University of Cincinnati

UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI Date:___________________ I, _________________________________________________________, hereby submit this work as part of the requirements for the degree of: in: It is entitled: This work and its defense approved by: Chair: _______________________________ _______________________________ _______________________________ _______________________________ _______________________________ INTEGRATING PAST AND PRESENT The Story of a Building through Adaptive Reuse A thesis submitted to The Division of Research and Advanced Studies of the University of Cincinnati in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Architecture in the school of Architecture and Interior Design of the college of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning 2006 Jessica Kersting B.S. in Architecture, University of Cincinnati, 2004 Committee: Professor Jeffrey Tilman, PhD Professor Michael McInturf ABSTRACT Architecture is an expression appropriate to its time, and adaptive reuse is a tool that can be utilized in the exploration of how to add to the existing fabric of a structure in order to continue the story of the building while still speaking to time and tradition. Although this approach of restoration has been exploited for years, in what ways are reuse and adaptation acceptable means for allowing creativity and innovation to take its place in the history of a building? Through the study of texts by various theorists and the works of Carlo Scarpa and Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates among others, the topic of creating a narrative of a building will be explored. Discussion will involve capitalizing on a building’s history, exploiting present functions and leaving room for future interpretation. The gradual sequence of change and integration of present day ideas, perceptions, and designs with existing building elements will be implemented while examining the old YMCA building on Calhoun Street in Clifton, Ohio. Through this study, a new dimension will be added to the thesis inquiry as to how to approach adaptive reuse not as a way in which to impose new forms and expressions onto existing structures, but as a technique used to add to the continual evolution of a building. i ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract i Table of Contents iii List of Illustrations iv Introduction 1 1: Adaptive Reuse; Introduction and Background 5 2: Evolution; Biological versus Human Aspects of Change 14 3: Leave Your Mark; Connecting with the Past 23 4: Layering 32 4.1: Layering of Materials; Castelvecchio Museum 35 4.2: Layering of Time; The BAM Majestic Theater 38 4.3: Layering of Elements; Positano 42 5: Display 46 5.1: Carlo Scarpa 48 5.2: Rookwood Pottery 52 6: Conclusion 57 7: Project Description 61 7.1: Finding a Use 62 7.2: Program 64 Bibliography 74 iii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS i-1: Narrative Collage, by author. i-2: Death of a Cottage. Stewart Brand, How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They’re Built (New York: Penguin Books, 1994), 92-93. 2-1: Evolution Collage, by author. 2-2: Commercial building in Lawrence, Kansas. Stewart Brand, How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They’re Built (New York: Penguin Books, 1994), 8. 2-3: US Mint Building. Stewart Brand, How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They’re Built (New York: Penguin Books, 1994), 9. 2-4: San Francisco Residence. Stewart Brand, How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They’re Built (New York: Penguin Books, 1994), 8-9. 2-5: Misfit (St. Bernhard) (94/12) and 2-6: Misfit (Nandu) (94/13) by Thomas Grünfeld, 1994. Peg Rawes, “Animal Architecture,” in Architecture – The Subject is Matter, ed. Jonathan Hill (New York: Routledge, 2001), 212 & 214. 2-7: Photos of Falkestrasse 6. Coop Himmelblau. <http://www.coophimmelblau.at/ projects/falkestrasse.php> 2-8: Carriage House Converted to Residence. Richard Murphy. Richard Murphy Architects; Ten Years of Practice. (Edinburgh: The Fruitmarket Gallery, 2001), 60. 3-1: Leave Your Mark Collage, by author 3-2: Domus. Stewart Brand, How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They’re Built (New York: Penguin Books, 1994), 156. 3-3 and 3-4: Interior Views of Scoozi! Virginia Croft, Recycled as Restaurants (New York: Whitney Library of Design, 1991), 171 and 175. 4-1: Layering Collage, by author. 4-2: Layering Diagram. Stewart Brand, How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They’re Built (New York: Penguin Books, 1994), 13. 4-3: Castelvecchio Museum and 4-4: ‘Drawbridge’ Iron Gate. Photos by Emily Wray, 2005. iv 4-5: ‘Drawbridge’ Iron Gate. Guido Guidi, “Museo di Castelvecchio a Verona,” Centro Internazionale di Studi di Architettura Andrea Palladio, 1997. <http://www.cisapalladio. org/cisa/mostra.php?sezione=5&lingua=i&valo=4_36#> 4-6: Void revealing layering of interventions. Nicholas Olsberg, etal., Carlo Scarpa Architect: Intervening with History (New York: Monacelli Press, 1999), 2. 4-7: Void revealing layering of interventions. Arno Hammacher, “Museo di Castelvecchio a Verona,” Centro Internazionale di Studi di Architettura Andrea Palladio, 1981-82. <http://www.cisapalladio.org/cisa/mostra.php?sezione=5&lingua=i&valo= 4_36#> 4-8: Reconstructed Interior, 4-9: Stage Detail, 4-10: Exposed Structure, 4-11: Preexisting Box Seats, and 4-12: Updated Drawings. Michael Sorkin, Mildred F. Schmertz, and Nicholas Polites, Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates: Buildings and Projects 1967-1992 (New York: Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., 1992), 152, 154, & 155. 4-13: Positano Interior, 4-14: Central Bar, 4-15: Preexisting Entrance, and 4-16: Reconstructed Entrance. Virginia Croft, Recycled as Restaurants (New York: Whitney Library of Design, 1991), 130-131, 132, 133, & 136. 5-1: Display Collage, by author. 5-2: “Restoration of Historic Landscape in Progress” reads sign on a Kansas prairie and 5-3: Lincoln Birthplace Log Cabin. David Lowenthal, The Past is a Foreign Country (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1985), 270 & 274. 5-4: Olivetti Showroom. Fulvio Roiter. Actualite Architecture, Art et Culture, 2001- 2006. <http://www.aroots.org/notebook/breve447.html> 5-5: Display of artwork in Castelvecchio Museum. Nicholas Olsberg, etal., Carlo Scarpa Architect: Intervening with History (New York: Monacelli Press, 1999), 31. 5-6: Studies completed by Carlo Scarpa in positioning the statue of Cangrande della Scala. Nicholas Olsberg, etal., Carlo Scarpa Architect: Intervening with History (New York: Monacelli Press, 1999), 81, 82 & 87. 5-7: Rookwood Pottery. Mount Adams Today. <http://www.mtadamstoday.com/ restaurants/porkopolis.php> 5-8: Coat ‘closet’, 5-9: New Mechanical System, and 5-10: Limited Kitchen Space. Photos by author, 2002. 6-1: Evolution, Leave Your Mark, Layering, Display, collage assembled by author. 7-1: 270 Calhoun Street, by author. v 7-2: Arial of 270 Calhoun Street. Image from Google Earth altered by author. 7-3: Lobby location on First Floor Plan, 7-4: Entrance, 7-5: Café Leo sign, 7-6: Child’s artwork, 7-7: Children’s artwork displayed, 7-8: Basement Floor Plan diagram, and 7-9: Existing Basement, by author. 7-10: Old Use, photo provided by the YMCA. 7-11: Existing conditions, 7-12: View from back deck, 7-13: First Floor Plan, 7-14: Second Floor Plan, 7-15: Future waiting lounge and 7-16: Existing second floor office, 7- 17: Third Floor Plan, 7-18: Example of third floor room, and 7-19: Kitchen Plan, by author. vi INTRODUCTION Image i- 1: Narrative Collage 1 In traditional cultures, environments are “never torn down, never erased; instead they are always embellished, modified, reduced, enlarged, improved.”1 They adapt to the needs of ever changing users. However, in modern American society, development is often seen in a different light. Newer is better; “buildings are assumed to have a certain finite lifetime” and will eventually be torn down “and replaced by larger buildings with finite lifetimes.”2 Those that are saved and restored are those that house “the seats of the powerful and famous.”3 It has been stated by Stewart Brand that the majority of buildings “strenuously avoid any relationship whatever with time and what is considered its depredation.”4 Up until the late twentieth century many architectural artifacts that were studied and preserved were those of monumental significance. In the opinion of James Marston Fitch, the experiences of the ‘illiterate majority’ had been overlooked. Although the majority of well-know preservation projects and reused spaces are those with historical significance, it is a part of evolution to reuse the ordinary structures around us. Adaptive reuse has been around in one technique or another since the beginning of the built environment. Whether it be a building such as the Parthenon, which has held functions ranging from a mosque, to a harem, to a powder magazine, or an ancient tool that has been used, reused, torn apart and the pieces reassembled, the idea of adapting the existing is part of human evolution. Fitch states, “An organic process of growth and repair must create a gradual sequence of changes.”5 He suggests that just as new construction is important, repair and addition to the existing is valuable. “Only then 1 James Marston Fitch, Historic Preservation (New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1982), 35. 2 Fitch, 35. 3 Fitch, 23. 4 Stewart Brand, How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They’re Built (New York: Penguin Books, 1994), 52. 5 Fitch, 35. 2 can an environment stay balanced both as a whole and in its parts, at every moment of its history.”6 However, in this process of adapting and reusing, the origin of the building and the story behind the initial function often gets lost. Image i- 2: Death of a Cottage The goal of this thesis study is to go beyond the more traditional approaches to adaptive reuse projects. Too often today, the existing is seen as an obstacle that needs to be designed around or in some cases demolished in order to impose a new design of the time. Sometimes historic elements are memorialized with plaques, or an existing element may be left untouched simply because it is “historic”.

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