mandatory

Based on the overlapping maps of Alphabet City, there are vacant lots in many different kinds of environments. Most of the lots are located in a zone that is primarily commercial. There are also some lots in single-family home areas.

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Based on the map, the program is reflective of of the surrounding areas: lots closer to single family homes have a more gardening focus and lots closer to commercial regions have program for eateries. 

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I am also attempting to figure out what the correlation is between sites and how they relate to each other. 

More square footage and site specific program to come. 

Demographics by section of Alphabet City, NYC. 

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Census 2000. 

I’m continuing to map the Alphabet City area of NYC. Hoping to learn something new about the site and how it relates to a community. What are the aspects of a community? How does the community function? How do people come together? I’m going to try to overlap a few of these maps in order to understand how the architecture has shaped this specific area of NYC.

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By tomorrow morning, I will map the ethnicity and nationality of the region in order to see how people come together in this section of the community. 

I’m looking at the site of Alphabet City in New York’s Lower East Side. 

I am looking to do some more mapping of the area and try to make some mistakes in hopes of coming across some new epiphany. 

This is going to be fun. 

Alphabet City, NYC — the site for my thesis

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Criteria for site: 

 • urban environment
 • poverty level
 • existing community environment
 • close to public transportation

• close to public parks

• walkable street | lots of foot traffic
• homeless surrounding

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Alphabet City is a neighborhood located within the Lower East Side and East Village in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is also known as Loisaida, a Spanglish adaptation of ‘Lower East Side’. Its name comes from Avenues A, B, C, and D, the only avenues in Manhattan to have single-letter names. It is bordered by Houston Street to the south and by 14th Street to the north, along the traditional northern border of the East Village and south of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village. Some famous landmarks include Tompkins Square Park and the Nuyorican Poets Cafe. The neighborhood has a long history, serving as a cultural centre and ethnic enclave for Manhattan’s German, Polish, Hispanic, and Jewish populations.

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In August 1988 a riot erupted in Tompkins Square Park when anarchists and homeless activists from outside the neighborhood began throwing M-80s and rocks at police who had arrived to evict a large encampment of homeless people from the park. The police had been sent there to enforce a curfew enacted in response to over a decade of complaints from residents about the round-the-clock lawlessness and noise emanating from the park. The police showed little restraint, with several demonstrators injured, and much ensuing public disapproval. The rioters and their sympathizers refer to it as the Tompkins Square Park Police Riot.

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Alphabet City was one of many neighborhoods in New York to experience gentrification in the 1990s and early 21st century. Multiple factors resulted in lower crime rates and higher rents in Manhattan in general, and Alphabet City in particular. Avenues A through D became distinctly less bohemian in the 21st century than they had been in earlier decades. Apartments have been renovated and formerly abandoned storefronts are now bustling with new restaurants, nightclubs and retail establishments

mapping the homeless | south manhattan

I really like this project because it’s basis is reclaiming the public space, for exactly that: PUBLIC SPACE. I don’t think that it’s real statement is to ‘get rid of vehicles’ but it is about creating a public environment in a dense environment. These are temporary public spaces, but they are definitely an IN YOUR FACE statement that is inclusive of the community and their surroundings.

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Another reason why I think that this is important because a lot of times there are people who don’t know what is legal and what is illegal. This is a legal movement and they have found ways around the system to create a public statement. There are many people who want to reclaim public space, but aren’t sure how to do so.  

(via PARK(ing) Day | Rebar Art & Design Studio | San Francisco)

Mapping out potential sites in Brooklyn, New York.

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Criteria for site: 

 • urban environment
 • poverty level
 • existing community environment
• close to public transportation

• close to public parks

• walkable street | lots of foot traffic
• homeless surrounding

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How can architecture create a platform for integration of an existing homeless community to incorporate a communal relationship encouraging growth on both parties involved?