Makayla Davis - City Planning & Landscape Architecture Portfolio 2023

CONTENTS

City & Regional Planning

The Norris Square Neighborhood Project: Rebuilding El Batey

Spring 2022 Studio*

Informal Armatures for Emerging Self-Constructed Settlements: Dhaka, Bangladesh

Spring 2022 Studio*

Reimagining Ecotourism in St. Croix

Fall 2022 Studio**

St. Croix Scenic Road Rainforest Eco-tour

Fall 2022 Studio**

Philadelphia Neighborhood Plan: Poplar, Ludlow, & Yorktown

Spring 2022 Planning Workshop***

Poplar, Ludlow, & Yorktown: Recommendations

Spring 2022 Planning Workshop***

Landscape Architecture

The Land Grant & Agricultural Research Networks: The History of Leading Research Institutions

Fall 2020 Studio

The Black American Landscape: The Plantation

Fall 2020 Studio

Sketch Studies

St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, U.K.

Spring 2018

Axial Relationships, Villa D’Este, Cernobbio, Italy

Fall 2019

Generalife, Granada, Spain

Fall 2019

Santa Catalina Monastery, Arequipa, Peru

Fall 2019

Axial Relationships, Vaux-le-Vicomte, Maincy, France

Spring 2020

Neuf-Brisach, France

Spring 2020

Circulation, Humble Administrator’s Garden, Suzhou, China

Spring 2020

Stonehenge, Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, U.K.

Spring 2018

St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, U.K.

Spring 2018

*Collaborative projects with three other students

**Collaborative project with one other student ***Collaborative project with seven other students

The Norris Square Neighborhood Project: Rebuilding El Batey

The Norris Square Neighborhood Project and gardens were formed as a direct response to a disinvested environment that saw rampant drug trafficking, vandalism, and neglect in the 1970s and 80s. The El Batey garden, located in North Philadelphia, is a tribute to the local community’s Puerto Rican heritage. With plantings of traditional Puerto Rican crops, it has become a vehicle to communicate Puerto Rican culture to the neighborhood. However, this garden is much more than an agricultural space; it has fostered a sense of community and become a place for conversation, dance, and song.

El Batey, named after the central gathering spaces in Taíno villages, serves as a space for the community to gather and learn about Taíno culture.

Today, the garden faces new and different challenges as land values rise and new development threatens these meaningful and deeply-rooted spaces. In December 2021, the garden was destroyed by the initial phase of a new housing development on the adjacent privately-owned lot. In response to the destruction that gentrification and recent development have brought to the garden, this project redesigned the lot, foregrounding elements of Taíno culture. This improved plan for the lot has begun construction and is slated to be finished by the summer of 2023.

The plans for the newly rebuilt garden feature raised beds in the shape of the Taíno petroglyph symbol for the sun. These beds will be used to grow produce for the community farmstand; there will also be a demonstration garden at the rear of El Batey, featuring crops traditionally planted by the Taíno people and using traditional Taíno methods. To explain and guide visitors, Taíno-inspired art and signage will be placed around the garden, and wooden panels covered in interpretive murals will be placed along the new development wall.

New Construction

Greenhouse

Conucos (Taíno Crop Mounds)

Taíno Sol

Bohío

Vegetable Beds

Interpretive Mural Panels

Community Table Batey Petroglyph Stones

Wooden panels visually reduce the scale of the adjacent building wall while serving as a canvas for educational murals about Taino culture for the community.

Research, Construction, and Process Renderings

By 1802, almost the entire Taíno population in Puerto Rico had been killed by the Spanish colonizers as a result of diseases, exploitative labor, and the destruction of Taíno ways of life. Today, El Batey exists as a symbol of resilience and resistance to colonialist ideals. Philadelphia is home to a Puerto Rican community that honors Taíno heritage. Many choose to live in North Philadelphia and the Norris Square neighborhood.

Petroglyphs, which the El Batey garden design is inspired by, are symbols carved into stone that represent Taíno beliefs and religious practices. Most petroglyphs date back to 5,000 to 1,700 A.D. Taíno petroglyphs can be seen around Puerto Rico today. As a tribute to Taíno cultural heritage, the El Batey garden is filled with motifs of petroglyphs and crops, herbs, and flowers that have been grown by the Taíno people for hundreds of years.

Batey is the name for sacred spaces in Taíno communities where celebrations, meetings, and ball games were held. Most Bateys were rectangular in shape, while some were circular or square.

Conucos (or crop mounds) in the garden are a direct tribute to Taíno agricultural practices, bonding the garden to its roots. (Image source: LatinAmericanStudies.org)

Prior to the destructive development on the adjacent lot, El Batey was a thriving garden filled with Taíno-inspired crops and community gathering spaces. (Image source: MyNeighborhoodProject. org)

A Juniata Park Academy dance performance that honors the indigenous Taíno people during the 2019 Puerto Rican Day Parade. (Image source: Kriston Bethel, WHYY)

Yuiza was the only woman Cacique (chief) in Boriken when the Spanish colonizers arrived. She led the area in and around the Cayrabon River in the Jaymanio region. (Image source: ‘Yuiza,’ by Samuel Lind, elyunque.com)

Today, the Norris Square Neighborhood Project is in the process of implementing this redesign of El Batey. (Image source: MyNeighborhoodProject, Instagram)

Visitors are greeted at the main entrance with Batey petroglyph stones, an interpretive and educational element that immediately immerses them in Taíno history, culture, and symbolism.

Informal Armatures for Emerging Self-Constructed Settlements: Dhaka,

Bangladesh

Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh, is facing massive-scale rural-urban migration and explosive rates of population growth. Presently, there are over one million households in 3,000 informal settlements. With such close proximity to water and a tendency for informal settlements to be affected by destructive flooding, this project formulates a new housing typology to account for the projected population increases. The current settlements are unsafe and threatened by ecological disasters. Situated in the Kamrangichar District, this project intentionally links the growing migrant population to city resources at higher elevations while designing safer housing that is resistant to the destructive natural disasters occurring in the area.

Process Drawings

Image sources (left page, top to bottom): The Guardian, The Conversation, University of Waterloo, University of Texas Image sources (right page, top to bottom): Middle East Institute, United News of Bangladesh, Medecins sans Frontieres, BBC, The Business Standard

Informal Settlement Typology

Dhaka, Bangladesh

Proposed Site: Kamrangichar, Dhaka

Housing Complex

Proposed Informal Settlement Complexes

Bridge Connections

Embankment

Flood Zone

Informal Armature

existing settlements

Existing Informal Housing

Elevated Informal Housing

Embankment connecting to roads

Newly Established Informal Housing

Embankment

Reimagining Ecotourism in St. Croix

Reimagining Ecotourism delves into the reality of St. Croix’s resilient island community, finding ways to celebrate its rich culture and investigating new ways to envision tourism, in such a way that it mindfully benefits both islanders and tourists. Historically, tourism in the U.S. Virgin Islands has been centered mainly on St. Thomas. However, Reimagining Ecotourism seeks to highlight the island’s resilience and the ways that the tourism industry can thrive in a post-industrial island economy, recentering tourism in a way that prioritizes the health, wealth, and safety of St. Croix’s people. The following analysis looks at the existing conditions of St. Croix, showing how recent shocks, infrastructure, and climate change have affected Crucians’ resilience and recommending new ways for the tourism industry to serve the island’s people.

In the USVI, guts are natural or constructed waterways; they play an essential role in stormwater management and provide natural habitats.

The oil refinery and its closures had massive effects on island jobs, the local economy, and the environment.

Today, St. Croix faces many environmental issues and a growing need for reliable, renewable energy sources.

With few dump sites, high tipping fees, and unstable funding, waste management burdens the island’s natural assets and waste workers.

Decomposing seaweed poses health risks and overwhelms beaches. In 2022, a national state of emergency was declared to manage sargassum and its effects on the infrastructure and environment.

St.

USVI Energy Office

St Croix Fiber Technology, Inc.

Global Crossing Fiber Terminal

Anguilla Landfill

Waste Water Treatment Facility

STX Airport

On an island so vulnerable to natural disasters, stable electricity is vital to supporting islanders. With an electric grid capable of producing up to 140 megawatts daily, St. Croix is installing composite electric poles to create reliable electrical energy.

Policy Recommendations

1. Marketing Ecotourism - Increasing awareness and demonstrating the potential for environmentally-conscious tourism to transform the travel industry to sustainably protect and preserve the Crucian culture and landscape

2. Waste Management Plan - Increasing access to landfills and dump sites, reducing harmful materials and litter, and providing consistent support to waste management workers in order to better protect and preserve its natural environment.

3. Open Space & Environmental Protection Plan - Proactively protecting open space, regulating land use, and banning development in environmentally sensitive locations (i.e., coral reef, rainforest, mangroves, guts, beaches) to create an island that tourists and locals appreciate for its beauty and forward-thinking approaches to environmental preservation

4. Sargassum Management Plan - Organizing removal processes for the harmful decomposing seaweed, preventing backup in water supplies and sufficient filtration services to protect beaches as safe and healthy assets to public realm

With few walkable streets and minimal public transportation, islanders are reliant on automobiles.

The community is still grappling with the effects and destruction resulting from natural disasters like 2017 Hurricanes Irma & Maria.

During rain events, the island is vulnerable to flooding as the guts may be overwhelmed. Past weather events were extremely destructive, and the island is still coping with the effects of failed infrastructure.*

St. Croix Scenic Road Rainforest Eco-tour

Building from studies of St. Croix’s infrastructure, environment, and tourism industry, the Scenic Road Rainforest Eco-tour imagines new ways that tourists can engage with the island – via historical sites, natural preserves, cultural/special events, and interactive elements. The interactive seeks to give tourists exclusive means of learning about St. Croix’s rich history of resilience.

To illustrate the possibilities of ecotourism in St. Croix, the Eco-tour highlights the potential to bring visitors closer to the island’s people and culture, envisioning ways that tourism can flourish while putting islanders first. This project aims to reshape the tourism industry to accommodate more longer-stay visitors in the post-Covid age, inspiring new ways of bringing visitors closer to St. Croix’s culture while building opportunities for Crucians to benefit from the industry.

KEY

Historical Site

Natural Preserve

Cultural/Special Event

Interactive

Monk’s Bath Tide Pool

Ham’s Bluff Lighthouse

Annaly Bay / Carambola Tide Pools

Scenic West Sugar Mill

The Eco-tour seeks to serve tourists in new, more immersive ways (like smartphone applications to St. Croixspecific lessons, games, and contests) while providing new opportunities for native islanders to benefit from increased visitation.

• Educational, entrepreneurial, and employment opportunities for islanders: rainforest preservation, hazard protection, trail maintenance, sargassum management, bioluminescence

• Activity opportunities: live music, performances, marathons, bike races, kayaking, partnership with nonprofit environmental organizations

• Interactive smartphone application topics: colonial history, traditional Crucian music, stargazing, biking trail map, story maps

Cane Bay Beach

Windsor Farm Trail

Serenity’s Nest Concert Hall

Salt River Bay Kayak Tour

Image sources (left to right): Uncommon Caribbean, GoToStCroix.com, Ibid., The St. Thomas Source, VINow.com, Virgin Islands Trail Alliance, The St. Thomas Source, Viator. com

Philadelphia

Neighborhood Plan: Poplar, Ludlow, & Yorktown

This planning workshop project, created through a series of site visits and investigative analysis, develops a plan for the Philadelphia neighborhoods Poplar, Ludlow, and Yorktown. Culminating in a series of techniques, strategies, and recommendations that demonstrate creative approaches to neighborhood planning, it begins with extensive analysis of existing conditions and progresses to the creation of alternative plans – three mock-up plans, each prioritizing different systems that can guide planning processes.

During the plan production phase, these key issues and opportunities guided the process: rising housing costs, pushback on development, numerous industrial brownfield sites, vacancies, and disconnected neighborhood conditions. Paying special attention to the social, economic, and cultural conditions that shaped the neighborhoods, four main goals were identified for the plan:

1. Celebrate Identity - Appreciate the value of the diverse communities that Philadelphia hosts

2. Economic Vitality - Promote financial literacy, workforce development, and economic drivers that directly benefit the community

3. Housing Equity - Address displacement and preserve existing communities with affordable, accessible housing

4. Generate Wellbeing - Encourage public services that address community health, food accessibility, and aging infrastructure

Existing Conditions

Green Growth Plan

Goal: Foster economic growth and development while preserving and nurturing environmental assets

KEY Community Land Care Projects

Vacant Lots

Expanded Bike Lanes

Current Bike Lanes

Current GSI Projects

Expanding the Rail Park

Image sources (left to right): WHYY, Ibid., UPenn Workshop, Temple University, The Poplar, UPenn Workshop, FNC Community Learning Farm

Image source: UPenn Workshop

Youth Engagement

Temple University

Broad Street Activity

Traditional Rowhomes

Social Capital Plan

Goal: Increase social capital by leveraging opportunities to improve economic and educational health

Public Wellbeing Plan

Goal: Promote housing equity and greater community enrichment

The Poplar Housing Development

9th St Regional Rail Line

Poplar, Ludlow, & Yorktown: Recommendations

Utilizing a multifaceted approach to the neighborhood planning process, this project addresses the complex needs of the existing communities in Poplar, Ludlow, and Yorktown. The following recommendations, developed after extensive research and community observation, aim to establish a neighborhood-specific Identity, encourage economic development, provide housing equity, and strengthen the health and wellbeing of community residents:

1. Branding & Public Art: Expand branding on Broad Street; create branding on Girard Avenue; implement neighborhoodled mural art projects.

2. The 9th Street Underpass Park: Increase lighting along the underpass; divide the open public spaces for multiple uses; design vendor spaces for street food trucks; develop a skate park and activity space.

3. Reinvigorate Public Spaces: Invest in updating and modernizing outdated community and public space; implement microgrid siting at existing or future community hubs; expand cooling center and spash pad coverage.

4. Target Key Economic Drivers: Develop an Arts & Culture District; promote life sciences development.

5. Workforce Incubation, People and Places: Establish a neighborhood-oriented workforce development program; create a place-based workforce development program; create a Pilot Program business infill strategy.

Pilot Business Pop-ups on Girard & Broad, close to key tenants

Existing Conditions of the the 9th steet underpass

Inspirations for the Future

6. Infrastructure Repairs: Leverage North Central Empowerment Zone funds; reduce impervious surface coverage; brownfield site remediation.

7. Broadband Access: Establish community shared broadband access hubs; connect residents lacking internet services to broadband accessibility programs.

8. Improve Food Access and Affordability: Develop a pop-up commercial space at 975 N 9th Street; acquire vacant land parcels for community gardens; establish a farmers market and community fridges; expand food and meal distribution sites.

9. Protect Affordable Housing: Require CBAs for city-supported and high-impact development projects; allocate funds from CBAs and FAR bonuses to rehabilitate existing affordable housing; identify expiring leases and work with developers to ensure lease renewals.

10. Direct Development: Support infill development on scattered vacant lots; up-zone parcels along 9th Street and the Rail Line; allow Accessory Dwelling Units; create transit-oriented development zoning.

11. Streetscape Greening: Redesign streetscapes by adding green infrastructure, increasing tree canopy cover, adding rain barrels to store water for use, upgrading amenities, adding bike lanes, and reconfiguring roads.

12. Active Transit: Encourage sustainable and healthy travel models for the residents; create pedestrian connections along the future Arts & Culture District on Broad Street.

13. Expand Medical Care Accessibility: Create a volunteer/ pro bono program to provide free medical assistance to the community.

Navy Yard, Philadelphia

Carrall Street Greenway, Vancouver

Image sources: Politico (upper left), WaterfrontSeattle.org (lower right)

Proposed revitalization of the underpass

Land Grant Universities

1862 Morrill Land Grant Act I

1890 Land Grant Act II

1994 Equity in Education Land Grant Act

Research Institutions

Agricultural Education Dissemination

Agricultural education is disseminated from federal to state levels, then to local levels. The USDA funds research at land grant institutions, where students utilize university resources to produce research on a range of topics related to the vernacularlandscape. Universities host statewide properties and research centers that support local farmers and agricultural institutions. At the local level, extension offices and fairgrounds host these networks.

1812-67: Manifest Destiny 1861-65: Civil War

Purchase

Fugitive Slave Law

Reconstruction Acts

Agricultural Experiment Stations Act, Hatch Act, & APLU founded

Indian Removal Act

Morrill Land Grant Act I & USDA founded 1890 Morrill Land Grant Act II

The Land Grant & Agricultural Research Networks: The History of Leading Research Institutions

The land-grant narrative can best be understood within the greater context of America’s historical presence. The existence of these universities and affiliated institutions are the product of major legislation passed during periods of growth in American history. This project contextualizes the far-reaching influence of landgrant universities and agricultural research networks, framing the progression of this system through a timeline of American history.

Despite the beneficial outcomes of the land-grant and agricultural education dissemination, this system is an impetus for the largescale land dispossession and displacement of Native Americans and minority communities, further disparaging the diverse communities that make up America. The education and resources brought forth by land-grant institutions have come at the expense of not serving all Americans equitably, demonstrating the many complex forces that have shaped America’s racist history.

The Ohio State University Founded under the Morrill Act of 1862

The Black American Landscape: The Plantation

The history and evolution of Black life in America follow a long and tumultuous journey, traumatic for those who have lived the experience. It begins in dungeons in the 17th century in West Africa and progresses to frighteningly cramped slave ships headed to American plantations. On these farms and plantations, white men owned Black bodies, exploiting them for labor, profit, and reproductive gains. Unthinkably torturous and heinous acts were legally committed against enslaved people for the sake of profit and demonstration of power dynamics.

This project represents the commodification of Black bodies, unwillingly participating in a corrupt system that will forever impact Black people and their descendants. Despite the trauma of the Black person’s existence in North America, the Black American experience represents the strength and endurance of an ever-evolving culture. Black Americans have taken the American landscape and foraged a community that expresses hope, prosperity, and togetherness despite adversity. A culture was created, and it continues to prosper today, leaving an abundant legacy of knowledge, art, music, food, and so much more.

The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade

The trauma and strife that Black Americans have faced historically and continue to face are directly attributable to the vast and complex shipping network that is the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. Aggressively shipping Africans to the Americas, this network is the foundation for the diaspora of Black people who exist outside of Africa today. The ability of these people to survive and create community attests to the resilience that Black people constantly show in the face of adversity.

1865

The Civil War frees Black Americans from enslavement

1787

Three-fifths Compromise

1850 Fugitive Slave Law

1863 Emancipation Proclamation

Nat Turner’s Rebellion

Amistad Ship Revolt

Sketch Studies

Axial Relationships, Vaux-le-Vicomte Maincy, France

Generalife Granada, Spain

Santa Catalina Monastery Arequipa, Peru

Axial Relationships, Villa D’Este Cernobbio, Italy

Neuf-Brisach

France

Stonehenge

Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, U.K.

Circulation, Humble Administrator’s Garden

Suzhou, China