project info

Sharon Stella Betts-Phoenix
The Fluid Library: Fertilization of a community through knowledge.
Jovi Cruces-Westchester
The history of Westchester County was explored to reveal its former nature as a vital industrial satellite of NYC. This intimate relationship was evidenced by the inscription of three primary arteries linking the two metropoles in the form of three rail lines. Still contrary to the notion that it might have despite it being in this relation the city nevertheless possessed its own distinct nature and essence. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow became text that elucidated the particular mentality of the local Dutch towards outsiders thus illustrating a strong provincialism so contrary to the homogenized suburb we know it as today. The project struggled to formulate the roots for a resurgence of strong local identity. Studies revealed the dominant order of the area's fabric to be in the form of three corridors running in north south direction corresponding to three river valleys. access in the east west direction was minimal in comparison. A strategy was developed to connect these two corridors by a vocational school by occupying an abandon rail way track. An abandoned railway track became the site for a vocational school. Metaphorically the railway became and image of the headless horseman. New centers on the railroad.
Simone Early-Detroit
Birthing center/Hospital/Hostel for unwed mothers in Detroit. the attempt to stabilize a community through creating an alternative framework to support new family structures.
Mark Gordon- Portland
Bridging Structure
Ming-Wei Huang-Taipei
Free Space
Sharon Johnston-Los Angeles
After selecting a necklace of significant nodes on a passage from the original city center to the Pacific Ocean, the student became interested in the inhabitation of the spans that lie between. The car, the essential instrument for inhabiting L.A., became the vehicle through which this would take place and so became an integral part of conceiving the architecture, an architecture to accommodate speed.
Andrew Kawahara-Hong Kong
International Court of Reconciliation in the center of Hong Kong harbor.
Steven Moon-Seoul
The student proposed a new train station at the center of Seoul Korea. Intrigued by the former image of the original walled city of Seoul, and the possibility for a new one the student conceived the new image of the city based on a mapping of the areas of the city that had been destroyed during the Korean War that regrettably had since been redeveloped into anonymity. These mappings revealed the path of destruction that had been waged against the people of Seoul that had been erased through the subsequent development. The student conceived of a new train line that, while originating in the North, would reenter the city along the same path. At each stop along the line each former zones of destruction which became memorialized as open spaces courtyards within the body of the city sponsoring a range of programs supporting by a ring of housing.
Bill Penner-Trenton
The idea arose that rather than conceive of the development of a city always in terms of expansion, in many instances, particularly as concerns formally industrial cities in a post-industrial age, it is better to conceive of and devise an order for the contraction of the cities. The student conceived of a new type of infrastructure to accommodate this reverse process of development.
Will Peterson-Phoenix
A new housing prototype at the outskirts of Phoenix. The student studied the canal system of Phoenix as a unique form of infrastructure whose understanding is vital to understanding the development of the city. Only in so much as water could be introduced could a city be conceivable in such a desert. The relationship of the city and water becomes highlighted. The notion of common watershed common civilization. Through an investigation into a sacred rite of passage of the original Native American population that settled the area, the student developed a vertical order on which to base a section for housing. the first program to begin to introduce new densities to the city which would in turn stem the tide of rampant horizontal sprawl.
Cathy Springer-Honolulu
A concern for the overdevelopment of the island as a consequence of unbridled tourism led the student to invent a program and urban intervention that would sponsor a reawakening on the part of the inhabitants of an appreciation for the fragile (fragility of the island in the context of its geological history) position of the island in the context of its geological history. The discovery that the water level was rising at a rate of 10 feet every 100 years allowed the student to map and superimpose a number of projected edges onto the city. The 10-year city, the 100-year city and the 1000-year city and the permanent city were projected redefining the formally spatial zones as fragile temporal zones continually subject to change by the rising water level. Four Towers were positioned one on each of these monoliths became devoted to the study and preservation of an aspect of the island unique and fragile ecology. Ecological towers.
Albertus Wang-Jakarta
The widespread privatization of the public infrastructure, and the trend toward developing the offshore archipelago as private property led the student to explore a strategy for development along democratic principles to reinstate and insure public access. The islands were taken as an area of focus. A number of mappings were undertaken together forming a network which extended over the archipelago connecting all the islands at their geometric centers. This image of the unity of otherwise disparate bodies becomes a model for a new democratic institution and governmental institution - A Malaysian Congress.
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Harvard GSD-Options Studio
Fall 1993
Studio Instructor
with Diane Lewis

“Long Span Urbanism”

Having been asked to select the city that they “come from”, the students were challenged to develop archetypal structures and programs that responded to contemporary urban issues in each city. The goal of the studio is to again found an urbanism on the architectural scale inspired by the examples of Le Corbusier’s Unité Projects and Mies Van De Roe’s Convention Center. Because the class was ethnically diverse, we achieved a wide variety of cities, the majority of which, interestingly enough, were situated on along the Pacific Rim – Jakarta, Taipei, Seoul, Hong Kong and Honolulu and on the North American Continent Seattle and Los Angeles. In addition, there was Phoenix, Trenton, Detroit and Westchester County.

This circumstance provided an unexpected dimension to the studio since, by tapping into the cultural diversity of the class and having each student working from a basis of some personal first-hand experience, we were able access and expose the students to urban issues that otherwise they might be culturally insulated from. Furthermore, by providing the students with the opportunity to define for themselves an architectural investigation centered on the idea of place and their memory of it, they began to develop the conviction that their work could have important implications in the formulation of that place. We had hoped that this conviction would help them to orient them as architects as the left school and entered into practice.