The memory we have of a certain space gives meaning to its form and architecture, and consequently a significant place in our minds. As we think of the past, we often remember the places we have been in light of the occurrences endured there, associating a place with an emotion and a particular event. These memories are innately a part of every design process. The memories, in this sense, are not fixed, but are linked together. These links can form a type of architecture based on archetypes and memories, leading to a variety of innovative designs. The memories of an architect and those of a user and community can be combined with needs and trends of the present to form a space which will in turn be adaptable for the future.
In the architecture of adaptive reuse, some historic aspects of a structure, for example the façade and exterior massing, can be fixed and thus preserved, while the interiors are retrofitted for a new use. The memory of what the structure once was in its civic sense is therefore preserved, while the interior spaces provide it with the flexibility of present and future adaptation.
As the former largest corporation in the world, the Reading Railroad removed the central portion and ‘heartbeat’ of Reading, PA. after it closed down in the 1970’s. The remaining structures and tracks on the site are rarely, if ever, used. The Reading Yard now sits as an insurmountable void within the surrounding city, which lies bewildered and unsure of a use for the space. The adaptive reuse of the remaining structures and land can provide a means of survival through the memories of the railroad, while a continuously evolving programmatic layout can form new memories, creating a new cultural identity for the city.
Abstract to be edited more in the following week
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Monday, 2.18
Site Sections:
Scaled topography map
Exaggerated site sections
Case studies:
DAIM
Julien Beever
Theo Jansen
Goggle Works
ZKM Karlsruhe
Interchange Flon, Lausanne
Riverview at Reading
Most of the above take up virtual space, or are in continuous motion, providing for a continually changing programmatic layout and variation in plan, section, etc.
Answering 'why, this, here'
Increase in scale
Presentation of diagrams as drawn, as well as in order of relevance, not chronology
Sketches of openings, welcoming entrances, framing of interaction between urban fabric and historical buildings.
Linking of historic past and existing communities through new urban architectural interventions.
More to follow
Scaled topography map
Exaggerated site sections
Case studies:
DAIM
Julien Beever
Theo Jansen
Goggle Works
ZKM Karlsruhe
Interchange Flon, Lausanne
Riverview at Reading
Most of the above take up virtual space, or are in continuous motion, providing for a continually changing programmatic layout and variation in plan, section, etc.
Answering 'why, this, here'
Increase in scale
Presentation of diagrams as drawn, as well as in order of relevance, not chronology
Sketches of openings, welcoming entrances, framing of interaction between urban fabric and historical buildings.
Linking of historic past and existing communities through new urban architectural interventions.
More to follow
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Reading Redevelopment
http://www.readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=80311
$1 Billion proposed for South Side Reading redevelopment plan.
Early support facilities and more drawing power for the Reading Yard?
Probably.
$1 Billion proposed for South Side Reading redevelopment plan.
Early support facilities and more drawing power for the Reading Yard?
Probably.
Jury Reactions
Interventions:
Skew Bridge: Unique decision made by the city and the railroad to solve a specific problem in a specific area... each piece specially made to fit in its own place, no interchangeable parts. The same can be said for the interventions on the site and the program overall. The city now has a specific problem that it needs to solve and it can be solved through the site of the former railroad giant.
Mural Arts Program:
Goes out into the city and involves the community, instead of waiting for the communities to involve themselves.
The studios, galleries and exhibitions displayed in this site have the great ability to involve the communities surrounding the grounds as well as outside visitors. Given its 'megalopolis' location, the Reading Yard can draw large amounts of people, revenue, expansion, rehabilitation, etc from New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Washington D.C. etc firstly, due to its large expanses of open land and available exhibition AND studio space. A recent adaptive reuse in Reading, the Goggle Works (a former goggle factory, obviously) has been completed and is now open as an art facility, yet has very limited space for exhibits and studios and no outside land or greenspace, something highly lacking in Reading. Despite its lack of space, it has recently been considered Reading, PA's most successful building. (www.goggleworks.org) The Reading Yard and its art facilities can serve as a much needed expansion to this building.
The 200 acres of available land on the site also provide much needed green space for the local communities to use. The closest in the city belongs to the enormous cemetary on the northwest corner of the yard. Very few other areas of green space are scattered throughout the city, but are not close enough for immediate communal use, and most are split by high traffic roads. Though the yard is in a valley between the two sides of the city, it is raised up on its own land platform, providing a sort of escape from the street levels, a good feature for a park system to have.
Other communities, such as glass blowing, large scale artists and sculptors, etc form in places where land and space is available for their use, hence the formation of glass blowers in Washington State, sculptors in the Southwest U.S., etc. This area is large enough to draw from these crowds and bring such wonders to the east coast.
Why this here?
Why not? What better way is there for a community to express themselves and allow their identity to show through than with artwork? Even graffitti is an art form, despite its urban sense of belonging, afterall, this is an urban area, and its community is largely immigrant, so why not allow this artwork to come through? There is always someone who thinks every piece of art looks like a large lump of trash in its site, yet there are plenty of people who absolutely enjoy the same piece of art.
Where is the architecture?
This is turning into a slight urban planning project, with bits of adaptive reuse to be implemented on the available structures already on the site, as I have been saying for quite some time. I DO NOT intend to place a banal glass box on the side of an incredible expression of industrial American architecture. Interior spaces, studios, offices, galleries, restrooms, support spaces, corridors, lobbies etc can all be designed into the fabric existing within the confines of the Reading Yard, the project is just not to that point as of yet, but it is getting there.
Case Studies:
Both Tschumi projects
Interface Flon, Lausanne
-City rising up on either side of the site, much like the city of Reading rises up on either side of the Reading Yard. Elevated bridges and pathways (only one was ever constructed, due to budget) connect one side to the other, much like in the quick thumbnails presented on Tuesday.
ZKM Karlsruhe
-Mostly used for the pathways as well, though it is a theoretical project.
Much more to follow within the next few days...
Skew Bridge: Unique decision made by the city and the railroad to solve a specific problem in a specific area... each piece specially made to fit in its own place, no interchangeable parts. The same can be said for the interventions on the site and the program overall. The city now has a specific problem that it needs to solve and it can be solved through the site of the former railroad giant.
Mural Arts Program:
Goes out into the city and involves the community, instead of waiting for the communities to involve themselves.
The studios, galleries and exhibitions displayed in this site have the great ability to involve the communities surrounding the grounds as well as outside visitors. Given its 'megalopolis' location, the Reading Yard can draw large amounts of people, revenue, expansion, rehabilitation, etc from New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Washington D.C. etc firstly, due to its large expanses of open land and available exhibition AND studio space. A recent adaptive reuse in Reading, the Goggle Works (a former goggle factory, obviously) has been completed and is now open as an art facility, yet has very limited space for exhibits and studios and no outside land or greenspace, something highly lacking in Reading. Despite its lack of space, it has recently been considered Reading, PA's most successful building. (www.goggleworks.org) The Reading Yard and its art facilities can serve as a much needed expansion to this building.
The 200 acres of available land on the site also provide much needed green space for the local communities to use. The closest in the city belongs to the enormous cemetary on the northwest corner of the yard. Very few other areas of green space are scattered throughout the city, but are not close enough for immediate communal use, and most are split by high traffic roads. Though the yard is in a valley between the two sides of the city, it is raised up on its own land platform, providing a sort of escape from the street levels, a good feature for a park system to have.
Other communities, such as glass blowing, large scale artists and sculptors, etc form in places where land and space is available for their use, hence the formation of glass blowers in Washington State, sculptors in the Southwest U.S., etc. This area is large enough to draw from these crowds and bring such wonders to the east coast.
Why this here?
Why not? What better way is there for a community to express themselves and allow their identity to show through than with artwork? Even graffitti is an art form, despite its urban sense of belonging, afterall, this is an urban area, and its community is largely immigrant, so why not allow this artwork to come through? There is always someone who thinks every piece of art looks like a large lump of trash in its site, yet there are plenty of people who absolutely enjoy the same piece of art.
Where is the architecture?
This is turning into a slight urban planning project, with bits of adaptive reuse to be implemented on the available structures already on the site, as I have been saying for quite some time. I DO NOT intend to place a banal glass box on the side of an incredible expression of industrial American architecture. Interior spaces, studios, offices, galleries, restrooms, support spaces, corridors, lobbies etc can all be designed into the fabric existing within the confines of the Reading Yard, the project is just not to that point as of yet, but it is getting there.
Case Studies:
Both Tschumi projects
Interface Flon, Lausanne
-City rising up on either side of the site, much like the city of Reading rises up on either side of the Reading Yard. Elevated bridges and pathways (only one was ever constructed, due to budget) connect one side to the other, much like in the quick thumbnails presented on Tuesday.
ZKM Karlsruhe
-Mostly used for the pathways as well, though it is a theoretical project.
Much more to follow within the next few days...
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Reactions / Links
Not sure why this one looks like a negative, but it basically is used to get across the notion of bringing back / maintaining the memory of the railroad while letting it deteriorate at the same time, sort of a way of letting the memory 'rot' away and allowing the new/modern art and redevelopment to take over the site.
This one shows the juxtaposition of the old to the new, the old 'art forms' of the industrial revolution and the kinetic sculptures (just as an example) as the newer, more modern art forms birthed from the industrial revolution's advances. Links to Jansen's kinetic sculptures are below, including 'Rhinoceros' pictured above.For Tuesday's jury:
This week I have been working on drawings relating to my site. So far there are 3 completed photo sketches of potential interventions on the site, as well as 2 diagrams of new pathways across / bridging the site, and the splitting of buildings. This splitting and the pathways are bringing areas for new interventions to my attention which help greatly in the design of an organizational system. In addition to these drawings, I am working on truncating the previous diagrams to hopefully help more with organization, as well as increasing the scale of the site (especially in the section drawings) in order to focus in on more specific areas.
Useful/pertinent links:
Mostly for the video at the bottom, but the images are awesome:
http://www.behance.net/Gallery/energie-in-motion/42738
This one is old, but John and Lisa weren't familiar, so here is Theo Jansen again:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMqftVhOuTw
This one is a collage of stills (2-D) by DAIM, sorry for the music, but it fits the urban art theme:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhgxCwV5usY
Museo Centrale Montemartini; Juxtaposition of ancient sculpture with modern machinery:
http://eternallycool.net/?p=578
This one is awesome forms of urban/modern art, especially the Feb 1st post of Grand Central Station called 'Another Great Public...' and the DAIM post from Jan 28th called 'Tagged In Motion':
http://www.woostercollective.com/
Julian Beever chalk pavement drawings: 2-D surfaces with 3-D effects:
http://users.skynet.be/J.Beever/pave.htm
One last thing: It was mentioned by Lisa concerning the pathways across the site that a certain height is necessary for a pedestrian pathway crossing over a railroad... I mentioned before that the corporation that owns the Reading Yard, Norfolk Southern, actually moved their site and operations two miles to a different location in central PA when redevelopment schemes arose for their location... I guess this can be used as a method for avoiding many code restrictions on my specific site, but we'll see what comes up as design moves forward...
Much more to follow when I finish more drawings.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Meeting Reactions
Goals for next week/Quarter review:
Complete site mapping and diagramming
Larger scales, smaller areas
-Focusing in on design info and areas
Site sections
-Diagram sections
-East/west and north/south drawings
Working towards a workable scale for a model
Access to buildings:
Pathways that lead throughout site can lead through the buildings providing a glimpse of what goes on inside, but not allow access to the interiors, providing a connection and association between community and artist therefore avoiding the divide created as the result of a barrier (i.e. new Tyler school building vs. CEA building, and Arch students vs. Engineering students) This can also arise through the use of a 'spraypaint wall' such as the photo merge presented today:
Look at juxtaposition of elements such as BCJ's Apple Store and Grand Central Station's interior squash courts.
Use the site as a resource for labor and input, not just labor... greenspace will become vital for neighborhood use due to the lack of its availability within the city.
Case studies:
Monte Martini, EUR Rome
Grand Central Station; Squash courts
BCJ's Apple Store, Manhatan
James Stirling's State Gallery, Stuttgart
'Pecker' - John Waters' 1998 film
More to follow this week...
Complete site mapping and diagramming
Larger scales, smaller areas
-Focusing in on design info and areas
Site sections
-Diagram sections
-East/west and north/south drawings
Working towards a workable scale for a model
Access to buildings:
Pathways that lead throughout site can lead through the buildings providing a glimpse of what goes on inside, but not allow access to the interiors, providing a connection and association between community and artist therefore avoiding the divide created as the result of a barrier (i.e. new Tyler school building vs. CEA building, and Arch students vs. Engineering students) This can also arise through the use of a 'spraypaint wall' such as the photo merge presented today:
Look at juxtaposition of elements such as BCJ's Apple Store and Grand Central Station's interior squash courts.
Use the site as a resource for labor and input, not just labor... greenspace will become vital for neighborhood use due to the lack of its availability within the city.
Case studies:
Monte Martini, EUR Rome
Grand Central Station; Squash courts
BCJ's Apple Store, Manhatan
James Stirling's State Gallery, Stuttgart
'Pecker' - John Waters' 1998 film
More to follow this week...
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Monday, 1/28
Back to blogging!
Case Studies:
Storm King
Dia:Beacon
Grounds for Sculpture, etc
Storm King and GFS seems to be pretty much the same thing, but SK is about 500 acres, so it's over 2 x the scale I am attempting.
Details:
500 acres of post-war sculpture in NY
Opened in 1960
Directly responsive to natural landscape (just like GFS)
'Creative Farming' - reintroduction of natural long grasses into the previously farm-exhausted fields
Permanent collection
Works on loan
Special exhibits and events
Serves as public gathering space for special events and public awarness, etc.
Dia:Beacon:
Historic preservation of Nabisco factory in NY
300,000sqft of interior space (roughly the size of one of the structures in the Reading Yard)
Permanent collection/works on loan/special events
No surrounding landscapes, all interior works
Neither SK, DB or GFS provide workshop and creation / studio space for artists and communities, they all are variations of gallery spaces and collections of sculptures. DB has no relation to landscape and is very small in comparison to SK, GFS and the Reading Yard, yet it will still provide valuable insight into preservation and interior gallery space, etc.
Scale:
Questions have been raised numerous times about the size and scope of work I am planning to achieve in this project. I still am not completely sure how large this project will become, which is a concern due to the short amount of time we have to do actual work. The 'master plan' (if you will) includes the reuse of each of the structures on the site (appx 640,000 sqft) somewhere down the road. I would like to focus on one building for final jury and discussions in the latter part of the semester. I think the large shop on the west end of the yard would be my choice for this, since it provides the most interior space of all of the structures still standing.
This weekend I am developing diagrams (hopefully a few) for the layout and organization of the sculptural grounds and areas throughout the site. This will provide a clear explanation of a system to be applied to act as a catalyst for the site and its eventual complete redevelopment. As for a site model, this will most likely entail an overall site model (even if it means 1:100 scale, which will build faster and maybe help for viewing organization, despite yielding little detail) Focusing on a single building will allow for a larger scale model of that to be constructed... If its design becomes a system that may be applied to each building on the site through variations, then drawings (elevations, sections, perspectives, etc) can be done for their conveyance. As for now, I think the diagrams have helped the most and will continue to do so throughout the design process.
Getting an organization scheme hammered out within the next week or so is the first step, which will help lead into the design of the buildings, etc. (So that's for starters I guess).
The entire site is not manageable, obviously, so I will not be able to design/develop the whole site this semester, but will instead develop a method for redevelopment (as if I haven't said that already).
Links to the community can be achieved in several ways. First are the obvious; the community will have this as a grounds for expression of their artistic talents and abilities, etc, as well as a public events grounds. The removal of physical barriers (fences, walls, invasive vegetation, etc.) will provide views into the site from the surrounding city/hills on the east and west. Other methods for involvement of and linkage to the community are the further redevelopment of the site, (i.e. shops, retail, restaurant space, etc.) that may spring up with the coming of this project. Linkages are made in the owning, operating, maintaining, developing and coexistence of/with the Reading Yard.
Where will it be in 50+ years? I'll need to sit on that for a while.
As always, more to follow...
Case Studies:
Storm King
Dia:Beacon
Grounds for Sculpture, etc
Storm King and GFS seems to be pretty much the same thing, but SK is about 500 acres, so it's over 2 x the scale I am attempting.
Details:
500 acres of post-war sculpture in NY
Opened in 1960
Directly responsive to natural landscape (just like GFS)
'Creative Farming' - reintroduction of natural long grasses into the previously farm-exhausted fields
Permanent collection
Works on loan
Special exhibits and events
Serves as public gathering space for special events and public awarness, etc.
Dia:Beacon:
Historic preservation of Nabisco factory in NY
300,000sqft of interior space (roughly the size of one of the structures in the Reading Yard)
Permanent collection/works on loan/special events
No surrounding landscapes, all interior works
Neither SK, DB or GFS provide workshop and creation / studio space for artists and communities, they all are variations of gallery spaces and collections of sculptures. DB has no relation to landscape and is very small in comparison to SK, GFS and the Reading Yard, yet it will still provide valuable insight into preservation and interior gallery space, etc.
Scale:
Questions have been raised numerous times about the size and scope of work I am planning to achieve in this project. I still am not completely sure how large this project will become, which is a concern due to the short amount of time we have to do actual work. The 'master plan' (if you will) includes the reuse of each of the structures on the site (appx 640,000 sqft) somewhere down the road. I would like to focus on one building for final jury and discussions in the latter part of the semester. I think the large shop on the west end of the yard would be my choice for this, since it provides the most interior space of all of the structures still standing.
This weekend I am developing diagrams (hopefully a few) for the layout and organization of the sculptural grounds and areas throughout the site. This will provide a clear explanation of a system to be applied to act as a catalyst for the site and its eventual complete redevelopment. As for a site model, this will most likely entail an overall site model (even if it means 1:100 scale, which will build faster and maybe help for viewing organization, despite yielding little detail) Focusing on a single building will allow for a larger scale model of that to be constructed... If its design becomes a system that may be applied to each building on the site through variations, then drawings (elevations, sections, perspectives, etc) can be done for their conveyance. As for now, I think the diagrams have helped the most and will continue to do so throughout the design process.
Getting an organization scheme hammered out within the next week or so is the first step, which will help lead into the design of the buildings, etc. (So that's for starters I guess).
The entire site is not manageable, obviously, so I will not be able to design/develop the whole site this semester, but will instead develop a method for redevelopment (as if I haven't said that already).
Links to the community can be achieved in several ways. First are the obvious; the community will have this as a grounds for expression of their artistic talents and abilities, etc, as well as a public events grounds. The removal of physical barriers (fences, walls, invasive vegetation, etc.) will provide views into the site from the surrounding city/hills on the east and west. Other methods for involvement of and linkage to the community are the further redevelopment of the site, (i.e. shops, retail, restaurant space, etc.) that may spring up with the coming of this project. Linkages are made in the owning, operating, maintaining, developing and coexistence of/with the Reading Yard.
Where will it be in 50+ years? I'll need to sit on that for a while.
As always, more to follow...
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