Weeds
Master's Thesis - University of Detroit Mercy School of Architecture
Recipient of the 2011 Outstanding Thesis Award
The world is in a constant state of flux. Yet the rate of change is not constant. Contemporary trends such as the IT revolution and market shifts have caused mass migrations and great changes in social, economic, and environmental conditions that have significantly impacted the urban landscape.
As the great manufacturing metropolises of America deindustrialize land, buildings, and neighborhoods are left vacant. The voids left behind decay the urban fabric. They produce no revenue to balance the costs of demolishing buildings, maintaining infrastructure, and declining property values.
Rather than leaving them to remain vacant in hopes of large scale redevelopment, these abandoned lands should be harnessed as opportunities to spur new growth. This thesis is an exploration into how transient architecture can fill these voids. Transient architecture offers ways to bridge the gap between abandonment and redevelopment. It can bring function, people, and revenue to a once parasitic environment as it addresses the present rather than the uncertain future.
RIVERTOWN DETROIT
In the past half century, globalization and the search for cheaper labor have led to the decline of Detroit’s automotive and manufacturing industry. Facing this dilemma, the neighborhood of Rivertown began searching for a new identity. Buildings such as Stroh Riverplace were converted from their former industrial uses to offices and loft style apartments. Cement silos, docks, and factories were replaced with restaurants, bars, and entertainment venues. However the population continued to decline and there was not enough demand to occupy all the vacating buildings and land. In 1998, as an attempt to seek a larger gross income from the entertainment industry, the city of Detroit elected to open three casinos. Given its status as an entertainment district, city officials decided upon Rivertown as the local to site the proposed new casinos. To much controversy, 52 acres of land were purchased or condemned to make way for the casinos. The city’s plan for the casinos changed. The new plan sited the casinos in downtown and along the expressways. Rivertown was now stripped bare of many of its cornerstone businesses. The city offered to sell back the land to the original owners but the businesses’ clients had moved on.
In 2002 the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy was formed. The conservancy began transforming the vacant land along the river into a greenway. The greenway, Detroit Riverwalk, includes a pedestrian and bike path, tour boat docks, parks, and marinas. It is intersected by another recently conceived pedestrian artery, the Dequindre Cut. The intent of the riverwalk is to connect Belle Isle, an island park, through the near east to the central riverfront. It has shown success in bringing people back to visit the area, yet it remains incomplete with voids of neglected river frontage disjointing its path. Rather than waiting for new urbanist development to fill the voids, this thesis proposes to complete the Riverwalk with architectural interventions at three key locations, the Drydock, Chene, and Uniroyal sites.
uniroyal
The Uniroyal site is the last location before the Belle Isle Bridge when traveling from west to east. The location is a contaminated brownfield due to years of manufacturing and irresponsible practices used when demolishing the complex. Although it has a prime location due to its close proximity to the Belle Isle and Gabriel Richard Parks, the cost of cleaning the site to usable conditions has hindered development plans.
Today fishermen and explorers brave the dangers of pollutants. Deer have made a home in the expansive fields. At the far east end of the site is a parking lot used to store concrete barricades and miscellaneous other concrete pieces. Skateboarders, cyclists, and roller bladers have transformed this area into a clandestine recreation area for their activities. They have made use of the concrete pieces by modifying them into obstacles for their sport.
The eastern end of the site retains the vernacular skate/bike/blade park that currently exists. The depth of the bowl is increased with integration of concrete barriers. A structure composed of railroad car pieces, concrete barriers, and pallets houses restrooms and can serves as a center for gathering, or warming during winter months. Pooling water on flat portions of the park is remedied by means of a retention pond. The pond doubles as an ice skating rink in the winter promoting year round activity at the site.
Chene
The Chene site is fenced off from the public, restricting access. However, fishermen have cut holes in the fence to gain access. The existing dock remains unused by boats. just west of the site is chene park, a seasonal music venue. Rivertown lacks anypublic boat launch points. With little modification, this site would easly be converted to an access point.
The proposal for Chene joins the riverwalk using an existing bridge which was abandoned at the Uniroyal site. A ramp connecting the longer bay to Atwater Street forms a boat launch. The bridge allows the pedestrians to cross through the site without impeding traffic from the boat launch.
Dry Dock
The drydock is characterized by a long narrow hill bordering a bay. The bay terminates at Atwater Street across from the deserted Detroit Dry Dock / Globe Trading Building. On the west side of the bay’s mouth is an interface with the river for Detroit’s public water works. The topography of the site affords views and access to the water
The drydock design includes a viewing tower which is made from the salvaged steel structure attached to the cement silo located ton the northern end of Dequindre cut. The water utility interface is covered through additional earth berming which ties into the existing hill. Pieces of the train cars are assembled into a folded roof structure which rests upon a wall and row of columns made from concrete barriers taken from the Uniroyal site. A bridge was constructed using concrete planks also from the Uniroyal site and is supported by salvaged steel from the same structure as the viewing platform.
