Fifth Principle Meridian in 1815.
Birth
Growth
Flourish
Overlay of Railroad giving accessibility and basis for industrial transportation.
Resultant commerce sprouting from grounding in industry, and serving basis for public life in rurality.
Residency in response to commerce development to sustain and serve the industry and commerce, sometimes resulting in secondary exports.
Death
Bloat
Active Decay
Advanced Decay
Dry Remains
Abandonment of Grounding industry, loss of blood flow through main arteries. pooling of blood to extremeties, lack of oxygen flow leads to proliference of anaerobic organisms and processes.
Proliference of nostalgia as a grounding force
Massive population loss. Brain Drain. Massive matter loss
Loss of Basic Services. Food Desert.
Ghost Town. Complete or nearly complete loss of residents. No services or industry.
Fig. 1 Fresh Death
Fig. 2. Bloat
Fig. 3. Active Decay
Fig. 4. Advanced Decay
Fig. 5. Dry Remains
Factory Town of the 22nd Century
Transient Storefront
Walled Self Sufficient City
5,308,483 pop.
308,745,538 pop.
19.3% 80.7%
Ratio of Americans Living Rural
Ratio of Americans Living Urban
94% 6% 1785 Jeffersonian Grid conceptualized in the Land Ordinance of 1785.
1805 Actualized Grid in Southwest Minnesota along the Fifth Principle Meridian in 1815.
1825
1845
1865
1885
1905
1925
1945
1965
1985
2005
2025
2045
2065
2085
2105
2125
Substantial Industrialization of the United States
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2018 M.Arch Busman p3
landscape. The exploration of these themes are followed through the Southwest
form of a ‘main street.’ This formation of main street commonly, but not exclusively
region of agrarian Minnesota, but strives to resonate with the greater Midwestern
occurs directly perpendicular to the divergence from the Jeffersonian grid.
pastoral region.
The small town flourishes as housing accumulates in an urban grid directly perpendicular and parallel to the established Main Street. This flourish facilitates
Growth and Decay
population growth and birth of secondary industries that continue to feed the
The transformation of the rural landscape can be made metaphorical in terms
towns growth. The flourish sustains for a while, but age creeps in and society
of organic growth and decay. The checkpoints along this metaphorical time line
speeds by to leave rural small towns high and dry. Modern phenomena suggest
are defined as follows: conception, birth, growth, flourish, death, bloat, active
rural small towns are dying.
decay, advanced decay, and dry remains.
In effort to understand this suggested death of rural small towns, a full tie to
Conception represents the formation of a land grant system facilitated by
metaphorical organic death and decay is used. The hypothesis on death of small
Thomas Jefferson and his Jeffersonian Grid by Land Ordinance of 1785. This was
towns is rooted to the abandonment of major anchoring industrial infrastructure
Actualized in Southwest Minnesota along the Fifth Principle Meridian in 1815.
Rural Resource Mapping.
The birth of a small rural Midwestern town manifests itself along divergences from this Jeffersonian grid as the overlay of the railroad or existence of a river.
Schools Territory and Proximity to Education Primary and Secondary Schools mapped into a Veronoi diagram Matrix.
These divergences serve as a basis for the industrialization of the great plains as American agrarian landscape. Small towns become way-points along these divergences and serve as collection points for the individual agrarian to pool
Grocery Territory and Proximity to access to Fresh Produce and other foods mapped into a Veronoi diagram Matrix.
personal crop and resource extraction into collective pipelines that make its way Medical Care Territory and Proximity to Medical Care through hospitals and Medical Centers mapped into a voronoi matrix diagram
to Urban Centers for processing. Growth happens as a natural resultant to the success of the cooperative resource extraction effort. This growth is anchored by the industrial base for the town (typically agricultural industry) and sprouts commercial programming in
Libraries Territory and Proximity to Fast and Reliable web access through a Local Library mapped into a Voronoi Diagram Matrix
Superimposed Territory and Proximity to Schools, Groceries, and Medical Care mapped into a Veronoi diagram Matrix and superiposed to find differences, similarities, and diserviced areas.
RIGHT: Southwestern Minnesota Rural Town Resource Mapping Voronoi Territory mapping of localized Resources in comparison to a roughly 15 minute drive radius, showing significance and urgency of social resource management across multiple factors in the rural landscape
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Centralized Industry Transect Visualization.
Future Speculation Urban Center
Automated Transportation of Resources
Small Rural Town
drain’ in active decay of a small town, then loss of basic services and food deserts Past Idealization Corporate Resource Extraction
in an advanced decay of the matter that facilitates life in a small town.
Urban Center
The last stage of decay is the dry remains of a being. In a small rural town,
Transportation of Resources
this can be tied to the proliferation of rural ghost towns that have a complete Small Rural Town
or nearly complete loss of residents with a complete lack of social services and industry. This process gives a basis for testing and speculating into the future for these
Farmstead Resource Extraction
small towns and the alternative paths that these existing typologies may take for future use.
as immediate loss of economic flow to the operations of a small rural town. This is tied to immediate loss of oxygen and blood flow to an organic living body as
Corporate Agriculture
sign of a fresh and immediate death. The first sign of decay sets in as postmortem bloat. Organically, this is the
Farmstead Food
Monocultured Farmland Crop Production
Small Rural Town
Urban Center
Suburbs
Crop
Distribution
Fresh Vegetables
Fresh Food Exchange
Food Processing
Selling
Fresh Fruits
apparent growth from gas accumulation as a product of microbial proliferation
Large-Scale Livestock farming
and anaerobic metabolism processes. Metaphorically, this is tied to a undeniable
Consumers
Eggs
Small-Scale Personal Garden
Dairy Hunting
nostalgic and cultural tie to a rural lifestyle that is no longer being fostered by
Primary Meats
Consumers
Consumers
Consumers
Biomass Restaurants
Restaurants
Restaurants
Food Bank
Food Bank
Cattle Food Compost Bank
Cattle Food Compost Bank
Cattle Food Compost Bank
Food Waste
Food Waste
Food Waste
the industrial base of a small town. The second and third stages of decay are active decay and advanced decay.
Rural Individual
Urban Individual
This is the process in which there is massive matter loss of an organic being. Metaphorically this can be tied first to a massive population loss and rural ‘brain above: centralized industry transect visualization, the process that is leaving rural America out to dry
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above: system process diagram of a corporate agriculture process, showing the disparate nature of producer to consumer
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Jasper, MN
Physical
Slayton, MN
Granite Falls, MN
Canby, MN
Small Town Urban Center
Rural Individual
Physical
Physical
Physical
Urban Center
Small Town
Small Town
Small Town
Rural Individual
Rural Individual
Rural Individual
Postmortem Diagnosis
Urban Center
Urban Center
speculatory future of centralized resource extraction across the Rural American
In order to understand the decay of small towns, we must look into the
Landscape. Agricultural corporations continue to influence and operate more
processes that the decay may be symptomatic of. Much of the prairie grassland
and more land, and in order to operate more efficiently, more and more resource
agrarian landscape is filled with large mono-cultured crop production fostered
extraction systems become automated, subtracting rural individuals from the
and manipulated by large agricultural conglomerates. This becomes a defining
process. The resulting visualizations of these processes change dramatically,
characteristic that alters the very way in which the rural landscape operates and
and have suggestions for the changed operations of existing systems. Changed
alters the very existence of defining rural infrastructures.
operations of existing systems have further suggestions of changed performance
In past idealization of the resource extraction of the rural American Landscape,
of existing rural infrastructures.
rural individuals operate at the most crucial role at the base of resource growth
When looking at a glimpse of a systems approach of corporate agriculture
and collection. Individuals then operate collectively to pool extracted resources
distribution, the separation process of food production to consumption in relation
and send them along the pipeline to urban centers. A transition occurs in the
to the rural individual gives us a glimpse into the absurdity of the way in which TOP: (left to right) Jasper, Canby, Granite Falls, and Slayton, Generative drawings capturing variable nature of farmstead resource extraction to small town and the stratified perceptions of rural infrastructures.
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2018 M.Arch Busman p6
many rural areas sustain resources. This glimpse can start to clue into the way in
The proposed scenarios focus on the relationship of a small town with an
which other resources are distributed and as to how they may continue to spread
urban center and its independence or dependence on industrialized systems
further and further as industry flees from small towns.
that support said urban centers. The proposed scenarios also respond to current
This speculative position on the future of the agricultural rural landscape bases itself on the continued use of a centralized system of agricultural operation
politically charged issues, pragmatic issues of dwindling resource support, and desire for transparencies in manufacturing and production systems.
and displays a vision of the effect of this on small town typologies. The current distribution of social resources scattered in the southwest region of Minnesota responds to the antiquated pattern of industrial anchors and struggle to support these resources for prolonged periods of time.
Walled Self-Sufficient City This first scenario is a narrative response to the bloat stage of the decay time line and would take place about ten years from present day. At this stage of decay,
In mapping these trends, farmsteads historically tie themselves to small towns
nostalgia, as opposed to industry, is the anchor for a small rural town’s existence.
for distribution to cooperative elevators and send resource extractions down the
This scenario is rooted in cultural and political friction that exists between urban
pipeline by way of small town infrastructures. This speculated future suggests
and rural ways of living and the perceived malice that is felt from both sides of
that, by means of corporate agricultural fostering and manipulation, economies
the spectrum. The design turns the community’s back on the industry that has
of scale bypass these existing infrastructures into mega-farms that store and
betrayed them, and proves a more resilient and sustainable solution is attainable
transport mono-cultured crop directly from megafarm to urban center.
for thriving in the Rural Landscape. The design of this scenario is facilitated through the idea of urban farming
Reactionary Narrative Scenario Response
in a rural town, and the neo-feudalist vision to claim territory for self-sustaining
The placement of the project is in response and critique of existing societal
production of agriculture. The scenario also has a tie to the Wrightian vision for
trajectories of rural decay in order to create opportunities for productive conver-
rural living in Frank Lloyd Wright’s ‘Broad Acre City.’ As a result, the design is a
sation around the future of small rural towns. The following scenarios depict
town walled off from the outside world and divided into equal portions for each
absurdist futures as a reactionary force to specific points along the metaphorical
family to sustain off of.
decay timeline and the factors that affect a small town at each stage.
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The town is based around sustaining the current population as it stands today,
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and territorializes the acreage needed to support this population. The metric is set around each family of four to have an acre and a half for personal crop production. Additionally, the wall that sections this neo-feudalist small town off from the dross scape of mono-cultured corporate crop production also serves as a productive wall for additional crops and housing for livestock as well as generating power for the city inside. This scenario follows belief in the power of ones own agency of productivity and the belief in a true meritocracy, and is an exploration into how that informs an architectural response. The scenario is a re-envisioning of the American Dream as a true Utopic vision for self-propelled success for you and your family. In the Walled Self-Sufficient City, you can make your cake, have your cake, and eat it too. Transient Storefront This next scenario is a narrative response to active and advanced decay stages of the decay time line and would take place about fifty years from present day. In this stage, there is a massive population loss and rural ‘brain drain’ in active decay of a small town, then loss of basic services and food deserts in an advanced decay of the matter that facilitates life in a small town. The proposal is tied to a pragmatic vision for spreading resources thinner across the rural landscape. The design for this scenario focuses on replicating traditional programming of a small town main street in a form that is transient and that exists in a network that exists separate of centralized urban influence. The design envisions left: Hybrid drawing of Walled, Self-Sufficient City
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Bellingham
Transient Storefront Map of Southwestern Minnesota
Madison
Dawson
Montevideo
Clarkfield
Granite Falls
Short Loop Canby Hanley Falls
Grocery Store/ fresh Produce Beauty Shop/ Barber Shop Medical Clinic
Delhi
Porter
Cottonwood Taunton
Redwood Falls
Ghent
Hendricks
Medium Loop
Vesta Ivanhoe Marshall
Mechanics Bowling Florist Hardware Store Restaurant Movie Theater Dentist
St. James
Milroy Lucan
Wabasso
Russell
Florence Balaton Walnut Grove
Lake Benton Tracy
Lamberton
storefront programs that occupy semi-truck-trailers with inevitably lost social resources for every small rural town in the southwest region of Minnesota.
Sanborn
Ruthton
Long Loop Traveling Etsy Shop Thrift Shop Theater Troupe
Westbrook
The Lakes
Storden
Jeffers
Slayton
The program is stratified according to need for proximity and frequency into
Pipestone Chandler
three different loops. The first loop is the short loop which has a circulation time
St. James Fulda
Edgerton
Windom
Jasper
Heron Lake Wilmont
of no more than one week. This loop consists of programs like health clinics and
Okabena
Brewster Luverne
Lakefield
Adrian
Rushmore
Jackson
Worthington
barber shops that are typically heavily frequented. The second loop is the mid loop and may have circulatory patterns of a couple weeks. This loop consists of more recreational programs like theaters and bowling alleys. The third loop is the long loop and has a circulatory pattern of a more than a month. This loop consists of programs that are fulfilled by the circulation loop that it takes with crowd-sourced goods like a thrift shop or a traveling etsy shop. The transient storefront offers pragmatic solutions to dire issues of dwindling resources for people who are slowly becoming under-served. Through this, the proposal turns main street into a glorified parking lot with shared resources
networked across the region.
22nd Century Factory Town The final proposal is a narrative response to the dry remains stage of the decay time line. This scenario would occur in about one hundred years from now. In this stage, the small town has become more or less a ghost town that is devoid of humans resulting from rural exodus to urban centers. The resulting proposal brings industry back to small towns in a much different form. left: Hybrid drawing of Transient Storefront
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Willmar
Montevideo Madison
Granite Falls
Olivia
Canby
In this scenario, a manifestation of the city beautiful movement has pushed all industry out and away from urban centers in effort the rid the cities of what
Redwood Falls
Vesta Ivanhoe
they deem as un-aesthetically pleasing. Small town leaders then sell empty small
Marshall
towns to corporate interests, leaning into the vision for an urbanized and indusNew Ulm
Balaton
Lamberton
trialized rural landscape informed by corporate influences. Corporations bring their now-automated industrial hubs to small towns for state of the art manufacturing facilities the likes of which have never been seen.
Dont forget the Bacon!
In an effort to show off the new facilities, corporations open their small town facilities to the public to give witness to the way the goods they use everyday are made. Around the exposure to the public, corporations keep the existing Main Street facades while hollowing out the back for industrial infrastructure, and create attractions around the production of their product in order to tie to experience commodities as a ‘disney-ification’ of formerly opaque processes of industrial processing and manufacture. As a result, roadside attractions for a family-fun filled road trip adventure will now consist of stops to see how Billy’s action figures are made, how Sally’s skirts are woven, how mom’s favorite pearls are crafted, and how dad’s bacon is slaughtered. Family fun is just around the corner just give your favorite name brand rural town-land a visit!
left: Hybrid drawing of 22nd Century Factory Town
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Conclusion
Together, these speculative proposals, though they are based in whimsy
and tongue-in-cheek critique of existing rural trajectories and processes, strive to create a catalyst for provocative conversation around the future small town rural America and the systems related to the rural landscape. At it’s bleakest, this collection of rural small town proposals serve as a museum for the mourning of the rural American Dream. At it’s most optimistic, it’s a catalyst for productive discussion of the future survival, regrowth, and representation of opportunity that these small towns still have for us.
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Selected Bibliography Brenner, Neil, ed. 2013. Implosions/Explosions: Towards a Study of Planetary Urbanization. Berlin: Jovis. Belanger, Pierre. 2016. Landscape as Infrastructure. Routledge. Jacobs, Jane. 1969. The economy of cities. New York: Random House. Lim, C. J. 2017. Inhabitable infrastructures: science fiction or urban future? Orvell, Miles. The Death and Life of Main Street: Small Towns in American Memory, Space and Community. Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina, 2012. Print. Thorbeck, Dewey. 2012. Rural Design: A New Design Discipline. Routlege. Wright, Frank Lloyd, 1867-1959. The Disappearing City. New York :W.F. Payson, 1932.
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