PUBLICATIONS + AWARDS
GULIN NEW TOWN: AN INTEGRATED DESIGN FRAMEWORK
As China began implementing a national policy of constructing limited access highways to make remote parts of the nation quickly accessible, local communities began to compete for exits, providing economic/regional power opportunities for some and marginalization/decline for others. Gulin appeared in control of this process, rerouting a river for better feng shui for their new economic and administrative center. Unfortunately, in their hate, despite many structures near completion, roads didn't join at the proper elevations, some misaligning as much as 10-15 meters. This project reviewed and replanned much of the new center.
HELLS KITCHEN SOUTH
This neighborhood was the last unplanned section of NYC. It was a community of local tenements, destination food venues and regional infrastructures. This project looked for common ground to allow both to evolve into something as unique and diverse as the neighborhood currently was. It challenged all to rethink how cities are organized, finding something that defied convention by creating new urban partnerships and models.
CARACAS NEW URBANISM: LA COTA MIL
​Informal urbanization occurs globally with social, economic and political incentives and consequences. In Caracas, the breach of the limited access highway, at 1000 meters elevation, into the ecologically fragile Avila mountains became an opportunity to incentivize densification, develop public transportation infrastructure, and improve open space and social services within the informal urban fabric.
BEYOND THE BOX: THE SUPERSTORE AND THE CITY
Big box retail was past its infancy when it ventured into the highly lucrative NYC market. However, their business model, which assumed a single floor plate and a parking lot at least double in size, misaligned with the city's street and block system. Additionally, New Yorkers, while interested in lower prices, were aware of the downside for local businesses, pedestrian services and traffic. This design project researched how the superstore typology could be introduced into NYC, leading to changes in the department of city planning zoning requirements and was the subject of the longest running exhibit in the history of the municipal arts society.
MOSTAR: BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA
The destruction of the Ottoman Empire era Mostar bridge, which previously had provided religious and cultural integration, caused rampant national and cultural segregation. The project sought to reestablish a productive and lasting dialog between the two communities on either side of the bridge by not only recommending rebuilding the structure but also enhancing neighborhood pedestrian access, creating more opportunity to interact on a regular basis.
PRAGUE: NEW URBANISMS
The post WWII development in Prague was at the periphery of the city. Large Soviet built tower blocks with connecting subway lines created a necklace like ring. This project researched and redesigned peripheral developments to create a more complex and varied urbanism with wider opportunities and choices for old and new residents.
NAPLES: NEW URBANISMS
The Centro Direzionale is the modern business district close to the Napoli Centrale railway station. Designed by Japanese architect Kenzo Tange, the entire complex was completed in 1995. It was the first cluster of skyscrapers to have been built in Italy or southern Europe. Spatially and programmatically separated from the historic city, the development fell into immediate disrepair and neglect and saw a large increase in the rate of crime. This project looked at how to reintegrate this complex, physically, economically, and culturally, without erasing the identity of either entity.
RE-ENVISIONING HEALTH IN KUMASI: SPATIAL STRATEGIES
Chinese business development fueled by their export extraction efforts challenged the once vibrant local economies of this city in Ghana. This project in community mobilization and enhancement considered spatial strategies to better guide and direct the foreign pressures.
REIMAGINING LUTYENS' DEHLI
Most days in Delhi have dangerous air quality levels and moving around the city takes hours. The city district designed by colonialist Lutyens is home to many of the city's political and cultural elite. The tree-lined streets and pedestrian scale infrastructure stand in stark contrast to the reality of the remaining areas. District leadership faced increasing pressures to share burdens of the rest of the city. This project was to consider how/if this may be possible including application of Lutyen’s urban design model to alleviate environmental and transportation burdens throughout the city.
THE CARBON STUDIO: BANGKOK
Bangkok, like Delhi, reals from the consequences of poor urbanization practices. This project considered how elevating the early works in carbon sequestration, monitoring carbon trading and controlling carbon production could improve the redevelopment of this historic urban canal.
URBAN DEVELOPMENT IN ACCRA GHANA
Accra is the destination for a large quantity of the world's technological waste. In Agbogbloshie, a delta slum, adults and children tear away at burned computers to get at the precious metals inside. In 2008, Greenpeace sampled the burned soil at Agbogbloshie and found high levels of lead, cadmium, antimony, PCB's and chlorinated dioxins. The work in this project considered better technological waste chains.
VACANT CITY: BRUSSELS
This "think-in" by international urban designers and programmers considered futures for the Mont Des Arts, one of the sites most ravaged by modernization in the whole of Brussels. D+U's contribution, de-masking the Mont Des Arts, took the position that the problem could be seen as interconnected with a much larger pattern of conditions and physical relationships in the brussels region. It was the hypothesis of the approach that only a localized and defensive strategy could successfully recapture the centrality of the site to the life of the city.
