THE VINE ON NICHOLASVILLE ROAD

URBAN DESIGN PEDIASTRIAN BRIDGE

Fall 2020 | Liz Swanson ARC 658 | Design Studio VII

The Vine is an extension of us, just as we are an extension of it. Like a vine, the life of it growing, tangling, and interwining throughout the corridor and in neighboring spaces can not thrive nor exist without the need of something to support it. Without the bridge the existing conditions of the corridor persist, but with The Vine Pediastrian Bridge we redefine the space into an enjoyable pediastrian paradise. Just as much as the bridge is phyiscal, and its presence in each sense celebrates innovation and the collective. The Vine is very much so alive, and its life is intended so that we, the pediastrians, may live too. Along Nicholasville Road in Lexington, KY considered to be the busiest roadway in the city it posesses many problems that many cities like it face the same problem. The Vine Bridge is a postive internvention along the congested and chaotic corridor that aims to bestow power back to the pediastrians, create connections between districts along the roadway, bring greenery and sustainable back to the now concrete jungle-like place, and prepare for a dense tiered city.

RESIDENCE HALL WITH CORRIDOR PLAN

EXISTING CORRIDOR

A PEDIASTRIAN PARADISE

Paradise, what is it? A harmonious place of peace, contentment, and idealism. In defiance to the demands of society and the ongoing itineraries that consume the hours of our day, paradise becomes necessary. The existence of paradise is limitless; paradise can mean the beach, the great rocky plains, the countryside, and or even home. Paradise’s definition changes with the definer. The pediastrian paradise is an experience like no other, offering an experience as wondorous as a hike through the woods and or as exhilirating as a skip through the botanical gardens. The pediastrian paradise, essentially limits the power help by vehicles, which as owned the corridor since the birth of the autonomous age in the early nineteenth-century, and it is bestowing those powers to pediastrians who had been neglected in the grander scheme of urban planning and design along corridors. Lexington, Kentucky, like other major cities across the United States, is posed with challenge of a highly congested 6-mile corridor with economical and developmental properties along its aisle. Vehicles congest the roadway, the wait time to get anywhere along the road is unbelievable, the bus stops are indistinguishable and non-celebratory, the sidewalk walking experience is daunting, and the vast parking lots dominate much of the area similar to desert lands. The Vine Pediastrian Bridge proposed for Nicholasville Road acknowledges, adopts, and solves these challenges in creating a reimagined Nicholasville roadway complete with the ultimate pediastrian paradise experience for residents and visitors of Lexington, Kentucky.

PLAN DRAWING OF NICHOLASVILLE ROAD (PURPLE)

Power to Pediastrians District Connectedness WIND | PEDIASTRIAN FLOW The nature of wind is often slight like a breeze, sometimes brisk, active, and quick to alter in direction; wind too may be gusty and forceful. Wind is essentially unpredictable, instaneous, and inconsistent. Wind is a lot like like events and experiences, and undoubtedly the flow of people and transit in urban environments. Don’t be a wall that fights the wind, be a mill that the wind works with. Plan cities to flourish by acting as the mill.

ANTS | VEHICLE

Ants are orderly and communicate while in transit. Corridors will change in the future, and cars will have to do the same as cities are being reinvented.

VINE | BRIDGE

Vines interwine and bridge nature together, in the same manner bridges do the same in connecting the urban fabric and enabling travel to and from.

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Seeds are planted considering three values: where pediastrians life while in mode of traveling is at greatest risk, where travel by corridor is severaly disrupted for pediastrian travel, where materials live concrete and space like parking lots dominate. The matriculation of people and activity in these places will water the seeds. Increases in pediastrianism along the bridge, by establishments bring economic advantage for investors and developers who may garner intrest next to enter and exits. It intends to connect both sides of the corridor and transform the connectiveness between pediastrians and vehicles with access to residential and commercial areas. Creating independence not relied on modes of vehicular transportation. The Vine bridge engages with the city and begins to interwine with the existing conditions of the city. Among these concepts is the bridge connecting with builds to create green roofops and provide tax credit incentive for participants. Green is brought to the corridor by three means: gardens created underneath bridge, trees and vegitation growing on bridge aisle, and pocket parks hovering over the city to create a space free from the ground level and conveniently above. Overtime as the corridor becomes an equitable space for the pediastrian, vehicle, and public transit - and as it densifies in populated residents and businesses - the Vine Bridge evolves to create a tiered city. A series of layered bridges to access dense city.

VINE COIL OFF BOARD AND BUSINESS GAIN

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ELEVATED POCKET PARK ABOVE CORRIDOR

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The bridge presents the opportunity of the vine the chance to rid of all sidewalks along the corridor and bestow that space for the bus transit system. This is a great way to talk and illustrate how that space gets redefined.

At key locations along Nicholasville Road are the coiled entrances that can be idenntified at street corners at the intersection, and in some moments the coil appears far from the roadway, such as in the parking lot or field.

There are a number of opportunities along Nicholasville Road for a graceful on and off bridge experience. This design concept is particularly idealized for areas that pose as opportunities for activity and recreation, as well as areas that has axis where it would be best for people to cross.

TENDRIL SIDEWALKS

Similar to the nature of a vine’s tendrils that coil around objects for growth and support the sidewalks of the bridge design emerge from ground level and meet the elevated bridge. The corridor consist of no sidewalks alongside the roadway, so these platforms become key in allowing people to cross the street, as well as onboard in various

LEAFY STOP

The bus stops currently on the Nicholasville corridor are non-celebratory and lack an architcture that contrast from the existing environment. The new bus stop distinguishes itself from the landscape and transports those whether on bridge or ground access to bus or bridge above.