On our last unit "Flow" we are wrapping up our course Urban Planning and our junior year! in our internal investigation, we discussed the make-up of a neighborhood as we look at industrial, commercial, and residential neighborhoods. As we dove in deeper as to how Chicago fits into the equation of Urban planning we had brought up issues like white flight, N.I.M.B.Y, redlining, and blighted communities. This had been a conversation that brought a lot of curiosity as to what policies and historical events had occurred to get where we are now. We then listened to individuals who had strong opinions on what our cities had become, some saying our cities are lazy, un-resourceful and non-eco-friendly followed by statements and ideas that can improve these issues such as public places, local living, and the ban of cars. We seamlessly dove into the external portion of this unit where we start to visualize these cities and take a look at urban planning worldwide. We had gathered a lot of inspiration from people all around the world and what they are doing to better the sense of community. This made me realize how urban planning is a talk everyone should be engaging in as it affects everyone and can be changed by anyone. At a time crunch of 3 days, we buckled our seat belts to dive into our action project where we pick a neighborhood of our choice to look deeper into and place improvements where we see fit.
Location: Pulaski Road and 51st Street on the Southwest Side of Chicago, Illinois
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| GA, "3D Area", 2019 |
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| GA, "Pulaski train station", 2019 |
BENEFICIAL HELP
Shared Bike Lanes: My neighborhood is ran by two main streets Pulaski and Archer. With no divvy stations located near the train station and the numerous amounts of bikes parked by the side of the street I felt as it was needed to accommodate a space where they can feel secured to progressively push forth more people on bikes and less people in vehicles. what I found surprising from my personal inductive analyses is there are more people riding bikes that are around the age of 30 to 50 years old than young adults who go to school right around the corner. This to me felt as a even bigger reason as to why we need to build our streets by the way our constituents use them.
Smart Street Lights: Getting off the train stop late at night is already a burden and a risk to most. As a student who goes to school in downtown there are several times I had came home around sundown and had felt unsafe from not having the ability to look at my surroundings. Smart Street lights would be beneficial in our overall safety as a passenger and a pedestrian. Light is a overall basic need that shouldn't be taken from lower income neighborhoods.
Public Space: The empty lot highlighted by the green dot has been in the same conditions since I was born. After years of walking past a gated dry land I had thought this would be a great location ti implement a public space as it benefits the commercial area headed down south of Pulaski and the High school that is right across the street from the train.
Public Art: Archer heights used to be a industrial neighborhood that carried a lot of the main railroads yards and warehouse facilities . Now that we have generations of families building a life in this community our neighborhood should equally represent that. By doing so public art has the ability to uplift the representation of the culture by creating a space that allows you to enjoy yourself in the same space you work.
Garden Fence: At a certain point dead weaves and uncared for grass stops being in the category of plant life. My neighborhood can benefit positively from encouraging more plant life near the south Pulaski commercial area. This will create a natural system of healthy nutrients.
INSPIRATION
My idea for the new infrastructure came from the base camps that are placed in Tijuana for the current Caravan. The people in these camps started having a connection one a another and its been continuously flourishing by the connection of art they share as they fix holes with broken glass by turning them into beautiful Mosaics. This was one of my biggest influences because many people put money as the reason why certain things don't change, this goes to prove how change can be made a drastic way without the involvement of loans. I was also inspired by an article that talked about light pollution and how Chicago is the worlds most light polluted city. This made me think of how we need to look forward into efficient options rather than faster on demand options.
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| GA, "Great Migration" 2019 |
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| GA, "Tijuana Camps", 2019 |
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| Ga, "Beautification", 2019 |
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| GA, "Public Art", 2019 |
THINK GLOBALLY
This local design can further impact globally by hitting these specific SDG targets.
11.2: By 2030, provide access to safe, affordable, accessible and sustainable transport systems for all, improving road safety, notably by expanding public transport, with special attention to the needs of those in vulnerable situations, women, children, persons with disabilities and older persons
11.7: By 2030, provide universal access to safe, inclusive and accessible, green and public spaces, in particular for women and children, older persons and persons with disabilities
Building Principles
2: Create mixed-use and mixed income neighborhood
- The fluidity of a commercial based space is a great way to welcome diversity and that's exactly what's being implemented.
4: Prioritize bicycle networks and auto-free streets
- Placing divvy stations next to the CTA will decrease the use of vehicles and allow people from work and school to resort to biking. As more and more people start to use bikes we can then change the roads to include bike lanes.
7: Match density and mix to transit capacity
- With the reliability of transportation it'll be possible to obtain a higher rate of people suing these options knowing safety will be less of a problem.
UP TO SCALE
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| GA, "Calculate", 2019 |
Neighborly Help
In order to form ideas that will benefit the space as a whole I wanted to get a primary source from a person who is an constituent of the neighborhood.
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| GA, "Jesus", 2019 |
Q: What can be placed to lower the crime rate?
A: By implementing cameras around the streets at night would be an idea, I don't really see cameras in high crime rate neighborhoods.
3-D Design
