Representing Landscapes: Analogue
Sketching for students is a form of design notation and communication; a way in which ideas develop into forms and spaces and eventually built space. A hindrance in teaching sketching and drawing as a tool in design is student misconception that drawing is an “Art” best left to a certain class of person, whose talents and sensibilities are unquestionable. Most students stopped drawing early in their school careers, when they compared their drawings to the “class artist” and found their work lacking. Another equally misconceived notion, that drawings are only used as a step in the preparation of a rendering, needs to be addressed.
See Newark Praxis Studio work in the recently published book: Representing Landscape:Analogue, edited by Nadia Amoroso, featuring work by RULA students Alexis Lo, Emily Otterbine, Jason Cincotta and Tina Mao.
The second site visit to Newark focused on capturing a view of people spending time outdoors in warmer weather. The walk began at Broad Street Station towards Broad Street. The transition between the transportation gateway areas into the commercial node was significant. It provided direct sunlight to walking under a cold underpass of the train station and route 280.
The walk up through Broadway to the commercial node of the intersection of Broadway and Bloomfield was quick and easy. Although the commercial area has the potential to be a popular shopping district like Ferry Street. Most stores sell furniture and kitchen appliances. The amount of authentic Spanish and Puerto Rican cuisine restaurants help keep the spirit of Broadway alive.
Throughout the walk, every façade of the busy street changed as every new turn was made. The transition space from the commercial area to Branch Brook Park is challenging due to its change in topography. It’s a very steep incline that has a reward at the end of the climb. There is a stunning view of the Sacred Heart Cathedral with cherry trees lining the street. After hiking up Park Ave, there is the gateway to Branch Brook Park. There is no pedestrian entrance from the street. There is an existing entrance for vehicles. It is not comfortable for pedestrians to enter the park without a sidewalk.
The interaction between pedestrians and cars is a bit too close. Branch Brook Park is a beautiful park that had people experiencing the warm day. The cherry blossoms were not in bloom yet but the park was still breathtaking. Walking through the park made it seem as if the city of Newark wasn’t there. It was an escape from the urban environment. The difference between Broadway and Branch Brook Park is the peaceful scenery of nature and the calming of the water in the lake compared to the bustling busy street of vehicles driving by. After the park, we made our way back down 7th Ave. This was a pleasant street because the slope was going down. 7th Ave consists of two housing developments, The Pavilion and Colonnade Apartments, and the Wynona Lipman Gardens. The Colonnade are huge 22 stories high and the Gardens are 2 story townhouses. The housing developments differ in height as well as cultural diversity. The apartments cost much more than the living at the gardens even if the apartments were built to support affordable housing. The end of the site visit walked down State Street back to Broad Street Station.
Overall the walk was pleasant and unique. It was concluded that the route taken that day was to be known as the historic health walk due to the access of viewing historic buildings and places and the movement and exercise through the urban landscape. The entire route took about 2 hours at a leisurely pace and a tourist perspective. A user might be able to experience the route at a faster pace. The loop is to promote movement throughout the city and access to all nodes of the focus site in the studio. There is potential to add a bike lane to make it bicycle friendly since majority of the high traffic areas have larger sidewalks.
The historic health 5K walk will be delineated by the curbs painted a light green.
Today the students gathered in three groups to finalize their master plan ideas. After individual plans were presented we congregated to produce a combined planned representing all of the students main ideas. Our main focus was to create neighborhood identity through social and physical connectivity. This was done by finding relationships between open space, transportation, food, vacant lots, maintenance, and storm water management. After thorough discussion the master plan emphasizes a residential and commercial corridor in hopes of further connecting the community with the above mentioned elements. We will be paying more attention to gateways, programming open space and reinforcing the existing identity of Lower Broadway.
Sketching for students is a form of design notation and communication; a way in which ideas develop into forms and spaces and eventually built space. A hindrance in teaching sketching and drawing as a tool in design is student misconception that drawing is an “Art” best left to a certain class of person, whose talents and sensibilities are unquestionable. Most students stopped drawing early in their school careers, when they compared their drawings to the “class artist” and found their work lacking. Another equally misconceived notion, that drawings are only used as a step in the preparation of a rendering, needs to be addressed.
See Newark Praxis Studio work in the recently published book: Representing Landscape:Analogue, edited by Nadia Amoroso, featuring work by RULA students Alexis Lo, Emily Otterbine, Jason Cincotta and Tina Mao.
See how students combined health and history
The second site visit to Newark focused on capturing a view of people spending time outdoors in warmer weather. The walk began at Broad Street Station towards Broad Street. The transition between the transportation gateway areas into the commercial node was significant. It provided direct sunlight to walking under a cold underpass of the train station and route 280.
The walk up through Broadway to the commercial node of the intersection of Broadway and Bloomfield was quick and easy. Although the commercial area has the potential to be a popular shopping district like Ferry Street. Most stores sell furniture and kitchen appliances. The amount of authentic Spanish and Puerto Rican cuisine restaurants help keep the spirit of Broadway alive.
Throughout the walk, every façade of the busy street changed as every new turn was made. The transition space from the commercial area to Branch Brook Park is challenging due to its change in topography. It’s a very steep incline that has a reward at the end of the climb. There is a stunning view of the Sacred Heart Cathedral with cherry trees lining the street. After hiking up Park Ave, there is the gateway to Branch Brook Park. There is no pedestrian entrance from the street. There is an existing entrance for vehicles. It is not comfortable for pedestrians to enter the park without a sidewalk.
The interaction between pedestrians and cars is a bit too close. Branch Brook Park is a beautiful park that had people experiencing the warm day. The cherry blossoms were not in bloom yet but the park was still breathtaking. Walking through the park made it seem as if the city of Newark wasn’t there. It was an escape from the urban environment. The difference between Broadway and Branch Brook Park is the peaceful scenery of nature and the calming of the water in the lake compared to the bustling busy street of vehicles driving by. After the park, we made our way back down 7th Ave. This was a pleasant street because the slope was going down. 7th Ave consists of two housing developments, The Pavilion and Colonnade Apartments, and the Wynona Lipman Gardens. The Colonnade are huge 22 stories high and the Gardens are 2 story townhouses. The housing developments differ in height as well as cultural diversity. The apartments cost much more than the living at the gardens even if the apartments were built to support affordable housing. The end of the site visit walked down State Street back to Broad Street Station.
Overall the walk was pleasant and unique. It was concluded that the route taken that day was to be known as the historic health walk due to the access of viewing historic buildings and places and the movement and exercise through the urban landscape. The entire route took about 2 hours at a leisurely pace and a tourist perspective. A user might be able to experience the route at a faster pace. The loop is to promote movement throughout the city and access to all nodes of the focus site in the studio. There is potential to add a bike lane to make it bicycle friendly since majority of the high traffic areas have larger sidewalks.
The historic health 5K walk will be delineated by the curbs painted a light green.
Coming Together to Create a Cohesive Project
12 April, 2018
On Thursday, April 12th, each group worked on their individual spaces of the master plan for a pin-up later that day. Streetscape improvements were developed, gateway designs were started, ideas for open spaces were discussed, and the video displaying our view of the City of Newark was finished. During the pin-up, the student critiques each other's work, and created idea and graphic guidelines for each other to follow so the master plan, and booklet for the whole project, is completely consistent. One of the students discussed his analysis of a specific open space, one near the southern entrance of the site directly next to the Pavilion Apartments. This space is planned to be developed, so the student discussed what can be done to follow "development without displacement". This idea proposes a plan for the developer to develop something that keeps the local people in mind. This can be an apartment complex affordable for the local people, or a commercial hub where local businesses can thrive. The student also created a rough phasing plan to show how this space can first be used as a public space, and then can be both private and public after development.
Developing Categories and Streetscapes
10 April, 2018
On Tuesday, April 10th, the Residential Open Space and Commercial Corridor groups sat down together and developed criteria for the analysis of vacancies throughout the site. This criteria will help understand which vacant lots will work for what purpose. The criteria consists of the condition of the lot and the lot's proximity to other amenities. After running each vacant lot through the criteria, the students categorized the lots into three open space categories: recreation, production, and community. Recreation open space will focus on activities like basketball and skateboarding. The productive spaces will focus on food production and green infrastructure. The Community spaces will focus on bringing the community together in small, programmed and non-programmed ways, such as music shows, art spaces, biking, and so on.
Breaking Up the Master Plan
3-5 April, 2018
For Tuesday, April 3rd, the students were assigned areas of the master plan to focus on. Four areas were delineated: Commercial Corridor, Residential Open Space, the Gateway, and the Historical Health Walk. These areas keep in mind our four focuses for the master plan: maintenance, vacancy and open space, stormwater management, and food. After this delineation, the students were assigned to break into small groups to work on each space and come up with ideas on how to tackle our four topics, all while keeping a consistency that helps build the Lower Broadway identity.
Every Thursday until the end of the project, the students will partake in a quick pin-up to go over the work done each week. No matter the medium, virtual or print, the students can critique each other's work and come up with ideas on how to tackle problems, all while keeping their graphics consistent. On this Thursday, April 5th, the pin-up was with the professor separately to help guide the four groups into their creative directions. The pin-up helped the students understand the new scale of the project and how to keep ideas and graphics consistent within a whole master plan.
Master Plan and Analysis Finalization
29 March, 2018
Breaking up into four groups, the students tackled the finalization and development of the Master Plan, Base Map, Timeline/Historical Maps and Video. The Master Plan will be our road map to a conceptual design in the future. The base map development will help keep our graphics consistent. With a new concise timeline and historical maps, we can better understand the history of Newark, and how it has developed into its current condition. Finally, the video development is our last take on psychogeography by showing Newark through our eyes.
By the end of the day, the Master Plan group split into four sections: The Commercial Corridor, Residential Corridor, Gateway, and Streetscape. They are assigned to go into further analysis of these areas, and come up with ideas on what can conceptually work for these areas. The Master Plan will be used for further analysis during our second site visit, planned for March 31st, 2018.
Master Plan Synthesis
27 March, 2018
Today the students gathered in three groups to finalize their master plan ideas. After individual plans were presented we congregated to produce a combined planned representing all of the students main ideas. Our main focus was to create neighborhood identity through social and physical connectivity. This was done by finding relationships between open space, transportation, food, vacant lots, maintenance, and storm water management. After thorough discussion the master plan emphasizes a residential and commercial corridor in hopes of further connecting the community with the above mentioned elements. We will be paying more attention to gateways, programming open space and reinforcing the existing identity of Lower Broadway.
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