First Published 2015 Print Lab, Crosby 101, UB South Campus, NY 14214 Printed in the United States of America. The authorship of the illustrations, images and text belongs to the respective authorities. All rights reserved.
UBtopia Visualizing the future of UB expansion plan
B+a/p Instructor: Jordan Carver Students: Unnati Masurkar | Aniket Marathe
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cknowledgement:
We would like to express our gratitude to our course instructor Jordon Carver, without whose enthusiasm and guidance it would have been of great difficulty to finish this coursework.
- Unnati Masurkar - Aniket Marathe
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bstract:
“We live in an era when ideals of human rights have moved centre stage both politically and ethically. A great deal of energy is expended in promoting their significance for the construction of a better world. But for the most part the concepts circulating do not fundamentally challenge hegemonic liberal and neoliberal market logics, or the dominant modes of legality and state action. We live, after all, in a world in which the rights of private property and the profit rate trump all other notions of rights. I here want to explore another type of human right, that of the right to the city.� - David Harvey in Right to the City
The brief is to develop tools, including site specific installations and digital technologies to project future design scenarios into spaces throughout the city. The question of how public space is defined and used, and how formations of citizenship and political agency can be addressed through design would be resolved. Engaging with various texts and discourses about citizenship, aesthetics, political activism, critical practice, and infrastructure, simultaneously helped develop representational techniques, including drawing, modeling, video, and photography for visualizing what exactly is meant by public and public space. Over the past 75 years Buffalo has been privy to a broad array of planning and development schemes. Some have come to fruition, some only partly completed, and many never realized at all. The economic success (or detriment), visual appeal (or lack thereof), and spatial effects those realized projects have had on the city and its residents have been the subject of debate for decades. Comprehending the projects that never came to pass the focus of study is to investigate an ongoing research project into the aesthetic qualities of public space. Analysis of one public, infrastructural, or institutional project that was planned but never completed and analyze the social, political, and economic rationale behind it remaining unbuilt would be the key aspect of the study through various research and representational techniques to produce images and experiences that identify and speculate on what is missing and possible futures for the city and region with the loss of these projects. Page | 7
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bbreviations:
Urban Utopia: u-to-pi-a (noun) 1. a. often Utopia An ideally perfect place, especially in its social, political, and moral aspects. b. A work of fiction describing a utopia.` 2. An impractical, idealistic scheme for social and political reform.
Urban Dystopia: dis-toh-pee-uh (noun) According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a “dystopia” is: “An imaginary place or condition in which everything is as bad as possible; opposite of UTOPIA.
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oreword:
The current discourse surrounding government spending (including taxation, budget negotiations, and sequestration) operates as an abstraction where the connections between tax collection, budget outlays, and the real world effects they have on urban and rural environments often remain opaque to the people who reside in and use them. Cities rise through geographical and social concentrations of a surplus product. Urbanization depends on the mobilization of a surplus product, an intimate connection emerges between the development of capitalism and urbanization. Capitalists have to produce a surplus product in order to produce surplus value; this in turn must be reinvested in order to generate more surplus value. The result of continued reinvestment is the expansion of surplus production at a compound rate - hence the logistic curves (money, output and population) attached to the history of capital accumulation, paralleled by the growth path of urbanization under capitalism. The narrative in David Harvey’s ‘Political Economy of Public Space’ states that the spectacle of boulevard and its luminous cafe “was not a neutral form in which capitalism incidentally happened; it was a form of capital itself, and one of the most effective.” Haussmannization was an attempt to put an image “in place of a city which had lost its old means of representation.” What had been lost was the idea of the city as a form of sociality, as a potential site for the construction of utopian dreams of a nurturing social order. “The modes of political, economic and ideological representation in which the city had once been constructed, as a contingent unit in and through other social practices” had been dissolved in part by the repressions of 1848 but then further eviscerated under the transfixing power of spectacle. Once the city is imaged by capital solely as spectacle, it can then only be consumed passively, rather than actively created by the populace at large through politicial participation. In the old social order, the city had been “a horizon of possible collective action and understanding.”
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C
ontent:
1. Site History
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2. Site Analysis
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3. UB North Campus Development
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4. UB South Campus Expansion
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5. Tracker Design
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6. Augment Reality App
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7. Closure
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8. References
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Site History:
Map showing different zoning districts around UB South Campus
Zoning Districts : R1 One-Family District R2 Dwelling District R3 Dwelling District R4 Apartment District R5 Apartment-Hotel District C1 Neighborhood Business District C2 Community Business District C3 Central Business District CM Central Commercial District M1 Light Industrial District M2 General Industrial District M3 Heavy Industrial District SD Special Zoning District DO Downtown Opportunity District RR Residential Restricted District II Institutional-Light Industrial District TD Transit Station Area District PB Porter Bustit District SO Sign Overlay District RP Residential Parking District MS Main Street District
Urban Renewal Districts: GF Grant Ferry District BF Broadway Filmore District SG Seneca Gazenovia District Page | 13
UBtopia | visualizing the future of UB expansion plan
SITE PLAN - UB SOUTH CAMPUS - YEAR 1927
The Map shows the dense housing community around the campus. The development of housing sector took place in grid iron pattern. The surrounding community is well connected to the campus.
SITE PLAN - UB SOUTH CAMPUS - YEAR 1966
The Map shows the housing sector with the development of university campus.The dense urban fabric becomes the backdrop fo the University Campus Layer which then gets interwoven within the city. Furthermore the development of campus becomes the core infrastructure for the setting and the urban renewal. The idea of campus expansion on the neighbouring Grover Cleveland would have been the right thing cause it would serve in further development of the area. Page | 15
Site Analysis: Development of Buffalo:
Development of UB south campus:
The area now known as Erie county is thought to have been originally occupied by a kahquath Indian tribe.
The existing situation shows the intergrity of university campus in city’s dense urban fabric. The expansion of campus on neighbouring Grover Cleveland would have strengthen the city’s core infrastructure.
The area was first visited by white men as early as 1626 and Buffalo which is now the largest city in the area was founded in 1790 when the Holland land company purchased tracts of land in the area. The present Main Street of Buffalo was lined with about twenty houses by 1804 and the city’s population had reached approximately 2000 by 1820. The city of buffalo was incorporated in 1832 following a rapid increase in its population in the previous decade to about 10000. Periods of relatively continuous prosperity for the Buffalo area in the 1890’s and early 1900’s was accompanied by the development and expansion of major sections of the city.
The future image of the expanded campus would have exposed three more University envelopes to the city which would inturn enhance and enlarge the periphery of the city. Expansion plan of 1920’s would have therefore served the ideal situation of campus development on land next to the original existing campus. Moreover, the Bailey Avenue amidst the two lands would today become the major road network between two campuses, acting an integral part of the campus and not an individual identity in the city.
Plan showing UB South Campus and Grover Cleveland Page | 17
UBtopia | visualizing the future of UB expansion plan
Campus-Community Connections
The perimeter of South Campus is peppered with entry points with no distinction between major and minor points. The plan clearly establishes two equally important primary visitor entries with ceremonial landscaping and prominent signage : from Main street at Main circle and from Bailey Avenue at the new Abbott Road.
The UB campus has a symbiotic relationship with the neighbourhoods on Main Street and the fates of University and Community are deeply intertwined. The plan’s strategies for connecting at south campus build on its existing assets and strong relationships and surrounding neighbourhoods provides more community oriented spaces integrating campus into the region.
Arrival Hierarchy
Roadways Plan
Framework for Campus Transformation
The reorganization of South Campus roadways and open spaces under the plan, the demolition of temporary buildings and the construction of new faciities provides an oppurtunity to improve navigation to and around the campus. From the southern approach along Main Street a successful gateway experience provides a sense of arrival and reflects the history identity of the campus. The plan above shows the road network and the creation of continuous loop. Circling the Academic Precinct, Hayes Loop Road provides easier emergency vehicle shuttle, drop off, and service access to all the emergency buildings. To help reduce vehicle speeds and make pedestrian crossing safer, traffic lanes are narrowed and metered parking is addedalong one side of the loop road.
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UBSouth Campus development:
1930 -
1950 -
The University inherited a collection of facilities built for the Erie County Almshouse. Today, of the original buildings, only Hayes, Wende, and Townsend halls and a small service annex behind Hayes remain. Foster Hall, the first new campus building for UB, was completed in 1922.
E.B. Green’s plan has been partially implemented, with Foster, Crosby, and Norton(later Harriman) halls and Lockwood Library(later Abbott Hall) partially framing symmetrical quadrangles; and Hayes Hall, Clark Memorial Gymnasium, and the Engineering Building(later Parker Hall) partially framing a grand new lawn.
1970 -
2009-
Rapid growth has resulted in numerous departures from the campus plan. Temporary annexes have occupied the quadrangles and lawn, new towers and massive academic buildings have overwhelmed the intimate scale of the campus and a sprawling health sciences complex has begun to form a wall along Bailey Avenue.
South campus has been subsumed with buildings and parking lots with a haphazard layout that makes many spaces feel empty and isolated from the surrounding neighbourhoods. Hpwever, the fundamental structure of E.B. Green’s plan remains intact.
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UBNorth Campus development:
1970 -
1980 -
The original purchase of 1192 acres of agricultural land included two buildings that remain on campus today: Bissell Hall(built in 1938 as a church) and the Campus Mail Center.
The pattern of the 1970 master plan has emerged. The Spine has been formed, as well as the remote nodes of residential life at Governors Complex and Ellicot Complex. The roadway network of three rings - Audubon Parkway, White - Hadley - Augspurger roads, and Putnam Way - have been completed.
1990 -
2007 -
The core has filled out and expanded. To the east of the Spine, a new center of student and commercial acitivity created a nexus for student life but also turned its back to the lake. The university has built Baird Research Park on a parcel of campus across Sweet Home Road.
A daytime campus population of 28000 students, faculty, and staff occupy a total of 6.6 million GSF. The most notable growth since the late 1990s has been the development of low rise student housing on the campus periphery.
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UBSouth Campus Expansion: UB Campus Expansion: University campuses, cutting edge of knowledge in time, sometimes neglected, become great places of urban importance. One such possible instance is that of University of Buffalo. The UB campus planning greatly affected Buffalo city’s growth and infrastructure. The making of this plan, the writing of this story, has been a befitting story in itself. The story of University at Buffalo is an odyssey across more than 170 years. City leaders of Buffalo sought the establishment of a university in the city from the earliest days of Buffalo. A University of Western New York was begun at Buffalo under the auspices of the Presbyterian Church. In the first few years of the 20th century, the University began planning for a comprehensive undergraduate college to complete the basic structure of a university, and in 1909 the
University acquired the Erie County Almshouse grounds from the county of Erie, which became the University of Buffalo’s initial campus. The logical space for campus growth was always the city owned Grover Cleveland Golf Course across Bailey Avenue, the site of the 1912 U.S. Open Championship. The University also acquired the Audubon Golf Course in Amherst in preparation for a possible swap. None of these schemes panned out. Only after SUNY settled on a suburban location for a new campus did city leaders, suddenly eager to keep the university in Buffalo come to the table as motivated sellers, but was too late. For some Buffalonians, the choice of suburban campus appeared to be, in hindsight, a colossal mistake. The result was a campus isolated and bleak. An opportunity to revitalize the city center was missed.
- Visitor’s Location
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Tracker Design: View from viewer’s location -
B A I L E Y
A V E N U E
The viewer when at tracker location sees the Groverland side of the campus. The viewports in alongside plan were based on The various junctions in the planning of new campus where the corelation between the built mass and green space is visible. The perspective enclosing the pyhsical connections of the old and new campus expansion. The relation between the bailey street, open spaces, and built mass focusing on the activation of the street edge.
Map showing locations of different viewports -
A V E N U E B A I L E Y
Plan showing viewer’s and tracker’s location -
The location of tracker was determined understanding the perspectiive of future image. The viewer would possibly see both the campuses and especially the visual and physical connectivity between the two campuses.
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UBtopia | visualizing the future of UB expansion plan
The placement of tracker on the site was decided upon the views that would be generated for the viewers. Also the prominent location near the walkway would make it easy for the pedestrians or visitors to notice/ observe it. Lightweight, portable and weather proof tracker installation would serve its purpose all year round.
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UBtopia | visualizing the future of UB expansion plan
Viewport 1 -
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UBtopia | visualizing the future of UB expansion plan
Viewport 2 -
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UBtopia | visualizing the future of UB expansion plan
Viewport 3 -
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UBtopia | visualizing the future of UB expansion plan
Viewport 4 -
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A ugment Reality App:
Tracker plane to scan -
Model uploaded in Augment Reality App -
The tracker and its usage is defined on the installation plane for the visitors to comprehend the application and then know how to use it. The stepwise illustration would help the visitors to use the tracker plane to access the virtual image of the possible future of the Ub expansion campus.
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UBtopia | visualizing the future of UB expansion plan
Possible Future Scenario 1 virtual model into real-space
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UBtopia | visualizing the future of UB expansion plan
Possible Future Scenario 2 virtual model into real-space
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UBtopia | visualizing the future of UB expansion plan
Possible Future Scenario 3 virtual model into real-space
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UBtopia | visualizing the future of UB expansion plan
Possible Future Scenario 4 virtual model into real-space
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UBtopia | visualizing the future of UB expansion plan
Possible Future Scenario 5 virtual model into real-space
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Closure:
The Possible Impact of Expansion: Factors influencing the distribution of future urban development would have changed during the expansion of campus resulting in range of alternative policies for management of resources and direction of growth in the sub region. The pattern of impact of new campus expansion would have directed a greater degree of coordination in infrastructure and transportation development in the sub region. A positive approach to the planning of development at local scale would have impacted to achieve local community goals. The new campus would have brought benefits and opportunities both to the local community and to the population of the region as a whole. There are variety of economic benefits when local residents attend local colleges and universities. The sub region would begin to experience economic impact as the University offers employment, courses and educational programs at the new campus. A high quality of urban development would enhance the environment of the sub region and would continue to make it attractive to economic growth and as a place to live.
Conclusion: The impact of a large new university campus on a suburban town is comprehended. The sub regional growth implications of the new campus in physical, economic and social terms are compared with sub region’s ability to absorb in future growth. Various development constraints and potentials are assessed and compared and a range of possible future development patterns are identified. The implications of the most representative patterns are considered in detail, the impact of the new university campus and an associated new community is considered and methods of implementing each development pattern is followed.
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UBtopia | visualizing the future of UB expansion plan
Possible Future Scenario - Bird’s Eye View 1 virtual model into real-space
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UBtopia | visualizing the future of UB expansion plan
Possible Future Scenario - Bird’s Eye View 2 virtual model into real-space
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References:
1. Impact of the New State university campus in Eric county | AED LB 3220 L64 2. Concept schematic phase report | APL LD 701 B438 H4 1976 3. Building UB - The comprehensive physical plan 4. David. “The Right to the City.” New Left Review 53 (2008): 23–40. http://newleftreview.org/II/53/davidharveytherighttothecity 5. Reading: Martin, Reinhold. “Public and Common(s).” Places, January 24, 2013. http://places.designobserver.com/feature/publicandcommons/37647/ 6. Harvey, David. “The Political Economy of Public Space.” The Politics of Public Space. Edited by Setha M. Low and Neil Smith, eds. New York: Routledge, 2006. http://davidharvey.org/media/public.pdf 7. Reading: Mitchell, Don. “To Go Again to Hyde Park: Public Space, Rights, and Social Justice.” The Right to the City: Social Justice and the Fight for Public Space. New York: The Guilford Press, 2003. 1341 8. Architectural Films (environments with future potential) Playtime Brazil Blade Runner Her 12 Monkeys