L I N E S IN THE LANDSCAPE Placemaking Intervention Strategies for the Harry S. Truman Parkway in Savannah, Georgia. Cali Nellis | Professor Ryan Madson | Master of Urban Design | May 2014
LINES in the LANDSCAPE Placemaking Intervention Strategies for the Harry S. Truman Parkway in Savannah, Georgia. Cali Anne Nellis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Urban Design at The Savannah College of Art and Design Š May 2014, Cali Anne Nellis The author hereby grants SCAD permission to reproduce and distribute publicly paper and electronic thesis copies of documents in whole or in part in any medium now known or hereafter created.
Cali Nellis, Author (date)
Ryan Madson, Committee Chair (date)
David Gobel, Committee Member (date)
Patricia McIntosh, Committee Member (date)
LINES in the LANDSCAPE
A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the School of Building Arts in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Urban Design The Savannah College of Art and Design By Cali Anne Nellis Savannah, GA May 2014
LINES in the LANDSCAPE
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank all those who gave their time and helped to shape the understanding and ideas in this thesis. First, my sincere appreciation goes to my thesis committee, Professor Ryan Madson, Professor David Gobel and Patty McIntosh, whose input was invaluable throughout the thesis process, Second, to the area professionals whose expertise helped to identify new design opportunities, in no particular order: John Bennett, and the infrastructure committee of the Savannah Bicycle Campaign, Ramond Robinson, of the Chatham Area Transit Authority, Luciana Spracher, and the staff of the Research Library and Municipal Archives of the City of Savannah, and Suzanne Donovan of Step Up Savannah.
CONTENTS 01
LIST OF FIGURES
03
ABSTRACT
06
PREFACE Infrastructure and Experience
10
SOCIAL AND MATERIAL INFRASTRUCTURE: SAVANNAH Truman Parkway: Physical Infrastructure Truman Parkway: Social Infrastructure
26
INTERSECTING SYSTEMS: PLACEMAKING OPPORTUNITIES Adapting Truman Parkway Typologies
44
PHYSICAL, SOCIAL AND COLLABORATIVE INFRASTRUCTURES
51
BIBLIOGRAPHY
53
APPENDIX: MEET ME AT THE PARKWAY Community Investigation Toolkit
10
LIST OF FIGURES All figures created by author unless otherwise noted PREFACE 9
FIG 1.1
Truman Linear Park Trail Proposal Thomas and Hutton Engineering Company
SOCIAL AND MATERIAL INFRASTRUCTURE: SAVANNAH 10 FIG 2.1
JB Hogg, Mary Beth D’Alonzo, Streetcars of Chatham County 13 FIG 2.2
Infrastructural Activity in Savannah - Squares Library of Congress Digital Collections,
13 FIG 2.3
Infrastructural Activity in Savannah - Canals Georgia Historical Society
17 FIG 2.4
Map of Downtown Savannah
Map of Proposed Harry S. Truman Parkway Route Savannah Morning News, Bull Street Library
19 FIG 2.5
Tomographic Study of Structural Typologies
21 FIG 2.6
Diagrammatic Analysis Maps of Truman Parkway Corridor
25 FIG 2.7
Map of Savannah Metropolitan Area, 1955 United States Geological Service
1
2
INTERSECTING SYSTEMS 27 FIG 3.1
Lateral Connections on Urban Arterials
29 FIG 3.2
Right-of-way Diagram for the Truman Parkway Corridor
30 FIG 3.3
Masterplan of Proposed Parkway Interventions
33 FIG 3.4
Vignettes of Underpass Park, Toronto, Ontario
Lisa Ronchon, Architectural Record 34 FIG 3.5
Design Principles for Freeway Structures Chris Tunnard, “The External Harmony of the Freeway”
37 FIG 3.6
Intervention Elevations
39 FIG 3.7
Intervention Site Plans
43 FIG 3.8
Anderson Street Public Art Plaza
45 FIG 3.9
Whole Foods Plaza
47 FIG 3.10 52nd Street Public Play Sculpture Park
3
4
ABSTRACT Primary urban systems that inform the
infrastructure right-of-way. Coordinated action
experience of the city include its navigational,
in residual spaces and adjacent publicly held
social
that
land can enable the infrastructure to act both
enable a place-specific understanding of the
as a conduit for vehicular movement and as a
built environment. Infrastructural networks
series of multimodal destinations, comparable
represent a physical manifestation of the
to the function, capacity and character of the
invisible boundaries among urban publics,
urban street.
and
cultural
infrastructures
defining the edges of contiguous communities. Physical intervention, the construction of canals, roadways and other infrastructures, inscribes lines in the landscape capable of further segregating dissimilar populations across a barrier or bringing the public together in useful urban space. This proposal for the Harry S. Truman Parkway in Savannah, Georgia investigates the limitedaccess freeway’s role as a barrier in the city and the potential for mitigating the negative social and political effects lingering in the
5
6
“
Borders and boundaries carry a certain mystery and fascination. They imply a transition between realms of experience, states of being; they draw an ineffable line between life as lived in one place and life as lived in another. (Kent C. Ryden, Mapping the Invisible Landscape: Folklore, Writing and the Sense of Place, 1)
�
“
While the road makes a dynamic impression on the driver and his passengers, it also exists as a static, bulky object in the landscape, a substantial piece of the urban scene for those who live along its borders.
(Donald Appleyard, Kevin Lynch and John R. Myer, “The Highway Experience.” In View from the Road, 4.)
7
”
PREFACE 8
The infrastructures supporting a city are
specific understanding of social community,
often physical and invisible, coordinated and
operating within a recognizable set of public
informal. Two primary and often intersecting
landmarks.
infrastructures that inform the experience of the urban landscape include its social infrastructure, facilitating conversation, and its physical transportation infrastructure, defining movement and navigation through the city.
Various
civic
development
engagement projects
and
recognize
urban the
importance of the roles assigned to the urban street, though much contemporary discourse does not address potential positive change
The invisible landscapes that delineate human
to a primary component of the urban street
activity and social infrastructure often find
network: the limited-access freeway.2 The
their boundaries among the infrastructures of
engineered structures, ubiquitous in form and
movement in urban landscapes. The urban
function, often occupy substantial space in
street network embodies the intersection of
the landscape, offering little accommodation
social and physical infrastructural systems,
for non-motorists. The structures, when
as a network of movement, a system for
evaluated for repair or replacement, should
geographic identification and a set of social
be held to a universal standard for creating
and political lines drawn to distinguish
walkable urban places. Changing the physical
communities. This network enables a place-
character and usefulness of urban highway
1
1 John Brinckerhoff Jackson, Discovering the Vernacular Landscape (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1984), 13-16. Jackson notes a particular human fascination with the boundary, intended for a number of functions primarily in service to establishing the defining lines of homogenous units. 2 Jeff Speck, Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time (New York: North Point Press, 2012), 75-80. Speck addresses the failures of the American highway system and critiques the decisions made, but only primarily offers the tear-down option for mitigating the circumstance.
3 Kent Ryden, Mapping the Invisible Landscape: Folklore, Writing and the Sense of Place (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1993), 36-40. Ryden defines space as the “two dimensional pattern of locations… geography viewed from a distance” and place as “concrete and particular… seen, heard, smelled, imagined, loved, hated, feared, revered, enjoyed, or avoided” (37). 4 Peter Hall, Cities of Tomorrow: An Intellectutal History of Urban Design in the Twentieth Century (Malden: Blackwell Publishing, 1988), 317.
corridors to suit the multimodal activity of their surroundings integrates the material and social infrastructural networks acting in space. Where
transportation
networks
9
Infrastructure projects have the power to generate and decimate entire communities,
to
connect people, goods and services or
integrate physical and social infrastructures,
prevent connections between them. The
disadvantageous
limited scope of highway planning and
social
and
fail
TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS
political
conditions are exacerbated. The enormous
engineering
necessarily
values
physical
and limitedly productive right-of-ways that
strucrtural integrity above social capacity,
neglect a social responsibility to citizens
given the infrastructure’s position as”the
attempt to act in a vacuum, creating visible,
greatest public works program in the history of
identifiable points in geographic space
the world,” spending forty-one billion dollars on
without creating place to serve the social
the construction of the Eisenhower Interstate
infrastructure of the city.3 Addressing this
System alone.4 Traffic arteries provide for the
condition requires recognizing additional
steady, unimpeded flow of vehicular traffic into
capacities – not in a total number of vehicles
and through cities; the promise of the efficient
counted per day, but through an entire scope
flow of traffic is often promoted as the promise
of activity within the right-of-way, creating
of urban progress. In Savannah, the political
place in an otherwise placeless system.
rhetoric advocating the construction of the
10
Truman Parkway read “... and we, like most
It is the responsibility of urban design and
of you, want to see our city prosper in such
civic redevelopment projects today to engage
a way that everyone benefits from natural
in two ways, in an activist practice that
growth, which is inevitable. We cannot slam
responds to unresolved problems in the urban
the gates shut on our cozy little corner of the
landscape, and in an operative practice that
world...” The editorial promised that through
acts to produce lasting positive change.8 The
building the Harry S. Truman Parkway on
proposal to adapt the corrior, restoring some
publicly held land along the Casey Canal, a
of its social infrastructure through building
more efficient connection between downtown
the Truman Linear Park Trail, is represented in
and the newer regional shopping center on the
the same limited engineering scope plaguing
south side would be made, without significant
the urban highway, drawn simply as a line
negative externalities.
in the landscape (FIG 1.1). In addressing
5
Like many urban freeway projects, the Truman Parkway chased the notion that more and wider roadways were the appropriate response to the poverty, crime and disease plaguing the industrial city, thrusting the city outward in ever more sprawling and decentralized patterns. The early to midcentury decline in ridership on private light-rail and streetcar systems led to service decreases around the nation,6 likely including along the Coastal Line from downtown Savannah to the east, through the Casey Canal corridor.7
the negative externalities of the freeway, the noise, pollution and congestion, realizing a social infrastructural network in the corridor through placemaking opportunites fulfills this responsibility to engage both networks.
5 “The Parkway: Why Chatham Should Vote ‘Yes’” 6 Alan Altshuler, David Luberoff, MegaProjects: The Changing Politics of Urban Public Investment (Washington D.C.: The Brookings Institution, 2003), 177-178. 7 Martha L. Keber, Ebb and Flow: Life and Community in Eastern Savannah (Savannah: Department of Cultural Affairs/Leisure Services Bureau, 2011), 144-146. 8 Bryan Bell and Katie Wakeford, eds, Expanding Architecture: Design as Activism (New York: Metropolis Books, 2008), 15.
FIG 1.1: Truman Linear Park Trail Proposal Thomas and Hutton Engineering Company the line drawn through the parcels on the engineering map does not indicate social or environmental conditions known prior to the intent to build, issuing only this map. In highlighting only the connections to Police Memorial Trail, Daffin Park and Lake Meyer, the opportunity to create place and destination along the entire route is missed.
11
DER ENN E AV E
12
SOCIAL AND MATERIAL INFRASTRUCTURE: SAVANNAH, GEORGIA FIG 2.1: Map of Downtown Savannah and Eastward Expansion, 1876 Mary Beth D’Alonzo, Streetcars of Chatham County (Charleston: Arcadia Publishing, 1999), 18 1 Mary Landers, “Forgotten Chamber Located beneath Savannah’s Wright Square,” Savannah Morning News, July 14, 2012. Landers’ article in SMN reports the discovery of a water cistern beneath the surface of the square, a remnant of the city’s colonial water collection system. 2 Dana Cuff, “Architecture as Public Work,” in Infrastructure as Architecture, ed. Scott Lloyd and Katrina Stoll (Berlin: Jovis, 2011), 18. The full quote reads “We equate infrastructure with civilization itself: in science fiction’s dystopic futures, once the service networks fail, social norms are abandoned in the fight for survival.” Cuff illustrates the innate connection of a functioning society and its supporting physical and social infrastructures through the tendency of fictional work to correlate the dysfunction of the two.
The physical and social infrastructures of the
creating arable land from the saturated soils
city significantly directed the development of
of the marsh and serving as places of natural
Savannah from its founding in 1733. General
respite in the city. Savannah has a history of
James
the
intersecting these two infrastructural systems,
provision of significant social infrastructure in
making use of all potential capacities of place
the form of the ward as an urban neighborhood
in the city (FIG 2.2 and FIG 2.3). The practice
organized around the public square (FIG 2.1).
is appropriate to the importance assigned
As the city expanded from its site on the bluff,
to the infrastructural systems that represent
so did its physical infrastructure through the
and provide a normal flow of goods, people
practice of land reclamation along drainage
and information in the city, when “we equate
canals in the marsh, creating development
infrastructure with civilization itself.”2 The
opportunities.
symbiotic relationship of the physical and
Oglethorpe’s
plan
included
Though primarily operating more significantly in one infrastructural category, the square and the canal historically served physical and social infrastructural purposes. The city’s squares functioned as gathering space for the
material components of the city and the social and invisible landscapes of activity creates a strong association between them, where the dysfunction of one system is attributed to the difficulties of the other.
public institutions sites on tithing lots in the ward, but also as the location of public utility for the ward.1 Canals were also multifunctional,
“We equate infrastructure with civilization itself: in science fiction’s dystopic futures, once the service networks fail, social norms are abandoned in the fight for survival.” Dana Cuff
13
14
“
Ultimately, the history of cities is the history of two structurally correlated systems, one social and one material: the material city and the social city g e n e r a t e e a c h o t h e r.
(Ezio Manzini, “The Social Construction of Public Space”, from Human Cities: Celebrating Public Space, 12.)
”
Infrastructural activity in Savannah FIG 2.2 (left): “Election Scene: November 1, 1868. From the Marian S. Carson Collection “Stereographs of Savannah,” Library of Congress Digital Collections, LOT 13631(S)
15
FIG 2.3 (right): Boy standing at a canal in Savannah, circa 1864-1948; From the Tresize Family Papers, courtesy of the Georgia Historical Society, MS1823-02-05-23 3 Martha L. Keber, Ebb and Flow: Life and Community in Eastern Savannah (Savannah: Department of Cultural Affairs/Leisure Services Bureau, 2011), 10. Ms Keber’s work notes the particular ailments suffered by the troops and workers in the area in the mid-1800s, blamed on the general atmosphere of the place, its miasma. 4 Frank D. Lawrence, Peter O. Engelke and Thomas L. Schmid, Health and Community Design: The Impact of the Built Environment on Physical Activity (Washington D.C.: Island Press, 2003), 13. 5 Mary Beth D’Alonzo, Streetcars of Chatham County (Charleston: Arcadia Publishing, 1999), 75. 1798 Map in the book indicates the urban lot and farm lot system set in place by General Oglethorpe: the practice of providing each landowner with a parcel in the city, and a larger parcel at the bluff’s edge for farming and agriculture. These large parcels remained intact and singly owned until urban development expanded beyond the bluff. 6 David Brown, Inventing Modern America (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2002), 90. In the section on the Henry Ford assembly line and Living Wage Program, Brown notes the increasing affordability of the personal automobile as a result of both processes.
TRUMAN PARKWAY: PHYSICAL INFRASTRUCTURE In the 1880s, the construction of the Casey
industrial material and generally unpleasant
Canal on the eastern edge of the city created
environmental conditions. The Casey Canal is
arable land from the marsh at the edge of
one part of a network designed to eliminate
the natural bluff of downtown Savannah. The
these urban ailments. The canal bisected large
intentions of the canal’s construction were
tracts of privately held land at the city’s edge,
both to expand urban development eastward
developed independently for several diverse
and rid the city of the environmental ills
demographic populations.5 Growth was two-
plaguing the area 3 – an extension of the theory
fold, rooted in the increasing availability of the
of miasma applied to similar infrastructural
personal automobile nationally, in addition to
projects undertaken in the early twentieth
the streetcar suburbs developed along the
century, citing a human need to control the
canal.6 Notably, Mr. Jacob Collins and the
landscape in order to rid the city of social and
Savannah Real Estate and Loan Company
psychological ills.4
and supported the Coastal streetcar line to
Storm water management is an historic problem in Savannah, contributing to yellow fever outbreak, the collection of polluting
the Collinsville development on his property, just west of Waters Avenue and south of East Bolton Street. New districts naturally formed
16
along the canal over time, with the watercourse
is demonstrated in a 1980 editorial in the
acting as a bounding community edge (FIG
Savannah Morning News, where the author
2.6, map b).
states that the construction of the Truman
As early as 1925, though more seriously in the 1950s, the political rhetoric supporting a proposal to construct a freeway alongside the Casey Canal began to take shape.7 Increases in population totals, urban densities and automobility in the city led to increased traffic congestion and the demand for quicker, more convenient access from the burgeoning island suburbs on the city’s southeastern edge to downtown. Thus, the proposal to shift the infrastructural condition of the Casey Canal corridor took hold, subverting the use of the right-of-way to the demands of the automobile (FIG 2.4). A failure to project the implications of
eliminating
the
symbiotic
nature
of
material and social infrastructures in the city
Parkway would be “a major breakthrough toward the removal of the strait jacket in which Savannah Traffic has been bound for longer than it deserves… [and] the biggest parkway impact appears to be the need to redesign two of the 18 holes of the municipal golf course.”8 The editorial cites the need to alleviate congestion on the south side of the city, failing to address the issue of latent traffic demand, where wider right-of-ways and more travel lanes only induce a greater number of vehicle trips and more congestion.9 In the case of the Truman Parkway, the impact at the site identified by the editorial is yet unknown, with the south side connection to the Abercorn Extension only recently completed.
“... elevated freeways were portrayed as good neighbors, or even architectural assets, rather than as invasive structures adding pollution and noise to the surrounding neighborhood.” Joseph DiMento and Cliff Ellis
7 Marcus Howard, “Savannah’s Truman Parkway finished? Almost,” Savannah Morning News, March 1, 2014. Web Accessed at http://savannahnow.com/news/2014-0228/savannahs-truman-parkway-finishedalmost#.U4SqXPm-2G4, May 27, 2014. Howard wrote a series of articles in the paper documenting the history of planning the Parkway, including its proposal, successes and complications. 8 “The Parkway, Why Chatham Should Vote ‘Yes’,” Savannah Morning News, August 25, 1980. Accessed at the Bull Street Library, Kay Cole Local History and Genealogy Room, County Roads vertical file. The editorial is one of several articles on the planning and construction of the Parkway contained within the vertical file and calls for a yes vote on a tax referendum in the county to begin construction, citing traffic alleviation on the south side of the city, west of the proposed infrastructure route. 9 Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberg, Jeff Speck, “The American Transportation Mess,” in Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream (New York: North Point Press, 2010), 85-98. Latent Demand is addressed as a condition instigating the deconstruction of elevated freeways, without investigating alternative solutions.
FIG 2.4: Map printed with 1980 editorial advocating for the construction of the parkway. The routes identified largely follow the Casey Canal, from President Street at the north through the southeastern marsh and connecting to the Abercorn Street extension. The map, along with the editorial, neglect to outline the social infrastructures impacted by construction.
The planning of the corridor demonstrates the standard practice established in the early planning of the interstate highway system, where “highways were built to accommodate traffic, not reshape the urban pattern,” but the infrastructure’s size and physical presence in
10 Joseph F. C. DiMento and Cliff Ellis, Changing Lanes: Visions and Histories of Urban Freeways (Cambridge, MIT Press, 2013), 92 11 Ibid., 86
the landscape intersects the two outcomes.10 The intention of the Harry S. Truman Parkway to establish quick and convenient travel to and from downtown Savannah generated the additional impact of its physical presence now also acting as a barrier to those living along it. What began as an investment in the greater public good – the construction of the Casey Canal and recreation space - eventually failed to address the social infrastructure of the city, where typically, “elevated freeways were portrayed as good neighbors, or even architectural assets, rather than as invasive structures adding pollution and noise to the surrounding neighborhood.” 11
17
VISIBLE BERMS 18
EXIT/ENTRANCE RAMPS
UNDERPASSES
OVERPASSES
BICYCLE NETWORK FIG 2.5: Tomographic Study of Structural Typologies Before proposing infrastructural adaptations to the physical structures of the partially elevated, limited-access freeway, observing their current form and function is necessary. The typologies are the public interface of the physical infrastructure, representing the operative nature of social infrastructures along and within the right-of-way.
What remains visible in the landscape are the structural typologies of the network, the berms, exit and entrance ramps, underpasses, overpasses and the existing and proposed Truman Greenway and Truman Linear Park Trail, with most existing primarily in service to the north- and south-bound travel in the corridor, without accommodation for nonmotorists within the right-of-way.
19
20
“Perhaps the best definition of the city in its higher aspects is to say that it is a place designed to offer the widest facilities for significant conversation. The dialogue is one of the ultimate expressions of life in the city...” Lewis Mumford
TRUMAN PARKWAY: SOCIAL INFRASTRUCTURE The Truman Parkway represents a social,
What is evident in historic maps of the Casey
political and cultural boundary in the city. It
Canal district is the possibility of social
delineates neighborhoods, the edge of an
engagement, in planned and protected
historic fabric, and the decay of an alternative
natural buffers offering places of respite
transportation network, separating socially
along the infrastructure (FIG 07: Fairway Oaks
and culturally contiguous communities along
map). In the planning and documentation
its edges (FIG 2.6, maps c-i). The vehicular
of the Fairway Oaks subdivision, a park for
traffic moving along the parkway attempts
neighborhood residents is identified along the
to operate in isolation, skipping above major
canal, the eastern edge of the development
intersections
neighborhoods
and now the site of the DeRenne Avenue
without acknowledgement of the impact to
pump station.13 The social and physical
the social infrastructures of the city. This layer
infrastructures of the city create place in their
of history and human activity not recorded in
symbiotic nature, where “the best definition of
navigational maps of the area compose an
the city in its higher aspects is to say that it is
invisible landscape that relates geographic
a place designed to offer the widest facilities
space to its perception as social infrastructure
for significant conversation.”14 Culture is
and place in the landscape.12
generated by the perception of physical place
and
entire
12 Kent Ryden, Mapping the Invisible Landscape: Folklore, Writing and the Sense of Place (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1993), 19-28. Ryden compares the factual nature of cartographic maps to the emotional nature of human perception, notably in the identification of “witness trees” in the landscape, the historic markers of property lines sited in the sturdy, hardwood trees growing on a property. These trees served as recognizable public landmarks indicating place and property. 13 Fairway Oaks-Greenview Historic District, NPS Form 10-900, File Copy 09000184, Section 7 – Description, February 17, 2009. The submitted National Register of Historic Places Registration form records the existence of a community park at the east end of Bacon Park Drive near the Casey Canal with a clubhouse, pavilion and playground demolished when the property was sold to Chatham County under threat of eminent domain for a project to widen the canal.
diagrammatic maps
21
22
diagrammatic maps
diagrammatic maps
23
24
diagrammatic maps
FIG 2.7 Casey Canal Greenway Map 1955, United States Geological Service The map of Savannah including the Casey Canal indicates a generous greenway along the canal corridor, mentioned in the Fairway Oaks Historic District National Register listing as including recreational facilities for the neighborhood.
in the city, embodied in Henri Lefebvre’s theory
invisible landscapes of the Truman Parkway,
of the urban oeuvre – the collection of individual
social capital is legible in the character of
actions and ideas that inform the making of
the structural typologies of the system. For
public space. The oeuvre yields an “urban
example, the berms protected by visible and
man capable of complex and transparent
ragged chain link fence and those masked
relations with the world.” By eliminating the
by significant urban forest edge do not
possibility of connecting social infrastructures
share similar socioeconomic demographic
in the city across the structure of the parkway
conditions (FIG 3.2). A hierarchy is necessarily
network, the barrier exacerbates the divided
created among diverse urban populations,
condition of populations and communities
yielding political and social agency to those
along the infrastructure’s edge.
with the highest number of resources. Within
15
14 Lewis Mumford, The City in History (Chicago: Mariner Books, 1968), 116. Mumford indicates that it is a responsibility of the city to facilitate interaction (conversation and dialogue) among urban populations in the form of public space in the city. 15 Henri Lefebvre, “The Right to the City” in Writings on Cities, eds. Eleonore Kofman and Elizabeth Lebas (Malden: Blackwell Publishing, 1996), 149. 16 Anirudh Krishna, Active Social Capital: Tracing the Roots of Development and Democracy (New York: Columbia University Press, 2002), 15. Krishna considers the measure of social capital to be its manifestation of human activity, the result of the collective will of the systems, norms and trust identified and applies it to development in the third world. The application can be made forensically, in investigating the built landscape. 17 Alan Altshuler and David Luberoff, MegaProjects: The Changing Politics of Urban Investment (Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution, 2003), 1. Altshuler illustrates this point in saying that “when acting as mediators, public officials never forget that their primary constituency is capital.”
The social capital of neighborhoods along the parkway – the combined influence of the systems, norms and trust within a community – is measured in an ability to inform the construction
of
public
space.16
In
the
the right-of-way, the inequality is especially evident in the character of the structural typologies, rooted in the economic conditions of planning and building the route.17
25
INTERSECTING SYSTEMS: PLACEMAKING OPPORTUNITIES 26
Mitigating the negative physical and social
Beginning to address the missing or lacking
infrastructural conditions residual in the
infrastructures of the parkway requires a
landscape of the Truman Parkway requires
critical decision in the fate of the elevated
recognizing
route.
additional
capacities
within
Corridors
similarly
burdened
by
each system. Urban roads in particular have
a lacking sense of place or identity in
a significant responsibility in defining the
the
perceived landscape, where “the power of
deconstructed and converted to at-grade
American culture is embodied in a spatial
boulevards, notably in San Francisco and
organization that determines who will live
Portland (Fig 09: embarcadero and harbor
where and why and in physical manifestations
drive). Deconstruction addresses a critical
that
problem
decide
exactly
what
particular
architectural forms will symbolize and why.”
United
of
States
the
have
recently
grade-separated
been
urban
18
freeway: limited lateral connections from
Because social systems operate within sets
the direction of highway travel by recreating
of recognizable public landmarks and the
connections and restoring a gridded fabric
highway occupies a highly visible position
to the transportation infrastructure of the city
physically and culturally, its responsibility is to
in an at-grade boulevard. Along the Truman
fully support the material and social systems of
Parkway, 6 possible lateral connections are
the city. The Truman Parkway is no exception,
made at Wheaton St, Henry Street, Anderson
and many opportunities exist to adapt the
Street, Victory Drive, Delesseps Avenue, and
network to fully fulfill both roles.
DeRenne Avenue within the study area that
“The power of American culture is embodied in a spatial organization that determines who will live where and why, and in physical manifestations that decide exactly what particular architectural forms will symbolize and why.” Craig Wilkins
18 Craig Wilkins, The Aesthetics of Equity: Notes on Race, Space, Architecture and Music (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2007), 8. Throughout this work, Wilkins discusses the potential of the built landscape to impact social relationships, defining communities, political agency and social resources.
FIG 3.1: Lateral Connections on Urban Arterials Waters Avenue: 72 Truman Parkway: 6 Skidaway Road: 52 The number of connections and posible routes in the urban landscape supports diverse network activity and creates identifiable points in urban space - at the intersection of two routes - useful in both physical and social infrastructural networks.
27
28
identify a point in the geographic landscape.
Where deconstruction is not a viable solution,
Along the route’s parallel urban arterials,
infrastructure coupling pursued in pedestrian
Waters Avenue and Skidaway Road, 72 and
amenity
52 lateral connections are made, respectively,
character and conditions of the network.
within the same travel distance (FIG 10). The
In Toronto, Underpass Park, by PFS Studio
limited number of connections in a grade-
transforms the residual space below the
separated freeway right-of-way contributes
Don Valley Parkway into a series of public
to barrier condition of the corridor, restricting
art gardens, basketball courts, a playground
movement across it.
and skateboard arena (FIG 12). As part
While the highway-to-boulevard is an attractive undertaking advocated by the Congress for New Urbanism, it is not universally applicable.19 The recent completion of the Truman Parkway represents a total of $162 million in civic investment, and also creates high ground for shelter from storm inundation and safe travel for emergency evacuation (FIG 11). These preclude and prevent any potential political campaign for deconstruction, leaving the existing structural typologies, to bear the weight of fulfilling physical and social infrastructural needs in the right-of-way, in service of the public good.
seeks
to
shift
the
perceived
of a larger riverfront revitalization plan, the project finds new opportunities in the shade below the structure, and provides necessary recreation space to marginal development at the freeway’s edge.20 The success of the project is in its unique adaptation of the space remaining after the engineered highway structure was complete and its role as one placemaking opportunity in a larger network and planning priority.
19 See the Congress for New Urbanism campaign at http://www.cnu.org/ highways 20 Lisa Ronchon, “Out of the Shadows: Finding useful public space in an unlikely location, Toronto tranforms a highway underpass into a lively park that glows at night,” Architectural Record, August 2013. Web Accessed at http://archrecord.construction.com/projects/ portfolio/2013/08/1308-Underpass-Park-PFSStudio.asp, May 27, 2014.
ROW DIAGRAM
29
30
MASTERPLAN
1 Wheaton Street Improvements
noise reducing asphalt, addition of bike infrastructure and overhead light installation
2 Bee Road Linear Park
public space reclaimed from ramp right-of-way; addition of bike infrastructure, acoustic barrier and dense landscape planting
3 Brightwood Neighborhood Park
(2) contiguous parcels owned by Chatham County east of northbound Wheaton Street ramp; expand on existing median planting intervention
4 Henry and Anderson Plaza and Street Improvements
shift ramp structure to create public space in the block along elevated lanes; addition of bike infrastructure to shift ramp paths, gallery spaces, transit stops and overhead light installation along routes beneath highway travel lanes on Henry and Anderson Sts
5
Kiwanis Park Housing Authority of Savannah owned public space adjacent to Anderson St ramp; formalize bike infrastructure, addition of acoustic barrier and dense planting
6 Victory Manor Neighborhood Park
(6) contiguous parcels owned by the Mayor & Aldermen of Savannah, adjacent to highway right-of-way; addition of bike infrastructure connecting Anderson Street to Victory Drive, public space sight lines open to Elm Circle and Casey Canal
7 Whole Foods Plaza
(2) contiguous parcels owned by Chatham County east of Whole Foods lot; addition of bike infrastructure to connect to Police Memorial Trail, public space sight lines preserved to parking
8 Victory Drive Improvements
Repaving for noise abatement, addition of transit stops and gallery spaces for north- and south-bound travel lanes and overhead light installation
9 McAlpin Square Pocket Park
County right-of-way in parcel adjacent to northbound Victory Dr ramp, paved parking for commuter transit served by stops beneath the underpass; addition of planting and recreation spaces
10 52nd Street Neighborhood Park West
(6) contiguous parcels owned by the Mayor & Aldermen of Savannah; opportunity to expand presence and visibility of Police Memorial Trail with addition of recreation space
11 52nd Street Neighborhood Park East
(3) contiguous parcels owned by Chatham County adjacent to highway right-of-way; addition of supplemental recreation space for Truman Linear Park Trail Ph II
12 Sackville Neighborhood Park
County right-of-way in parcel adjacent to southbound exit/ entrance ramps to highway; addition of bike infrastructure connects to Police Memorial Trail along Casey Canal and urban trail connection on Hospital Access Rd
13 Spring Hill Neighborhood Park
(1) parcel owned by Chatham County Hospital Authority southeast corner of Ruben Clark Drive; addition of bike infrastructure connects scenic trail to urban trail, recreation facilities expand public health priorities of hospital; (1) parcel owned by Chatham county extends 64th St as bike trail to connect to Ruben Clark Dr 14 Rehabilitation Institute Park (1) parcel owned by Chatham County Hospital Authority on Memorial Health Campus adjacent to Rehabilitation Institute building; addition of bike infrastructure connects urban trail on Hospital Access Rd to DeRenne Ave and rehabilitation recreational programming serves Institute public health priorities
15 Jenkins High School Environmental Sciences Arboretum
(1) parcel owned by the Board of Public Education for the City of Savannah; addition of arboretum programming expands engineering curriculum at adjacent Jenkins HS 16 DeRenne Avenue Improvements Repaving for noise abatement, addition of transit stops for northand south-bound travel lanes and overhead light installation 17 Magnolia Park Commuter Park (1) parcel owned by Chatham County adjacent to highway rightof-way and (1) parcel owned by Mayor & Aldermen of Savannah; addition of parking and public open space serves transit
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ADAPTING TRUMAN PARKWAY TYPOLOGIES 32
The physical, material and highly visible
recreation space. Along the berm parallel to
structures of the partially elevated parkway
Bee Road, thoughtful planting with productive
route manifest the social and political will of
fruit or nut trees at grade, with successively
the highway in the landscape. The berms,
more dense foliage planted on the berm
ramps, underpasses, and overpasses are the
and finally an acoustic barrier along the exit
public interface of the infrastructure, where
ramp to Henry Street create a comfortable,
adaptation to suit a wider array of activity is
pedestrian friendly linear park.
appropriate. This shift in the character of place within these structural typologies requires that “rather than a system of transportation planning
and
engineering,
we
should
read infrastructures as objects of cultural production with a spatial content not unlike that of architecture or sculpture.”21
Along exit and entrance ramps at the urban edge of the infrastructure, corridor planning based on streets with similar traffic demand elsewhere in the city is appropriate. For example, the section of Bee Road connecting Wheaton Street to the entrance ramp at Anderson Street demonstrates a similar
Where berm conditions do not accommodate
annual average daily traffic count to Lincoln
pedestrian activity, noise attenuation and
and Habersham Streets downtown, where
beautification are priorities. Land reclamation
each is outfitted with parking, a striped bicycle
along berm structures, through either the
lane and one-way, one-lane vehicular travel.22
stabilization of compact fill and decreasing
On this section of Bee Road, reclaiming the
the slope grade to a habitable scale yields
roadway to reduce the paving to one five-foot
the opportunity for productive agriculture and
bicycle lane and one eleven-foot automobile
“… rather than a system of transportation planning and engineering, we should read infrastructures as objects of cultural production with a spatial content not unlike that of architecture or sculpture. ” Alexander D’Hooghe
21 Alexander D’Hooghe, “The Objectification of Infrastructure: The Cultural Project of Subruban Infrastructure Design,” in Infrastructure as Architecture, 78. 22 GDOT STARS System
FIG 3.4: Vignettes of Underpass Park, PFS Studio Lisa Ronchon, Architectural Record, August 2013. The project finds new social uses within the physical infrastructure of the Don Valley Parkway, in Toronto, Ontario.
lane yields significant space at the edge of the compact fill berm supporting the elevated portion of the Truman Parkway. The underpass is a more significant structural typology, representing the public interface
23 Chris Tunnard, “The External Harmony of the Freeway� in Man-Made America: Chaos or Control? (London, Yale University Press, 1963), 206-263. This section of the work describes various structures of the highway as perceived by traffic outside of the highway travel lanes, citing an importance for the continuity of space, visual simplicity and gentle sloped edges.
of the structure and the controlled lateral connections east to west across the Truman Parkway. Adapting the typology includes coupling public art installation and transit stops that create a more dense network of activity at the grade-separated intersection, providing movement through the place while creating a destination similar to the role fulfilled by an urban street. As the engineered structures of the underpass are evaluated for repair, the addition of structure at the base of the compact fill supporting the slab-on-grade travel lanes can reclaim the space beneath the underpass for more purposeful use. The visual continuity of space is important to both urban and rural landscapes continuing beneath freeway routes, but the active capacity of urban space is primary to creating place in the landscape.23 By stabilizing the
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34
structure and reclaiming space at grade in the typology, transit stops take advantage of the overhead shelter, outfitted with noise attenuating barriers and light installation and public art galleries illustrate the vibrant communities at the infrastructure’s edges. The
overpass
accommodate
typology safe,
adapts
convenient
to and
uninterrupted travel on the Truman Linear Park Trail. Planning the trail route to pass through the right-of-way beneath overpasses provides the opportunity to use the trail as a future marathon route in the city, with minimal interruption to traffic on the Truman Parkway and its lateral connections. Several parcels are typically publicly held along each overpass structure, for instance at 52nd Street, parcels to the west are held by the Mayor & Aldermen of the City of Savannah, and parcels to the east are held by Chatham County, in addition to the highway right-of-way (FIG 12: ROW Diagram and FIG 13: Masterplan). The addition of a play sculpture garden on the eastern parcels creates a destination along the planned route
FIG 3.5: Design Principles for Freeway Structures Chris Tunnard, “The External Harmony of the Freeway” in Man-Made America: Chaos or Control? (London, Yale University Press, 1963), 206-263.
23 “Urban Pathways to Healthy Neighborhoods, Focus on: Personal Safety�, Urban Pathways Initiative (Washington D.C.: Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, 2001). The advocacy report identifies a reduction in crime and increase in community investment and pride when placemaking opportunities are undertaken along urban trail corridors.
of the Truman Linear Park Trail, strengthening
constructing place within the right-of-way
community support and utilization of the
and adjacent publicly held parcels (FIGXX),
Truman Greenway.
but the success of the network rests in the
The Truman Greenway and Truman Linear Park trail typology is an overlay network intersecting the physical and social infrastructures in the highway right-of-way. The expansion and connection to Police Memorial Trail, currently connecting from Kerry Street at Dixie Avenue to Bee Road between 51st and 52nd Streets, must operate as more than a line in the landscape, similar in character and capacity to the existing infrastructure of the Truman Parkway. By creating destination places along the route, as public art parks, outdoor commercial space extensions, or transit commuter parks, the capacity and utility of the bikeway ensures lasting positive change. Without creating a dense network of activity, the benefit of the construction of the Truman Linear Park trail is minimal. The bureaucratic planning of the typology adaptations is primary to funding and
support of the communities adjacent to development.23 By actively engaging citizens within an area of potential effect and providing a tool for recording responses that indicate desired public facilities in each neighborhood, Meet Me at the Parkway is a community investigation toolkit that promotes participation in trail planning to generate a sense of pride and ownership among residents, deterring undesirable use of the trail (FIG 14: example research
toolkit).
Community
investment
informs the design of the network and fulfills the needs of the social infrastructural system more robustly than possible at the government level.
35
36
37
ELEVATIONS FOLDOUT
38
PLANS FOLDOUT
39
40
FIG 3.8: At Anderson Street, beneath the Truman Parkway, the compact fill of the underpass is resected, creating new public space for art installations, and a pleasant space to wait for crosstown CAT buses. Adjacent to the underpass, a public plaza in the city block occupied by the infrastructure creates a destination along the route.
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42
FIG 3.9: At the Whole Foods plaza on Victory Drive, a Truman Linear Park Trail connection bolsters utility of the publicly held parcels between the highway right-of-way and commercial parking lot. The route becomes a multimodal path, connecting residential neighborhoods to the Victory Drive commercial district.
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44
FIG 3.10: At 52nd Street, publicly held parcels forming the berm supporting the overpass crossing the parkway serve greater use as a public play sculpture park. The destination along the Truman Linear Park Trail diversifies social infrastructure and activity in the corridor.
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PHYSICAL, SOCIAL AND COLLABORATIVE INFRASTRUCTURES 46
The ubiquitous nature of engineered highway
and generating community-supported place
infrastructure in the United States neglects a
within and adjacent to the highway right-of-
social responsibility to the urban landscape,
way on publicly held lands. In planning the
limiting connection and burdening populations
Truman Greenway and realizing additional
with limited social capital with invasive and
capacities
imposing structures that serve only the limited
structure is evaluated for repair, the shift to a
capacity of automobile travel along the route.
collaborative infrastructural nature serves as
In Savannah, the Truman Parkway construction
an opportunity to demonstrate placemaking
shifted the nature of the physical infrastructure
strategies for similar urban freeway conditions
of the Casey Canal corridor, eliminating the
in the nation.
service to the invisible landscapes of social engagement in the city. This condition is not unique to the Truman Parkway right-ofway, and the burdensome structures of the highway are typical to a number of urban freeway corridors. The history of intersecting physical and social infrastructural systems in Savannah, in the city’s public squares and canal districts, demonstrates a possibility for adapting the structures of the Truman Parkway to fulfill the needs of both social and material infrastructures, through reclaiming space in travel corridors to benefit multimodal activity
as
the
engineered
highway
“
...the mind includes more than the intellect. It contains a history of what we learn through our feet. It grasps the world that meets the eye, the city we know through our legs, the places we know in our hearts, in our guts, in our memories, in our imaginations. (Kent C. Ryden, Mapping the Invisible Landscape: Folklore, Writing and the Sense of Place, 1)
47
�
BIBLIOGRAPHY Altshuler, Alan, and David Luberoff. Mega-Projects: The Changing Politics of Urban Investment. Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution, 2003. Bell, Bryan, and Katie Wakeford, eds, Expanding Architecture: Design as Activism. New York: Metropolis Books, 2008. Brown, David. Inventing Modern America. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2002. Cuff, Dana. “Architecture as Public Work,” in Infrastructure as Architecture, ed. Scott Lloyd and Katrina Stoll. Berlin: Jovis, 2011. D’Alonzo, Mary Beth. Streetcars of Chatham County. Charleston: Arcadia Publishing, 1999. D’Hooghe, Alexander. “The Objectification of Infrastructure: The Cultural Project of Subruban Infrastructure Design,” in Infrastructure as Architecture. Berlin: Jovis, 2010. DiMento, Joseph F.C., and Cliff Ellis. Changing Lanes: Visions and Histories of Urban Freeways. Cambridge, MIT Press, 2013. Duany, Andres, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberg, Jeff Speck, “The American Transportation Mess,” in Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream. New York: North Point Press, 2010. Hall, Peter. Cities of Tomorrow: An Intellectutal History of Urban Design in the Twentieth Century. Malden: Blackwell Publishing, 1988. Howard, Marcus. “Savannah’s Truman Parkway finished? Almost,” Savannah Morning News, March 1, 2014. Web Accessed at http://savannahnow.com/news/2014-02-28/savannahs-truman-parkway-finishedalmost#.U4SqXPm-2G4, May 27, 2014. Jackson, John Brinckerhoff. Discovering the Vernacular Landscape. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1984. Keber, Martha L. Ebb and Flow: Life and Community in Eastern Savannah. Savannah: Department of Cultural Affairs/Leisure Services Bureau, 2011.
Krishna, Anirudh. Active Social Capital: Tracing the Roots of Development and Democracy. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002. Landers, Mary. “Forgotten Chamber Located beneath Savannah’s Wright Square.” Savannah Morning News, July 14, 2012. Lawrence, Frank D., Peter O. Engelke and Thomas L. Schmid. Health and Community Design: The Impact of the Built Environment on Physical Activity.Washington D.C.: Island Press, 2003. Lefebvre, Henri. “The Right to the City” in Writings on Cities, eds. Eleonore Kofman and Elizabeth Lebas. Malden: Blackwell Publishing, 1996. Mumford, Lewis. The City in History. Chicago: Mariner Books, 1968. Ronchon, Lisa. “Out of the Shadows: Finding useful public space in an unlikely location, Toronto tranforms a highway underpass into a lively park that glows at night,” Architectural Record, August 2013. Web Accessed at http://archrecord.construction.com/projects/portfolio/2013/08/1308-UnderpassPark-PFS-Studio.asp, May 27, 2014. Ryden, Kent C. Mapping the Invisible Landscape: Folklore, Writing and the Sense of Place. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1993. Speck, Jeff. Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time. New York: North Point Press, 2012. Tunnard, Chris. Man-Made America: Chaos or Control? London, Yale University Press, 1963. “The Parkway, Why Chatham Should Vote ‘Yes’,” Savannah Morning News, August 25, 1980. Accessed at the Bull Street Library, Kay Cole Local History and Genealogy Room, County Roads vertical file. “Urban Pathways to Healthy Neighborhoods, Focus on: Personal Safety”. Urban Pathways Initiative. Washington D.C.: Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, 2001
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Participant Name: Organization:
51
Meet me at the
Parkway #TrumanGreenway
A Community Investigation toolkit accompanying the thesis Lines in the Landscape: Placemaking Intervention Strategies for the Harry S. Truman Parkway in Savannah, GA. Cali Anne Nellis, Master of Urban Design Candidate, SCAD
This notebook is a prototype intended to contribute to a Master of Urban Design Thesis project and demonstrate the need for community involvement in the planning of the trail.
52
This the the Phase II plan for the Truman Linear Park Trail, including the existing Police Memorial Trail. Police Memorial Trail
DER
ENN
E AV
E
The offroad bike trail is proposed to connect Daffin Park with Lake Mayer Community Park via the existing Police Memorial Trail. What opportunities might there be to create places within this 6-mile corridor that are safe, useful and beautiful?
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QUESTIONNAIRE 54
Have you heard about plans for the Truman Linear Park Trail or Truman Greenway? Ο Yes
Ο No
Do you use the current trail (Police Memorial Trail)? Ο Yes
Ο No
What community facilities are you interested in seeing in plans for the Truman Greenway? Ο Public Art Ο Transit Stops Ο Recreation Facilities Ο Restroom Facilities Ο Bike Share Program Ο Educational Facilities Ο Other (please explain)
What concerns do you have for future trail development? Ο Safety Ο Utility Ο Maintenance Ο Funding Ο Other (please explain)
RESEARCH TOOLKIT As a community expert, we seek your invaluable input in the planning process for the Truman Greenway. With the included tools, we ask that you document ideas and concerns regarding the sites contained in this book. It is important that the final plan of the trail include the places most desired by our community. Please make notes throughout this book - in the margins, the white space, wherever you would like to respond to the material within. Or, respond digitally via Instagram, Twitter and Facebook with the tag
#TrumanGreenway, sharing your photos and ideas.
Section One: Potential Facilities These are types of facilities included in similar urban trails that might be desirable for the Truman Greenway Section Two: Site Exploration 1) Document the site in question: How would you access it? What might it connect to? Who might use it? How might they use it? 2) What other institutions are near to the site (churches, schools, shops, restaurants)? How might they use it?
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COMMUNITY FACILITY EXAMPLES 56
Public Art Interactive Walls
Before I Die Wall N. Defenbach with Redux Studios Charleston, SC
Art Playscapes Billie Holiday Park Carve Loosduinen, Netherlands
Sculptures Times Square Heart Young Projects New York City
Section One
COMMUNITY FACILITY EXAMPLES Transit & Bike Share Joe Murrary Rivers Jr. Center
CAT Bike
Bus Shelter Wavelength Bus Shelter South Mountain Studios Scottsdale, AZ
Section One
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COMMUNITY FACILITY EXAMPLES 58
Recreation Facilities Picnic Shleters
Lewis Creek Park Shelter Bellevue, WA
Restrooms Riverfront Park Albany, GA
Pavilions Webb Chapel Park Joseph Studio Dallas, TX
Section One
POLICE MEMORIAL TRAIL @ 52ND ST 59
COMMUNITY FACILITIES On the map, please indicate what facilities you might like to see at this site using symbols, words or other indicators.
Section Two
POLICE MEMORIAL TRAIL @ 52ND ST 60
COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS On the map, please indicate other community places that might relate to the site (schools, churches, shops, parks) and that could have an impact on the place.
Section Two
POLICE MEMORIAL TRAIL @ 52ND ST REFLECTION The following gridded pages are for recording whatever ideas you may have - through sketches, maps, photographs, notes or in any form the idea may take.
Section Two
61
POLICE MEMORIAL TRAIL @ 52ND ST 62
Section Two
POLICE MEMORIAL TRAIL @ 52ND ST 63
Section Two