Haight Ashbury Community Center
What Social Center Means Did you ever stop to figure out? What “social center� means? Here you will find democracy Men-kings, women-queens Here each one can express their thoughts All stand on equal ground Here differences are all forgot Here humanity is found
Student: Craig Dias Professor: Amily Huang Design Studio 2, Arch 102
Thinking of Haight Street immediately conjures up images of hippies and reefers with generous portions of grass, alcohol, and LSD, dressed in tie dye shirts and headbands with their index and middle fingers afflicted by some horrible rigomortis, permanently stuck skyward. Yet it was the idea behind the veil that attracted us to it and perhaps to the whole of San Francisco; the counter culture, a community that was attempting to throw off the shackles of the toxic ideals of the status quo of the time and sought peace and love for all humanity, coinciding with the other “counter cultures� of the day fighting for civil rights in issues like race, gender, and sexuality. While the image of Haight St. has changed to me San Francisco still maintains that humanist and socially progressive ideology. I knew that if at all possible I wanted to put this spirit into the project. Our first step was the site analysis which I began sitting under some trees observing the area. Most people who live in the Haight Ashbury area passed through the space, headed towards the sights and activities found in the interior of the park. It was the people living in the park that frequented the area, little groups clustered together, basking in the sun, talking amongst themselves. I wondered if there was a way to include these people in the project. Scattered around the sight were other, more intimidating people hanging around watching the site around them. Overall, as the park entrance it served its purpose, a nice transition point for people entering the park that seemed to illustrate the atmosphere of the park as a whole; a beautiful place to enjoy a day that can feel a bit dangerous at times.
Top Left: Map of San Francisco, Top Right: District of Haight Ashbury, Mid 1: Sat Picture of Site, Golden Gate Park Entrance, Mid 2 & 3: Golden Gate Park Site
I moved on to more boring topics like demographics and sun positioning throughout the year. The reserach in demographics revealed another piece of the puzzle; the median income for the Haight Ashbury area was $80,000 in 2011 with 67% of the roughly 20,000 people holding “managerial or professional occupations.” Normally conversation for putting your grandparents into their deathbeds out of sheer boredom, this figure became quite interesting. How would I design something that is able to bring these two polar opposites of monetary status together in the same building without being completely repulsed by one another? The assignment, the objective was to design a community center. I put a pin in these questions and looked to the history of Golden Gate Park and community centers as a whole. A prominent feature of San Francisco, Golden Gate Park was incepted in 1870. William Hammond hall was the lead designer with John McLaren its original superintendent, responsible for turning Hall's dream of transforming bleak sand dunes into a lush forest a reality. Following the Gold Rush of the 1860's, San Francisco received a population boom, going from 1,000 people in 1848 to 149,000 people by 1870, the inception of Golden Gate Park marked the ascension of San Francisco from a minor port town to an emerging metropolis. My digging into community centers, brief though it was, turned out to be quite interesting. The idea of a community could be said to be ingrained within us through millions of years of evolution but the earliest recorded places designated as a “community center” I could find date back to 1907 Rochester, New York. Taken from, bear with me on the name here its a doozy, “The Tenth Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education, Part 1: The City School as a Community Center,” it was a record of the case for opening more schools at night as community centers. Various activities were offered each night, Top: Early Map of San Francisco 1867, Mid 1: Conservatory of Flowers Early, Mid 2: Conservatory of Flowers Present, Bottom 1 & 2: William Hammond Hall, John McLaren, John McLaren Statue in Golden Gate Park
ranging from lectures and education, recreational activities, as well as public forums. Within a month clubs had been formed with nearly 1500 members in total, their intent summed up in this excerpt: “devoting themselves...to the development of an intelligent public spirit by the open presentation and free discussion of public questions.” It was from these records that I pulled the poem that inspired these designs. I took the liberty to adjust the wording to 21st century thinking but if they truly believed in their cause I doubt they would mind. From these pieces I took the ideas which I wanted to use to drive the design of this community center, allowing me to pick the adjectives and words we were tasked with assigning to our project: -First and foremost was community, building a community where all were accepted, or not, for the merit of their character and strength of their ideas regardless of their physical form or appearance. -Second was a sense of respect: for the original creators of Golden Gate Park, for the park itself, and for the community of the Haight Ashbury area. Whatever the project turned into, it should fit nicely into its surrounding, flow with whatever preexisting conditions that exist. |-Third, in line with this notion of respect, was hidden, discrete, or being that “hole in the wall.” Along with flowing with the site, I felt that the project shouldn't stand out as a bold statement drawing attention. As a community center it would stand for the people who live in the area so should feel secluded, something only the local community know, that other people might overlook in a passing glance. Tingling with anticipation at the prospect of designing this theoretical place, I began to dig in.
The first hurdle to overcome was working with the given terrain. Our first assignment after our initial site analysis was to create a scale model of the site. Amily provided us with a template to use and away we went. I started by building the model in 3Ds Max, using Google satellite images to trace the paths that currently exist. The gentle sloping of the terrain, along with the irregular shape of the paths immediately held my focus. In line with the notion of respect I knew I wanted to leave these paths intact. These two elements combined created the first set of challenges. Building the model in 3Ds Max allowed me to easily reshape the terrain, to see and understand how changes to one part would affect the whole. The first areas to play with were flattening the ground, making even planes. Though the slope appeared fairly gentle, it was deceptively tough to work with; excavating the area left 10' drops or walls that would prove difficult to mitigate. The design would have to take this gradation into account somehow. I pinned the idea to the board.
The best early solution for a part of the problem was to allow the roof to be accessible, useable in some way. Theoretically the goal of the project was to re purpose the site but on sunny days this entrance still had the potential to be an enjoyable place to sit and enjoy the UV rays. Keeping to the notion of working with the flow I thought making the roof accessible returned some of that space back to the community but in an updated way. This also allowed the building to fit neatly into the height range of the site at 10' while also masking its presence, giving it a very low profile. I tried a lot of different shapes at this point, playing with the fill of the site. I took ideas from our previous kite project, threw shapes together to test them out, placing them on the site, rotating and twisting them around. Some of the iterations had a nice dynamic quality to them but one really fit the site very well. These was always unused space left or the shape of the model wouldn't quite fit in one way or another, and sometimes the general shape of the model was just crap. I blocked them out anyways, barreling through these important “bad choices�.
In class while showing my progress to Amily I was surprised when she told me to develop the model she did. What I had called “the ramp� was based on a very simple gesture drawing. Thinking about respect I doodled a line representing the posture taken in feudal japan when in front a lord, on your knees, head to the ground. Playing with this shape made the arch of the back represent a rolling hill in the landscape as well as a cave like area underneath. Still, I had thought it lacked any dynamic qualities and would be too boring to work with but was intrigued by the decision so moved forward with developing the idea further. Up to this point the program for the site had been put on hold. What would the function of this place be? As a community center, the big picture idea had been satisfied but what activities specifically would be provided? Looking at other places run by the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department I found that many of the sites around the city were available for rent, spaces to hold parties, weddings or special events. This became one idea, creating activity rooms that could be rented out. Open floor spaces to hold cheap exercise classes like beginners yoga or
martial arts. Perhaps a space for party rentals was another idea though this seemed to serve only one group of the area; balance had yet to be found. I knew at this point that there would have to be a balance between the two; a purely social welfare space would be too extreme while a space geared towards the affluent members of the community would no longer be in the spirit of the original intention. How though...HOW?! This was a burning question which seemed to have no answer. Again, how do we bring these near polar opposites together into one space? I began looking at portfolios from previous students to get some ideas. Adding an element of sustainability was also on our agendas and this too was an issue yet to be resolved. Combing through the work revealed many great looking designs, intricate models carefully crafted together. I was looking specifically for ideas on programs however, what services to offer. Stumbling through the pages I managed to hit pay dirt; urban farming.
Farming is an inately dirty business. Working with and in the dirt tends to find you covered in the stuff, something both sides of the money gap would know from the start. I immediately thought of the possibility of a volunteer group comprised of street people and rent people, working together, getting dirty and smelly together, building and growing something together, coming together like people do when forming a community. With the limited space any potential farm would be unable to fully support a large scale kitchen but it could still be used to provide some of its supply; an on site kitchen could also provide food aid for volunteers while offering paying customers more elaborate options. Along with this, the farm could be viewed, theoretically of course, as a commitment by the city of San Francisco towards a sustainable and progressive society for our future. Other urban farms around the country do not only provide food for those in need but education as well, teaching the importance of healthy eating habits, exercise, and other well being topics. The “Seeds to Feed Rooftop Farm� in Crown Heights, Brooklyn provides a small bounty of fresh produce to a 7 story supportive housing building home to low income and formerly homeless residents in an area where fresh produce is scarce. The inception of this farm has come with workshops aimed at education not only about health but a greater environmental awareness. Clearly I had found the program I wanted.
Top: Phoenix Community Garden Brooklyn, Mid 1: Rainwater Collection System at PCG, Bottom Left: Seeds to Feed Rooftop Garden Brooklyn
Development of the model had been slow up to this point but some basic refinements had been made. Taking the original “ramp� I adjusted the angles to better fit into the site. This gave the model a sense of movement which I tried to pronounce, angling the end skywards. Filling in this side of the site, I was still left with the north side of the site, as barren as the land before the park was created. Stumbling upon urban farming became the perfect fit. Ont only did the space become useable it led me to another idea for further developing this area. Keeping the ground level would still create awkward walls and drops that could not be resolved. However, thinking of mountains and dunes I was struck with the image of terraced farms. Beautiful pictures from South America and Asia of entire hillsides transformed into awe inspiring agricultural marvels. Esthetically pleasing as they are they served a much more practical purpose, creating farmable land where there was none and creating excellent irrigation systems. The stonework of the Incan terraces was especially impressive, a feature I would like to have added at some point.
Refining the terracing idea proved to be much smoother. Early iterations were straight blocks, test for height, how each level would work when placed on the site. Looking at my site model I liked the hard edges for the topology and tried to emulate that in my later revisions. I lowered the heights to fit into the site more snugly but kept them to at least 1' in height to allow for enough soil to be filled in. Ditching the straight edges for abstract shapes I tried to make the terraces feel as natural as possible. A set of stairs leading down from the park entrance to the naturally blooming courtyard created a nice pathway revealing the site as a whole. While I was quite satisfied with the end result I know the project is farm from complete. As brought up during my final review, bringing more of the tectonic language that had formed through the whole site could be an area to work on; a prime example of this would be the shape of the stairs or the columns supporting the ceiling. Forgetting my preconceived notions of what a building is has become a new goal. The final model itself is just nearly complete; I hope to edit this portfolio at a later time with its “completed� stage to view.
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