Hidden Cities: Reinventing the Non-Space Between Street and Subway
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University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2018 Hidden Cities: Reinventing The Non-Space Between Street And Subway Jae Min Lee University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the Architecture Commons, and the Urban Studies and Planning Commons Recommended Citation Lee, Jae Min, "Hidden Cities: Reinventing The Non-Space Between Street And Subway" (2018). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 2984. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2984 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2984 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Hidden Cities: Reinventing The Non-Space Between Street And Subway Abstract The connections leading to underground transit lines have not received the attention given to public spaces above ground. Considered to be merely infrastructure, the design and planning of these underground passageways has been dominated by engineering and capital investment principles, with little attention to place-making. This underground transportation area, often dismissed as “non-space,” is a by-product of high-density transit-oriented development, and becomes increasingly valuable and complex as cities become larger and denser. This dissertation explores the design of five of these hidden cities where there has been a serious effort to make them into desirable public spaces. Over thirty-two million urbanites navigate these underground labyrinths in New York City, Hong Kong, London, Moscow, and Paris every day. These in-between spaces have evolved from simple stairwells to networked corridors, to transit concourses, to transit malls, and to the financial engines for affordable public transit. The Oculus in New York City makes connections to the World Financial Center, the new buildings on the rebuilt World Trade Center site, and a new transit hub. The Jubilee Station in London brings people to the heart of the London Docklands, fast becoming a major new urban center. The Central Station in Hong Kong unites multiple levels of intense development which has also helped finance the transit. The Okhotny Ryad in Moscow, built in palatial style as a deliberate statement of the rights of the proletariat, has now been modernized by the addition of retail. The Les Halles station in Paris has made underground space a destination. This dissertation traces the historical development of each of these underground systems and documents them in detailed drawings so that their spatial structures can be compared. The way people use these places has been documented with photographs and maps using participant observation methodology. By analyzing these cases, we can identify a generalizable theory for reinventing underused subterranean public spaces as effective places, realizing the potential for rich public life, so often obscured by the heavy foot traffic in ansittr hubs. Underground public spaces need not be gloomy and unsafe, and the vitality of public space is determined not only by its location, but by the design of its physical setting. These five hidden cities are success stories showing how designers and users have converted non- spaces into places through design and active civic engagement. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group City & Regional Planning First Advisor Stefan Al Second Advisor Jonathan Barnett Keywords public transportation, social life, subway, transit concourse, underground public spaces, urban design Subject Categories Architecture | Urban Studies and Planning This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2984 HIDDEN CITIES: REINVENTING THE NON-SPACE BETWEEN STREET AND SUBWAY Jae Min Lee A DISSERTATION in City and Regional Planning Presented to the Faculties of the University of Pennsylvania in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2018 Supervisor of Dissertation Co-Supervisor of Dissertation _______________________ _______________________ Dr. Stefan Al Prof. Jonathan Barnett Associate Professor Professor of Practice City and Regional Planning City and Regional Planning Graduate Group Chairperson _______________________ Dr. Eugenie L. Birch Lawrence C. Nussdorf Professor of Urban Education & Research Dissertation Committee: Dr. William W. Braham Professor of Architecture, Director of MEBD Program HIDDEN CITIES: REINVENTING THE NON-SPACE BETWEEN STREET AND SUBWAY COPYRIGHT 2018 Jae Min Lee This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/ To my son. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENT This project would not be possible without the help of many people. First, I wish to express my sincere appreciation to my dissertation committee members, Professor Stefan Al, Jonathan Barnett, and William Braham, for their constructive suggestions and recommendations towards the completion of the dissertation. Dr. Stefan Al, the chairperson of the committee, supervised my work and guided me to the right direction in developing the research. I am fortunate to have Prof. Jonathan Barnett on my committee for the feedback from his breadth of knowledge and experience. I thank Dr. Braham for his support and insight on the research project. I would like to extend my gratitude to those who allowed interviews investigating hidden cities around the world including Mr. Daniel Ringlestein from SOM London, Mr. Philip Tweddle from Canary Wharf Group, Mr. Emmanuel de Lanversin from SemPariSeine, Prof. Alain Chiaradia from Hong Kong University, Dr. Francesco Rossini from Chinese University of Hong Kong, Dr. Vitaly Stadnikov from the Higher School of Economics in Moscow, and many patrons of underground concourse. I must thank my mentors who directly and indirectly influenced my scholarship and informed this project in Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill LLP. Philip Enquist has been my long-time supporter from the University of Michigan. He, Elena Stevanato, and Douglas Voigt trained me as a confident urban designer in Chicago. Mustafa Abadan and Brant Coleta from New York City gave me opportunities to see the urban design practice from a global perspective. I also thank my colleagues from the University of Pennsylvania. Daniel Suh, Dr. Albert Han, Dr. Theodore Lim, Joshua Warner, Eliza Whiteman, Sa Min Han, Chaeri iv Kim, Dr. Hwang Yi, Sang Pil Lee, Dr. William Fleming, Evan Oskierko-Jeznacki, Maryam Khojasteh, Sirius Libeiro, David Stanek, Dr. Yu-Shou Su, and Naeem Shahrestani. Nobody has been more supportive of me than the members of my family. Most importantly, I would like to thank my parents and my son, Alex, for the tireless encouragement and inspiration. v ABSTRACT HIDDEN CITIES: REINVENTING THE NON-SPACE BETWEEN STREET AND SUBWAY Jae Min Lee Stefan Al The connections leading to underground transit lines have not received the attention given to public spaces above ground. Considered to be merely infrastructure, the design and planning of these underground passageways has been dominated by engineering and capital investment principles, with little attention to place-making. This underground transportation area, often dismissed as “non-space,” is a by-product of high-density transit-oriented development, and becomes increasingly valuable and complex as cities become larger and denser. This dissertation explores the design of five of these hidden cities where there has been a serious effort to make them into desirable public spaces. Over thirty-two million urbanites navigate these underground labyrinths in New York City, Hong Kong, London, Moscow, and Paris every day. These in-between spaces have evolved from simple stairwells to networked corridors, to transit concourses, to transit malls, and to the financial engines for affordable public transit. The Oculus in New York City makes connections to the World Financial Center, the new buildings on the rebuilt World Trade Center site, and a new transit hub. The Jubilee Station in London brings people to the heart of the London Docklands, fast becoming a major new urban center. The Central Station in Hong Kong unites multiple levels of intense development which has also helped finance the transit. The Okhotny Ryad in Moscow, built in palatial style as a deliberate statement of the rights of the proletariat, vi has now been modernized by the addition of retail. The Les Halles station in Paris has made underground space a destination. This dissertation traces the historical development of each of these underground systems and documents them in detailed drawings so that their spatial structures can be compared. The way people use these places has been documented with photographs and maps using participant observation methodology. By analyzing these cases, we can identify a generalizable theory for reinventing underused subterranean public spaces as effective places, realizing the potential for rich public life, so often obscured by the heavy foot traffic in transit hubs. Underground public spaces need not be gloomy and unsafe, and the vitality of public space is determined not only by its location, but by the design of its physical setting. These five hidden cities are success stories showing how designers and users have converted non-spaces into places through design and active civic engagement. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENT ...................................................................................................