inter and intra connectedness of Georgia Tech

COA 8904: Analytical Investigations into the Design of Urban Space Prof. John Peponis, Prof. Sonit Bafna Second Paper Spring 2004-Mar

ranah moh’d Hammash PhD Program College of Architecture

Georgia Institute of Technology

Diagramming the Stroll from TECHNOLOGY SQUARE: THE CORRIDOR OF INNOVATION to the subject of INETR and INTRA CONNECTEDNESS of GEORGIA TECH CAMPUS

Georgia Tech 20th Century classical Image and Landmarks

Georgia Tech 21st Century New Image

Georgia Tech 21st Century Construction of Intentions

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• Empty lots and warehouses dotted the site of the Fifth Street project in 1999. The site was renamed Technology Square in 2001.

• The Biltmore Hotel marked the western border of Midtown in November 2001.

Private developers like Jim Borders and Kim King, both Tech alumni, were eyeing space in Midtown. The relatively inexpensive land and a commitment from a major university to develop the south side of Fifth Street made their decisions easier. “Georgia Tech’s decision to cross the interstate definitely had an influence on my decision to buy the Biltmore,” said Borders. “What it has done for us is that the Biltmore is no longer on the fringe. It’s now in the middle of all that is happening in Midtown.”

• Construction cranes and concrete pillars outline the terrain of Tech's new development in February 2002.

• Before the arrival of Technology Square, the Downtown Connector isolated Tech's campus from Midtown for 50 years.

•Technology Square will be the new nexus of a thriving “High-Tech corridor”.

Technology Square encompasses education, research, and hospitality, forming a mixed-use complex.

• A new neighborhood begins to form in November 2002.

• When completed in the summer of 2003, Technology Square added an additional 1.12 million square feet to campus. Tech space at the Centergy project across the street added another 342,000 square feet.

• Pedestrian signs blend in and complement the progressive design of the buildings.

• A new sign announced Georgia Tech's arrival in Midtown in the summer of 2003.

• The Midtown expansion: a strong statement of growth, development and technology, overlooking the interstate.

• It is a strategical transformation from a vertical immobile “logo” into a horizontal and interactive façade stretching along two axes: N-S being the interstate direction, and E-W establishing a new Midtown interface.

• Left: Part of Kim King Associates' Centergy Project, the Technology Square Research Building houses three Georgia Tech research centers.

• A new alternative-fuel trolley connects Tech Square with the main campus and other Midtown business centers.

• Notice the difference between the well-designed streetscape of the Tech Square area versus the poorly designed pedestrian’s movement of the Fifth bridge sidewalks: the bridge is the main connector between the Midtown development and the main campus.

•The Global Learning and Conference Center doubles as the center for Tech's distance learning programs and as an executive conference center.

•Workers install the glass facade on the College of Management in April 2003. The glass front provides plenty of natural light and helps connect the college with the outside world.

•Interactivity and openness are the new themes which render the project from the street planning level to the façade materiality and cladding level.

• The Georgia Tech Hotel and Conference Center adds 252 guest rooms and 21,000 square feet of meeting space to the Atlanta Market.

•An intersection building, on one side overlooking the Interstate, on the other defining an interface façade.

• The facades are thickened and intensified with differentiated programs; thus negotiating interfered housed knowledge within the enclosed, and social interactivity between the internal users and the external bypassing curios observers.

• Tech’s new landmark is no more a structurally independent and isolated statue, but is About “Hi-tech detailing of juxtaposed vibrant conditions”.

• A prototype for future stores, Barnes and Noble at Georgia Tech serves both as a retail superstore and a college bookstore.

• The open-air design of the Management Building provides the perfect environment for students to socialize on the block scale, but is this enough?

• Technology Square is a unique blend of business, education, research, and retail space. Retail partners include the Barnes & Noble @ Georgia Tech bookstore, a range of restaurants, a fitness center, a spa, and other service-oriented establishments.

"Technology Square is poised to be the center of the high-tech corridor of Atlanta.

Having a thriving retail community is essential to supporting the education and business innovation that Technology Square and Centergy will foster," said Bob Thompson, senior vice president for administration and finance at Georgia Tech.

• At the corner of West Peachtree and Fifth Street, the Management Building was planned to mark a new entrance for Georgia Tech.

• The blending process with the adjacent community does on the one hand vitalize and enrich the campus, yet the definition of Tech’s academic identity and spatial territoriality are design aspects of high significance that have to be planned more rigorously and implemented on the global scale of the campus. The upper installation standing alone resembles a weak statement for such intent.

• The open-air design of the Management Building provides the perfect environment for students to socialize.

The benefits Tech Square brings to the university are many, commented Georgia Tech’s President G. Wayne Clough: First, it reclaims an area adjacent to the campus that was deteriorating in such a way posing a threat to the campus; Second, it links Tech to Midtown and bridges the gap created by the construction of the freeway; Third, it provides highly needed facilities for the academic programs and visitors; Forth, the retail outlets represent an important step in “creating a ‘college-town’ feel to our campus”; And, finally, it creates a “highly visible signature development stating that the heart of the technology community is here”.

Problems of Extensions: Syntactical Analysis

Tech Square and emerging Spatio-social Problems: 1.

Weak Definition of Entrance and Boundaries

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Pedestrian movement and Access to the Tech Square are ill-defined and poorly planned.

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Enhancing the identity at the Interstate.

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Biltmore Hotel as an alien endpoint of the proposed symbolic and instrumental spine: The Fifth Ave.

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Death of vital open spaces; vehicular invasion and pedestrians discontinuity.

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Pedestrian networking: an integrational movement scheme is needed on the global level of the campus.

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• Georgia Tech and Surroundings Integration Map R = 3

• Georgia Tech and Surroundings Integration Map R = n

• Based on the shown syntactical analysis, the high integration of axial lines adjacent to Tech Square on the pedestrian level where integration radius = 3 compared with the vehicular radius is an important spatial factor that support the natural flow of pedestrian movement from outer community inside the Square.

• Planning an efficient pedestrian network system and side walks that not only channel the visitors movement inside the new center but moreover revive the old campus areas is a logical response so as to serve the institution’s goals of serving the outer community and acting as a Technological corridor.

• Georgia Tech until 2002 Integration Map R = n

• Georgia Tech until 2002

• The syntactical analysis of campus before the new development shows that the axial lines within the campus are spatially more integrated for the pedestrians’ radius compared with the vehicular’s; yet careful planning can be carried out to better facilitate the movement system and turn it into an efficient and integrated network.

• Georgia Tech until 2002 Integration Map R = 3

• Georgia Tech after 2002 : Tech Square Addition • The blue lines in the lower map is the existing street system, the pink lines are partial development of what this paper suggests.

Pursuing Institutional Intentions: Extending Extensions

• High Density Pedestrian and Socializing Zones (Natural Movement and Social Gathering zones based on my observations): 1 Computer Science Court

7 Biltmore Hotel

2 Civil Engineering open Court

8 Marta Station

3 Skiles Pedestrian/ Student Center

9 Student Athletic Center/ Health Center

4 Peters parking Deck

10 Student Residence Halls

5 Main Library

11 Undergrad Living Center

6 Tech Tower/ Administration bldg

12 Graduate Living Center

• Suggested Development of Pedestrian movement System integrating natural movement paths with attractors or zones of high social Interaction.

• Georgia Tech Map after 2002

Diagonal Integrator: Hemphill Ave.

Main East-West Integrator: the Fifth “Ave”.

Social Attractors

Suggested gateway design of the Main Tech Admin building located on a pedestrian open plaza.

An academic Hi-Tech Arch, an open structure that maintains the visual continuity between the campus and the Baltimore along the Fifth St.

Baltimore Hotel: A non-Georgia Tech facility located at the most strategical endpoint of the main integrator: the Fifth. St.

Paved Plaza and bridge. All pedestrian movement. No vehicular traffic.

Marta Station Vehicular Streets

• Suggested Development of Pedestrian movement System integrating natural movement paths with zones of high social Interaction.

Vehicular Streets landscaped with wide Pedestrian sidewalks and seating facilities supporting serendipitous encounters

•Tech square buildings were wisely planned to facilitate permeability of through movement inducing spatial interconnectivity between differentiated structures and maximizing connectivity of the Fifth St.

•Tech Square Ground floor plans

•Tech Square Integration map

• Georgia Tech after 2002

• Georgia Tech after 2002

Axial Lines Map

Connectivity Analysis Tech Square:

High levels of connectivity and permeability of the pedestrians movement.

Emergence of New Center

Old Campus: Old Center Core

Relative low levels of connectivity of the pedestrians paths at the core of the old center. Major integrator are not well-connected.

Diagonal Integrator: Hemphill Avenue

• Georgia Tech until 2002 Integration Map R = 3

• Georgia Tech after 2002: Emergence of New global Integrators Integration Map R = 3 Main East-West Integrator: The Fifth “Ave”.

Tech Square Development zone

• Proposed design of Pedestrian Natural Paths

• Axial Map of Proposed design

• Georgia Tech Proposition Map Integration Map R =3

• Georgia Tech after 2002 Integration Map R = 3

• Georgia Tech Proposition Map

• Georgia Tech after Tech Square

• Proposed pedestrian Development map

Connectivity Analysis

Connectivity Analysis: Increase in connectivity and lengths of main axial integrators

• Proposed pedestrian Development map

• Georgia Tech after 2002

Integration Map R =3

Integration Map R = 3

Increase in integration levels of main axial integrators

NORTH

Diagonal Integrator: Hemphill Ave.

Main East-West Integrator: The Fifth “Ave”.

• Georgia Tech _Proposition Map Integration Map R =3

Tech Campus Main Integrators

Tech Square Island

Inner Interface Ring

Integrator

Outer Interface Ring

Integrator

Georgia Tech Gateway