WENTWORTH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Master of Architecture 2018
URGENT AMALGAMATIONS Optimistic Trajectories for the Contemporary City
WILLIAM TOOHEY III
URGENT AMALGAMATIONS: OPTIMISTIC TRAJECTORIES FOR THE CONTEMPORARY CITY By William Joseph Toohey, III Bachelor of Science in Architecture Wentworth Institute of Technology, April 2017 Submitted to in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Architecture at the Wentworth Institute of Technology, April 2018
William Joseph Toohey, III Author Department of Architecture
Certified by Robert Cowherd, PhD Thesis Supervisor
Accepted by Kelly Hutzell Director of Graduate Programs
©2018 William Joseph Toohey, III. All rights reserved. The author hereby grants to Wentworth Institute of Technology permission to reproduce and to publicly distribute copies of this thesis document in whole or in part using paper, electronic, and any medium now known or hereafter created. 001
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PLAGIARISM STATEMENT Plagiarism is the submission or inclusion of someone else’s words, drawings, ideas, or data (including that from a website) as one’s own work without giving credit to the source. When sources are used in a paper or drawing, acknowledgment of the original author or source must be made through appropriate references (footnotes, endnotes) or if directly quoted, quotation marks or indentations must be used. Even if another person’s idea, opinion, or theory is paraphrased into your own words, you can be accused of plagiarism. The same holds true for drawings. Only when information is common knowledge may a fact or statistic be used without giving credit (https://wvvw. wit.edu/catalog/2017-2018/academic-honesty). Plagiarism is a serious issue and it is important for all to be able to rely on the integrity of student work. The use of content prepared by another person or agency engaged in the selling of papers or other academic materials constitutes plagiarism. Plagiarism does not only refer to written work but also to computer data, drawings, sketches, design concepts, code, musical scores and visual arts. Plagiarism can be inadvertent, so please become informed about the forms it can take. While we are all using precedents and study the built work to get educated and inspired, it is not acceptable to use entire concepts or appropriate drawings, sketches, 3D models or any other representation thereof and claim them as your own. I, William Joseph Toohey, III, am aware of the serious nature of plagiarism and of the fact that it includes design concepts, images, drawings and other representations beyond the written word. I will not intentionally use someone else’s work without acknowledgement and will not represent someone else’s work as my own.
Signature
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URGENT AMALGAMATIONS
WILLIAM TOOHEY III M.ARCH 2018 BSA 2017
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URGENT AMALGAMATIONS: OPTIMISTIC TRAJECTORIES FOR THE CONTEMPORARY CITY
ABSTRACT The research and design explorations that follow encompass topics of the origin, influence, implementation, effect, and revision of modernism’s “tower in the park,” as originally defined in the early twentieth century by the International Congress of Modern Architecture (CIAM). Although examining precedents across North America and Europe, the South Side of Chicago serves as a laboratory for design testing: a Midwestern, metropolitan context in the United States that presents a variety of opportunities due to its convoluted politics, racial and social tensions, crime, and isolating planning history. As a result of the city’s ambitious “Plan for Transformation,” beginning in 2000, Chicago’s Near Side neighborhoods find themselves in a peripheral zone around the vibrant city, cloaked in vacant blocks. Today, vast areas of stagnant landscapes continue to rest quietly in a prolonged wake of massdemolition: a product of the complete erasure of neglected public housing towers. In an effort to reintroduce former tower residents, as well as invite newly-diverse audiences, an alternative method gives shape to new building typologies that integrate themselves within the city’s existing grid and form. A contemporary revision of CIAM’s tower in the park becomes an experimental model that establishes new trajectories for growing urban populations. These optimistic environments counter the negative effects that have stigmatized numerous communities. A design process that orchestrates a collision of differences, rather than conflicting Figure 001. Cover art by
similarities, encourages unprecedented amalgamations: a new
author (William Toohey III, CC
mix of people, program, place, transit, form, material, and landscape.
BY-NC-SA).
This work positions itself at the intersection of multiple disciplines and media not often merged, including urban design, psychology,
Figure 002. Original cover art
sociology, time-lapse photography, film, dystopian science fiction,
of J.G. Ballard’s 1975 novel,
and architecture. Intriguing new perspectives, informed by diverse
High-Rise, designed by Craig
design methodologies, advocate for an interconnected architecture
Dodd, accessed 14 October
that sets the stage for serendipity.
2017, http://averyreview. com/issues/17/a-future-nowexhausted.
KEYWORDS
Optimistic, Urbanization, Equity, Density, CIAM, Tower in the Park, Mixed-Use/Income, Chicago OPTIMISTIC TRAJECTORIES FOR THE CONTEMPORARY CITY
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CONTENTS 005 Abstract & Keywords 007 Contents 009 Dedication 011 Acknowledgments
CHAPTER 1
015 INTRODUCTION 017 Thesis Statement & Argument 019 The Cultural Center 021 Personal Accounts 022 Intended Audience / Chapter Functionality
CHAPTER 2 CHAPTER 3
025 LITERATURE REVIEW
049 DESIGN AS RESEARCH 1 053 Identifying the Context 079 Visualizing the Context 080 Montaged Histories: Cabrini-Green 084 Film Adaptation of J.G. Ballard’s 1975 Novel, High-Rise 131 Contemporary Responses to the Tower in the Park
CHAPTER 4
145 DESIGN AS RESEARCH 2 146 Former Blocks of Harold Ickes Homes 150 Landscape On & Above the Ground Plane 156 Transitioning to Fieldwork: New Questions
CHAPTER 5
159 DESIGN AS RESEARCH 3 163 From 12 to 106 Hours 173 Political Perspectives 177 Program Massing & Circulation Axes 183 Magnetic Social Attractors 191 Horizontal Invitations 199 Vertical Suggestions 207 Communal Restoration 213 Form Follows Memory
CHAPTER 6
219 DESIGN SYNTHESIS 223 Attract. Bridge. Densify. 231 Subtractive Massing Methods 239 Equitable Infrastructure 245 Form Follows Mind 259 Program. Attract. Adapt.
CHAPTER 7
283 REFLECTION & CRITICAL EVALUATION 284 Thoughts on Process, Criticism, & Future 288 Final Panel of Critics: 10 April 2018 296 BIBLIOGRAPHY OPTIMISTIC TRAJECTORIES FOR THE CONTEMPORARY CITY
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DEDICATION I would like to dedicate this research and design effort to the loving memory of my paternal grandmother, Noni. As a persistent advocate and source of encouragement, Noni fueled my early ambitions as a freshman at Wentworth. Unexpectedly, her last days on earth were the same days immediately preceding my first final review. As a prominent family figure, mother of five and grandmother of fourteen, Noni helped instill in me a heightened sense of awareness of people and purpose. As a rather empathetic source, her memory— from the painful week of November 25, 2013 to the day I publish this book—operates as a catalyst for the increasing sense of urgency and sometimes agency apparent in the work that follows. A plastic-sleeved binder, accompanied by a Christmas card: “As you think about being an architect...a place for your ideas! Love, Noni” - December 2012 For the dearly missed Eleanor L. Pennisi: April 21, 1941 - November 29, 2013 Lawrence, Massachusetts
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This book, as well as the initial desire to create it, would not have been possible without more individuals than I can mention here. However, I would like to give special thanks to my mother, Angie; thank you for being patient with me for most of my life, encouraging me during this pursuit for a master of architecture degree and always supporting me, regardless of the circumstances. I would have also struggled much more without my sister, Erin; thank you for your open-mindedness, comic relief, honesty, and knack for English. You have made me a more confident and critical writer, which has influenced my ability to communicate ideas and attempt to write a thesis book. I would like to thank my father, Bill, for his support and pragmatic approach to many tasks in life, as well as his passion for thinking, designing, and creating. In addition to family, I am forever indebted to my high school architecture and engineering teacher, David Foote; thank you for officially introducing me to the discipline of architecture and its many conventions and opportunities. Your suggestion in 2011 that I might enjoy a career in architecture continues to pay off. Thank you, Mark Barton, for the day that you told me I could not be sarcastic for the rest of my life; thank you for helping adjust my attitude before college. Thank you, Nicole Martineau, for being an influential professional mentor and encouraging me to spend many extra hours in the library. Thank you to all of my undergraduate and graduate architecture professors, especially the ones whom I consulted during the development of this thesis: Matthew (Ben) Matteson, Alberto Cabre, Elizabeth Ghiseline, Troy Peters, and Austin Samson. This book would have been written with little focus if not for the help of my Thesis Prep II and Special Topics Studio professor, Carol Burns and Thesis Prep I professor, Jack Cochran. Thank you, Carol, for your critical feedback and skillful judgement. Thank you, Jack, for the unyielding suggestions to narrow the scope of my thesis topic when I sounded overly optimistic about reorganizing our planet. I am also grateful for the reminders to get rest and eat properly during some of my more intense moments of the 2017 fall semester.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Thank you, Robert Cowherd, for accepting to (put up with me) play the role as my official thesis advisor during my final semester at Wentworth Institute of Technology. You successfully revealed to me the value of thinking and what it sounds like. I will be sure to continue my reflexive design processes, with the hope of generating meaningful architecture. Thank you, David Lee, for teaching me about urban design before I begin my formal education in the fall. I feel fortunate to have met you in January of 2018. Thank you, Dan O’Connell, for tracking down all of the books and articles that our library did not have at the time when I needed them the most; you are a great human resource. In addition to academic and professional mentors, I would like to thank my classmates and roommates. Thank you for encouraging me to laugh and loosen up, all the while allowing me to follow my passion for architecture and urbanism. I would also not be writing this book if not for some of my dearest friends, especially Rebecca Moore and Olivia Pelletier. Thank you for playing integral roles in my life since the second grade, providing me with feelings of purpose in the world. Thank you, everyone, for believing in me to complete this thesisÂ: an exhaustive eight months of research, design, and the continuation of a relevant dialogue about equity, community, and urbanity.
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INTRODUCTION 014
Chapter 1 includes a range of foundational elements that contribute to an understanding of the overall argument, relevance, and purpose of this thesis.
INTRODUCTION + THESIS STATEMENT / ARGUMENT + THE CULTURAL CENTER + PERSONAL ACCOUNTS + INTENDED AUDIENCE + CHAPTER FUNCTIONALITY + CONCLUSION
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THESIS STATEMENT Positioned within the grid of historically-neglected and segregated neighborhoods, optimistic architecture and urbanism has a responsibility to encourage the human perception of opportunity, dignity, diversity, and inclusion: a reintegration of communities and densification of equitable infrastructure.
ARGUMENT As respondents to the pitfalls of high-rise public housing developments, agents of change must now urgently reformulate, test, and realize architecture’s capacity to do more for its inhabitants. The plentiful shortcomings of CIAM’s “tower in the park” inspire a revised and conscientious design process for creating dense, urban living conditionsby placing the human at the center of form and space. These environments and destinations connect activity on the sidewalk to flexible public space within the implied boundaries of the block. Upon incentivizing any approaching pedestrian, the
Historical neglected a segregat scales, programmatic reconfigurations, access to resources and transit options, and newly-framed views of the surrounding city neighborhoods mu be reconnected establish an equitable framework for contemporary life. the contempora city and giv Overall, optimistic architecture and urbanism redefines the purpose immedia of what was once a precarious model for single-use public housing attention v in American cities, isolated from the ground plane and its immediate equitab context. These contemporary solutions support a humanistic infrastructure: agenda for architecture that contributes to reactivating the vacant optimistic mod blocks of Chicago’s former public housing towers. for urban life th positively influenc I propose to pursue the work described here under the scales beyond itse advisement of the following individuals: Architecture a urbanism that Thesis Advisor: Robert Cowherd, PhD, Professor actively engag in encouragi Independent Advisors: Elizabeth Ghiseline, Lecturer diversity a David Lee, FAIA, Cofounder of Stull & Lee inclusion will le Austin Samson, Adjunct Faculty to unprecedent human potenti architecture draws one in and provides a myriad of reasons to
remain or return for future inhabitation. Intersections at multiple
Figure 003. Reintegration and densification of communities in Near South Side, Chicago: Increasingly-diverse scales, systems, and inhabitants, analytique drawing (William Toohey III, CC BY-NC-SA).
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S I APPROACHED THE PUBLIC RESTROOM THAT SECURITY TOLD ME ABOUT, I SLOWED DOWN AT THE SIGHT OF A CRUMBLING PUBLIC HOUSING TOWER. Struck by the
relevance, I raised my phone to capture the proof of an exhibited photograph of the fifteen-story Cabrini-Green tower. “Do you want to know what it’s like to live there? I did it for twenty years,” posed the seemingly homeless man to the right of my now raised hands. These were the first words exchanged during a seventy minute conversation with the 51-year-old man: a former gang member, affiliated with the Mickey Cobras. We slowly paced along the hallway, scrutinizing the photographs that lined the two-toned basement walls of Chicago’s Cultural Center. With his hands wrapped in turquoise, fingerless gloves, the man spoke clearly between shoveling crackers into his mouth. It took approximately twenty five minutes to earn what felt like the man’s trust and respect. He extended his hand toward me, to be met with a firm shake. “What’s your name, young man?” he asked. “Billy,” I answered. As minutes escaped us, he became more comfortable talking about his past. He grew up in Chicago, played sports in high school, and wanted to go to college, but upon receiving a rejection letter from his number one choice, he decided to enlist in the military instead. When he returned to his city, life was different; the people he surrounded himself by inevitably influenced many of his decisions, thereafter. “I was a sniper near Cabrini...in the 80s. I used to shoot at people who looked like you: a paleface,” he said, with little emotion. He bragged about how many times bullets missed him, as both a younger and older man, even when pushing his only belongings in a grocery cart down North Larabee Street. “We live in different times now,” he said. I confessed that I did some research before my arrival to the city that morning. I explained how I was mostly precautious in order to avoid wandering into what I called the “wrong neighborhoods.” He threw his head back, with his mouth full of crackers, and laughed.
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Figure 004. The last
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“Chicken.”
remaining Cabrini-Green tower to fall: 1230 North
Once the laughter settled, including my own, we agreed that
Burling Street, exhibited at
differences in race and ethnicity continue to present challenges for
the Cultural Center, wall-
people and places. After the lengthy exchange, I asked him what
mounted, during the 2018
he would change about his life if he could go back, and if he had a
Chicago Architecture Biennial
choice, would he have ever permanently moved from Chicago to
and presented as part of the
another city? For nearly ten silent seconds, in deep thought, the
project A Love of the World:
man’s green eyes shifted left to right, ever so slightly.
a selection of photographic works commissioned
“I would change a lot,” he finally said, pausing before he continued.
and curated by Jesús
“I’ve seen this city go from great...to shit...to great...and then back to
Vassallo, (©David Schalliol),
shit. But now...now, it’s coming back. To me, this is home.”
photograph of exhibited work (William Toohey III, CC BY-NC-
When I got back to my hotel room that night, I realized that I never
SA), 3 January 2018.
used the restroom that I was searching for to begin with.
THE CULTURAL CENTER
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HIS THESIS CARES ABOUT MORE THAN JUST HOUSING, BECAUSE THE WORK EXPLORED HERE REVEALS THAT ADEQUATE HOUSING IS NEITHER THE ONLY NOR BEST
RESPONSE TO INADEQUATE HOUSING. Significant issues deserve more significant solutions, so a considerable portion of this book strives to discover alternative ways of living in cities. It is clear that CIAM’s tower in the park, in most cases, took shape as single-use housing for low-income families. However, this is merely a starting point to investigate what went wrong and how contemporary designers and planners should now move swiftly with new purpose, more than ever before. From my personal perspective, it is apparent that we all play a role in society that only exists because of the influences that preceded our time. To accept that role, without questioning at least why and who, seems dangerously complacent. This inherently simple perception of the world serves as the foundation for many of my lines of inquiry, architectural or not—an endless curiosity about why things are the way they are. From what I can recall between my first memories and now, I have experienced living in at least thirteen different places that I have considered home: the deepest lot in a North Hampton, New Hampshire mobile home park; a suburban home in Skokie, Illinois; family friend’s house (#1) in Kingston, New Hampshire; a finished basement in Lawrence, Massachusetts; low-income housing in Portsmouth, New Hampshire; a house in Rochester, New Hampshire; family friend’s house (#2) in Rochester; a two-bedroom apartment in Rochester; a one-bedroom apartment in Rochester; a duplex in Haverhill, Massachusetts; a mobile home in Wells, Maine; a house in Newmarket, New Hampshire; and finally, an apartment in Boston. I spent most of my childhood with my mother and sister in southern New Hampshire, but my experience with the notion of home, in conjunction with the integral members of each community I grew up in, has influenced my desire to understand what home means to others. From June 6, 2014 to the present, along with studying architecture at the undergraduate and graduate level at Wentworth Institute of Technology, I have been lucky enough to gain professional
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experience within a variety of design practices, including TMS Architects, Arrowstreet, and Gensler. I have been influenced by the processes of designing residential homes in New Hampshire, understanding seven-story parking garage structures in Providence, and realizing how complicated a mixed-use development touching the southern facade of TD Garden is. In addition to working in offices and studying at Wentworth, I was also given an opportunity to design a single-family home in Dover, New Hampshire, following my freshman year—an intense yet rewarding experience of how to understand the needs of future building inhabitants, translate ideas to drawings, and attempt to convey enough information to a contractor. Many of
PERSONAL ACCOUNTS
these experiences have influenced my own design process and interests as a professional and student.
Figure 005. Enjoying the sun
Overall, the places in which I have lived and worked, with the people
with some neighborhood
whom I have met along the way, whether neighborhood friends
friends / 1st grade
or colleagues, have certainly shaped who I am and how I view
classmates, sitting roughly 30'
architecture. After a variety of experiences in multiple settings, I
from my front door, 6 years
have come to the realization that life, in all of its complexity and
old, low-income housing
unanticipated variability, is inevitably embedded in architecture, and
at the Gosling Meadows,
vice versa.
Portsmouth, NH, ca. 2001. With the hope of effectively reaching and resonating with an open-minded audience, regardless of race, ethnicity, age, gender, neighborhood, or socio-economic status, the work explored here is meant to spark a productive and maybe difficult dialogue between people. The ultimate effect of this work is a more inclusive built environment that can improve historically-neglected and segregated neighborhoods without rapidly gentrifying and displacing families.
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INTENDED AUDIENCE / CHAPTER FUNCTIONALITY
F
OR DESIGNERS AND PLANNERS, IF NOT ALREADY IMMERSED IN THIS PRACTICE, I hope that this research provides ample reason to reconsider certain processes that place the building
user, especially in terms of human potential and self-efficacy, on an equal playing field with elements of design (e.g. program, form, material, and landscape). The structure of this book consists of five main parts: an introduction, literature review, design research, design synthesis, and final reflection/critical evaluation. Chapter 2 consists of a literature review: a brief history of the tower in the park and developing perspective that begins to merge crossdisciplinary themes that speculate on alternatives. Key points of the argument include the importance of the building inhabitant, highrise typologies not necessarily being unviable options for building community, and the potential for how a mixture of new variables can improve a city block’s internal community and surrounding context. Evidence is presented in the form of case studies, photographs, resident testimonials, and influential literary figures. Chapter 3, 4, and 5 include a variety of studies, both analytical and design, that place the reader in the heart of visual evidence of the past, present, and future; design tests follow analytical exercises. The iterative processes and methods deployed aim to work toward final design outcomes that support contemporary ideas for architecture that does more for its inhabitants. The key point of the argument is that architecture’s openness can successfully invite people into the block. Evidence is presented in the form of case studies, photographs, quotes, existing data, analytical investigations, and design testing. Chapter 6 synthesizes conclusive design criteria explored in the previous chapters. Key points of the argument revolve around two main scales: urban and architectural. The urban scale focuses on locating optimal sites, bridging, and densifying, whereas the architectural scale refines the quality of experience and perception of the inhabitant. Multiple experimental design methods are deployed, with a mixture of hand and computer drawings. 022
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Figure 006. Infographic
Overlays, additions, subtractions, and additional operations occur,
displaying the basic
producing design outcomes that can be further analyzed and
connections between
revised, if the work was to continue.
major elements of a thesis investigation: Thesis,
Chapter 7 reflects on the entire process. The ability to reflect
Antithesis, Synthesis, Issue,
and critically evaluate this exploration, holistically, is essential
Position, Effect, (William
for understanding how and why to move the work forward. By
Toohey III, CC BY-NC-SA),
identifying the most significant successes and failures, the work
11 March 2018.
comes to terms with whatever level of refinement it has achieved within the constraints of time and scope during the 2017-18 academic year at Wentworth Institute of Technology. Simplified, this thesis highlights an issue, takes a position, and tests evolving criteria in order to speculate on the architectural effects. In 2018, it now seems quite clear that the tower in the park was an ambitious mistake because it neglected the human being as part of the process responsible for generating architecture. Alternatively, architecture that results from more humanistic design processes can become an incredible asset for humanity. When architecture dismisses the most essential characteristics of its own process, both people and architecture suffer the consequences. However, when architecture becomes attuned to the complexities that affect it, something much more exciting occurs—something optimistic for an increasingly urbanized planet.
THESIS ANTITHESIS SYNTHESIS
ISSUE POSITION EFFECT
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LITERATURE REVIEW 024
The following chapter examines the history of the tower in the park, while developing a grounded perspective interested in equitable alternatives.
LITERATURE REVIEW + INTRODUCING THE TOWER IN THE PARK + CONGRÈS INTERNATIONAUX D’ARCHITECTURE MODERNE + TENEMENTS TO TOWERS: TRANSITIONS TO VERTICALITY + THE IMPACT ON ITS INHABITANTS + STIGMA: A PUBLIC PERCEPTION OF “THE PROJECTS” + DYSTOPIAN SCIENCE FICTION: URBAN SPECULATIONS + ADVOCACY FOR ARCHITECTURE TO DO MORE + MIXED USES, MEMORY, AND BUILDING COMMUNITY + REINTEGRATION AND DENSIFICATION
CHAPTER 2 025
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TANDING TALL ON A CITY BLOCK, ACCOMPANIED BY VAST, OPEN GREEN SPACE, THE MODERN INVENTION OF THE TOWER IN THE PARK CONTINUES TO LEAVE ITS MARK
ACROSS THE GLOBAL, METROPOLITAN LANDSCAPE. In its early twentieth-century beginnings, confined to speculative axonometric and perspective drawings, the tower-in-the-park model was coined by renowned Swiss-French architect, Charles JeanneretGris, or more commonly known as Le Corbusier. 01 In many cases, a single-use, high-rise building took shape as a dense and efficient response to inadequate urban living conditions found in tenements across expanding cities. 02 However, the tower in the park became the center of debates for what was right or wrong with housing; unprecedented building typologies sparked some sort of vertical ethics about dwelling. The unrealized speculations of new towers quickly became realized in one shape or form. Following World War II, the tower-in-the-park model became rapidly adopted across continents, including areas of South America, India, and the Soviet Union, but it found itself
Figure 007. Plan Voisin: 60-story towers for 3,000,000 inhabitants, Paris, France, 1922-25, conceptual perspective
01 “Le Corbusier Documentation,” Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication, Archives Nationales, accessed 3 December 2017, http://www.culture.gouv.fr/public/mistral/leonore_fr?ACT
(©FLC/ADAGP), accessed 14 December 2017, http://
ION=CHERCHER&FIELD_98=NOM&VALUE_98=%27JEANNERET-
www.fondationlecorbusier.fr/
GRIS%27&DOM=All.
corbuweb/morpheus.aspx?sy
02 “Divis Flats Belfast,” YouTube. Recording of original BBC Northern
026
drawing by Le Corbusier
sId=13&IrisObjectId=6159&sy
Ireland documentary, narrated by Ciara McGrillan, uploaded 26
sLanguage=en-en&itemPos=2
February 2013, accessed 25 October 2017, video, 28:46, https://
&itemCount=2&sysParentNa
www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yeBykVOppQ.
me=Home&sysParentId=65.
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more intensely applied within a European and North American context. 03 It was during the decades of the 1960s and 70s that brought a dramatic wave of new construction, and in many cases the architecture was indisputably inspired by Le Corbusier and CIAM’s notion of the functional city. 04 What followed the reality of life in these massive, urban elements, years and even decades later, was a wave of demolition—a collective sign of defeat. 05 In many cases, among the myriad of fluctuating variables, including but not limited to social, political, economic, and infrastructural concerns, Figure 008. Approaching
the towers that rapidly sprouted across metropolitan areas proved
Co-op City, located in the
to be lacking many qualities. Most importantly, the monotonous
Baychester section of the
stacking of lives dismissed careful examination of the needs and
Bronx, New York, New York
desires of the architecture’s future users and uses. 06
(©Amani Willett), original image altered for black
Although modernism attempted to mitigate the negative effects
and white representation,
associated with life in deteriorating dwellings, by means of grandiose
accessed 10 December
master plans for vertical communities, it is uncertain whether or
2017, https://urbanomnibus.
not designers and planners understood the future implications of
net/2014/05/cooperative-city-
their work. An architect as influential as Corbusier may not have
cooperative-community/.
contemplated the potential social, environmental, economic, and political ramifications that followed his ambitious fantasies and visualizations.
03 Witold Rybczynski, Makeshift Metropolis: Ideas About Cities, (New York: Scribner, 2010), 49. 04 Ute Poerschke, “CIAM’s Four-Function Dogma: On the Challenge of Mixing Something That Has Been Separated” in Feldhusen, Sebastian; Ute Poerschke; Jürgen Weidinger (eds.): “Mixings in Architecture and Landscape Architecture,” Cloud-Cuckoo-Land, International Journal of Architectural Theory, vol. 21, no. 35 (2016), 199, www.cloud-cuckoo.net/fileadmin/issues_en/issue_35/article_ poerschke.pdf. 05 Witold Rybczynski, “Bauhaus Blunders: Architecture and Public Housing,” 84. 06 Ibid., 85. OPTIMISTIC TRAJECTORIES FOR THE CONTEMPORARY CITY
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Within the time frame of a half-century, from the 1950s to the turn of the new millennium, innumerous examples displayed
Figure 009. Plan Voisin: 60-story towers for
the dramatic failures of a seemingly-precarious model and social
3,000,000 inhabitants,
structure: a design and planning process that focused mainly on
Paris, France, 1922-25, a
separating uses within cities. 07 Contrary to the indisputable realities
more realistically-rendered
of the worst cases, it is important to acknowledge that not all towers
drawing by Le Corbusier
in the park failed. Overall, New York City serves as a North American context that remains to be a suitable place for the tower in the
(©FLC/ADAGP), accessed 14 December 2017, http://
park, seen in the neighborhoods of Stuyvesant Town, Peter Cooper
www.fondationlecorbusier.fr/
Village, Co-op City, along with many others throughout Harlem, the
corbuweb/morpheus.aspx?sy
Lower East Side, and Brooklyn. The monolithic towers of brick and
sId=13&IrisObjectId=6159&sy
mortar are prominent members of the city’s fabric, but while New
sLanguage=en-en&itemPos=2
York City serves as a viable, Northeastern case for the tower in the
&itemCount=2&sysParentNa
park, the Midwestern context of Chicago, Illinois sets a radically
me=Home&sysParentId=65.
different stage. Through a contemporary lens, a multitude of vacant blocks remain scattered across the city of Chicago, many of which were once the physical bases for single-use apartment towers. Today, 07 Ute Poerschke, “CIAM’s Four-Function Dogma: On the Challenge of Mixing Something That Has Been Separated” in Feldhusen, Sebastian; Ute Poerschke; Jürgen Weidinger (eds.): “Mixings in Architecture and Landscape Architecture,” Cloud-Cuckoo-Land, International Journal of Architectural Theory, vol. 21, no. 35 (2016), 200, www.cloud-cuckoo.net/fileadmin/issues_en/issue_35/article_ poerschke.pdf. 028
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suspicious quantities of city blocks, covered by grass and eroding concrete surfaces, can be found as remnants left in the wake of mass-demolition of neglected public housing communities. These temporary block conditions were produced by Chicago’s relentless erasure of nearly 18,000 units, as part of its “Plan for Transformation.” 08 The 1999 pledge to construct or renovate a total of 25,000 units in five to seven years evolved into a process that fell severely behind schedule and continued to fall short of its rather ambiguous goals for the city as a whole. 09 The present day observation of American blocks devoid of life, as they relate to the fabric that once supported towers in the park, Figure 010. Chicago cleans
raises concerns about a significantly more complex history and
the slate to make way for
future. The topic demands a sufficient understanding of the events
19-story towers in the park:
that preceded the city of Chicago's decision to take such drastic
An example of single-use
measures—a brief history that helps explain why current conditions
dwellings, inspired by CIAM
are the way they are. This sparks a series of questions: what are the
within the urban-American
forces that influence the tower in the park; how does the building
context of Cabrini-Green,
influence its users and surrounding context; where, when, and why
Near North Side, Chicago,
did it succeed or fail; who, if anyone, is responsible; and how can
Illinois, summer of 1952, courtesy of the Chicago
08 Jake Bittle, Srishti Kapur, and Jasmine Mithani, “Redeveloping the
Housing Authority Archives,
State Street Corridor: Chicago’s Unfulfilled Promise to Rebuild its
accessed 14 December
Public Housing,” South Side Weekly, 31 January 2017, accessed 11
2017, https://chicago.curbed.
November 2017, https://southsideweekly.com/chicago-unfulfilled-
com/2016/9/28/13063710/ chicago-public-housing-cha.
promise-rebuild-public-housing/. 09 Ibid.
OPTIMISTIC TRAJECTORIES FOR THE CONTEMPORARY CITY
029
architecture respond today? In order to understand its origin, one
Figure 011. Single-use zones
must return to the theories of modern urbanism through the eyes
for Paris, France: Dwelling,
of the International Congress of Modern Architecture (CIAM), as well as the conditions of deteriorating tenements throughout expanding urban populations.
T
working, recreation, and transportation, connected by a network of streets, Plan Voisin, 1922-25, published
HE INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF MODERN ARCHITECTURE, often referred to as CIAM, was an organization cofounded by Le Corbusier in 1928. 10 The global dissemination and
influence of CIAM’s ideologies can be identified as the primary source that led to the massive, single-use high-rise that Corbusier
3 June 2011, accessed 10 December 2017, http:// philadelphia2050.blogspot. com/2011/06/psychologicalramifications-of-radiant.html.
dubbed the "tower in the park." 11 In the 2016 article, “CIAM’s Four-Function Dogma: On the Challenge of Mixing Something that
Figure 012. Corbusier’s hand
Has Been Separated,” Ute Poerschke provides a detailed overview
hovers over the functional
of the reasonably short lifespan (1928-59) of the International
city: Plan Voisin’s business
Congress of Modern Architecture, its key principles, and its impact.
district, Paris, France, 1922-
Especially noteworthy in her documentation, first generation CIAM
25, accessed 10 December
contributors believed in the premise of the functional city, which was
2017, https://i.pinimg.com/ori
an initial core belief of the organization and the pre-World War II
ginals/1f/76/9b/1f769b0464e
notion of urban planning—work mainly credited to CIAM's Hannes
0165f82ff0bc0dbad5ce2.jpg.
10 Ute Poerschke, “CIAM’s FourFunction Dogma: On the Challenge of Mixing Something That Has Been Separated” in Feldhusen, Sebastian; Ute Poerschke; Jürgen Weidinger (eds.): “Mixings in Architecture and Landscape Architecture,” CloudCuckoo-Land, International Journal of Architectural Theory, vol. 21, no. 35 (2016), 199, www.cloud-cuckoo.net/ fileadmin/issues_en/issue_35/article_ poerschke.pdf. 11 Eric Mumford, “The ‘Tower in a Park’ in America: Theory and Practice, 1920–1960,” Planning Perspectives 10, no, 1 (1 January 1995): 18, https://doi. org/10.1080/02665439508725811. 030
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
URGENT AMALGAMATIONS
OPTIMISTIC TRAJECTORIES FOR THE CONTEMPORARY CITY
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031
Meyer, Mart Stam, and Victor Bourgeois. 12 The definition advocated for the separation of clearly-defined uses: dwelling, working, recreation, and transportation, with roads (within the transportation function) acting as a physical link between each use. This was a logical system of its time, with respect to the growing acceptance of privatelyowned automobiles and their role within a dense, metropolitan setting. 13 However, the intentional separation of uses not only had a tremendous influence on urban planning but also the countless lives that would take part in this strictly zoned, modern metropolis. With the trajectory set for a new paradigm, the adoption of the tower in the park appeared in an aggressive wave of accelerated construction; the philosophy of single-use zoning in post-World War II America was adopted faster than automobiles could drive between each use. 12 Ute Poerschke, “CIAM’s Four-Function Dogma: On the Challenge of Mixing Something That Has Been Separated” in Feldhusen, Sebastian; Ute Poerschke; Jürgen Weidinger (eds.): “Mixings in Architecture and Landscape Architecture,” Cloud-Cuckoo-Land, International Journal of Architectural Theory, vol. 21, no. 35 (2016),
Figure 013. Jacob Riis, “Five
199, www.cloud-cuckoo.net/fileadmin/issues_en/issue_35/article_
Cents a Spot:" Unauthorized
poerschke.pdf.
lodgings in a Bayard Street
13 Katherine Rinne, Richard Wittman, and Eric Mumford, “The Street
tenement, 1888, The American
between Infrastructure and Architectural Form,” YouTube,
Yawp, accessed 11 November
Cambridge Talks VII: Architecture and the Street: Panel 1, filmed 3
2017, www.americanyawp.
March 2013 at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design,
com/text/how-the-other-half-
Cambridge, MA, accessed 5 November 2017, video, 1:47:55, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VquwtxdYZ5w.
032
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
lived-photographs-of-jacobriis/.
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T
WTIII
O TRAVEL BACK IN TIME FOR A MOMENT, TENEMENTS PLAYED A SIGNIFICANT ROLE IN THE REASONING BEHIND ADOPTING TOWERS IN THE PARK. In the original 1890
publication of How the Other Half Lives, Jacob August Riis, a social reformer, journalist, and photographer of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century, captured the essence of poor living conditions seen in tenements across New York City. 14 Willingly or unwillingly, working-class families lived in congested tenements that were less than ideal conditions for human inhabitation. To jump forward nearly seventy years, to the context of Northern Ireland, a family in similar tenements shared only one toilet with as many as four other households; these inadequate conditions were not easily replicable in any ethical, architectural response. 15 Approaching the end of the decline of tenements, rumors of plans for new configurations of housing likely spread throughout working-class neighborhoods around the globe. The thought of vertical neighborhoods in the early to mid-twentieth century may have been an enticing proposition and alternative to community members displeased with the deteriorating horizontality that was all too familiar. With no reason not to believe that this would be a refreshing new dimension and progressive stride forward, families had little to no choice but to move and adapt to new environments, at times, much higher above the ground than ever before. 16 The tower in the park arrived at a pivotal moment in history, but it was accompanied by an abundance of challenging factors: time, federal funding, maintenance, interior space, quality of materials, daylighting, public space, and proximity to uses other than residential. Unfortunately, these factors were threatened by federal budget cuts and excessive “value engineering.” As a result, life within many of these towers morphed from forward thinking to an accelerating downward spiral. 17
14 Jacob Riis, How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York (New York: Scribner, 1901). 15 “Divis Flats Belfast,” YouTube, recording of original BBC Northern Ireland documentary, narrated by Ciara McGrillan, uploaded 26 February 2013, accessed 25 October 2017, video, 28:46, https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yeBykVOppQ. 16 Ibid. 17 Chad Freidrichs and Jaime Freidrichs, The Pruitt-Igoe Myth, film, directed by Chad Freidrichs, 2011, USA: Unicorn Stencil, 2012. OPTIMISTIC TRAJECTORIES FOR THE CONTEMPORARY CITY
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F
AMILIAR TO MINDS BEYOND ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM,
Figure 014. Pruitt-Igoe, copy
THE TALE OF ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI’S PRUITT-IGOE SERVES
and pasted towers across a
AS THE EPITOME OF MODERNISM’S DOWNWARD SPIRAL IN
leveled landscape, low angle
AMERICAN CITIES, or as Charles Jencks jarringly put it: “Modern Architecture died in St Louis, Missouri on July 15, 1972.” 18 Polemics from influential figures of any movement (e.g. postmodernism) can send misguided messages to an audience who may not entirely understand the context in which the circumstances exist. Nonetheless, if modernism is to blame for one thing, supported by
oblique USGS photograph, St. Louis, Missouri, United States Geological Survey, photograph taken at an unknown time between 1963 and 1972, accessed
a collective agreement in the late twentieth and early twenty-first
2 November 2017, https://
century, it is that a radical separation of individual uses is neither
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/
opportunistic nor sustainable as a framework for the growth of both people and city. In fact, as far back as the early 1960s, Jane Jacobs publicly objected to the same notion of separating uses in her 1961 book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities. 19 Concerned with more of the pragmatism that accompanied urban development in the functional city, those responsible for the architecture and construction pushed for a quick and efficient realization, allowing the future human occupant to fall victim to
18 Charles Jencks, The Language of Post-Modern Architecture (New York: Rizzoli, 1977), 9. 19 Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities (New York: Random House, 1961), 170. 034
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
File:Pruitt-igoeUSGS02.jpg.
URGENT AMALGAMATIONS
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constraints of time and budgets. 20 What the city of Chicago likely did not anticipate were the results of adopting local Mies van der Rohe apartment designs (mostly upper-middle-class) for low-income families: Without restricted access, the lobbies and corridors were vandalized; without proper maintenance, elevators broke down, staircases became garbage dumps, roofs leaked,
Figure 015. View to sky:
and broken windows remained unreplaced; without baby-
Glasgow’s Red Road flats,
sitters, single mothers were stranded in their apartments,
constructed from 1964-68.
and children roamed unsupervised sixteen floors below. 21
Hailed as the solution to slums, intended to house nearly 5,000 residents, they came to represent the failings of 20th-century, high-rise housing (©Murdo MacLeod / The Guardian), accessed 7 November 2017,
T
HE AMERICAN TOWER IN THE PARK BECAME WHAT MANY REFERRED TO AS “THE PROJECTS.” Beyond the predetermined arrangements of architecture that serve as
neighborhoods, humans have proven to be rather resilient under a variety of environmental circumstances. Among many others, some variables at stake include living conditions, socioeconomic
https://www.theguardian. com/cities/2015/aug/18/redroad-demolition-residentsglasgow-high-rise-dream.
20 Witold Rybczynski, “Bauhaus Blunders: Architecture and Public Housing,” 84. 21 Ibid.
OPTIMISTIC TRAJECTORIES FOR THE CONTEMPORARY CITY
035
status, access to vocational and academic opportunities, and self-efficacy. Albert Bandura, the Stanford University Professor of Social Science in Psychology, has made tremendous strides in his research across multiple disciplines, with his most relevant work being that of “perceived self-efficacy in self-development, and adaptation and change, [which] laid the theoretical foundation for his theory of human agency.” 22 The theory of human agency ties in closely to the social circumstances around the single-use towers discussed here. In the context of a broader realm of placemaking throughout the built environment, it supports an argument that addresses a tower’s impact on its inhabitants—highlighting a series of detailed moments, viewed through a closer lens. The vertical arrangements of homogeneously-stacked and replicated massing of monotonous rows of apartments, such as the former towers of CabriniGreen and Robert Taylor Homes, impacted the families and individuals who inhabited them; many cases were filled with boiling social strife and feelings of isolation from the rest of the city. 23 Surrounded by brick and mortar, four foot by four foot windows and vast open space between the observer and the street edge appears to be lacking qualities of a successful neighborhood. If the ability to feel empowered or able to succeed in society is inherently linked to the place one grows up, then a revision of the tower in the park must serve a greater purpose in the twenty-first century
22 Albert Bandura, “Self-efficacy,” Encyclopedia of Human Behavior, vol. 4, edited by Vilayanur S. Ramachandran (1994): 71. 23 Audrey Petty, High Rise Stories: Voices from Chicago Public Housing (San Francisco: McSweeney’s, 2013), 20. 036
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Figure 016. Young boy views
metropolis. 24 Seen through the perspectives of residents from
Chicago through a chainlink
Chicago’s former Robert Taylor Homes (see Figures), the views are
barrier in an open-air gallery
rather ominous. Upon departure from one’s dwelling, entering an
at Robert Taylor Homes,
open-air gallery awards a view through a chainlink fence.
Bronzeville, South Side, Chicago, 1965, accessed 17
In one respect, the potential of this model was hindered by a
November 2017, https://
popular desire for an international identity of modern architecture
chicagoganghistory.com/
that aspired for simplicity, formal gestures, plentiful public
housing-project/robert-taylor-
space, maximized daylighting, efficiency, and other experiential
homes/.
and infrastructural qualities, both inside and out. 25 As housing developed into vertical neighborhoods, the rapid assembly of
Figure 017. 2-Mile Path,
dense towers quickly became a collection of containers for high
Robert Taylor Homes,
concentrations of low-income families, disconnected from the
Bronzeville, South Side,
vibrant city. Deprived of sufficient amenities and opportunities,
Chicago, 1965, accessed 17
community members were not positioned to thrive or even fairly
November 2017, https://
move toward individual and collective goals. For some community
chicagoganghistory.com/
members in the towers, the topic of “escaping” their environment
housing-project/robert-taylor-
was of the utmost importance, yet seemingly impossible; some
homes/.
Cabrini-Green residents even referred to their own home as
Figure 018. Vandalized Entry, Robert Taylor Homes, Bronzeville, South Side, Chicago, 1965, accessed 18 November 2017, https:// chicagoganghistory.com/ housing-project/robert-taylorhomes/.
a “trap.” 26 Unfortunately, the predetermined infrastructure of America’s interpretation of the tower in the park provided a less than desirable quality of life. The effects that followed fueled a stigma about the towers and their many residents—a perception difficult to erase.
S
TIGMA CONTINUES TO PRESENT CHALLENGES FOR COMMUNITIES AND HOUSING TOWERS IN AMERICAN CITIES. Likely the result of a sensationalized culture, “the projects”
were depicted by media outlets as havens for crime and poverty
24 Eric Chyn, “Moved to Opportunity: The Long-Run Effect of Public Housing Demolition on Labor Market Outcomes of Children,” (PhD Economics diss., University of Michigan, 2016), 3. 25 Sarah Whiting, “Figuring Modern Urbanism: Chicago’s Near South Side,” in Make New History 2017 Chicago Architecture Biennial, eds. Mark Lee, Sharon Johnston, Sarah Hearne, and Letizia Garzoli (Germany: Lars Müller Publishers, 2017), 89. 26 Witold Rybczynski, “Bauhaus Blunders: Architecture and Public Housing,” 89. OPTIMISTIC TRAJECTORIES FOR THE CONTEMPORARY CITY
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during the latter half of the twentieth century. 27 There is no dispute that violent crime and drug trafficking did not occur in Bronzeville, South Side Chicago projects, such as the Robert Taylor Homes, but a significant percentage of the general public passively and mistakenly accepted that these were just the way things were in the city. The realities of segregating neighborhoods, depriving communities of resources (e.g. grocery stores and reliable public transit), and concentrating high volumes of predominantly black, low-income families fueled the societal illusion of this particular stigma. A 1986 Chicago Tribune article even perpetuates a narrative that the ring of gun shots were something as common as the sound of a car alarm or maybe a glass shattering on the kitchen floor:
Figure 019. New playground equipment juxtaposed with the dismantling of a CabriniGreen tower, Near North
27 Ben Austen, “The Towers Came Down, and With Them the Promise
038
Side, Chicago (©Micah Marty
of Public Housing,” The New York Times, 6 February 2018, accessed
/ CITY 2000), accessed 28
11 February 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/06/
October 2017, http://www.
magazine/the-towers-came-down-and-with-them-the-promise-of-
comerfamilyfoundation.org/
public-housing.html.
culture/city2000/micah-marty.
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A crack of gunfire echoes from a distance. It goes unnoticed, a familiar melody to which the young children play. Highpitched voices bounce off the barren playground with its hard, concrete floor. Bodies tangle, scrambling over benches that have no seats and dodging the legs of a rusted swingset without a single swing. 28 While a stigma lingers among the less critical, and reality faces opposition by persistent conscientiousness, the imagined realm of science fiction faces a society who dares to use their imagination— hidden phenomena at work, behind the scenes of mainstream politics and activism.
T
RIVIAL OR NOT, IMAGINED WORLDS HAVE A CURIOUS WAY OF RESONATING WITH SOCIETY. If reality fails to influence people, fantasy seems to somehow unapologetically take
its place. In the eyes of J.G. Ballard (1930-2009), literary fiction acts as a platform for creating worlds that do not yet exist. The work of the British science-fiction author, and mind behind novels such as Crash, High-Rise, The Drowned World, and Empire of the Sun, has been labeled as a “mythology of the future.” 29 Due mainly to his experience growing up in China, 1937 Shanghai exposed his young, malleable mind to the harsh realities of the second Sino-Japanese War: a battle fought between the Republic of China and Empire of Japan. As a result, Ballard perceived reality, especially in cities, as merely a “stage set that could be swept aside.” 30 Ballard’s work plays with extremes; his novels tap into a wavelength of imagination that the majority of the world likely avoids, mostly because people would rather not be in constant fear of imminent dystopia and violent
28 Bonita Brodt, Patrick Reardon, and Jerry Thornton, “Dream of Progress Died Quickly at Taylor Homes,” The Chicago Tribune, 3 December 1986, accessed 11 February 2018, http://articles. chicagotribune.com/1986-12-03/news/8603310476_1_publichousing-robert-taylor-homes-apartment. 29 J.G. Ballard, “J G Ballard Documentary,” YouTube, originally aired on the South Bank Show, edited and presented by Melvyn Bragg, uploaded 8 June 2014, accessed 27 October 2017, video, 49:15, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LosxrbL3sU. 30 Ibid. OPTIMISTIC TRAJECTORIES FOR THE CONTEMPORARY CITY
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chaos. However, these speculative tales can be dangerously influential to reality. 31 Not to imply that science fiction is the reason for social strife surrounding topics of high-rise public housing, but peculiar parallels can be made among fantasy, architecture, and society. In 1975, said to have been influenced by Ernő Goldfinger’s Trellick Tower in London, Ballard’s dystopian science-fiction novel, HighRise, speculated about chaotic human behavior completely isolated within an unwelcoming envelope of a brutalist tower. 32 As his dramatic narratives poke and prod their audience, challenging the limits of society, he explains his rationale: I think they are all cautionary tales, in a way. I think they are all extrapolations from tendencies that are present...these are not long distance prophecies or short term prophecies of a kind like Aldous Huxley and [George] Orwell, used in Brave New World [or] 1984; they are short term prophecies looking at the next five minutes, in a sense. 33
31 Ibid. 32 J.G. Ballard, High-Rise, (London: Jonathan Cape, 1975). 33 J.G. Ballard, “J G Ballard Documentary,” YouTube, originally aired on the South Bank Show, edited and presented by Melvyn Bragg, uploaded 8 June 2014, accessed 27 October 2017, video, 49:15, https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=8LosxrbL3sU. 040
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Figure 020. Life in a tower in the park: Edenham St. Housing, Trellick Tower, partial south elevation, sectional perspective, accessed 8 November 2017, http://housingprototypes. org/project?File_No=GB010. Figure 021. Original cover art of J.G. Ballard’s 1975 novel, High-Rise, designed by Craig Dodd, 1975, accessed 14 October 2017, http:// averyreview.com/issues/17/ a-future-now-exhausted. Figure 022. Ernö Goldfinger’s West London Trellick Tower (©FT), Financial Times, accessed 8 November 2017, https:// www.ft.com/content/ d6d6c0a8-bf60-11e5-9fdb87b8d15baec2.
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W
ITH SUFFICIENT UNDERSTANDING OF CRITICAL POINTS ALONG THE TOWER IN THE PARK’S TIMELINE, FROM FICTION BACK TO REALITY, more focused key points
can begin to settle. What rises to the surface in a contemporary, retrospective state and critical reflection of the tower includes three key topics: firstly, the impact on its inhabitants; secondly, the state of advocacy for architecture to do more, with respect to intervening on existing vacant blocks of towers in the park; and thirdly, the role of mixed uses, memory, and building community as means of moving toward a significantly less precarious model for historicallyexcluded, urban populations. A critical question encompassing these concerns becomes a staple of the design work to follow; how does contemporary architecture and urbanism begin to establish optimistic trajectories for inclusive and diverse communities? Lessons learned from former realities of strife, isolation, and maintenance should lead to more optimistic futures, regardless of social class. Serious reevaluations of at least the what, why, and how that drives design and construction must occur within a variety of urban settings and scenarios. From the controversial past of the tower in the park, to the vacant blocks of the present, the state of advocacy for more critical, urban architecture awaits a response. At the turn of the century, a meeting among prominent architects and theorists was organized by Bernard Tschumi, in the form of a conference that addressed the “state of architecture at the beginning of the twenty-first century.” 34 In a brief article, Winy Maas focuses on urbanization’s shortcomings: The world has become a battlefield for urban planning, and more than ever a coherent urbanistic approach [for architecture] is lacking...urbanism has become a haven for resistance and protectionism...creating zones rather than possibilities. 35
34 Bernard Tschumi and Irene Cheng, eds., The State of Architecture at the Beginning of the 21st Century, Columbia Books of Architecture (New York: Monacelli Press, 2003), 7. 35 Winy Maas, “Toward an Urbanistic Architecture,” in The State of Architecture at the Beginning of the 21st Century, Columbia Books of Architecture (New York: Monacelli Press, 2003), 14. 042
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This observation of what architecture is failing to do can be traced through a long list of authors: Rem Koolhaas, Jane Jacobs, Robert Stern, Richard Sennett, Witold Rybczynski, among many others. These individuals represent only a handful of examples, but as it relates to the tower in the park, they act as advocates for architecture to do more—sometimes experimental, pragmatic, social, or adaptive solutions. Accompanied and challenged by current debates, the reevaluation of the past, coupled with the testing of alternative methodologies for producing new urban models, will lead to a more critical architecture that has the ability to form around the memory, needs, and desires of its inhabitants. Ambiguous suggestions from Rem Koolhaas and Winy Maas that demand a “new newness” 36 or “truly urbanistic architecture,” 37 respectively, give a new generation of architects, designers, and planners the opportunity to revise disciplinary ambitions and tackle pressing issues that linger over contemporary architecture and urbanism.
E
EVEN IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY, MEMBERS OF THE DISCIPLINE HAD TO EXPLICITLY REINFORCE THE REALITY THAT BUILDINGS ARE BUILT FOR PEOPLE. 38 What seems simple and
rather obvious is not always apparent in the products of modern architecture. Tcshumi’s 2003 conference rekindled the notion that architecture’s formal and physical characteristics are linked to various social dimensions. 39 Fortunately, this is not an idea new for the twenty-first century or even the design and planning disciplines. Humanistic approaches for engaging the built environment have been speculated on through a wide range of disciplines and literature, but its relevance to architecture and urbanism builds
36 Rem Koolhaas and Bruce Mau, “What Ever Happened to Urbanism?,” in Small, Medium, Large, Extra-Large: Office for Metropolitan Architecture (New York: Monacelli Press, 1995), 971. 37 Winy Maas, “Toward an Urbanistic Architecture,” in The State of Architecture at the Beginning of the 21st Century, Columbia Books of Architecture (New York: Monacelli Press, 2003), 14-15. 38 Robert A. M. Stern, “Urbanism is about Human Life,” in The State of Architecture at the Beginning of the 21st Century, Columbia Books of Architecture (New York: Monacelli Press, 2003), 21. 39 Ibid. OPTIMISTIC TRAJECTORIES FOR THE CONTEMPORARY CITY
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upon themes of how architecture in cities should be conceived. Roughly forty years following Jane Jacobs’ urban observations, the built environment remained in need of alternatives. 40 Of the many conclusions Jacobs made, noteworthy for its relevance is the realization that diversity, both social and infrastructural, is essential for the positive performance of American cities. 41 Infrastructural diversity was met by a call for mixing uses, which grew in popularity in the early 1990s. A rather simple realization is that people are attracted to places with more people (i.e., new uses, that successfully attract and accommodate larger audiences, will influence new perceptions of place.) From Jacobs’ perspective, the tower in the park may have been a precarious model from its inception, not because of what it had but what it lacked. 42 Whether it be through a tabula rasa method of planning or selective revitalization, the design process that leads to an equitable, interconnected architecture should consider the human as much as the composition of space, program, materials, et cetera. A successful alternative to the tower in the park responds to revised criteria tied to a specific site within a larger urban context. Does the alternative have to be a tower? Does it have to recreate the density that public housing towers once supported? What qualities should be embedded in an alternative building typology that respect the memory of the site and intended purpose of the community?
T
HE RESPONSE TO THE TOWER IN THE PARK BECOMES A BALANCE OF RESIDENTS FROM VARYING INCOME LEVELS AND INTENDED TIME SPANS FOR DWELLING. This could be
labeled “mixed-income housing,” but the building typology intends to do more by integrating shared amenities, public and private programs, childcare facilities, educational program, incubators for startup companies (which might attract newcomers to play a role in the growing neighborhood), leasable retail space, recreational fields, et cetera. Instead of separating uses, with knowledge of historic pitfalls, a contemporary alternative challenges convention with its
40 Ibid. 41 Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities (New York: Random House, 1961), 242. 42 Ibid., 176-77. 044
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willingness to open up to another unknown future. Beyond income and mixed uses, architecture also has the ability to speak to a variety of scales beyond itself; proximity to other forms, access to public transit, and inviting public space become new parameters to be adjusted and fine-tuned, as they contribute to building community. This approach hopes to incentivize an increasingly-diverse set of stakeholders to support the proposed architecture: private investors, the Chicago Housing Authority, market-rate, affordable, and public housing candidates, local community members who can utilize new amenities, and members of the various uses (e.g., childcare professionals, retail employees, emerging professionals, or recent graduates from local universities).
An alternative architecture begins by examining the following: ··Porosity at street-level ··Open/transparent relationships with immediate context ··Relationships between the sidewalk and core of block ··Hierarchical boundaries ··Sectional relationships between first three levels ··Interlocking of massing: mixed-use program configurations ··Balancing and diversifying density ··Unity between plan and section ··Circulation: private vs. public ··Public invitations upward ··Interior vs. exterior at all levels
OPTIMISTIC TRAJECTORIES FOR THE CONTEMPORARY CITY
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T
HE RESPONSIBILITY OF ARCHITECTURE TO SHAPE THE
Figure 023. Vacant blocks
BUILT ENVIRONMENT TODAY HAS BECOME IMPERATIVE
seen scattered across
FOR A SYNERGY BETWEEN PEOPLE AND PLACE. Therefore,
the Near South Side,
architecture of the twenty-first century must be increasingly cognisant of the need to support human life. The predominantly
Chicago, analytical diagram highlighting existing context
stylistic or formal exercise of object-making, that often dismissed
near elevated public rail
the human dimension, contributed to the tower in the park’s
lines, South State Street,
decline as a suitable model for urban life. While the world remains an overflowing bin of convoluted politics, relentless social issues, and other topics well beyond the scope of this thesis, there can at
between West Cermak Road and 24th Street, Bing satellite image underlay,
least be a valiant effort to develop a design process that speaks
17 January 2018, (William
more intimately to the social and environmental responsibilities of
Toohey III, CC BY-NC-SA).
contemporary architecture. This process strives to realize design outcomes in the form of physical artifacts, prepared for critical evaluation. A successful alternative to the tower in the park seeks contextual, social, environmental, mixed-use, diversely-spatial, interconnected, and multigenerational solutions that respond to the needs and desires of some known, but others hypothetical, future inhabitants within the context of Chicago’s Near South Side. Developing an explicit set (or sets) of criteria that can alternate between site specificity and autonomy, relative to the many variables at play, will influence the perceived success or failure of design outcomes. In preparation for the analytical and design investigations that begin to unfold in following chapters, it is essential to gain an adequate understanding of existing conditions across North America and Europe: a catalog of visual evidence. The catalog of failed towers, seen in the beginning of Chapter 3, inspires reflexive and relevant design methods for speculating on alternative models in Chapters 4, 5, and 6. The design research tests multiple avenues of inquiry from a variety of vantage points. Efficient thinking, making, and critiquing becomes a powerful vehicle for answering only the most relevant questions, as they arise.
046
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
OPTIMISTIC TRAJECTORIES FOR THE CONTEMPORARY CITY
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DESIGN AS RESEARCH
1 048
Chapter 3 includes a variety of analytical studies that place the reader in the heart of visual evidence of the past, present, and future.
DESIGN AS RESEARCH 1 + ANALYTICAL INVESTIGATIONS + IDENTIFYING THE CONTEXT + VISUALIZING THE CONTEXT + PRE-FRAMING INVESTIGATIONS + CONTEMPORARY RESPONSES TO THE TOWER IN THE PARK
CHAPTER 3 049
ANALYTICAL INVESTIGATIONS CONTEXT Metropolitan Area Varying proximity to city center
BUILDING TYPOLOGY The Tower in the Park (Single-Use Housing) Inspired by modernism’s notion of the functional city
CONTEXTUAL IDENTIFICATION NORTH AMERICA & EUROPE
MONTAGED HISTORIES
St. Louis, Missouri
Cabrini-Green
Camilo J. Vergara’s Photography
Pruitt-Igoe Cabrini-Green
DYSTOPIAN SCIENCE FICTION URBAN SPECULATIONS
Robert Taylor Homes
J.G. Ballard’s High-Rise
New York City
Movie Adaptation of 1975 novel
Chicago, Illinois
Stuyvesant Town–P.Cooper Village Co-op City
PRE-FRAMING: PUBLIC HOUSING TOWERS (P1)
Detroit, Michigan
RECONSTRUCTING Robert Taylor Homes
Brewster-Douglass Homes
Bronzeville, South Side, Chicago, Illinois
Toronto, Ontario St. James Town
PRE-FRAMING: NEWSPAPER ARCHIVE (P2)
London, England
Realities in the Built Environment
Trellick Tower
Chicago, Illinois
Heygate Estate Glasgow, Scotland
PRE-FRAMING: PUBLIC HOUSING TOWERS (P3)
Red Road Flats
MANIPULATING Robert Taylor Homes
Belfast, Northern Ireland
Bronzeville, South Side, Chicago, Illinois
Divis Flats
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CONTEMPORARY RESPONSES TO THE TOWER IN THE PARK LOW2NO - Mixed-Use Sustainable Development City: Helsinki, Finland Architect: REX Star Apartments City: Los Angeles, California Architect: Michael Maltzan Architecture New Carver Apartments City: Los Angeles, California Architect: Michael Maltzan Architecture Taylor Library & Affordable Housing City: Chicago, Illinois Architect: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill / Perkins + Will / John Ronan Architects Montpleyel(+) City: Paris, France (upper north) Architect: MVRDV
OPTIMISTIC TRAJECTORIES FOR THE CONTEMPORARY CITY
051
052
IDENTIFYING THE CONTEXT North America & Europe
053
PRUITT-IGOE Condition 33 buildings at 11 stories Location Near North Side, St. Louis, Missouri Constructed 1955 Demolished 1972-1976
Figure 024. (On previous spread) View from window at Stuvesant Town (©Christian Mueller / Shutterstock, 2017), accessed 7 November 2017, https://ny.curbed. com/2017/2/7/14540094/ east-village-stuyvesant-townaffordable-housing. Figure 025. Pruitt-Igoe, copy and pasted towers across a leveled landscape, low angle oblique USGS photograph, St. Louis, Missouri, United States Geological Survey, photograph taken at an unknown time between 1963 and 1972, accessed 2 November 2017, https:// commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/ File:Pruitt-igoeUSGS02.jpg. Figure 026. Pruitt-Igoe gets demolished on live television, St. Louis, Missouri, accessed 7 November 2017, http:// www.tocci.com/2012/04/ pruitt-igoe-and-the-death-ofmodernism/.
054
CHAPTER 3: DESIGN AS RESEARCH 1
URGENT AMALGAMATIONS
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055
ROBERT TAYLOR HOMES Condition 28 buildings at 16 stories Location Bronzeville, South Side, Chicago, Illinois Constructed 1961-1962 Demolished 1998-2007
056
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Figure 027. South State Street, Robert Taylor Homes, 16-story towers stretch for two miles, Bronzeville, South Side Chicago, Illinois, https:// candysdirt.com/2017/05/17/ high-rise-buying-guide-morehigh-rollers/.
OPTIMISTIC TRAJECTORIES FOR THE CONTEMPORARY CITY
057
CABRINI-GREEN Condition Rowhouses & high-rises Tallest towers standing at 19 stories Location Cabrini-Green, Near North Side, Chicago, Illinois Constructed 1942-1962 Demolished 1995-2011
Figure 028. North Halsted Street Canal Bridge, spanning North Branch Canal at North Halsted Street, Chicago, Illinois, Cook County, looking northeast toward CabriniGreen Housing Project, North Halsted Street at right, West Division Street at left, Goose Island at bottom of frame, summer 1999, Chicago Bridges Recording Project, Library of Congress, Historic American Engineering Record archive of photos, HAER ILL, 16-CHIG, 148-1 (©Jet Lowe), accessed 28 October 2017, https://commons.wikimedia. org/wiki/File:Cabrini_Green_ Housing_Project.jpg. Figure 029. High-rise apartment buildings at Cabrini-Green Homes, Chicago, Illinois, 1958. (©Hedrich-Blessing Collection / Chicago History Museum / Getty Images), accessed 28 October 2017, https://chicago.curbed. com/2016/9/28/13063710/ chicago-public-housing-cha.
058
CHAPTER 3: DESIGN AS RESEARCH 1
URGENT AMALGAMATIONS
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059
STUYVESANT TOWN–PETER COOPER VILLAGE Condition 110 buildings and 11,250 apartments Location Eastside of Manhattan, New York City, New York Constructed 1945-1947
Figure 030. Diagrams and photographs of Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village, New York City, accessed 8 November 2017, https://www. stuytown.com/about-nycapartments/pcvst-history. Figure 031. Bottom right image: Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village, New York City, accessed 8 November 2017, http://i.imgur.com/7qxNI.jpg. 060
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061
CO-OP CITY Condition Residential towers Population 43,752 (2010 Census) Location Bronx, New York City, New York Constructed 1966-1973
Figure 032. Co-op City (©Amani Willett), New York City, accessed 26 October 2017, https://urbanomnibus. net/2014/05/cooperative-citycooperative-community/. 062
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063
BREWSTER-DOUGLASS HOMES Condition 6 buildings at 14 stories Location Detroit, Michigan Constructed 1952-1955 Demolished 2003: 2 of the 6 high-rise buildings were demolished. The abandoned remains of the development are set for future demolition.
Figure 034. Abandoned Brewster-Douglass Homes, accessed 6 November 2017, http://motorcitymuckraker. com/2012/11/16/phototour-abandoned-brewsterprojects-like-a-mini-cityof-decaying-red-bricks/ brewster-bedroom/. Figure 035. Abandoned Brewster-Douglass Homes, accessed 6 November 2017, http://motorcitymuckraker. com/2012/11/16/photo-
Figure 033. Children at the Brewster Homes, Emil Lorch collection / Bentley Historical Library / University of Michigan, accessed 8 November 2017, http://michiganradio.org/post/here-s-why-brewsterdouglass-housing-projects-were-built-1930s.
064
CHAPTER 3: DESIGN AS RESEARCH 1
tour-abandoned-brewsterprojects-like-a-mini-cityof-decaying-red-bricks/ brewster-bedroom/.
URGENT AMALGAMATIONS
OPTIMISTIC TRAJECTORIES FOR THE CONTEMPORARY CITY
WTIII
065
ST. JAMES TOWN Condition 19 buildings at 14 to 32 stories Largest high-rise community in Canada Location Toronto, Ontario Constructed 1959-1967
Figure 036. Aerial view from airplane of St. James Town, City of Toronto Archives, series 1465, file 47, item 1, accessed 6 November 2017, https://www.blogto.com/ city/2014/04/st_james_town_ and_the_messy_politics_of_ urban_renewal/. Figure 037. Diagrammatic master plan for St. James Town: Massive urban renewal efforts, Toronto, Ontario, accessed 6 November 2017, https://www.blogto.com/ city/2014/04/st_james_town_ and_the_messy_politics_of_ urban_renewal/.
066
CHAPTER 3: DESIGN AS RESEARCH 1
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067
TRELLICK TOWER Condition 1 building at 31 stories, surrounded by a collection of mid and low-rise buildings Location Kensal Town, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England Architect Ernő Goldfinger Constructed 1972 Figure 038. Site axonometric, London, England, accessed 3 November 2017, https://www. archdaily.com/151227/adclassics-trellick-tower-erno-go ldfinger/50380e2b28ba0d59 9b000b9d-ad-classics-trellicktower-erno-goldfinger-siteaxonometric. Figure 039. Building section, London, England, accessed 3 November 2017, https:// www.archdaily.com/151227/ ad-classics-trellick-towererno-goldfinger/50380e3e28 ba0d599b000ba2-ad-classicstrellick-tower-erno-goldfingersection.
068
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Figure 040. Trellick Tower, London, England, accessed 3 November 2017, https://thecharnelhouse. org/2013/08/28/trellicktower-the-fall-and-rise-of-amodern-monument/.
OPTIMISTIC TRAJECTORIES FOR THE CONTEMPORARY CITY
069
HEYGATE ESTATE Condition 1,214 homes for 3,000+ people Location Elephant and Castle, Walworth, Southwark, London, England Constructed 1971-1974 Demolished 2011–2014
Figure 041. Heygate Estate from Strata SE1 tower, 5 June 2009 (©London SE1), accessed 7 November 2017, https:// www.flickr.com/photos/ se1website/3601535724/in/ album-72157619339761698/. Figure 042. Abandoned: The grey concrete blocks of the estate lie empty with windows boarded up and graffiti daubed on the walls, accessed 6 November 2017, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/ news/article-2316072/ Poignant-pictures-decayingcrime-ridden-housingestate-fallen-ruin-remainingresidents-await-bulldozers. html.
070
CHAPTER 3: DESIGN AS RESEARCH 1
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071
RED ROAD FLATS Condition 2 “point blocks” at 28 stories 6 “slab blocks” at 31 stories Location Glasgow, Scotland Constructed 1964-1968 Demolished 2012-2015
Figure 044. Pictured from left: George Campbell, manager of corporation housing and works department, Mr. Sam Bunton (architect), and Mr. William Ross (Scottish Secretary): In front of block of flats opened by Mr. Ross at Red Road (©Edward Jones / NB THE ARC), accessed 6 November 2017, http:// www.heraldscotland.com/
Figure 043. Red Road Flats, 4 April 2013, Glasgow, Scotland, five of the remaining blocks ready for demolition, accessed 6 November 2017, http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/13839591.Goodbye_to_ the_Red_Road_Flats___a_place_of_community_and_tragedy/.
072
CHAPTER 3: DESIGN AS RESEARCH 1
news/13839591.Goodbye_ to_the_Red_Road_Flats___a_ place_of_community_and_ tragedy/.
URGENT AMALGAMATIONS
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073
DIVIS FLATS Condition 1 building at 20 stories 9 buildings at 8 stories Location Belfast, Northern Ireland Architect Frank Robertson Constructed 1966-1969 Demolished 2012-2015 20-story tower remains standing Architect’s Intent ··Recreate the sense of community that residents had been used to in their terrace houses and streets. ··Designed 19-story tower and complex of 7-story blocks ··Link buildings via walkways ··Take the old models of the streets and dwellings but stack them ·· 10’ wide galleries outside residents’ doors could become the “new street” for children to play on ··In 1960’s Ireland, there was nowhere near the emphasis on public relations, as there is in contemporary society. “The only public feedback that we could identify was from the parish priests.” ··Refer to “Divis Flats Belfast,” YouTube, recording of original BBC Northern Ireland documentary, narrated by Ciara McGrillan, uploaded 26 February 2013, accessed 25 October 2017, video, 28:46, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yeBykVOppQ.
074
CHAPTER 3: DESIGN AS RESEARCH 1
Figure 045. Diagrammatic site plan of Divis Flats, accessed 2 November 2017, http://archiseek. com/2014/1969-divis-flatsbelfast-co-antrim/.
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Figure 046. Optimistic newspaper about life in the Divis Flats, accessed 25 October 2017, https:// www.youtube.com/ watch?v=6yeBykVOppQ. Figure 047. Inside a stairwell at Divis Flats, 1978 (©Chris Steele-Perkins / Magnum), accessed 9 November 2017, https://www.newyorker.com/ culture/photo-booth/life-indivis-flats. Figure 048. Outside of Divis Flats: Children swinging around, 1978 (©Chris SteelePerkins / Magnum), accessed 9 November 2017, https:// www.newyorker.com/culture/ photo-booth/life-in-divis-flats.
OPTIMISTIC TRAJECTORIES FOR THE CONTEMPORARY CITY
075
DIVIS FLATS
Figure 049. View of Remaining 20-story Divis Tower taken from Divis Street and Lower Falls Road, Belfast, Northern Ireland, summer 1998 (ŠJohn Maguire), accessed 7 November 2017, https://www.flickr.com/ photos/johns_pix/208213646. Figure 050. British military photo of the Divis Flats complex: All that remains today is the tower block on the centre left, Belfast, Northern Ireland, ca. 1972-73, accessed 7 November 2017, https://thebrokenelbow. com/2013/07/14/plea-tomcconville-family-join-us-inbid-for-british-army-papers/.
076
CHAPTER 3: DESIGN AS RESEARCH 1
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077
078
PORTION OF CABRINI-GREEN
VISUALIZING THE CONTEXT Camera / Computer / Hand
HAROLD ICKES HOMES
079
MONTAGED HISTORIES: CABRINI-GREEN Image Analysis This analytical exercise identifies a tower in the park in the context of the Near North Side, Chicago neighborhood of Cabrini-Green. 1117 North Cleveland Street once supported the apartment tower seen in the figures to the right. The material used and how it is applied, repetitiously distributed across the facade, has an immediate effect on one’s perception of the place. The horizontal and vertical lines that make up the grid support the introverted nature of the architecture. A cheap application of brick and mortar is economical, but it may have already proven to perpetuate a stigma associated with low-income neighborhoods in American cities. The massiveness of the building and its poor connection to the ground is lacking something. The structure stands alone on a paved surface with no welcoming invitation, in stark contrast to the more prosperous posture of the John Hancock Center, beyond. The program supports only one use on the interior and one on the
Figure 051. (On previous page) Astronaut photograph ISS041-E-103791, captured from the International Space Station on 28 October 2014 with a Nikon D4 digital camera and 800 mm lens, reveals 16 miles of the Lake Michigan shoreline, Chicago, Illinois, https:// earthobservatory.nasa.gov/ IOTD/view.php?id=84943. Figure 052. Photograph of one of a series of towers at Cabrini-Green, 1117 North Cleveland Street, Near North Side, Chicago, Illinois, 1988 (©Camilo José Vergara). Figure 053. Photograph of one of a series of towers at Cabrini-Green, 1117 North
exterior: dwelling and recreation, respectively. The separation and
Cleveland Street, Near North
lack of integration was and remains to be an issue with this model,
Side, Chicago, Illinois, 1995
evident in the examples displayed in previous spreads.
(©Camilo José Vergara). Figure 054. Photograph of one of a series of towers at Cabrini-Green, 1117 North Cleveland Street, Near North Side, Chicago, Illinois, 1998 (©Camilo José Vergara).
080
CHAPTER 3: DESIGN AS RESEARCH 1
URGENT AMALGAMATIONS
OPTIMISTIC TRAJECTORIES FOR THE CONTEMPORARY CITY
WTIII
081
MONTAGED HISTORIES: CABRINI-GREEN
082
CHAPTER 3: DESIGN AS RESEARCH 1
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Figure 055. Montaged histories: a decade’s length of deterioration, 3-part series of Cabrini-Green, 1117 North Cleveland Street, Near North Side, Chicago, Illinois, photographed 1988-1998 (©Camilo José Vergara), photomontage construction (William Toohey III, CC BYNC-SA).
OPTIMISTIC TRAJECTORIES FOR THE CONTEMPORARY CITY
083
FILM ADAPTATION OF J.G. BALLARD’S 1975 NOVEL, HIGH-RISE
(01:53:22)
Maximum Architectural Introversion
(00:35:16)
Disproportionate Entry to the Overly-Massive Architecture
084
CHAPTER 3: DESIGN AS RESEARCH 1
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Figure 056. Frames from Ben Wheatley-directed film adaptation of J.G. Ballard’s 1975 novel, High-Rise, produced by Jeremy Thomas, starring Tom Hiddleston, (New York City: Magnolia Pictures, Science-Fiction/ Thriller), 2015.
(00:19:42)
Evidence of Active Building Systems
Inhabitants’
Seen Penetrating
Unseen Surroundings
(00:19:00) I am in utopia
No, you are not
Constructed Landscape
OPTIMISTIC TRAJECTORIES FOR THE CONTEMPORARY CITY
085
FILM ADAPTATION OF J.G. BALLARD’S 1975 NOVEL, HIGH-RISE
(00:36:07)
Where Did I Park?
(00:04:30)
The Beatles: Horizontal Mirror? Life on the Impervious Surface
086
CHAPTER 3: DESIGN AS RESEARCH 1
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Figure 057. Frames from Ben Wheatley-directed film adaptation of J.G. Ballard’s 1975 novel, High-Rise, produced by Jeremy Thomas, starring Tom Hiddleston, (New York City: Magnolia Pictures, Science-Fiction/ Thriller), 2015.
(00:04:55)
Clear Division Between Life & Privately-Owned Transportation
(00:05:09)
Neighbor Separations: Balconies Support Limited Visual and No Physical Connections
OPTIMISTIC TRAJECTORIES FOR THE CONTEMPORARY CITY
087
088
URGENT AMALGAMATIONS
WTIII
Figure 058. Analytical
Purpose: Does a reconstruction and analysis of a mid-twentieth-century
axonometric: Vertical
tower in the park offer any value to future design investigations? Are
circulation of a reconstructed
there salvageable elements of the single-use, high-rise dwelling? In the
Robert Taylor Homes tower,
context of Chicago’s South Side, can the former high-rise model of Robert
rendering from Rhino model,
Taylor Homes influence design testing and outcomes? Does a building
9 December 2017 (William
that embodies modernist principles, built between 1961 and 1962,
Toohey III, CC BY-NC-SA).
reveal anything about itself or its inhabitants?
ELEMENTS OF THE ISSUE
METHODOLOGY
Space
Tool
Indoor Isolation
Digital Modeling with Rhino / Photoshop
Outdoor Vastness
Representation
Lack of Hierarchy
Sectional Perspective / Axonometric
Material
Diagramming
Low Quality
Reveals informative elements of the tower in the park
Chain-link Railing Solid-Transparent Ratio Program Lack of Diversity Scale Monumentality Form
PUBLIC HOUSING TOWERS Reconstructing Robert Taylor Homes
P1
CONTEXT OF INVESTIGATION Bronzeville, South Side, Chicago, Illinois Robert Taylor Homes is commonly referred to as a notorious public
Monotonous Stacking
housing project in the United States. “Robert Taylor Homes” can be
The visual evidence presented
BUILDING TYPOLOGY
throughout the remainder
Tower in the Park
of this book was created by
Single-Use Housing
found in song lyrics, movies, television, and newspaper articles.
the author, unless otherwise noted (William Toohey III, CC
ESTABLISHED BOUNDARIES FOR ANALYSIS
BY-NC-SA).
··Rebuild a prototypical Robert Taylor Homes tower. ··Analyze the architecture and how it might affect human behavior or a resident’s perception of the city. ··Locate circulation, public and private relationships, and communityoriented space.
OPTIMISTIC TRAJECTORIES FOR THE CONTEMPORARY CITY
089
RECONSTRUCTING ROBERT TAYLOR HOMES
090
CHAPTER 3: DESIGN AS RESEARCH 1
URGENT AMALGAMATIONS
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Figure 059. Typical floor plan: 3rd through 16th floors, Robert Taylor Homes, digital scan of drafted plan by Shaw, Metz and Associates, the Art Institute of Chicago Ryerson & Burnham Archives: Archival Image Collection, original image altered for black and white representation,
m
ov
accessed 25 November
eI
2017, http://digital-libraries.
N
saic.edu/cdm/singleitem/ collection/mqc/id/16239/ rec/1. Figure 060. First floor plan, Robert Taylor Homes, digital scan of drafted plan by Shaw, Metz and Associates, the Art Institute of Chicago Ryerson & Burnham Archives: Archival Image Collection, original
m
ov
image altered for black and white representation,
eU
P
accessed 25 November 2017, http://digital-libraries. saic.edu/cdm/singleitem/ collection/mqc/id/16339/ rec/2. Figure 061. Axonometric: Entry. Figure 062. Axonometric: Vertical circulation. Figure 063. Axonometric: Horizontal circulation.
m
ov
eT
HR
OU
GH
OPTIMISTIC TRAJECTORIES FOR THE CONTEMPORARY CITY
091
RECONSTRUCTING ROBERT TAYLOR HOMES
092
CHAPTER 3: DESIGN AS RESEARCH 1
URGENT AMALGAMATIONS
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Figure 064. Partial site plans: Super blocks that made a continuous 2-mile stretch of public housing high-rises, Robert Taylor Homes, digital scan of drafted plan by Shaw, Metz and Associates, the Art Institute of Chicago Ryerson liv
& Burnham Archives: Archival
ea
Image Collection, original
sF
image altered for black
AM
IL
Y
and white representation, accessed 25 November 2017, http://digital-libraries. saic.edu/cdm/singleitem/ collection/mqc/id/16358/ rec/3.
liv
ea
sC
OM
M
UN
IT
Y
1
Figure 065. Axonometric: Private dwellings. Figure 066. Axonometric: Communal laundry. Figure 067. Axonometric: Communal open-air gallery.
liv
ea
sC
OM
M
UN
IT
Y
2
OPTIMISTIC TRAJECTORIES FOR THE CONTEMPORARY CITY
093
RECONSTRUCTING ROBERT TAYLOR HOMES
Living Room
Bedroom
Bedroom
094
CHAPTER 3: DESIGN AS RESEARCH 1
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EL.185.45' Figure 068. Sectional perspective. Figure 069. Sectional perspective.
Restroom
Open-Air Gallery
Passage
OPTIMISTIC TRAJECTORIES FOR THE CONTEMPORARY CITY
095
EL. 204.35'
RECONSTRUCTING ROBERT TAYLOR HOMES
Laundry Room
Elevator
Elevator Lobby
Laundry Room
096
CHAPTER 3: DESIGN AS RESEARCH 1
URGENT AMALGAMATIONS
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Figure 070. Sectional perspective. Figure 071. Sectional perspective.
Egress / Main Stair
OPTIMISTIC TRAJECTORIES FOR THE CONTEMPORARY CITY
097
RECONSTRUCTING ROBERT TAYLOR HOMES
Open-Air Gallery
098
CHAPTER 3: DESIGN AS RESEARCH 1
Egress Threshold
URGENT AMALGAMATIONS
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Figure 072. Sectional perspective. Figure 073. Sectional perspective.
Egress / Main Stair
OPTIMISTIC TRAJECTORIES FOR THE CONTEMPORARY CITY
099
RECONSTRUCTING ROBERT TAYLOR HOMES
Living Rooms
100
CHAPTER 3: DESIGN AS RESEARCH 1
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Figure 074. Sectional perspective. Figure 075. Sectional perspective.
Bedrooms
OPTIMISTIC TRAJECTORIES FOR THE CONTEMPORARY CITY
101
DREAM OF PROGRESS DIED QUICKLY AT TAYLOR HOMES
DECEMBER 03, 1986 BY BONITA BRODT, PATRICK REARDON & JERRY THORNTON THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE
GUNSHOTS RING OUT OLD YEAR, RING IN NEW
4 KILLED, 16 WOUNDED
JANUARY 02, 1992 BY WILLIAM RECKTENWALD THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE
JANUARY 21, 2018 BY DEANESE WILLIAMS-HARRIS & MADELINE BUCKLEY THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE
THE TOWERS CAME DOWN, AND WITH THEM THE PROMISE OF PUBLIC HOUSING 102
FEBRUARY 06, 2018 BY BEN AUSTEN THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE
URGENT AMALGAMATIONS
WTIII
Purpose: What social and political realities present challenges for equity and the perception of low-income communities? How does this relate to the history of public housing towers in Chicago? With respect to former tower communities, what correlations can be drawn between time, money, people, crime, and geography?
METHODOLOGY Tool Digitally-Archived Newspaper Articles Representation Quotes / Highlighting Key Moments of Importance
NEWSPAPER ARCHIVE Realities in the Built Environment
P2
CONTEXT OF INVESTIGATION Cognizant of Social and Political Issues The topic of public housing towers in American cities opens up extremely convoluted subtopics within subtopics. By framing a “newspaper archive,” sharing segments from Chicago Tribune and New York Times articles, a better understanding of the city of Chicago, public housing, tensions, pressures, and inequity can be achieved.
ESTABLISHED BOUNDARIES FOR ANALYSIS ··Span decades of time to discover any trends: similarities, differences, coincidences, or contradictions. ··Search for Robert Taylor Homes in the news. ··Focus on topics of inequality that design/planning can respond to in an evolving society.
OPTIMISTIC TRAJECTORIES FOR THE CONTEMPORARY CITY
103
DREAM OF PROGRESS DIED QUICKLY AT TAYLOR HOMES DECEMBER 03, 1986 BY BONITA BRODT, PATRICK REARDON & JERRY THORNTON THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE Bonita Brodt, Patrick Reardon, and Jerry Thornton, “Dream of Progress Died Quickly at Taylor Homes,” The Chicago Tribune, 3 December 1986, accessed 11 February 2018, http://articles.chicagotribune. com/1986-12-03/news/8603310476_1_public-housing-robert-taylor-homes-apartment.
104
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URGENT AMALGAMATIONS
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A CRACK OF GUNFIRE ECHOES FROM A DISTANCE. IT GOES UNNOTICED, A FAMILIAR MELODY TO WHICH THE YOUNG CHILDREN PLAY. HIGH-PITCHED VOICES BOUNCE OFF THE BARREN PLAYGROUND WITH ITS HARD, CONCRETE FLOOR. BODIES TANGLE, SCRAMBLING OVER BENCHES THAT HAVE NO SEATS AND DODGING THE LEGS OF A RUSTED SWINGSET WITHOUT A SINGLE SWING. WATCHING, EDIE BISHOP SIGHS. “THIS IS NO PLACE FOR CHILDREN,” THE 65-YEAR-OLD WOMAN SAYS, PEERING TOWARD THE PLAYLOT THROUGH THE ZIGZAG OF WIRE MESH THAT STRETCHES ACROSS HER KITCHEN WINDOW. “NOT FIT TO BE ANYBODY’S HOME.” SHE DIDN’T ALWAYS FEEL THIS WAY, NOT WHEN SHE FIRST HEARD THE CITY HAD BUILT HOUSING FOR PEOPLE WITH LOW INCOMES AND SHE DRESSED IN HER BEST CLOTHES TO INQUIRE. THAT WAS IN 1960, BACK WHEN APARTMENTS WERE FIRST RENTED IN THE ROBERT TAYLOR HOMES.
OPTIMISTIC TRAJECTORIES FOR THE CONTEMPORARY CITY
105
GUNSHOTS RING OUT OLD YEAR, RING IN NEW
JANUARY 02, 1992 BY WILLIAM RECKTENWALD THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE William Recktenwald, “Gunshots Ring Out Old Year, Ring In New,” The Chicago Tribune, 2 January 1992, accessed 11 February 2018, http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1992-01-02/news/9201010382_1_ security-guard-death-toll-chicago-housing-authority.
106
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URGENT AMALGAMATIONS
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DAURELL BODIE, 18, DIED AFTER BEING SHOT TUESDAY NIGHT WHEN THE CAR IN WHICH HE WAS RIDING STOPPED AT A STOP SIGN ON 69TH STREET AND MEN IN ANOTHER CAR OPENED FIRE, SAID BRIGHTON PARK VIOLENT CRIMES SGT. FRANCIS LEE JR. THE INCIDENT OCCURRED ABOUT 7 P.M., LEE SAID. JOHN LACY, 20, WHO WAS RIDING IN THE CAR WITH BODIE, ALSO WAS SHOT AND WAS LISTED IN FAIR CONDITION IN CHRIST HOSPITAL ON WEDNESDAY. NO SUSPECTS WERE IN CUSTODY, POLICE SAID. IN ANOTHER INCIDENT, ANGIE RAMIREZ, 21, WAS SHOT TO DEATH ABOUT 8:30 P.M. TUESDAY IN AN APARTMENT IN THE 1900 BLOCK OF WEST NORTH AVENUE, POLICE SAID. THE GUNMAN, MARTIN BERMUDEZ, 23, RAMIREZ’S BOYFRIEND, THEN FATALLY SHOT HIMSELF, SAID HARRISON VIOLENT CRIMES SGT. JOHN CHOJNACKI. RAMIREZ AND BERMUDEZ WERE FOUND DEAD IN THE KITCHEN OF THE APARTMENT THEY SHARED, CHOJNACKI SAID. OPTIMISTIC TRAJECTORIES FOR THE CONTEMPORARY CITY
107
4 KILLED, 16 WOUNDED
JANUARY 21, 2018 BY DEANESE WILLIAMS-HARRIS & MADELINE BUCKLEY THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE Deanese Williams-Harris and Madeline Buckley, “4 Killed, 16 Wounded in Chicago Shootings, Including 4 Shot at West Side Birthday Party,” The Chicago Tribune, 21 January 2018, accessed 11 February 2018, http:// www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-met-chicago-shootings-violence-20180120-story.html.
108
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A 19-YEAR-OLD WOMAN WAS ENTERING THE PARTY WHEN SHE WAS SHOT AT BY SOMEONE IN A PASSING CAR, POLICE SAID. TWO MEN, 24 AND 21, AND ANOTHER WOMAN, 30, WERE ALSO WOUNDED. THE FIRST FATAL SHOOTING HAPPENED AROUND 1:15 P.M. SATURDAY AT THE BUS STOP OUTSIDE THE 69TH STREET STATION, 15 W. 69TH ST., POLICE SAID. IN THE DOUBLE HOMICIDE, TWO MEN, 25 AND 19, WERE SHOT AROUND 3 A.M. SUNDAY IN THE 6000 BLOCK OF WEST BELDEN STREET IN THE BELMONT CENTRAL NEIGHBORHOOD. THE MEN WERE WALKING WHEN SOMEONE FIRED AT THEM FROM A BLACK VEHICLE, POLICE SAID. THE 25-YEAR-OLD WAS SHOT IN THE BACK AND DIED AT LOYOLA UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER IN MAYWOOD, AND THE 19-YEAR-OLD WAS SHOT IN THE HEAD AND DIED AT ILLINOIS MASONIC MEDICAL CENTER. A 5-YEAR-OLD GIRL WAS ALSO SHOT SATURDAY WHILE SHE WAS IN A CAR WITH A FAMILY MEMBER IN THE NORTH AUSTIN NEIGHBORHOOD. OPTIMISTIC TRAJECTORIES FOR THE CONTEMPORARY CITY
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THE TOWERS CAME DOWN, AND WITH THEM THE PROMISE OF PUBLIC HOUSING FEBRUARY 06, 2018 BY BEN AUSTEN THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE Ben Austen, “The Towers Came Down, and With Them the Promise of Public Housing,” The New York Times, 6 February 2018, accessed 11 February 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/06/magazine/ the-towers-came-down-and-with-them-the-promise-of-public-housing.html.
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“I SEE ONE-THIRD OF A NATION ILL HOUSED, ILL CLAD, ILL NOURISHED,” ROOSEVELT ANNOUNCED THAT YEAR. “THE TEST OF OUR PROGRESS IS NOT WHETHER WE ADD MORE TO THE ABUNDANCE OF THOSE WHO HAVE MUCH; IT IS WHETHER WE PROVIDE ENOUGH FOR THOSE WHO HAVE TOO LITTLE.” THE C.H.A. MOVED ANNIE RICKS SIX MILES AWAY, TO CHICAGO’S SOUTH SIDE, INTO WENTWORTH GARDENS, A LOW-RISE PUBLICHOUSING DEVELOPMENT BUILT JUST AFTER WORLD WAR II. SINCE THEN, WENTWORTH HAD BECOME SANDWICHED BETWEEN THE 14 LANES OF THE DAN RYAN EXPRESSWAY AND THE PARKING LOTS FOR THE WHITE SOX BASEBALL STADIUM. THE ONLY PLACE NEARBY TO BUY GROCERIES WAS A GAS STATION AND LIQUOR STORE ON THE FAR END OF THE COMPLEX. “PEOPLE AT WENTWORTH THINK YOU’RE STEPPING ON THEIR TURF,” RICKS SAID. “THIS IS NOT YOUR TURF. THIS IS C.H.A.’S TURF. YOU CAN’T RUN ME FROM MY HOME. BECAUSE I DO PAY RENT.” OPTIMISTIC TRAJECTORIES FOR THE CONTEMPORARY CITY
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THEN SHE WAS STARTLED BY SCREAMING IN THE DISTANCE. SHE RECOGNIZED THE VOICE BEFORE SHE SAW HIM: REGGIE. HE CAME RACING TOWARD HER OUT OF THE DARKNESS WITH RAQKOWN SPRINTING BESIDE HIM. A MOB OF MEN WERE AT THEIR HEELS. HER SONS DASHED PAST HER AND UP THE STAIRS TO THEIR APARTMENT, THEIR PURSUERS RUSHING PAST AS WELL. REGGIE, WHO WAS BLEEDING FROM HIS HEAD, LIFTED A COOKING POT OFF THE STOVE AND SWUNG IT TO FEND OFF BLOWS. ROSE ARMED HERSELF WITH A MOP. THEIR MOTHER USUALLY CARRIED A FIST OF KEYS WITH HER, AND SHE NOW PUNCHED WITH IT. SHE HELD THE AEROSOL CAN OF BUG REPELLENT AS WELL, AND SHE SPRAYED IT INTO ANY FACE CLOSE BY. “I’M JUST GOING TO SAY IT LIKE THIS,” RICKS SAID LATER THAT NIGHT, “WE DID WHATEVER WE HAD TO DO TO GET THEIR ASSES OUT OF OUR HOUSE.” SHE PUT IN FOR A TRANSFER TO A DIFFERENT C.H.A. DEVELOPMENT ALONG THE 112
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LAKEFRONT, AND SHE DOCUMENTED EVERY TIME SHE PHONED THE AGENCY TO GET AN UPDATE. SHE CHECKED IN WITH A PRO BONO LAWYER WHO AGREED TO TAKE HER CASE, ASKING WHEN SHE SHOULD EXPECT TO MOVE. “SO HOW LONG WILL THAT BE?” “I WISH I KNEW. I THINK THEY’LL RESPOND TO ME. I’LL BOTHER THEM UNTIL THEY DO. I THINK THIS IS GOING TO BE TAKEN CARE OF. IT’S NOT GOING TO BE DONE QUICKLY.” “IT SHOULD BE QUICKLY, BECAUSE YOU’RE MY LAWYER,” RICKS SAID. “I MAY BE A LAWYER; HOWEVER, I’M NOT A MAGICIAN.” SHE ENDED UP CUTTING TIES WITH HIM. HE’D BEEN EMAILING THE C.H.A. SINCE JULY, BUT THREE MONTHS LATER, HER SITUATION REMAINED THE SAME. “I’M NOT PREJUDICED,” SHE SAID. “BUT IF I’D HAVE BEEN WHITE, HE’D HAVE MOVED ME THE VERY SAME DAY. HE DOESN’T HAVE TO LIVE IN WENTWORTH GARDENS, IN THE GHETTO, AS THEY SAY.” OPTIMISTIC TRAJECTORIES FOR THE CONTEMPORARY CITY
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THE PROBLEMS OF CONCENTRATED POVERTY AND ISOLATION, WHICH THE DEMOLITIONS WERE SUPPOSED TO SOLVE, PERSISTED — AND RELOCATED FAMILIES NOW FOUND THEMSELVES IN STRANGE TERRITORY WITHOUT THEIR FORMER SUPPORT NETWORKS. ANNIE RICKS’S OLDEST DAUGHTER, KENOSHA, LEFT CABRINI-GREEN WHEN SHE WAS IN HER 20S AND MOVED WITH HER FAMILY TO A BLOCK ON THE WEST SIDE. “I’VE BEEN OUT HERE ALMOST A DECADE, AND I KNOW THREE OR FOUR OF MY NEIGHBORS,” SHE TOLD ME RECENTLY. “ ‘THEY FROM THE PROJECTS,’ PEOPLE SAY. BUT THEY DON’T KNOW ME. THEY WEREN’T RAISED HOW WE WERE RAISED. WE WERE RAISED TO STICK TOGETHER. IF YOU’RE A NEIGHBOR, YOU LET THE NEXT NEIGHBOR KNOW WHAT’S GOING ON. THEY DON’T DO THAT OUT HERE.” VIRTUALLY NO NEW PUBLIC HOUSING HAS BEEN BUILT IN THE COUNTRY IN DECADES. THERE’S STILL A STOCK OF OVER A MILLION UNITS NATIONWIDE, DOWN FROM A PEAK OF 1.4 MILLION. MUCH OF IT IS AT RISK. A HUD-COMMISSIONED STUDY IN 2010 FOUND 114
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A $26 BILLION BACKLOG IN REPAIR AND MAINTENANCE NEEDS, A FIGURE ESTIMATED TO HAVE BALLOONED SINCE THEN TO MORE THAN $50 BILLION. EACH YEAR, SOME 10,000 TO 15,000 UNITS ARE LOST SOLELY BECAUSE OF NEGLECT. HUD, RATHER THAN TRYING TO REPLENISH ITS DANGEROUSLY INSUFFICIENT CAPITAL FUND, SUBMITTED A 2018 BUDGET THAT WOULD SLASH IT BY ANOTHER TWO-THIRDS. TODAY, ONLY ONE OF EVERY FIVE FAMILIES POOR ENOUGH TO QUALIFY FOR A HOUSING SUBSIDY ACTUALLY RECEIVES ONE. A QUARTER OF ALL RENTERS NATIONWIDE PAY MORE THAN HALF THEIR INCOME IN RENT. FAMILIES ARE FORCED TO MAKE HARMFUL CHOICES BETWEEN RENT AND FOOD, DOCTOR’S VISITS AND EDUCATION COSTS. SEVENTY YEARS INTO OUR TEST AS A COUNTRY TO PROVIDE HOUSING FOR THOSE WHO HAVE TOO LITTLE, WE ARE HARDLY ANY CLOSER TO PASSING. OPTIMISTIC TRAJECTORIES FOR THE CONTEMPORARY CITY
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Figure 076. Axonometric
Purpose: Similar to the reconstruction of Robert Taylor Homes, as seen
representation of a
in the analytical pre-framing exercise (see P1), this design exercise builds
manipulated Robert Taylor
upon the themes identified throughout the former half of Chapter 3.
Homes following a “pivot”
To continue seeking answers to pressing questions, this section looks to
operation, rendering from
Robert Taylor Homes as a design opportunity, iteratively manipulating
Rhino Model, 11 December
its form in hopes of discovering something worth taking forward to the
2017.
next set of design investigations. With strict guidelines to focus a design test, how can contemporary manipulations break the monotony of old towers in the park, while simultaneously reversing its introverted nature?
METHODOLOGY Tool Digital Modeling with Rhino Representation Plan / Elevation / Axonometric
PUBLIC HOUSING TOWERS Manipulating Robert Taylor Homes
P3
CONTEXT OF INVESTIGATION Bronzeville, South Side, Chicago, Illinois (Temporarily Autonomous for Framing Exercise)
ESTABLISHED BOUNDARIES FOR DESIGN TESTING ··Use Robert Taylor Homes as a model to manipulate. ··Do not discard or add any massing to the existing building. ··Manipulate form in a way that suggests the ability to incorporate exterior green space above the ground plane: individual or communal balconies.
OPERATIONS ··Pivot. ··Flip & Fragment. ··Shear. ··Stack & Bridge.
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MANIPULATING ROBERT TAYLOR HOMES
The design tests visualized in the following pages include four different approaches to a manipulation and rearrangement of the original design of Robert Taylor Homes. The process of creating alternative arrangements of the building’s overall formal composition neither adds nor subtracts any mass to or from itself, respectively.
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MANIPULATING ROBERT TAYLOR HOMES Operation Pivot. Pros ··Form breaks the singularity of the previous model ··Quality of daylight for exterior space becomes enhanced in some areas of the form, depending on the building’s siting/orientation ··If unique to its context, blatant rejection to the status quo might create a beneficial new symbol for its inhabitants ··Creates opportunities for exterior space above the ground plane: modestly communal or just individual ··Unconventional structure maintains the same footprint as original tower in the park Cons ··Form remains rather monotonous ··Unknown change to interior quality of daylight throughout the year ··Appears too dystopic ··No clear sign of sufficiently-sized communal spaces ··Unconventional structure creates less economical alternative
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MANIPULATING ROBERT TAYLOR HOMES Operation Flip & Fragment. Pros ··Low to mid-rise alternative makes public space easily accessible (but this thesis looks to explore denser solutions with equivalent or greater opportunities for community-oriented exterior space) ··Compared to a high-rise, the “core” of each mass would avoid total darkness, but this depends on space between buildings ··Sharing a block with structures of varying form and density, one or two of these less dense building slices might help the overall composition and hierarchy of the proposed architecture Cons ··Too repetitive ··Rotating in this manner creates unrealistic conditions, ··Floor plates become roughly 12-feet wide ··30-foot channels between each mass might cause a lesser quality of daylighting than the original tower in the park ··More disruptive on the ground by an increased building footprint ··Overly conventional for the context and purpose of a revised model
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MANIPULATING ROBERT TAYLOR HOMES Operation Shear. Pros ··Differentiating four clear parts of the tower begins to break the monotony of the original model ··Four-part fragmentation could suggest new relationships between the building’s form and uses: no longer just dwelling ··Although large overhangs contribute to sometimes undesirable shade, it opens up the horizontal surfaces ··Safe balance between conventional and experimental form ··Ability for continuously vertical circulation Cons ··If constrained by cost, excessive cantilevering will need revision
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MANIPULATING ROBERT TAYLOR HOMES Operation Stack & Bridge. Pros ··Utilization of themes explored and discovered in previous operations influence this massing ··Adopts the four-part fragmentation technique to stack and define a more intimate center courtyard or plaza, unlike traditional American towers in the park ··Large elevated surfaces create an opportunistic stage for social activity: community gardens, playgrounds, running track...? (See Michael Maltzan’s Star Apartments in Los Angeles, CA) Cons ··Residents in the top-right corner do not appear to have easy access to the elevated public grounds offered to the rest of the community: inhabitants of the terminal corner may be susceptible to feelings of isolation or exclusion from community-oritented activities (depending on the interior of the future model) ··Significant structure needed to achieve bridging shown in this tower rearrangement (ability to revise, of course) ··Increased building footprint from original model
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MANIPULATING ROBERT TAYLOR HOMES
Key Takeaways ··Monotony of traditional models of the tower in the park can be challenged by fragmenting new vertical massing. ··Distinct forms or uses, within one structure, can serve as an indication of diverse human activity from the exterior. ··Hierarchy of new program will influence new form. ··Increased building footprints are more likely acceptable if the green space potential on the ground plane is at least offset up above, embedded within the architecture. ··Unique compositions of form could have a positive effect on the perception of the neighborhood, from the point of view of both outsiders and building users/permanent residents.
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RESPONSIBLE URGENT AMALGAMATIONS ARCHITECTURE
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CONTEMPORARY RESPONSES TO THE TOWER IN THE PARK
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LOW2NO Client Sitra, The Finnish Innovation Fund Program Mixed-use sustainable development 14,000 m² of residential units 8,000 m² headquarters 13,200 m² of “urban infill” Size 35,200 m² (378,900 SF) Location Helsinki, Finland Architect REX Status Limited competition, second prize, 2009 REX’s Lo2No Sustainable Development serves as a forward-thinking precedent that offers an alternative model to the tower in the park. A diverse configuration of program, space, and density supports the needs and desires of expanding communities.
Figure 077. (On previous spread) New Carver Apartments, functional fins lining the interior courtyard (©Iwan Baan, 2009), accessed 8 November 2017, https:// www.arch.columbia.edu/ books/reader/137-socialtransparency-projects-onhousing. Figure 078. Massing model of Lo2No proposal by REX: Two slender residential towers totaling to around 150,700 SF, Helsinki, Finland, 2009, accessed 8 November 2017, http://www.rex-ny.com/ low2no/. Figure 079. Visualization atop the podium, accessed 8 November 2017, http://www. rex-ny.com/low2no/. Figure 080. Diagram of mixed uses at street-level, accessed 8 November 2017, http:// www.rex-ny.com/low2no/.
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STAR APARTMENTS Client Skid Row Housing Trust Program Affordable housing for the formerly homeless Social services counseling Communal space Market-rate retail Size 95,000 SF Location Skid Row, Downtown Los Angeles, California Architect Michael Maltzan Architecture Status Completed 2014 LEED Platinum For Homes Cost $19.3 million Awards American Architecture Award Chicago Athenaeum, Museum of Architecture and Design, 2016; Mies Crown Hall America’s Prize (MCHAP) Finalist, 2016; AIA, Los Angeles Residential Architecture Design Award, 2016; AIA, Los Angeles Architecture Design Honor Award, 2015; U.S. Green Building Council Outstanding Affordable Housing Project, 2015; AIA, California Council Architecture Design Honor Award, 2015; Los Angeles Business Council Architectural Award, 2012; AIA Next LA Design Award, 2012 01 Skid Row Housing Trust’s Mission “The Skid Row Housing Trust provides permanent supportive housing so that people who have experienced homelessness, prolonged extreme poverty, poor health, disabilities, mental illness and/or addiction can lead safe, stable lives in wellness.” 02 01 Michael Maltzan Architecture, accessed 6 December 2017, http:// www.mmaltzan.com/projects/star-apartments/. 02 “Our Mission & Values,” Skid Row Housing Trust, accessed 6 December 2017, http://skidrow.org/about/our-mission-values/. 134
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Figure 081. Star Apartments, existing retail development and rendering of new complex, courtesy of Michael Maltzan Architecture, accessed 9 November 2017, https://www. arch.columbia.edu/books/ reader/137-social-transparencyprojects-on-housing. OPTIMISTIC TRAJECTORIES FOR THE CONTEMPORARY CITY
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NEW CARVER APARTMENTS Client Skid Row Housing Trust Program 97 units of affordable housing for the formerly homeless (disabled and/or elderly) Size 53,000 SF Location South of Downtown Los Angeles, California Adjacent to Interstate-90 Architect Michael Maltzan Architecture Status Completed 2009 LEED Platinum For Homes Cost $18.4 million Awards AIA Los Angeles Design Award, 2011; AIA/HUD Secretary’s Award for Excellence in Affordable Housing Design, 2011; Westside Urban Forum Design Award, 2011; Urban Land Institute Supportive Housing Innovation Award, 2010; LABC Housing Award, 2010; Rose Award for Affordable/Subsidized Housing, 2010 Star and New Carver Apartments add value to the conversation about alternative urban models for living. Recurring themes are apparent: the visual, experiential, social, economic, and more. By means of a partnership between Skid Row Housing Trust and Michael Maltzan Architecture, these projects are given a chance in the built environment to perform for their internal and surrounding communities, with an emphasis on the purpose of the architecture as an entity that can do more than pose as an icon or object. Notably, for the context of these case studies, Skid Row Housing Trust is an ambitious not-for-profit organization, “committed to preventing and ending homelessness in greater Los Angeles.” 03
03 Ibid. 136
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Figure 082. New Carver Apartments take an entirely different approach to the residential block typology, shielding its residents from the blare of the freeway (©Iwan Baan), https://www. architectural-review.com/ today/street-life-michaelmaltzans-social-housing-inlos-angeles/8652420.article.
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The Trust develops, manages, and operates permanent and supportive housing for formerly homeless individuals across Los Angeles. Our innovative housing and services help individuals move beyond poverty, illness, and addiction. Founded to save low-income housing in Los Angeles’ Skid Row neighborhood, we have been preserving, managing, and building housing for more than 25 years. 04 Merged with SRHT, supported by their real estate development service and funding partners, architecture enters the process and enhances the product of a collaboration among a mix of team members (see 2015 Annual Report for comprehensive list of contributors: http://skidrow.org/2015annualreport/#page/17). What the design team at Michael Maltzan Architecture brings to the table is a process that advocates for the building inhabitants’ identity as real participants in the city. This is contrary to the popular and stereotypical belief of the role and identity of not only the Los Angeles homeless population, but homeless individuals across the United States and around the world. Providing a home for homeless citizens—a place that inevitably qualifies as “nice” or “iconic” architecture, according to locals—is a peculiar yet enthralling phenomenon. 05 Architecture, as a practice that strives for socially-equitable solutions through space, material (color, in the case of Maltzan’s work), and form, paired with the right team and resources, can make considerable strides forward. In this sense, the complexities and preconceived notions of race, class, ethnicity, among many other variables, can be challenged by architecture. Upon analyzing these apartment complexes, it is clear that architecture can play a vital role in the positive identity of contemporary, urban populations.
04 “Our Buildings,” Skid Row Housing Trust, accessed 6 December 2017, http://skidrow.org/work/buildings/. 05 “Michael Maltzan,” YouTube, moderated by Hilary Sample, recorded at Columbia GSAPP, uploaded 13 May 2015, accessed 7 December 2017, video, 01:42:42, https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=2Dd8qj2Ls_Y. 138
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Figure 083. Locating New Carver and Star Apartments: Close proximity within the context of Los Angeles, cartographic-photographic hybrid, 8 December 2017.
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TAYLOR STREET LIBRARY & APARTMENTS Client City of Chicago Chicago Housing Authority Program Public Library Branch Mixed-income housing Size 69,768 SF Location Chicago, Illinois Architect Skidmore, Owings & Merrill Status Broke ground on 28 January 2018
Figure 084. Rendering of Taylor Street Library and Apartments, Near West Side, Chicago, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, March 2017, accessed 17 November 2017, http:// www.som.com/projects/ taylor_street_library_and_ apartments. Figure 085. Rendering of Taylor Street Library and Apartments, Near West Side, Chicago, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, March 2017, accessed 17 November 2017, http:// www.som.com/projects/ taylor_street_library_and_ apartments.
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MONTPLEYEL(+) Client BNP Paribas - Real Estate Program Mixed uses 120,000 m² of office 34,000 m² of housing 9,500 m² of hotel 7,200 m² mobility hub 1,000 m² cultural centre 1,400 m² of greenhouses Size 173,100 m² (1.86 million SF) Location Saint Denis, France Architect MVRDV Status Unrealized MVRDV’s visualization of Montpleyel reveals an architectural language distinct from its neighbors. The value and relevance in this is architecture’s ability to reposition itself within the city by challenging the perception of place. Although distinct within its immediate context, the architecture’s careful embrace of vegetation and formal “pixelation” (i.e. fragmented massing that attempts to relate closer to a human scale) supports internal agendas of the community. As a result, the identity of the architecture becomes intertwined with that of the humans who wish to inhabit it.
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Figure 086. Behind the tracks: Rendering of Montpleyel, Paris, France, courtesy of MVRDV, accessed 23 November 2017, www. mvrdv.nl/projects/montpleyel. Figure 087. Bird's-eye view: Rendering of Montpleyel, Paris, France, courtesy of MVRDV, accessed 23 November 2017, www.mvrdv. nl/projects/montpleyel.
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2 144
This work briefly positions itself within the Near South Side of Chicago, followed by temporarily-autonomous methods of design inquiry.
DESIGN AS RESEARCH 2 + FORMER BLOCKS OF HAROLD ICKES HOMES + LANDSCAPE ON & ABOVE THE GROUND PLANE + TRANSITIONING TO FIELDWORK: NEW QUESTIONS
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FORMER BLOCKS OF HAROLD ICKES HOMES Context of Investigation First design charrette - 21 November 2017 City Chicago, Illinois Neighborhood Near South Side Street South State Street Site History Former public housing tower site Existing Conditions Vacant adjacencies / Outdoor track & field / Park No. 540 Satellite imagery as a backdrop, combined with overlay drawing methods, operates as a sufficient medium to conduct site analysis. However, in order to move from analysis to design generation, this method demands increasingly-rigorous means of producing or suggesting architectural effects.
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Figure 088. Site plans of the South Side: Zooming into the former blocks of Harold Ickes Homes, Near South Side, Chicago, Illinois, Google Earth satellite imagery, accessed 9 November 2017. Figure 089. Section study: Sketching over vacant territories in Near South Side neighborhood, along South State Street, Chicago, Illinois, 21 November 2017.
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Zoom 1
Zoom 2
Zoom 3
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FORMER BLOCKS OF HAROLD ICKES HOMES Key Takeaways / How to Move Forward ··Satellite imagery reveals vacant blocks in the South Side, creating an informative layer to draw over and quickly iterate. ··Local amenities can improve life in/near the proposed building(s). ··To propose new buildings here is to invite the public inward. ··Hybrid drawings should be a part of future design tests. ··Plan and section should be used as an effective starting point. ··Go beyond plan and section to test theories. ··Generate more, but be sure to ask the most pressing questions. ··Revisit thesis statement to avoid making arbitrary decisions.
Figure 090. Drawing over the context: Analytical and speculative method of thinking, site plan of Near South Side area of former Harold Ickes Homes, along South State Street, Chicago, Illinois, 21 November 2017. Figure 091. Section study: Sketching over vacant territories in Near South Side neighborhood, along South State Street, Chicago, Illinois, 21 November 2017.
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LANDSCAPE ON & ABOVE THE GROUND PLANE Context of Investigation First design framing - 17 December 2017 City Chicago, Illinois Neighborhood Near South Side Temporary Exception Need not respond to any specific site context How can landscape be integrated into a range of proposed mid-rise and high-rise building typologies? How might this enhance life above the ground plane? What is the relationship between landscaped and building surfaces? When do they overlap, disconnect, or combine? How does this play a role in the perception of place?
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Figure 092. Axonometric thoughts for landscapedriven form: Freehand speculation on 8.5x11 canvas, iteration 1 of 3, 17 December 2017. Figure 093. Elevation thoughts for landscape-driven form, enlarged: Freehand speculation on 8.5x11 canvas, iteration, 17 December 2017.
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LANDSCAPE ON & ABOVE THE GROUND PLANE
Figure 094. Plan thoughts for landscape-driven form: Freehand speculation on 8.5x11 canvas, iteration 2 of 3, 17 December 2017.
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Figure 095. Plan, elevation, and axonometric thoughts for landscape-driven form: Freehand speculation on 8.5x11 canvas, iteration 3 of 3, 17 December 2017.
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Figure 096. Plan, elevation, and axonometric thoughts for landscape-driven form, enlarged: Freehand speculation on 8.5x11 canvas, 17 December 2017.
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TRANSITIONING TO FIELDWORK: NEW QUESTIONS Chicago as a Laboratory for Design Testing 20 December 2017 Can Near Side neighborhoods benefit from public realm activities closer to home, compared to the variety of public places and socially-stimulating activities prevalent in the area of the Loop? How does one transplant experience? Instead of blaming economics and politics, can simple ideas for higher quality public places spark productive dialogues among future users and uses? Is an ice rink for the South Side good or bad? Why? Can a neighborhood stage—a physical built structure for performances and a range of other activities, specified by community opinions—enrich youth participation? Can constructed landscapes stimulate vacant blocks? How do spatial solutions relate among scales? What are the temporal qualities of public placemaking ideas within the context of the American Midwest? Can a completely new approach to planning the two-mile stretch of what was once the site of Robert Taylor Homes help activate this portion of the city? How do designers and planners grapple with the term “gentrification,” and what are the essential, ethical questions to answer in order to reconstruct large swaths of the South Side? Is gentrification without displacement of low-income families an acceptable strategy in shaping contemporary cities? Are there any ongoing studies of planning strategies that strive to retain lowincome residents, upon the act of gentrifying? It may be that the negative connotation of the word “gentrification” is too controversial, 156
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and immediate opinions or assumptions made about the discussion would overshadow any honest resolution. If not already in existence, can a word be created for processes that are engaged in gentrification without displacement? Used together, terms like “reintegration” and “densification” suggest more optimistic and equitable urban processes. In an attempt to develop universally-deployable design methods, can concepts of program, place, transit, form, material, and landscape adapt to a variety of metropolitan settings? OPTIMISTIC TRAJECTORIES FOR THE CONTEMPORARY CITY
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DESIGN AS RESEARCH
3 158
Chapter 5 is devoted to conducting fieldwork and answering pressing questions by drawing.
DESIGN AS RESEARCH 3 + FIELDWORK + FRAMING INVESTIGATIONS
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FOLLOWING DESIGN INVESTIGATION PREVIOUS DESIGN INVESTIGATION GENERATIVE CRITERIA
CONCLUSIVE CRITERIA
E.g. How do walls increase visibility through the block?
A B C
In the Form of a Focused Question
Is the question specific enough? Are there clearly established boundaries? What must architecture do to achieve this goal?
Upon Evaluation of Design Testing
CATALOG MOST SUCCESSFUL ELEMENTS OF DESIGN TEST “A, B, and C seem promising.”
Test 1
Think. Make. Critique.
Test 2
Think. Make. Critique.
Test 3
Think. Make. Critique.
EVALUATIVE CRITERIA
EVALUATIVE CRITERIA
Did the architecture achieve its goal(s)? What must it now do in order to reach a greater level of refinement?
EVALUATIVE CRITERIA
CATALOG LEAST SUCCESSFUL ELEMENTS OF DESIGN TEST 160
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“X, Y, and Z do not work very well”
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GENERATIVE & EVALUATIVE DESIGN INVESTIGATIONS FIELDWORK: FROM 12 TO 106 HOURS
W1
FIELDWORK: POLITICAL PERSPECTIVES
W2
Stuck in Chicago: January 3rd-7th
Chicago’s Mayor: Rahm Emanuel
FRAMING: PROGRAM MASSING & CIRCULATION AXES
F1
FRAMING: MAGNETIC SOCIAL ATTRACTORS
F2
FRAMING: HORIZONTAL INVITATIONS
F3
FRAMING: VERTICAL SUGGESTIONS
F4
FRAMING: COMMUNAL RESTORATION
F5
FRAMING: FORM FOLLOWS MEMORY
F6
Overall Proximity / Distribution
Internal Destinations for Approaching Pedestrians
Internal Movement & Visual Cueing
Internal Movement & Visual Cueing
Reconnecting the Grid & Increasing Density
A Familiar Ground Plane & Renewed Sense of Home
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Figure 097. Photo of Hilliard
Purpose: What is the current state of Chicago’s former housing tower
Homes and Willis Tower in the
sites? Who was displaced? Where did they go? What is the experience
distance, with former Harold
of walking through these sites? Does anyone have a reason to travel to
Ickes blocks to the left, image
these locations? Do local residents have stories to share? What are their
captured from the back of
needs and desires? Are people content with the current situation?
an Uber turning onto South State Street, intersected by 24th, windy and 7 degrees Fahrenheit, 4 January 2018.
METHODOLOGY Tool Pen / Notebook / Camera / In-Person Observation / Plane / Train / Uber / Taxi Representation Photograph / Notes
FROM 12 TO 106 HOURS
W1
Stuck in Chicago: January 3rd-7th
CONTEXT OF INVESTIGATION A solo trip to Chicago that was meant to only last 12 hours turned into an eventful 106. New England winter storms caused two flight cancellations and a delay, but it awarded exceptional, unanticipated encounters with Chicagoans who unknowingly added tremendous value to this research. Due to the limitations of time to create this book, a thorough overview of this adventure will not be revealed. However, key moments have been briefly cataloged. 1/2/2018
Boarding Pass - Print your boarding pass - American Airlines
Boarding pass
TOOHEY III
Record Locator: PZWUWJ
WILLIAM
Record Locator: PZWUWJ
TOOHEY III / WILLIAM
BOS
Figure 098. Logan to O’Hare: Flying out of Boston to investigate existing conditions in the Near North and South Side Chicago, 3 January 2018.
Seat : 22B
ORD
Boston to Chicago Gate
B30 Terminal B
Flight
AA1404 1 bag under seat
Departing: Wednesday, January 03, 2018 Seat
Boarding Time (EST)
22B
6:30 AM
Departing at 7:00AM (EST)
More Flight Details Arriving at:
3h9m
9:09AM (CST)
Inflight Services: Ticket: 0012163133525 For gates, terminals and flight status, please check with us at aa.com/gates or call 1-800-433-7300.
Doors close 10 minutes before departure
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FROM 12 TO 106 HOURS Wednesday, 3 January 2018 ··Top of Willis Tower to visualize surrounding context ··The National Public Housing Museum ··Edge conditions at fenced-off Frances Cabrini Homes ··Chicago Architecture Biennial (part 1) ··Homeless man (1) satisfied with conversation, without donation ··Marshall Brown's discursive images ··Millennium Park (1) ice rink at night Thursday, 4 January 2018 ··Uber from Magnificent Mile to Bronzeville, South Side (5.7 miles) ··Illinois Institute of Technology ··Conversation near W 35th Street with IIT Public Safety about area and growing up in CHA housing / "the projects" on the West Side ··New friend in Crown Hall ··Fascinating conversation with Uber Pool driver and elderly woman with a gambling addiction, from IIT to the Cultural Center: 41-year-old Alfred (Uber driver) discusses how his grandparents were one of the first families to move into a Robert Taylor Homes tower in 1962. He recalls visiting a three-bedroom apartment, occupied by two adults and ten children; bunk beds filled every bedroom. This conversation led to critiques of the former and current mayor of Chicago,
Figure 099. "Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will never die, but long after we are gone will be a living thing, asserting itself with ever-growing insistency. Remember that our sons and grandsons are going to do things that would stagger us. Let your watchword be order and your beacon beauty," Daniel Burnham quote, installation displayed at the 2017 Chicago Architecture Biennial, the Cultural Center, Chicago, Illinois, http://articles. chicagotribune.com/199201-01/news/9201010041_1_ sentences-chicago-architects, photograph, 6 January 2018.
how young men escape the projects, and steps to making a decent living for yourself, regardless of the first or first few neighborhoods one experiences in life. ··Chicago Architecture Biennial (part 2) ··Homeless man (2) shares stories about life and gang history around several different housing projects, especially within the context of Near North Side, Cabrini-Green
Figure 100. Skidmore, Owings & Merrill: History of local influence on the built environment, past, present,
Friday, 5 January 2018 ··Brunch with Tim from Gensler: Chicago experience unfolding ··Millennium Park (2) ··Skidmore, Owings & Merrill for relevant dialogue
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and future interventions, models on display in main lobby, 224 S Michigan Ave, 5 January 2018.
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FROM 12 TO 106 HOURS Saturday, 6 January 2018 ··Chicago Architecture Biennial (part 3) ··Visited hotel bar and stumbled upon racist tourists ··Exciting debate about Confederate monuments and the Holocaust Sunday, 7 January 2018 ··The Art Institute of Chicago by Renzo Piano Building Workshop ··Returned to Logan Airport around 11:30PM
Figure 101. Stanley Tigerman 2011 quote, along with his and Margaret McCurry's book collection, 2017 Chicago Architecture Biennial, the Cultural Center, Chicago, Illinois, 6 January 2018. Figure 102. Bronzeville mural, reflecting intimate ethnographic layers of local context, E 35th Street, near
Monday, 8 January 2018 ··Start of spring semester: studio at 12:30PM
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southern edge of IIT, South Side Chicago, 4 January 2018.
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Figure 103. Stanley Tigerman and Margaret McCurry's book collection, 2017 Chicago Architecture Biennial, the Cultural Center, Chicago, Illinois, 6 January 2018.
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Figure 104. South State Street disappears into a foggy South Side, Chicago: View from 103rd floor of the Willis Tower (former Sears Tower), +1,353 feet above the sidewalk, 3 January 2018.
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Figure 105. Dean Mohsen
Purpose: What is the current mayor of Chicago actively doing to
Mostafavi in conversation
stimulate deprived economies and rebuild communities in historically-
with Rahm Emanuel, Piper
segregated and isolated neighborhoods? What must designers and
Auditorium, the Harvard
planners do in order to incentivize policy makers and politicians to
University Graduate School of
improve the built environment?
Design, 20 February 2018.
METHODOLOGY Tool Pen / Notebook / In-Person Observation Representation Photograph / Notes
POLITICAL PERSPECTIVES Chicago's Mayor: Rahm Emanuel
W2
CONTEXT OF INVESTIGATION The Harvard University Graduate School of Design The Current State of Chicago's Urban Landscape 20 February 2018 Public Lecture
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POLITICAL PERSPECTIVES Key Points ··140 languages spoken in Chicago Public Schools ··Sanctuary city ··Chicago River developments are stimulating the economy ··Replaced 325 public playgrounds with new equipment ··Public Works projects are moving forward but need more architects ··Addressing "food deserts" ··"Can great public housing be designed by great architects?" - RE ··83% of public school students are at or below the poverty line ··Building housing without additional uses is a missed opportunity ··"We need more grocery stores, libraries, parks, renovated schools... how do we create communities?" - RE ··Proximity to basic resources (e.g. a grocery store not 7 miles away) ··Efficient public transit and extending lines and replacing tracks ··Defining "access" and connecting deprived areas to the city ··"How can you be a good parent if you can't even get to work on time because of our trains?" - RE ··Transit-oriented development ··The Neighborhood Opportunity Fund: "New grants to strengthen our commercial corridors on Chicago's South, Southwest and West Sides" (visit https://neighborhoodopportunityfund.com/) ··McDonald's Headquarters ··Chicago Star Scholarship ··Largest issue to solve: "How do we create more winners?" - RE ··Opportunity in the United States ··"The ticket is education." - RE ··Public safety ··Police and Fire facility as strategy to stimulate local economy (no cafeterias, so there's incentive to interact with local businesses) ··Chicago = melting pot ··Create common understanding and common ground ··All street lights getting updated with LEDs ··Desire to create a "smart grid" ··"How is architecture valued? How can you tell?" - JG ··The Chicago Riverwalk ··42,000 affordable housing units added in 5 years ··"We need to manage gentrification. How do you create affordable housing and improve the economy?" - RE ··"Leave the place better than it was when you started." - RE 174
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Figure 106. Dean Mohsen Mostafavi, Rahm Emanuel, and Jeanne Gang, Piper Auditorium, the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, 20 February 2018. Figure 107. Briefly meeting Rahm Emanuel, Piper Auditorium, the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, 20 February 2018.
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Figure 108. Testing
Purpose: How does the arrangement of primary uses and circulation
programmatic and circulation
encourage community within the architecture?
configurations by mixing new primary uses: Plan and elevation, 8.5x11 canvas, 22 January 2018.
METHODOLOGY Tool Micron Pen / Ticonderoga Pencil Representation Plan / Elevation / Axonometric / 8.5x11
PROGRAM MASSING & CIRCULATION AXES Overall Proximity / Distribution
F1
CONTEXT OF INVESTIGATION Intentionally-autonomous exercise with ability to adapt to future site
ESTABLISHED BOUNDARIES FOR DESIGN TESTING ··Arrange the following uses: housing, community, office, and retail. ··Determine a promising configuration of mixed uses, as an immediate response to the single-use tower in the park. ··Create simple shapes to start, but allow the following design tests to refine themselves at enlarged architectural and urban scales.
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PROGRAM MASSING & CIRCULATION AXES Most Successful Elements of Design Testing 1: Intersections made of as many as 5 or 6 incoming axes present opportunities for pockets of public space along edge conditions. 2: Public spaces are linked by a diagonal channel.
Figure 109. Testing programmatic and circulation configurations by mixing new primary uses: Plan, elevation,
3: Community program interlocks with housing.
and axonometric, 8.5x11
4: Office program benefits from being higher up (e.g. views to the
canvas, 22 January 2018.
city and real estate value), leaving the ground and lower levels to prioritize public space and building community. 5: Community space creates an inclusive threshold between the sidewalk and one’s private dwelling.
Figure 110. (On following spread) Housing, community, office, and retail: 8.5x11 canvas, 22 January 2018.
Least Successful Elements of Design Testing 6: Housing is too far from the sidewalk. 7: Housing is deprived of community program and consumes too much of the overall structure. 8: There is no clear articulation of public space. Critical Reflection on the Usefulness of Investigation The method of using a pen or pencil and an 8.5x11 piece of paper is arguably the most efficient way to generate and evaluate architectural ideas; further refinement subsequently translates to the computer. The exploration of primary uses catalyzes a comprehensive series of architectural drawings. Conclusive Criteria to Carry Forward ··Keep housing off of the ground (optimal on level 3 and above). ··Create pockets of public space to help activate the sidewalk. ··Balance multiple primary uses within a single structure. ··Position community thresholds to create inviting entries. ··Develop internal intersections where new interactions can occur.
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F1-F 1
F1-A
3 F1-B
6 1
F1-C 1
1
7 F1-D
2
8 4
F1-E 5
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Figure 111. Attracting
Purpose: How does architecture and public space draw people inward?
pedestrians inward: Testing
Can form affect someone's sense of belonging?
ground floor walls and general building footprints, plan iterations, 8.5x11 canvas, 28 January 2018.
METHODOLOGY Tool Micron Pen / Ticonderoga Pencil Representation Plan / Section / 8.5x11
MAGNETIC SOCIAL ATTRACTORS
Internal Destinations for Approaching Pedestrians
F2
CONTEXT OF INVESTIGATION These design tests take a closer look at formal gestures that encourage interactions at the ground plane, in both plan and section. The most successful elements of synthesized design outcomes (see Chapter 6) rely heavily on the successes of first and second floor conclusions.
ESTABLISHED BOUNDARIES FOR DESIGN TESTING ··Create an arrangement of walls and floors that contribute to drawing pedestrians inward. ··Establish appropriate proportions for pathways, corridors, and moments of potential “attraction.” ··Draw with a mindset that considers the block as a magnetic field with fluctuating intensities. ··Determine the strongest points of attraction and speculate about where they belong. ··Push the development of intersections in plan and section.
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MAGNETIC SOCIAL ATTRACTORS Most Successful Elements of Design Testing 1: The architecture opens itself up to the corner. 2: Building end conditions help frame thresholds that link activity on the sidewalk to activity within the block. 3: Increasing distance between surfaces/objects maintains clear visibility into the core of the block. Least Successful Elements of Design Testing 4: Attractors that are located too far from the sidewalk fail to draw pedestrians inward. 5: Overlapping at the corner obstructs visibility. 6: Vast open pockets of space are isolated. Critical Reflection on the Usefulness of Investigation Experimenting with plan and section provides a considerable amount of information that is absolutely essential for evaluating whether or not architecture is achieving its goals. However, if space is three-dimensional, then typical two-dimensional means of representation are insufficient for truly understanding the architecture. Therefore, the following tests shall examine space through means of axonometric drawing, utilizing the twodimensional discoveries in previous investigations. Conclusive Criteria to Carry Forward ··Open up to the sidewalk, as needed for attraction. ··Frame views to and from the block. ··Maintain clear visibility through and between the architecture. Note: Please refer to following spread for section drawings.
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Figure 112. Attracting pedestrians inward: Testing
1
ground floor walls and general building footprints, 3 plan iterations, 8.5x11 canvas, 28 January 2018.
F2-A 4
5
F2-B
6
2
F2-C
3
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MAGNETIC SOCIAL ATTRACTORS
F2-C1
F2-C2
F2-C3
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Figure 113. Attracting pedestrians through section: Testing floor compositions to encourage movement through the architecture, 5 section iterations, 8.5x11 canvas, 28 January 2018.
F2-C4
F2-C5
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MAGNETIC SOCIAL ATTRACTORS
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Figure 114. Combining
Purpose: How do solid planes create inviting architectural gestures? How
multiple sections from F2
does architecture pull the pedestrian through space?
in order to create a single axonometric drawing, 8.5x11 canvas, 1 February 2018.
METHODOLOGY Tool Micron / Pentel Sign / Paper Mate Liquid Flair Pens / Highlighter Representation Axonometric / Perspective / 8.5x11
HORIZONTAL INVITATIONS Internal Movement & Visual Cueing
F3
CONTEXT OF INVESTIGATION In order to better understand space and architectural effects, axonometric drawings begin to combine previous tests into clearer spatial compositions.
ESTABLISHED BOUNDARIES FOR DESIGN TESTING ··Compose two-dimensional drawings into speculative axonometrics to reveal information only accessible in a three-dimensional world. ··Use paraline drawings (e.g. axonometric) to transition to thinking through perspective views. ··Adjust walls, floors, and apertures to create an inviting experience. ··Establish primary points of gathering. ··Use a hypothetical 600' Chicago block length to speculate on sectional moments among the lowest floors of a future mid or highrise building typology.
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HORIZONTAL INVITATIONS Most Successful Elements of Design Testing 1: Visual connections between building inhabitants, occupying separate levels, constructs a more interconnected system; awareness of others and visibility encourages community. 2: Tilting floor plates, as a gesture to invite inward, improves the
Figure 115. Two-dimensional sections from F2 transform into paraline drawings, exploring the spatial implications of previous
intensity of potential attraction and creates opportunities for
concepts in F1 and F2, 8.5x11
sloped space above (e.g. auditorium, vertical circulation, play
canvas, 1 February 2018.
space for childcare facilities). Figure 116. (On following Least Successful Elements of Design Testing
spread) Combining multiple
3: Long, flat planes dilute attraction.
sections from F2 in order to
4: Internal gathering space must have stronger presence.
create a single axonometric drawing, introducing ideas of
Critical Reflection on the Usefulness of Investigation Quick iterations, driven by previously-composed sections, are efficient and informative. The axonometric drawings reveal both promising and disappointing moments, but drawing F3-A and F3-B inspire a third attempt of spatial manipulation (refer to following spread). The method of highlighting, circling, and annotating moves the design research forward. Conclusive Criteria to Carry Forward ··Adjust floor plates to reveal moments that would be hidden otherwise in a stacked assembly of repetitive slabs. ··Tilt planes for more invitations. ··Allow levels above entry to positively influence overall attraction.
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program and what it might mean for the public to private hierarchy of space, 8.5x11 canvas, 4 February 2018.
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F3-A
1
F3-B
4
3
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HORIZONTAL INVITATIONS
N EL O V M LE MG O C IN S U O
H
D
R
A
G
EN U
A T
R
A
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Critical Reflection on Drawing This axonometric drawing combines multiple moments from previous design tests. By further fragmenting walls and floor plates, the architecture begins to reveal unique and enticing moments inside. This also occurs from the outside; the tilting, overlapping, and interlocking of the form encourages people to approach multiple spaces that support different program, and the journey between elements increases the probability of new human interactions at intersections. This method of drawing inspires new trajectories for design testing. Operations seen here seem worthy of further investigation into an architecture that invites, retains, and builds community, at multiple scales. OPTIMISTIC TRAJECTORIES FOR THE CONTEMPORARY CITY
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HORIZONTAL INVITATIONS Figure 117. From axonometric to perspective: Examining the point of view of a building inhabitant within the architecture explored in previous F3 drawings, temporarily autonomous, 3 perspectives at 3 moments, 8.5x11 canvas, 8 February 2018.
F3-A1
Perspectives strive to translate and further investigate moments explored in previous axonometric drawings. The first attempt of drawing these new points of view can be examined here. 196
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F3-B1
F3-C1
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OVERLAP.
198
FRAME.
INTERSECT.
REVEAL.
SHIFT.
INVITE.
CONNECT.
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Figure 118. Combining
Purpose: How does visibility of vertical circulation encourage ascension
several interior moments:
within the architecture? What are the most important links between
Vertical and horizontal
horizontal and veritcal circulation?
connectivity within a larger system, 8.5x11 canvas, 8 February 2018.
METHODOLOGY Tool Micron Pen / Pentel Sign Pen / Photoshop Representation Perspective / 8.5x11
VERTICAL SUGGESTIONS Internal Movement & Visual Cueing
F4
CONTEXT OF INVESTIGATION Assembling multiple hand drawings to examine their (abstract) compatibility becomes an experimental digital method of critically reflecting on drawing methods and means of representation. F4 takes moments from the previous design investigation and introduces vertical circulation by connecting isolated levels and performing new operations (e.g. revealing, shifting, and connecting).
ESTABLISHED BOUNDARIES FOR DESIGN TESTING ··Connect levels within the frame of view of previously-drawn perspectives. ··Experiment with new methods that overlap or assemble singular moments into larger compositions. ··Use circulation as a method of drawing the eye upward and beyond the level of the observer.
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VERTICAL SUGGESTIONS Most Successful Elements of Design Testing
Figure 119. Connecting levels:
1: Continuous lines that wrap upward, through multiple levels, draw
Examining the point of view
the attention of the observer. 2: Splitting opaque surfaces, revealing space beyond, introduces multiple layers well beyond the location of observation.
of a building inhabitant within the architecture explored in F3 drawings, temporarily autonomous, 3 perspectives
Least Successful Elements of Design Testing
at 3 moments, 8.5x11 canvas,
3: Horizontal paths seem to be separated from a more
8 February 2018.
interconnected experience. 4: The method of drawing one-point perspectives, especially without context, creates an illusion of infinity. F4-A1
1
4
Critical Reflection on the Usefulness of Investigation Although testing how vertical connections enhance the architecture, the method of excluding context and creating infinite scenes does
Figure 120. (On following
not get to the heart of the thesis. Revised methods must now
spreads) Overlapping
urgently introduce the context of South Side, Chicago, Illinois.
moments, iteration one, 8 February 2018.
Conclusive Criteria to Carry Forward ··Create vertical circulation that catches the eye of the observer, drawing them in, up, and through.
Figure 121. (On following spreads) Overlapping
··Maintain visibility between levels for optimal vertical attraction.
moments, iteration two,
··Orchestrate interior moments that successfully reveal the sky.
8 February 2018.
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4
3
F4-B1
2 1 2
4
F4-C1
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Figure 122. Moment
Purpose: How can adjustments to the urban fabric help reverse
between disconnected
community isolation and encourage interaction between
neighborhoods along the
neighborhoods? How does the architecture provide an equitable
South State Street Corridor:
infrastructure for previously displaced, low-income residents? What is
Former site of Harold Ickes
the role of incentive zoning? Can the result stimulate the community,
Homes, demolished 2009-
economy, and developers’ ROI?
11, annotated site plan, Near South Side, Chicago, 25 February 2018.
METHODOLOGY Tool Micron Pen / Ticonderoga Pencil / Prismacolor Pencils / Rhino / V-Ray / Bing Maps / Photoshop / InDesign Representation Plan / Axonometric
COMMUNAL RESTORATION
Reconnecting the Grid & Increasing Density
F5
CONTEXT OF INVESTIGATION Now, sited within the neighborhood of Near South Side, Chicago, discoveries from previous design tests can be further explored.
ESTABLISHED BOUNDARIES FOR DESIGN TESTING ··Consider new densities within a series of blocks. ··Speculate on various building heights that create a variety of massing at appropriate scales. ··Consider urban-scale operations, beyond the scales of architecture.
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COMMUNAL RESTORATION Most Successful Elements of Design Testing 1: Responding to the height of adjacent Hilliard Homes continues the trend of high-rise towers, along South State Street, that embrace density and community. 2: Weaving the existing and proposed fabric together creates new intersections that prioritize walkability and bike paths.
Figure 123. Master plan ideas for increasing density and incorporating landscape on and above the ground plane, 8.5x11 canvas over digital massing model, 27 February 2018.
Least Successful Elements of Design Testing 3: Forms fail to closely consider and apply architectural discoveries from former design investigations. 4: A suitable balance between park and tower has not yet been achieved.
Figure 124. (On following spread) Overlay thoughts on axonometric site context: Reconnecting the grid and increasing density, 8.5x11
Critical Reflection on the Usefulness of Investigation Combining hand and computer methods is a useful tactic for increasing the accuracy of drawing and responding to existing forces, embedded in the local site context. Conclusive Criteria to Carry Forward ··Increase density without proposing tall, completely foreign architecture that dismisses the value of building community. ··Weave existing and proposed fabric together. ··Introduce new ways of offsetting costs of low-income units.
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canvas over digital massing model, 27 February 2018.
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4
3
2
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COMMUNAL RESTORATION
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F A
E B
D
212
C
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Figure 125. First attempt at
Purpose: How does the architecture acknowledge the memory of the
massing on a single block,
site? What are the roles of existing site elements to frame inviting public
aerial perspective, former
space (e.g. trees, pathways, entries to block)?
Harold Ickes Homes, Near South Side, Chicago, 1 March 2018.
METHODOLOGY Tool Rhino / V-Ray / Bing Maps Representation Perspective
FORM FOLLOWS MEMORY
A Familiar Ground Plane & Renewed Sense of Home
F6
CONTEXT OF INVESTIGATION These tests mark the first attempt of site-specific massing.
ESTABLISHED BOUNDARIES FOR DESIGN TESTING ··Respond to memory (e.g. the paved pathway that once ran between housing structures at Harold Ickes Homes or a tree that remains around the center of the block, today). ··Extend existing site lines to visually or physically connect to context. ··Frame inviting public space with form.
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FORM FOLLOWS MEMORY Most Successful Elements of Design Testing 1: Ample visibility through the block encourages entry. 2: Centralized public space, clearly visible in lens F6-A and F6-E, creates an inviting space to approach.
Figure 126. F6-A: Framing views through the block from ground level, Near South Side, Chicago, 1 March 2018.
3: Massing above the ground plane helps frame new block entries. 4: Overlapping form reveals human activity above the ground plane.
Figure 127. F6-B: Framing views through the block from
Least Successful Elements of Design Testing 5: Monumental massing lacks clearly defined purpose.
ground level, Near South Side, Chicago, 1 March 2018.
6: Immediate site context is difficult to truly understand. 7: The ground plane remains flat. 8: Form responds to existing tree and long pathway, but the graphics fail to clearly reveal it.
Figure 128. F6-C: Framing views through the block from ground level, Near South Side, Chicago, 1 March 2018.
Critical Reflection on the Usefulness of Investigation Moving from hand to only computer is a mistake. This massing exercise is rather arbitrary and feels like an unnatural investigation within a larger process that is gaining momentum. The massing also dismisses the street wall that should be established, moving forward. Conclusive Criteria to Carry Forward ··In terms of methods, continue thinking with a pen or pencil. ··Overlap form to reveal human activity above the ground plane. ··Maintain visibility through the block from multiple angles. Note: Please refer to following spread for additional views.
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F6-A
2 1
4
1
F6-B
7
5
4 6
3 F6-C
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FORM FOLLOWS MEMORY Figure 129. F6-D: Framing views through the block from ground level, Near South Side, Chicago, 1 March 2018. Figure 130. F6-E: Framing views through the block from ground level, Near South Side, Chicago, 1 March 2018. Figure 131. F6-F: Framing views through the block from ground level, Near South Side, Chicago, 1 March 2018.
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8
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DESIGN SYNTHESIS 218
Chapter 6 synthesizes design discoveries.
DESIGN SYNTHESIS + URBAN SYNTHESIS + ARCHITECTURAL SYNTHESIS
CHAPTER 6 219
FOLLOWING DESIGN INVESTIGATION PREVIOUS DESIGN INVESTIGATION GENERATIVE CRITERIA
CONCLUSIVE CRITERIA
E.g. How do walls increase visibility through the block?
A B C
In the Form of a Focused Question
Is the question specific enough? Are there clearly established boundaries? What must architecture do to achieve this goal?
Upon Evaluation of Design Testing
CATALOG MOST SUCCESSFUL ELEMENTS OF DESIGN TEST “A, B, and C seem promising.”
Test 1
Think. Make. Critique.
Test 2
Think. Make. Critique.
Test 3
Think. Make. Critique.
EVALUATIVE CRITERIA
EVALUATIVE CRITERIA
Did the architecture achieve its goal(s)? What must it now do in order to reach a greater level of refinement?
EVALUATIVE CRITERIA
CATALOG LEAST SUCCESSFUL ELEMENTS OF DESIGN TEST 220
“X, Y, and Z do not work very well”
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URBAN SYNTHESIS: ATTRACT. BRIDGE. DENSIFY.
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URBAN SYNTHESIS: SUBTRACTIVE MASSING METHODS
U2
ARCHITECTURAL SYNTHESIS: EQUITABLE INFRASTRUCTURE
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ARCHITECTURAL SYNTHESIS: FORM FOLLOWS MIND
A2
ARCHITECTURAL SYNTHESIS: PROGRAM. ATTRACT. ADAPT.
A3
Positioning Neighborhood-Scale Elements
Carving Foam to Test New Densities within the Block
Fair and Impartial Methods for Building Community
Framing Space Around the User
Reactivating the Blocks of Harold Ickes Homes
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Figure 132. Attracting,
Purpose: How can positioning primary attractors, bridging, and
bridging, and densifying:
densifying non-public-space attractors reconnect communities?
Master plan thoughts on
Can the act of bridging spark a new social dynamic between formerly-
positioning neighborhood-
isolated community members?
scale elements, trace on Bing Maps and Rhino massing, 25 March 2018.
METHODOLOGY Tool Micron Pen / Pentel Sign Pen / Bing Maps Representation Plan / Perspective
ATTRACT. BRIDGE. DENSIFY. Positioning Neighborhood-Scale Elements
U1
CONTEXT OF INVESTIGATION Near South Side, Chicago, Illinois Interested in relationships among separated neighborhoods, this section zooms out to speculate on components of a master plan.
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Figure 133. Attracting, bridging, and densifying: Master plan thoughts on positioning neighborhood-scale elements, South Side, Chicago, trace on Bing Maps and Rhino massing, 25 March 2018. OPTIMISTIC TRAJECTORIES FOR THE CONTEMPORARY CITY
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ATTRACT. Criteria for Site Selection ··Vacant lot ··Abandoned or underutilized structure ··Roof of non-residential structure ··Convenient proximity to public transit
BRIDGE. Criteria for Connection ··Constructed above existing infrastructure ··Supports pedestrians ··Adds 2 lanes for cyclists ··Creates flexible public space opportunities
DENSIFY. Criteria for Increasing Density ··Mixing uses stimulates community and local economy ··Historically-deprived site supports formerly-displaced community ··Additional revenue generators incentivize private & public partners ··Increase probability of serendipity
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Figure 134. Bridging Armour Square with Dearborn Homes, over the Dan Ryan Expressway, between elevated Green and Red Lines: Thoughts on positioning neighborhood-scale elements, South Side, Chicago, trace on Bing satellite imagery, 22 March 2018. OPTIMISTIC TRAJECTORIES FOR THE CONTEMPORARY CITY
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Figure 135. Bird’s-eye view of
Purpose: How can a subtractive method of physical model making test
foam massing model explores
optimal configurations of building mass on a vacant block along South
new densities within an
State Street, between West Cermak Road and West 23rd Street? How
existing block, West Cermak
does building mass respond to site forces? What uses do these foam
Road and South State Street,
shapes aspire to support, once they morph into architecture?
Near South Side, Chicago, Illinois, 1:50-scale on 11x17 canvas, 27 March 2018.
METHODOLOGY Tool Hot Wire Cutter / Rhino / Pentel Sign Pen Representation Foam Model / Rendering / 11x17
SUBTRACTIVE MASSING METHODS Carving Foam to Test New Densities within the Block
U2
CONTEXT OF INVESTIGATION Former Block of Harold Ickes Homes Near South Side, Chicago, Illinois Units Removed: 1,006 (2008-2010) Units Replaced: 0 (2018) To East: Deteriorating Blocks To West: 400’-Thick Infrastructural Barrier & Chinatown To North: Hilliard Homes To South: Dearborn Homes
ESTABLISHED BOUNDARIES FOR DESIGN TESTING ··Focus on massing within the confines of a single existing block. (Block footprint is approximately 250' x 600') ··Create a hierarchy of pathways that link activity on the sidewalk to inviting public space at the core of the block. ··Stack massing that is site specific (e.g. taller structures hug the northern portion of the block to reduce shadow casting on inviting public space and interior moments within the architecture).
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SUBTRACTIVE MASSING METHODS Most Successful Elements of Design Testing
Figure 136. Top view of foam
1: By allowing the massing to frame open space, closer relationships
massing model explores new
can be formed between the users of the public space, architecture, and the city. 2: Taller structures on the northern portion of the block respond to site orientation, the immediate context, and assists with holding the corner at a primary intersection... 3: ...and creating a new street wall.
densities within an existing block, situated within the existing grid, West Cermak Road and South State Street, Near South Side, Chicago, Illinois, 1:50-scale on 11x17 canvas, 27 March 2018.
Least Successful Elements of Design Testing 4: Subdividing a large block into 6 parts might not be the best scenario for increasing density and improving public activity on the street. 5: Height-to-width ratios between structures seem too intense. 6: Removing people from the street could be counterproductive.
Figure 137. Bird’s-eye view highlights open public space, framed by foam massing, Near South Side, Chicago, Illinois, 27 March 2018.
Critical Reflection on the Usefulness of Investigation These layered methods, involving the computer, hand, and malleable materials (e.g. foam), prove to be an efficient and rather productive way of quickly thinking, making, and reflecting. Conclusive Criteria to Carry Forward ··Hold the corner.
Figure 138. (On following spread) Drawing over top view of foam massing model identifies a new assemblage of primary uses, 1 April 2018.
··Tall structures hug the north. ··Smaller structures help frame public space on the ground plane. ··The ground plane shall be manipulated to increase desirability.
Figure 139. Creating pathway hierarchy, 1 April 2018.
··Paths that connect to the sidewalk must also intersect elsewhere. Figure 140. Locating “secondary attractors” for inter-block, public space interactions, 1 April 2018.
Figure 141. Drawing over bird’s-eye view allows for speculating on the ground plane, seating, amphitheaters, landscape, and recreational zones, 1 April 2018. 232
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3
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6 1
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Figure 142. Drawing over bird’s-eye view allows for speculating on the ground plane, seating, amphitheaters, landscape, & recreational zones, 1 April 2018.
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01 PEOPLE
WHO ARE WE DESIGNING FOR?
02 PROGRAM 03 PLACE
WHAT CAN ARCHITECTURE OFFER ITS INHABITANTS?
WHAT DEFINES AN URBAN LOCATION OR DESTINATION?
04 TRANSIT
HOW ARE COMMUNITIES CONNECTED TO THE CITY?
05 FORM/SPACE 06 MATERIAL
HOW DO SURFACES IMPROVE EXPERIENCE & PERCEPTION?
07 LANDSCAPE
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HOW DOES ARCHITECTURE INVITE & RETAIN?
HOW DOES PUBLIC SPACE FUSE WITH ARCHITECTURE?
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Figure 143. Simplified list of
Purpose: Who are we designing for? What can architecture actually offer
categories and questions that
its inhabitants? What defines an urban location or destination? How are
outline the core concerns
communities connected to the city? How does architecture invite and
of “equitable infrastructure.”
retain? How do surfaces improve experience and perception? How does
A focused category (e.g.
public space fuse with the architecture?
program) should respond to issues of equity in the built environment by translating essential components into a larger, cohesive system or framework, 14 March 2018.
METHODOLOGY Tool InDesign Representation Table / List
EQUITABLE INFRASTRUCTURE
Fair and Impartial Methods for Building Community
A1
CONTEXT OF INVESTIGATION The notion of an “equitable infrastructure” places the human inhabitant at the center of the investigation. In a world often distracted by trivial issues, this design framework aspires to outline some resources and environments that every city dweller should have access to.
ESTABLISHED BOUNDARIES FOR DESIGN TESTING ··Create a library of programmatic typologies that serves as an evolving base to select from for building community. ··This investigation will only explore 01 People and 02 Program, due to the scope of this work. ··03-07 can be seen in following design investigations.
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01 PEOPLE
WHAT CAN ARCHITECTURE OFFER ITS INHABITANTS?
EQUITABLE INFRASTRUCTURE Note: Profiles based on actual people met between January 3rd and 7th of 2018
240
Name: Naϊla
Name: Steven
Position: Architecture
Position: Doctoral Student
Student
in Psychology
Institution: Illinois Institute
Institution: University of
of Technology
Chicago
Age: 25
Age: 25
Race: Black
Race: White
Hometown: Libreville,
Hometown: Barberton,
Gabon (Africa)
Ohio
Name: Natasha
Name: Ms. Johnson
Position: Assistant Curator
Position: Public Safety
Institution: National Public
Institution: Illinois Institute
Housing Museum
of Technology
Age: 29
Age: 34
Race: Black
Race: Black
Hometown: East Garfield
Hometown: North
Park, West Side, Chicago,
Lawndale, West Side,
Illinois
Chicago, Illinois
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Name: Alfred Position: Driver Institution: Uber Age: 41 Race: Black Hometown: Bronzeville, South Side, Chicago
Name: Michael Position: Homeless Institution: Former Gang Member, Mickey Cobras Age: 51 Race: Black Hometown: Cabrini-Green, Near North Side, Chicago, Illinois
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02 PROGRAM
WHAT CAN ARCHITECTURE OFFER ITS INHABITANTS?
EQUITABLE INFRASTRUCTURE
SLEEP
EAT
LEARN
PLAY
SHOP
Bed: Youth
Cafe
Library
Playground
Grocery
Bed: Adult
Outdoor
Community
Basketball
Retail
Daycare
Baseball
Book
Montessori
Gymnasium
Tourist
Garden
Skate
Bed: ADA
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Family Dining
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WORK
VISIT
MOVE
PAUSE
VIEW
Formal
Observatory
Bridge
Bench
Informal
Cultural
Shared
Hill
Auditorium
Memorial
Exercise
Meditation
Park
Hotel
Sled
Amphitheater
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Figure 144. Abstract,
Purpose: How can spatial moments respond directly to the needs and
overlapping moment between
desires of the individual?
residential and circulatory functions, 8.5x11 canvas, 14 March 2018.
METHODOLOGY Tool Micron Pen / Pentel Sign Pen / Highlighter Representation Perspective / 8.5x11
FORM FOLLOWS MIND Framing Space Around the User
A2
CONTEXT OF INVESTIGATION Dense, Metropolitan Site Not situated within any specific context, this drawing exercise places the user at the center of the production of form and experience.
ESTABLISHED BOUNDARIES FOR DESIGN TESTING ··Respond to questions about specific, hypothetical users.
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“If they can do it, I can do it.”
FORM FOLLOWS MIND
RETAIL STORE MONTESSORI SCHOOL BASKETBALL COURT OUTDOOR DINING SPACE
How can a(n)
PUBLIC LIBRARY SPACE
encourage a(n)
CHILD’S
perception of
OPPORTUNITY
?
PLAYGROUND
TEENAGER’S
DIGNITY
INFORMAL OFFICE SPACE
ADULT’S
DIVERSITY
HOTEL LOBBY
SENIOR’S
INCLUSION
HUMAN
PERCEPTION
OBSERVATORY
FUNCTION
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“If they can do it, I can do it.”
FORM FOLLOWS MIND
RETAIL STORE MONTESSORI SCHOOL BASKETBALL COURT OUTDOOR DINING SPACE
How can a(n)
PUBLIC LIBRARY SPACE
encourage a(n)
CHILD’S
perception of
OPPORTUNITY
?
PLAYGROUND
TEENAGER’S
DIGNITY
INFORMAL OFFICE SPACE
ADULT’S
DIVERSITY
HOTEL LOBBY
SENIOR’S
INCLUSION
HUMAN
PERCEPTION
OBSERVATORY
FUNCTION
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“This is my home, my view, and my city.”
FORM FOLLOWS MIND
COMMUNITY CENTER AMPHITHEATER PUBLIC ICE SKATING RINK
CHILD’S
COMMUNITY GARDEN
How can a(n)
BEDROOM DINING SPACE
TEENAGER’S
encourage a(n)
ADULT’S SENIOR’S
PUBLIC LIBRARY SPACE
OPPORTUNITY
perception of
DIGNITY
?
DIVERSITY INCLUSION
BOOK STORE GROCERY STORE
FUNCTION
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HUMAN
PERCEPTION
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FORM FOLLOWS MIND
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“I am part of something larger than myself.”
FORM FOLLOWS MIND
SLEDDING HILL MEDITATION SPACE NEIGHBORHOOD BRIDGE BASEBALL FIELD
How can a(n)
DAYCARE
CHILD’S
encourage a(n)
TEENAGER’S
perception of
OPPORTUNITY
FORMAL OFFICE
ADULT’S
DIGNITY
CULTURAL EXHIBITION SPACE
SENIOR’S
DIVERSITY
?
INCLUSION
MEMORIAL FOR VICTIMS OF CHICAGO GUN VIOLENCE DAYCARE SPACE
FUNCTION
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HUMAN
PERCEPTION
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Figure 145. Southeast
Purpose: How can programming, secondary attractors, and internal/
axonometric frames a variety
external forces contribute to inviting diverse audiences into the block?
of interior and exterior stages
How does a public ground level encourage the human perception of
for interaction within the
opportunity, dignity, diversity, and inclusion?
block, inviting pedestrians from the sidewalk and immediate context. Seating, amphitheaters, landscape, recreational zones, existing and proposed pathways, and accentuated vertical circulation begins to test and synthesize the notion of “equitable infrastructure,” via new amalgamations, 10 April 2018.
METHODOLOGY Tool Rhino / V-Ray Representation Axonometric
PROGRAM. ATTRACT. ADAPT.
Reactivating the Blocks of Harold Ickes Homes
A3
CONTEXT OF INVESTIGATION Former Block of Harold Ickes Homes Near South Side, Chicago, Illinois Synthesizing and deploying multiple design principles explored in previous design investigations
ESTABLISHED BOUNDARIES FOR DESIGN TESTING ··Program and position secondary attractors. ··Attract pedestrians with what the block has to offer its inhabitants. ··Adapt to internal forces (e.g. human, spatial, and formal). ··Respond to external forces (e.g. sun, visibility, and adjacencies).
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PROGRAM. ATTRACT. ADAPT. Most Successful Elements of Design Testing 1: Physically highlighting vertical circulation, with unique materials (e.g. bright blue paint), invites pedestrians inward to participate in the space. 2: Varying degrees of physical and psychological “openness” reveal moments that could be concealed, otherwise.
Figure 146. Southeast axonometric, clipping plane at +8' above the ground, frames
3: Positioning landscaped and recreational zones, adjacent to the
a variety of interior and
National Teachers Elementary Academy (http://nta.auslchicago.
exterior stages for interaction
org/), fuses inclusive environments together. 4: Public pockets activate the street.
within the block. Seating, amphitheaters, landscape, recreational zones, existing
Least Successful Elements of Design Testing 5: At this scale, it is difficult to understand how the proposed architecture and public space responds to its neighbors. Although the immediate context is mostly vacant, there should be some hint of a more cohesive urban form. 6: The quality of the street wall along South State Street is unclear, due to the method deployed. Show above level 1.
and proposed pathways, and accentuated vertical circulation begins to test and synthesize the notion of “equitable infrastructure,” via new amalgamations. Transparent and translucent materials are hidden in
Critical Reflection on the Usefulness of Investigation
order to demonstrate how
An axonometric view clipped at +8’ fails to reveal how sections
positioning opaque surfaces
through the block drive inviting form and space. If the ground level
affects a site user’s decision
is an essential characteristic of what makes successful optimistic architecture, then this method of testing is effective. Upon analyzing
to move through the block, 10 April 2018.
the drawing, how one moves horizontally through space is clear, with the exception of knowing where glass walls exist. Conclusive Criteria to Carry Forward ··Grab the attention of pedestrians with stimulating moments of colors or a variety of unique materials. ··Maximize openness on the ground plane.
Figure 147. (On following spread) Framing an interior performance space, clearly visible from multiple angles, 10 April 2018.
··Blue is the new concrete. Figure 148. Amphitheater with 1:12 ramp to lower stage platform, 10 April 2018.
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4 3 1 2 6
4
5
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Figure 149. Block plan, 9 April 2018. Figure 150. South State Street Corridor, 9 April 2018.
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Chapter 7 reflects on the process, criticism, and future implications of the design research presented on 10 April 2018 at 2:30PM EST.
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CHAPTER 7 283
THOUGHTS ON PROCESS, CRITICISM, & FUTURE Process With additional time permitted, to build upon the most recent design outcomes, I would print off 8.5x11 versions of computergenerated images and draw over them with pen and markers. Drawing without the fear of failure was an incredibly valuable lesson I learned as a thesis student at Wentworth. Unfortunately, it took until December of 2017 to give drawing a chance, when commitment to this type of method of thinking was expected much earlier. Although the criteria and methods were guided by overarching topics, interconnected at multiple scales, the exhaustive testing and reflecting became rather daunting tasks to manage and thoroughly catalog. If it were to continue, the process would involve subtraction and refinement, rather than addition. Refinements to the methods explored throughout this book would involve taking a closer look at assembling human moments into urban form—connecting the architectural inhabitant to the scale of the neighborhood. In some respect, the outcomes of this thesis fail to reveal how the reintegration and densification of communities in historically-segregated areas of the city affect the perception of the individual. Much of what this thesis is interested in accomplishing is beyond the capabilities of an architect and urban designer, never mind a twenty-two-year-old graduate architecture student. Criticism The key insights, responses, critiques, and suggestions that emerged during the final thesis defense came from multiple angles. One of the most valuable insights was about aligning the goals and aspirations of the thesis more intimately with the methods of representation, especially the final outcome graphics. There seemed to be a peculiar disconnect between the design process and the final design outcomes. “Clunky” and “lack of empathy” were some of the more critical responses to what was presented, challenging the core ambitions of the work. However, the rigorous methods deployed, supported by physical design-research artifacts, influenced an overall positive response from the panel of critics and audience. After the final thesis defense on April 10th, I certainly believe that there were many shortcomings—mostly in terms of preparation, 284
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presentation, representation, clarity, conciseness, and general execution of the most important tasks. As I reflect on the entire process—a rewarding combination of curiosity, disinterest, confidence, doubt, optimism, incompleteness, and some exciting realizations—I am satisfied with the hundreds of relevant dialogues that ensued from the initial ambitions of the research, between September 2017 and April 2018. Understanding that many questions remain unanswered and unexplored, there is one conclusion I would highlight, as I reflect directly on the thesis statement and argument. The explicit intent of today's architect and architecture, with an expanding range of knowledge, has the potential to significantly influence positive human behavior and the perceptions of city dwellers. However, it is difficult to prove this by simply flipping through a book. The most effective way to truly test this theory is to realize a product of the process in the built environment. In the context of a master of architecture thesis, I remain reluctant to confidently draw any significant conclusions from the design research. Future In the event that someone is interested in the issues explored here, I would respectfully warn them. Combinations of topics such as equity, self-efficacy, mixed use, mixed income, density, racial boundaries, and inclusion versus exclusion present difficult challenges to overcome. These challenges are faced by not only the researcher, but the people who should eventually benefit from this avenue of design inquiry. It seems as though there are endless subcategories that arise upon an attempt to unpack the complexities of urbanization or speculate on potential trajectories for more inclusive urbanisms and architecture. I hope that the work explored in this book can at least act as a solid foundation, or even a small piece of another puzzle, for future investigations. I also encourage more people to advocate for combining what has been so clearly separated, including people, places, means of reliable transportation, and adequate housing options for all citizens. Ultimately, a thorough combination of differences will lead to unprecedented human potential. OPTIMISTIC TRAJECTORIES FOR THE CONTEMPORARY CITY
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Every building, every infrastructure and every regulatory framework is traversed by power relations, ideological visions and institutionalized exclusions that benefit some populations at the expense of others. The tendency of the urban, at least in its modern, capitalist expression, to universalize itself is but the material basis for the expansion of capitalist social relations on a world scale. 01
01 Martín Arboleda, Preface, in Critique of Urbanization: Selected Essays, ed. Neil Brenner (Basel, Switzerland: Birkhäuser Verlag, 2017), 12. 286
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FINAL PANEL OF CRITICS: 10 APRIL 2018
Ignacio Cardona Teaching Fellow & Doctor of Design Candidate, Harvard University Graduate School of Design M.S., Urban Design, Universidad Metropolitana (VE) Licentiate degree, Architecture, Universidad SimĂłn BolĂvar Robert Cowherd, PhD Professor, Wentworth Institute of Technology PhD, History, Theory, and Criticism, and Certificate in Urban Design, MIT B.Arch, The Cooper Union Manuel E. Delgado Professor, Wentworth Institute of Technology M.S., Urban Studies and Planning, and Certificate in Urban Design, MIT B.Arch, Universidad Central de Venezuela Registered Architect in Venezuela Elizabeth Ghiseline Interior Architecture Lecturer, Suffolk University M.Arch I, Harvard University Graduate School of Design BFA, University of Massachusetts Amherst
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Chala Hadimi Associate Graduate Faculty, Wentworth Institute of Technology SMArchS, Aga Khan Program in Islamic Architecture, MIT M.Arch, Princeton University B.Arch, The Cooper Union Matthew B. Matteson, PhD Adjunct Faculty, Wentworth Institute of Technology PhD, History, Theory, and Criticism, and Certificate in Urban Design, MIT MAUD, Harvard University Graduate School of Design B.Arch, University of Tennessee Hubert Murray, FAIA, RIBA Owner, Hubert Murray Architect + Planner Architecture Diploma, Architectural Association School of Architecture B.A., Philosophy, Politics, and Economics, University of Oxford Weldon Pries Professor, Wentworth Institute of Technology M.Arch, MIT B.Arch, University of Manitoba Registered Architect, NCARB Certification
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TO BE CONTINUED
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BIBLIOGRAPHY Abu-Lughod, Janet L. New York, Chicago, Los Angeles: America’s Global Cities. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1999. Arboleda, Martín. Preface. In Critique of Urbanization: Selected Essays, edited by Neil Brenner, 9-13. Basel, Switzerland: Birkhäuser Verlag, 2017. Austen, Ben. “The Towers Came Down, and With Them the Promise of Public Housing.” The New York Times, 6 February 2018. Accessed 11 February 2018. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/06/ magazine/the-towers-came-down-and-with-them-the-promise-of-public-housing.html. Ballard, J.G. High-Rise. London: Jonathan Cape, 1975. ———. “J G Ballard Documentary.” YouTube. Originally aired on the South Bank Show. Edited and presented by Melvyn Bragg. Uploaded 8 June 2014. Accessed 27 October 2017. Video, 49:15. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LosxrbL3sU. Ballon, Hilary. “The Urban Future That Failed.” The American Prospect, 19 May 2007. Accessed 12 December 2017. http://prospect.org/article/urban-future-failed. Bandura, Albert. “Home.” Professor Albert Bandura. Accessed 3 November 2017. http:// professoralbertbandura.com/index.html. ———. “Self-efficacy.” Encyclopedia of Human Behavior, vol. 4, edited by Vilayanur S. Ramachandran (1994): 71-81. Banerjee, Tridib, and Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris, eds. Companion to Urban Design. London; New York: Routledge, 2011. Barnett, Jonathan. “A Short Guide to 60 of the Newest Urbanisms: And There Could Be Many More.” Planning Magazine 77, no. 4 (April 2011): 19–21. Bittle, Jake, Srishti Kapur, and Jasmine Mithani. “Redeveloping the State Street Corridor: Chicago’s Unfulfilled Promise to Rebuild its Public Housing.” South Side Weekly, 31 January 2017. Accessed 11 November 2017. https://southsideweekly.com/chicago-unfulfilled-promise-rebuild-publichousing/.
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The research and design explorations that follow encompass topics of the origin, influence, implementation, effect, and revision of modernism’s “tower in the park,” as originally defined in the early twentieth century by the International Congress of Modern Architecture (CIAM). Although examining precedents across North America and Europe, the South Side of Chicago serves as a laboratory for design testing: a Midwestern, metropolitan context in the United States that presents a variety of opportunities due to its convoluted politics, racial and social tensions, crime, and isolating planning history. As a result of the city’s ambitious “Plan for Transformation,” beginning in 2000, Chicago’s Near Side neighborhoods find themselves in a peripheral zone around the vibrant city, cloaked in vacant blocks. Today, vast areas of stagnant landscapes continue to rest quietly in a prolonged wake of mass-demolition: a product of the complete erasure of neglected public housing towers. In an effort to reintroduce former tower residents, as well as invite newly-diverse audiences, an alternative method gives shape to new building typologies that integrate themselves within the city’s existing grid and form. A contemporary revision of CIAM’s tower in the park becomes an experimental model that establishes new trajectories for growing urban populations. These optimistic environments counter the negative effects that have stigmatized numerous communities. A design process that orchestrates a collision of differences, rather than conflicting similarities, encourages unprecedented amalgamations: a new mix of people, program, place, transit, form, material, and landscape. This work positions itself at the intersection of multiple disciplines and media not often merged, including urban design, psychology, sociology, time-lapse photography, film, dystopian science fiction, and architecture. Intriguing new perspectives, informed by diverse design methodologies, advocate for an interconnected architecture that sets the stage for serendipity.