Elisa Castaneda_Metropolis Portfolio

SELECTED WORKS

P O R Portafolio de

T F O Arquitectura

L I O

ELISA SOFIA CASTAÑEDA

School of Architecture Mississippi State University

Bio. I am the daughter of immigrants

Soy hija de inmigrantes

I am first-generation Latina-Americana

Soy latinoamericana de primera generación.

equal parts Indiana Hoosier and Alabamian

partes iguales de Indiana Hoosier y Alabama

Artist

Artista

Activist

Activista

Unapologetic.

Sin disculpas.

Llevo mi identidad entre mi cuerpo todas los dias

I wear my identity on my body every single day

Because there will be those who will make sure I never forget where I come from

Porque habrá quienes se asegurarán de que nunca olvide de dónde vengo.

For better or for worse.

Para bien o para mal.

So, I reveal myself in everything I do

Entonces, me revelo en todo lo que hago.

Because I have noting to prove

Porque no tengo nada que demostrar

I am

Soy ELISA SOFIA CASTAÑEDA

Bio 2

Contents.

00 CAP Proposal: 5A

00 Gulfport: 4B

00 Lagoonas: 4A

Studio Work

Studio Work

Studio Work

00 Stair Design: 2A

00 Cardboard: 1B

00 Louis Sullivan: 1A

Studio Work

Studio Work

Studio Work

00 Evicted

00 Aydellot Fellow

00 Personal Voice

Special Topics Researcher

Independent Research

Artwork & Small Business

Contents 3

CAP Proposal Joint Fifth-Year Studio CAP-Stone Project with Luke Murray, Jackson, MS.

Exclusionary Infrastructure and Displacement, Jackson Mississippi

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H Vacant housing and blight in Jackson are deeply intertwined with the city's history of racial segregation and economic disparity.

Historically, discriminatory practices such as redlining and racial covenants restricted where African American residents could live and own property, leading to concentrated poverty in certain neighborhoods. Over time, these areas have received less commercial and infrastructural investment, contributing to neighborhood decline and the deterioration of housing stock. The economic disadvantages faced by these communities, compounded by systemic racism in employment, education, and lending practices, have limited the ability of residents to maintain and improve their properties. This legacy of racial inequity has left a lasting imprint on Jackson, where blighted properties are more common in historically segregated and economically marginalized neighborhoods, underscoring the complex relationship between race relations and urban decay in the city.

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Throughout the 20th century, the racial demographics of Jackson underwent significant changes. In the early 1900s, Jackson's population was predominantly White, but the Great Migration of African Americans from rural areas to urban centers led to gradual increases in the city's Black population. By the mid-20th century, particularly during the Civil Rights era, Jackson became a focal point for racial tensions and demographic shifts. The African American population continued to grow, both in numbers and in influence, despite facing systemic segregation and discrimination. This period also saw many White residents move to suburban areas, a pattern commonly identified as “white flight”. By the end of the 20th century, Jackson had transformed from a predominantly White city to one with a majority African American population, a shift that had profound effects on the city's cultural, economic, and political landscape.

I Jackson, like many other cities in the United States, varies in income levels among different racial groups, a situation reflecting broader socioeconomic disparities. African Americans, who make up a significant portion of Jackson's population, often face higher rates of poverty and lower median incomes compared to their White counterparts.

This economic gap can be attributed to factors such as historical segregation, discrimination in the labor market, and unequal access to quality education.

Barrier Analysis

By Census Tract

Income average by household

$19,000 - 32,000 $32,000 - 46,000 $46,000 - 63,000 $63,000 +

Demographics non-white population by percentage

95 - 100 % 84 - 94 % 62 - 83 % 0 - 61%

Housing vacant housing units by tract

Background: Jackson is a unique place, the capital of the most low-income state in the nation, the Blackest major city in the United States per capita, and a city whose history is translated through its’ infrastructure and built landscape. While the implementation of policies and regulation are directly in view as forms of disenfranchisement in marginalized communities, public infrastructure, urban planning, and the built environment are not Abstract: Jackson, Mississippi is a unique place, the capital of the most low-income state in the nation, the Blackest major city in the United States per capita, and a city whose history is translated through its’ infrastructure and built landscape. While the implementation of policies and regulation are directly in view as forms of disenfranchisement in marginalized communities, public infrastructure, urban planning, and the built environment are not often recognized as forms of regulation. Architecture and public infrastructure have been documented, especially in the South, as having devastating effects on marginalized communities, but are often overlooked, as they are not easily identifiable.

The placement of highways, railroads, walls, and more, have had profound effects on the organization of different racial demographic groups within the city of Jackson - the effects of which can still be seen today.

Jackson is a city inseparable from its’ deeply rooted history of civil-rights, a struggle still evident in the city’s architecture and infrastructure alike. The above implicates exclusionary infrastructure, defined here as the placement and construction of built works that hinder accessibility between communities, resulting in systemic disinvestment and social plight. This proposal aims to examine how these factors – and their historical, social, and political contexts – have resulted in inequity at multiple scales. And furthermore, leverage that research to better understand how architecture can be a form of liberation rather than control in a city and a state that fails to reconcile under the weight of its own history.

335 - 573 214 - 334 114 - 213 1 - 113

Co-Authored with Luke Murray, fifth-year architecture student at Mississippi State University.

CAP Proposal 5

Barrier Analysis The data shown to the right illustrates a strong divide when evaluating housing stock, demographics by race, and income level. The data, organized by census tract, distinctly follows major infrastructure routes —railroads highlighted in red and designated highways highlighted in yellow. It has been well documented that railroads, interstates, and highways can act as barriers that divide communities, and Jackson is no exception. It is in conjunction with these barriers and other significant drivers such as historically oppressive redlining maps dating back to the 1930’s that these divides have been strengthened into the 21st century. What is more evident, even with an exodus of white residents beginning in the 1970’s, the infrastructure shown have continued to hold as significant obstacles to intracity mobility, and act as defining lines for capitalized development in a predominantly white East Jackson

Vacant Housing Units The above map is a physical model that represents population density by census block overlayed with red markers that denote 20 vacant housing units each.

These vacant units cluster along the railroads and highways and stretch into West Jackson with few radiating into a more affluent East Jackson. With Jackson comprised of 74,000 housing units — 17% of them vacant — the overwhelming majority of them are west of I-55. This map, along with the data from the previous page, shows a clear lack of investment in communities of color.

CAP Proposal 4

Demographics by Race

Jackson

By Census Block

84 - 94 % 62 - 83 %

non-white population by percentage

J

Suburbs

95 - 100 %

non-white population by percentage

0 - 61%

70 - 100 % 49 - 69 % 30 - 48 % 0 - 29%

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Highway Railroad PH

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DA M VW JSU

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city center

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Population incriments of 5,000

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80

CAP Proposal 6

Jackson

145,995

Madison

27,775

Clinton

26,996

Pearl

27,682

Brandon

25,502

Ridgeland

24,404

Byram

12,721

Flowood

10,530

Richland

7,297

120

Neighborhoods & Districts Brookleigh Belhaven Heights Dixon Acres

Eastover Farish Street Fondren

1954 Brown vs. Board of Education, declares separate public schools unconstitutional

160,000 140,000 120,000

Black White

1903 New Capitol Building constructed

60,000

Millsaps College Northwest Hills Presidential Hills

Leavell Woods Midtown Mid North District

1959 Jackson Academy opens as “Freedom of Choice School”

1969 Alexander vs. Holmes County BOE, forces integration of schools in American South

1979 Pearl River Flood of 1979, causes 600 million in damage

Rolling Meadows Tougaloo Van Winkle

1997 MS Adequate Education Program is passed, schools have only been fully funded twice

40,000 20,000

1900

1910

1920

1930

1940

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1950

1960

1970

1980

1990

2000

2010

2020

Madison Ridgeland

Clinton

Flowood Jackson Brandon

Pearl

Richland Byram

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Barrier Analysis - Census Track: The analysis spans east from the Old Capitol Building to US-49 in West Jackson. Documentation occurred every quarter mile and captured general street views, power lines and poles, occupied housing, unoccupied housing, and noteworthy instances.

This analysis examines conditions on either side of the Capitol St Viaduct, illustrating a sharp decline in general infrastructure and housing stock proceeding west.

1927 GM&O Railroad Depot constructed on E. Pearl St., ushers in new era of industry in city

100,000 80,000

Forest Hill Hawkins Field Jackson State University

200

N SCALE : 1” = 8000’

CAP Proposal 7

Capitol St Viaduct Barrier Analysis

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CAP Proposal 8

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Barrier Analysis - Street Level: The analysis spans east from the Old Capitol Building to US-49 in West Jackson. Documentation occurred every quarter mile and captured general street views, power lines and poles, occupied housing, unoccupied housing, and noteworthy instances.

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This analysis examines conditions on either side of the Capitol St Viaduct, illustrating a sharp decline in general infrastructure and housing stock proceeding west.

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Woodrow Wilson Ave

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CAP Proposal 9

Barrier Panorama

West Capitol St from the Old Capitol Building to US-49 Panorama refers to our methodology for data collection and observations done n equal incriments along the route of analysis. This was done through a series of images looking at the maitanance of public infrastucture, housing stock, and the grahic representation of the barrier we hoped to address in each study.

Barrier Analysis - Street Panorama: Panorama refers to the graphic above which demonstrates our methodology for data collection and observations done n equal incriments along the route of analysis. This was done through taking a series of images looking at the maitanance of public infrastucture, housing stock, and the graphic representation of the barrier we hoped to address in each study. These panoramas were done for each local case study, in order to demostrate the gradient of socioeconomic decline are the intersection of each barrier from East to West manifested in the built environment. We have three total sites across Jackson.

CAP Proposal 10

CAP Proposal 11

Gulfport, MS Fourth-year, Spring Semester studio project, work was sponsered by Mississippi Forestry Association

The Windrose, a Gulfport Research Center

Background: This studio’s site was in Gulfport Mississippi, as a Mississippi Sound research center. The major challenge was designing an aquatics research center with the requirement of mass timber. The site being adjacent to a marina, I made the design a series of intersecting cylindrical shapes with a central radial point in order to conbat the pressures from high-speed winds.. This was then elevated on a 25’ concrete podium to equip the site with hurricane resiliency, additionally the site featured an interactive park and trail space, flood mitigation integrated design, as well as a preforming arts center. To the right you can see the site sticking out from the shoreline, in addition to the Kevin-Lynch Style analysis of Gulfport.

Gulfport, MS 12

PATHS are the channels along which the observer customarily, occasionally, or potentially moves. They may be streets, walkways, transit lines, canals, railroads. For many people, these are the predominant elements in their image. People observe the city while moving through it, and along these paths the other environmental elements are arranged and related.

EDGES are the linear elements not used or considered as paths by the observer. They are the boundaries between two phases, linear breaks in continuity: shores, railroad cuts, edges of development, walls. They are lateral references rather than coordinate axes. Such edges may be barriers, more or less penetrable, which close one region off from another; or they maybe seams, lines along which two regions are related and joined together.

INTRO In my experiences exploring Gulfport, Mississipp I found that is does not have a distinctly high resolution as a city in terms of legibility and imagability the way Kevin Lynch describes in his research. The city’s along the Mississippi Coast are largely indistinguishable, in my time there I did not know when we crossed the threshold from Gulfport to Biloxi to Ocean Springs. But one thing was very clear, Gulfport’s namesake. The city is very clearly centered around the Gulfport Harbor, with direct axial relationships to the rail lines acting as both strong edges and paths of circulation. Because of the harbor acting as a nexus, many of the city’s recognizable districts and landmarks have been developed around this area such as the Gulfport Municipal Marina, pedestrian paths like Jones Park, the Mississippi Aquarium, and 25th Avenue with a characteristic downtown. There has even been new development around this area such as the new land bridge that will be linking the aquarium to Jones Park.

DISTRICTS are the medium-to-Iarge sections of the city, conceived of as having twodimensional extent, which the observer mentally enters “inside of, “ and which are recognizable as having some common, identifying character. Always identifiable from the inside, they are also used for exterior reference if visible from the outside.

LANDMARKS are another type of point-reference, but in this case the observer does not enter within them, they are external. They are usually a rather simply defined physical object: building, sign, store, or mountain. Their use involves the singling our of one element from a host of possibilities. Some landmarks are distant ones, typically seen from many angles and distances, over the tops of smaller elements, and used as radial references.

NODES are points, the strategic spots in a city into which an observer can enter, and which are the intensive foci to and from which he is traveling. They may be primarily junctions, places of a break in transportation, a crossing or convergence of paths, moments of shift from one structure to another.

LANDMARK Cranes are a landmark on the port because unlike other characteristics within the city, this represents something that is happening vertically, that people can see breaking the horizon

LANDMARK The historic library, with a very post-modern vibe has been kept on the site of the aquarium and is a reminder of a different era

LANDMARK They did not decide on a mundane bridge purely for pedestrian circulation, they chose to celebrate a highly designed crossing

LANDMARK The sculptural nature of the buildings makes it stand out from the rest of the building typologies in Gulfport

LANDMARK Being both a historic district and tourist attraction is a landmark for its distinctive colors and construction motifs P A T H

D I S T R I C T

D I S T R I C T D I S T R I C T

E D G E P A T H

L A N D M A R K

P A T H D I S T R I C T

P A T H E D G E

P A T H

E D G E

Gulfport, MS 8

L A N D M A R K

Above are two out pf the four rendered plans doen for this site. They clearly demonstrate the curvalinear qualities of the design that allow for reduced wind impact. Below are highly detailed drawings of my exterior glazing system to structural mass timber framing, from ground floor, to suspended floor to roof conection.

Gulfport, MS 14

Above are original elevations of the site, accentuating the variation in roof elevations, allowing the development to feel more urban and scaled. Below are images of a detailed model at 1/32”=1’. The site was modeled using a to-scale plot, overlayed with laser-cut chipboard to give it multiple dimensions at high resolution in detail.

Gulfport, MS 15

Lagoonas The Gulf Coast Studio: The New Blue Economy Coastline

10 Acre 1/32 Scale Model Background: In fall of 2022, participated in a research studio as a part of the Gulf Research Program sponsored by the National Academy of Science, Engineering and Medicine. My proposal involved a series of programmatic lagoons that would line the coast with the potential to facilitate the promotion of local ecology and economy. This strategy hoped to combat the increasing effects of climate change along the coast through redesigning water management systems, developing building typologies, and incorporating solar energy practices, along with introducing aquaculture more sustainably, and bring eco-tourism. What follows are my designs with original watercolor paintings, as well as physical models going from a scale that spanned 3 miles, down to 3 acres, getting finer in detail with every jump in scales.

Lagoonas 16

Lagoonas 17

Lagoonas 18

10 Acre 1/32 Scale Model

30 Acre 1/32 Scale Model

3 Acre 1/16 Scale Model

30 Acre 1/32 Scale Model

Lagoonas 19

Stair Design Fall of 2019 second-year stair design project using rhino and grass-hopper for desing exploration Background: Designed and 3D printed original stair case whos logic can be manipulated and reconfigure to give variations of the same stair series.

The stair is adjacent to a honeycomb structure, suitable for outdoor garden use ot interior storage spaces, such as in libraries and stores.

Stair Design 20

Cardboard Pavillion

First-year Spring of 2019 the studio was assigned an to assemble in groups of three and constuct a human-scale “pavilion” made of only cardboard, string, and glue.

Our group was able to design a modular system of pieces that when bent, forms a cornucopia-like shape without the assistance of string, and the allowances for light to come throw there the modular pieces naturally folded. We completed this project a week before the deadline due to the simplicity in the design of the assembled pieces and its natural geometries.

Cardboard 21

Louis Sullivan First-year Fall of 2018 was assigned an image taken from a portion of a predetermined building and asked to design an infill building facade Background: I was given this portion of Louis Sullivan’s Farmers and Merchants Union Bank in Columbus, Wisconsin 1919. I chose to make a symmetrical facade with heavy detailing along the edges of the building’s face, having the entrance indented based off studies of his previous works and styles.

This project was entirely drawn by hand and influenced future works

Louis Sullivan

22

Aydelott Fellow GRANT AWARD - $20.000 Summer 2022 – “Establishing Community Resiliency and Identity Through Architecture in the Wake of Extenuating Circumstances” Background: The Aydelott Travel Award and the Aydelott Prize were established

by Memphis architect Alfred Lewis Aydelott, FAIA (1916-2008), and his wife Hope Galloway Aydelott (1920-2010) to encourage students to “become proficient in the art of architectural analysis” by enabling them to conduct firsthand in-depth observation, research, and analysis of four unique buildings.

I studied in nine different countries, focusing on four main research topics surrounding architectural interventios: • Medellín, Colombia: Growing inequality including uneven access to resources and infrastructure (public buildings and public spaces) • Christchurch, New Zealand: Social response due to climate/natural disaster • Copenhagen, Denmark: Migrations of people fleeing armed conflict • Johannesburg, South Africa: Building societies in the aftermath of colonialism.

Other countries of study for analysis in urban development included Spain, Portugal, Netherlands, France, and Turkey.

Completed written portion for secondary prize of $5,000 stipend based on a 17,000 word essay report on my research. – Recently won this portion of the award, becoming first ever Mississippi State student to do so top right image: La Casa de Memoria, Medellin Colombia bottom left: Superkilen Park, Copenhagen

Aydelott Fellow 23

Parque Biblioteca España Social Urbanism Practices - Medellin, Colombia Objectives of Research: 1. Analysis of Parque Biblioteca España (Spain Library Park), built to address the growing inequality including uneven access to resources and infrastructure (public buildings and public spaces). The culmination of Medellín’s present built environment is evidence of this struggle for social change. It is demonstrated through its physical evolution of social strata driven by internal and external conflict and sculpted through Medellín’s relationship between the landscape and what is built. At the precipice of political turmoil, activists in Medellín turned to investing into accessible public infrastructure in an attempt to address its social inequities.

Thus, Social Urbanism was introduced in the region as a socio-political approach to reimagining the growth of the city and mobility of Medellín, Colombia its inhabitants. Through architectural innovation, “Latin America neither wants, nor has any reason, to be Medellín has rapidly a pawn without a will of its own; nor is it merely wishful changed the perception of thinking that its quest for independence and originality the city’s urban reality. This should become a Western aspiration. However, the innovation included a series navigational advances that have narrowed such distances of “library parks,” the first between our Americas and Europe seem, conversely, to have of these constructed being accentuated our cultural remoteness. Why is the originality Parque Biblioteca España. so readily granted to us in literature so mistrustfully denied

Social Urbanism

us in our difficult attempts at social change? Why think that the social justice sought by progressive Europeans for their own countries cannot also be a goal for Latin America, with different methods for dissimilar conditions?”

- Gabriel García Márquez

Gabriel García Márquez, “The solitude of Latin America” - Nobel Lecture, 8 December, 1982, accessed October 25, 2022, https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1982/marquez/lecture/

Aydelott Fellow 24

The concept behind the building was to incorporate public space and expand accessibility to basic needs in hard-to-reach comunas of the valley through insitu development rather than displacing the existing population. The model that was developed in Medellín through its Proyectos Urbanos Integrales (PUI program) was accepting that as cities become denser throughout the twenty-first century, informal settlements are to become a rule rather than an exception. This crossed a psychological barrier establishing that “slums” were not marginal to the city, but rather, integral to its success.

Cardboard Cathedral Emergency Architecture - Christchurch, New Zealand Objectives of Research: 2. Analysis of the “Cardboard Cathedral” in Christchurch, and its effectiveness under the pressures of a needed social response to a natural disaster. Architecture, out of all human creations, is perhaps the most vulnerable to earthquakes and other natural disasters. It is with this vulnerability that one must bear in mind the social responsibility of the architect. Emergency architecture is often associated with temporary housing structures for those displaced by climate change, natural disasters, and armed conflict. But the problem lies in assuming that any temporary architecture does not, in reality, become a permanent installment. Emergency buildings are often ill-equipped for this permanent status.

With crises like these occurring more frequently, emergency architecture must begin to turn away from reacting with the temporary “band aids” and rather focus on long-lasting solutions that can begin to mitigate the consequences and social disruptions caused by natural disasters.

In the landscape of disaster relief architecture, Shigeru Ban’s Cardboard Cathedral in Christchurch, New Zealand (or Aotearoa) is an outlier in how it addressed a crisis to facilitate community healing.

Cardboard Cathedral Christchurch, New Zealand

“Indeed a long-term view is essential to the success of such projects because otherwise the worst traits of short term thinking are played out in the most vulnerable situations to tragic effect. Humanitarian work thus holds up a magnifying glass to the actions of spatial agency, both intensifying its productive potential and spotlighting where it may go wrong.”

Shigeru Ban Architects

Nishat Awan, Schneider, Tatjana and Till, Jeremy, Spatial Agency: Other Ways of Doing Architecture (New York: Routledge, 2011), 50.

Aydelott Fellow 25

Parque Biblioteca España Social Disorder Architecture , a response to immigration - Copenhagen, Denmark Objectives of Research: 3. Superkilen Park in Copenhagen attempts to create connectivity for those forced to flee their homes due to social disorder in a migrant community of over sixty represented nationalities. As social disorder caused by armed conflict, climate change, religious and ethnic discrimination, economic and political instability, and lack of access to resources continues to force migrants away from all that they know, the response from architectural institutions has fallen behind. Often the result has been the development of tent cities or container homes that further isolate a group that already feels unwelcomed. This prompts a question: is the refugee crisis really a “crisis” or just a facet of life? And why has architecture not adjusted to this fact as urban density is projected Copenhagen, Denmark to increase in part due to mass migration?

“Rather than being viewed as meaningless monuments

Superkilen Park

to an outdated method of dealing with immigration, the remnants of a reconsidered wall might be treated with reverence, reminders of a time of trauma that was overcome through creativity, resilience, and imagination...

The healing of two cities has been articulated by a scar that continues to be visible in many places in the form of urban parks, museums, and public pedestrian and bicycle trails.”

- Ronald Rael

Bijarke Ingels Group TOPOTEK 1 Super Flex Ronald Rael, Border wall As Architecture (University of California Press, 2017)167

Aydelott Fellow 26

Designers of Superkilen Park in Copenhagen, Denmark, have developed a unique approach to acknowledging the diversity of an immigrant community.

Rather than using a cookie cutter solution for a multifaceted urban condition, they created a park that celebrates differences.

Because there are multiple contributors to migration, there are also multiple solutions. The solution does not reside solely in housing the displaced, but also in recognizing each other’s humanity and championing the merging of cultures.

Parque Biblioteca España Post-Apartheid Architecture - Johannesburg, South Africa Objectives of Research: 4. Analysis of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, envisioned to rebuild society in the aftermath of colonialism. In the City of Gold, where colonialism still bears an enduring imprint, Johannesburg has become the home of the first governmental building built post-apartheid in South Africa. In the site of a former prison fort, that once held political prisoners like Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela, now resides South Africa’s highest court.

South Africa’s journey to building their own democracy is one that weighs heavily on the architectural language that was developed post-apartheid, with it being only 2 years since their first democratic election. In Johannesburg, reconciliation with an apartheid spatial order in a postcolonial era continues to dominate the driving forces behind regenerating public spaces. Through these efforts, South Africa has sought to preserve its history rather than sanitize it. With the adoption of their official constitution in 1996, construction of the court began, placing it in harmony with its poignant history, and enabling South Africa’s future to be in dialogue with its past.1

Constutional Court of South Africa Johannesburg, South Africa

“Our democratic Constitution is at the heart of our triumph over oppression and division. It is the bastion of our victory over a system that caused extreme deprivation, hardship, and suffering; a system that caught oppressor and oppressed alike in a web of ceaseless conflict...Transforming a notorious icon of repression into its opposite, it will ease the memories of suffering inflicted in the dark corners, cells and corridors of the Old Fort Prison. Rising from the ashes of that ghastly era, it will shine forth as a pledge for all time that South Africa will never return to that abyss. It will stand as an affirmation that South Africa is indeed a better place for all.”

-Nelson Mandela

Urban Solutions & OMM Design Workshop

South African Government, “Address by President Nelson Mandela at the announcement of the winner of the architectural competition for the design of the new Constitutional Court building,Johannesburg,”accessed December23,2022,http://www mandela.gov.za/mandela_speeches/1998/980408 _concourt.htm

Aydelott Fellow 27

Evicted Special topic research on housing insecurity in the Golden Triangle, Missississippi.

Background: Was a student researcher and exhibition coordinator for a special topics course where we documented residential spaces of individuals experiencing housing insecurity.

Additionally, we worked with local stakeholders and nonprofit organizations to set up oral history interviews of the unhoused in Mississippi.

At the end of the course we developed an exhibition of our research and ethical data collection and processing in cooperation with the community, which later became a traveling exhibition throughout Mississippi.

What is shown is an example of my work from the exhibition curation in the fall of 2021.

Evicted 28

BROOKVILLE GARDEN APARTMENTS KITCHEN

BEDROOM 1

KITCHEN

LIVING ROOM

BEDROOM 2

BEDROOM 3

BEDROOM 1

LIVING ROOM

BEDROOM 3

BEDROOM 2

STORY TWO Ms. A.H. is a mother and a self-proclaimed country girl who grew up in Louisville, Mississippi, where most of her family continues to reside. She spoke about her childhood homes, and her experience being raised in various trailer parks. Before moving, A.H. worked as a hairdresser and managed a restaurant in Louisville. A.H. came to Starkville, Mississippi, and moved in with a friend of about a year ago for a job opportunity and a change of pace.

However, her residence turned out to be a disappointment and she hopes to move out of her current living situation soon. A.H., her roommate, and their children are the only tenants remaining in her apartment building of four units, as the surrounding three residences are in exceptionally poor condition. She warned the interview team about the danger of inhaling mold, and floors in adjacent units collapsing if stepped on.

A.H. speaks about the poor maintenance of the apartment complex. She was not sure who oversaw maintenance, as none has been performed. She lists mold from the apartment below, the leaking ceiling, busted pipes, and the toilet about to fall in, all of which have not been addressed despite several maintenance requests. She hopes to move out and rent a house with a yard for her son to have a safe space to play. She made it clear that she does not trust the area around her current apartment residence enough to allow her son to play outside unsupervised. A.H. describes the struggles with keeping her young high energy son indoors and away from the street, reminiscing about her life in the country with plenty of space. And though she expresses much disdain for packing and potentially leaving a majority of her personal possessions behind, she has been planning her move for over a month. A.H.'s vision for her dream home was simple: something with a yard, quiet, and a place she could stay for a long time.

Evicted 29

"I got a lot to be fixed.

We got mold growing from the bottom apartment.

We got a broken pipe in the kitchen thats running out. Toilet bout to fall in. Roof leaking."

Artworks & Small Business These works are expressions of my personal voice, skill multiple art mediums and entrepreneurship

Itimad Ud Daulah Tomb: A 24”x36” mixed media

Right: hand-painted artworks listed on my Etsy shop.

La Chica Del South

Self portrait, acrylic on glass, painted in reverse

Portrait of Lola, 1996, graphite and acrylic

Artworks & Small Business 30