URGENT AMALGAMATIONS Optimistic Trajectories for the Contemporary City
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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. 003 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 Date 005 URGENT AMALGAMATIONS WTIII WILLIAM TOOHEY III URGENT AMALGAMATIONS: M.ARCH 2018 OPTIMISTIC TRAJECTORIES FOR BSA 2017 THE CONTEMPORARY CITY ABSTRACT The research and design that unfolds encompasses 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 and beyond find themselves in a peripheral zone around the vibrant city, cloaked in vacant blocks. Decades later, 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 with the city’s existing grid and form. A contemporary revision to the initial ambitions of CIAM’s tower in the park becomes an experimental model that establishes new trajectories for growing urban populations. These optimistic environments are capable of reversing the negative effects that have stigmatized numerous communities. A design process that orchestrates a collusion of differences, rather than a collision of similarities, encourages unprecedented amalgamations: a new mix of people, program, place, transit, form, material, and landscape. This work finds itself at the intersection of multiple Figure 001. Original cover disciplines and media not often merged, including urban design, art of J.G. Ballard’s 1975 psychology, sociology, time lapse photography, dystopian science novel, High-Rise, first edition, fiction, film, architecture, and landscape urbanism. Intriguing new designed by Craig Dodd, perspectives advocate for an interconnected architecture that sets a 1975, image published stage for serendipity. by Jonathan Cape, http:// averyreview.com/issues/17/a- Opportunity, Dignity, Diversity, Inclusion, Self- future-now-exhausted KEYWORDS Efficacy, Mixed-Use/Income, Density, Chicago OPTIMISTIC TRAJECTORIES FOR THE CONTEMPORARY CITY 007 URGENT AMALGAMATIONS WTIII CONTENTS 007 Abstract & Keywords 009 Contents 011 Acknowledgments 015 Dedication 017 INTRODUCTION 019 Thesis Statement & Argument 020 Chronicles of the Urban Monolith 032 Personal Accounts of Home & Work 034 Intended Audience 034 Chapter Functionality 035 Key Takeaways 037 LITERATURE REVIEW 055 LIFE, POVERTY & THE PURSUIT OF ALTERNATIVES 056 Analytical Methods of Investigation 059 Identifying the Context: North America & Europe 093 Visualizing the Context: Camera / Computer / Hand 119 Contemporary Responses to the Tower in the Park 132 Design Methods of Investigation 200 NOTES 202 ILLUSTRATIONS 208 BIBLIOGRAPHY OPTIMISTIC TRAJECTORIES FOR THE CONTEMPORARY CITY 009 URGENT AMALGAMATIONS WTIII DEDICATION I would like to dedicate this research and design effort to the loving memory of my paternal grandmother (Noni), a persistent advocate and source of encouragement for my chosen pursuit of architecture: someone who served as a match to ignite my early ambitions as a freshman at Wentworth, during her last days on earth and my first approaching final studio 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, the memory of Noni, from the unforgettable week of November 25, 2013, to the day I publish this work, operates as a catalyst for the increasing sense of urgency and sometimes agency apparent in this thesis. A plastic-sleeved binder, accompanied by a Christmas-themed 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 OPTIMISTIC TRAJECTORIES FOR THE CONTEMPORARY CITY 011 URGENT AMALGAMATIONS WTIII 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. I thank you all for the variety of contributions. 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 my aspirations 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 & 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 certainly paid off. Thank you, Mark Barton, for the day that you told me that I could not be sarcastic for the rest of my life; thank you for helping adjust my attitude immediately preceding college. Thank you, Nicole Martineau, for being an influential professional mentor. 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 encouragement to narrow the scope of my thesis topic when I sounded overly optimistic about reorganizing the world. 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. In addition to academic and professional mentors, I would like to thank my classmates and roommates. Thank you for encouraging me to OPTIMISTIC TRAJECTORIES