Exploring Woodward

Downtown- many empty storefronts on the wide avenue

 Woodward Avenue corridor - one of the 'spokes' of historical street car lines and a main thoroughfare of the city, connecting downtown and the riverfront to midtown, a thriving neighbourhood of the city.

 

North of I-75, vacant buildings are masses in the landscape.

The avenue remains wide with breaks in the urban wall facing it.

The avenue traverses the city connecting the downtown core to the suburbs.  Because of its location and significance on the city grid, it has the potential to become a catalyst of development and change in the city. 
 

The urban wall that faces the avenue, changes and morphs as the avenue heads

The avenue dips below Amtrak railway as it enters 'New Center

north, anchored by the city's Hart Plaza.  It passes through the heart of downtown, passing by Comerica Park and Fox Theater.   Crossing over I-75, the urban wall diminishes to  vacant lots used for parking during sports/downtown events.  

 The avenue passes through the midtown neighbourhood, a

As the avenue leaves the city, its expanse only increases

prospering community, anchored by flourishing entrepreneurs and the Wayne State University and College of Creative studies as well as the cultural center.  The Detroit institute of Arts, African American Museum and the Science Center are a few of the cultural institutions housed adjacent to the Avenue.  Further north, the avenue is flanked by many residential historical neighbourhoods such as Boston Edison.

 

 Mapping the adjacent land use to the Avenue provides an understanding of the context.  The urban pulses that exist along the corridor begin to manifest themselves and potential sites for development are explored. The team participates in site explorations daily, exploring the expansive avenue by car, by bike and by foot, contextualizing the experience.

Many interesting pulses are identified, experienced and explored, including small business such as CityBird and Avalon Bakery in Midtown; Ladles Bookstore and Slow BBQ in Corktown; Grand Circus Park and Park Bar in the Downtown area.

Potential sites for intervention are identified according to the existing pulses  and urban residual space.  These sites will be further explored by the team, and individual interventions developed by the team.

As a central concept is developed, connective tissue between pulses is explored.  The urban fabric exists in the post-industrial landscape of Detroit, particularly along the Woodward Corridor, but it is fragmented and therefore not able to thrive and flourish to its fullest potential.  The experiences by foot and by bike inspire a longing for movement as connective tissue.  The avenue is continually traversed by jay-walking pedestrians and although placed in the motor city, has fewer automobiles than its capacity.  This allows pedestrians to cross what could be a busy street full of dangerous traffic.

A  model of the corridor is made from resin embedded with metal found in various places in Detroit. Potential sites are highlighted to understand their proximity to each other.

 

Peds + Cars

Walking.  The cheapest mode of transportation!  So, why don't more folks walk- in a city like Detroit?  The Motor City is really designed for motor vehicles; its hard for folks to even think about walking somewhere.  The automobile is in our system- automatic answer to go somewhere.. 

An architectural design studio called Urban Engine [under the direction of Amy Deines, UDM, in collaboration with Will Alsop + Gregory Woods of Alsop Architects] explores rethinking the Woodward Corridor.  This is one way to think about Pedestrians + Car culture and the role of technology in an urban context.

Urban Engine :

‘What is the word on the street?  The street is the democratic metric against which the urban populace is measured and defined.’

The studio investigates an alternative design process to develop an urban strategy which  reacts to the deteriorating urban fabric of a post industrial city, Detroit. 

Perception of the city  is a function of speed and time due to the development of technology and mass communication.  The studio attempts to create a strategy which explores both  issues affecting city growth and development.

A team [Veronica Allen, Jeff Harris Evan Veit, + Kaija E Wuollet] urban strategy is developed using a contextual approach and the Woodward Corridor as an ‘urban engine’ for the development of the city.

Individual interventions are developed to test the central thesis.

URBAN PULSE

Pulse :
Every city has a pulse; an identity which is understood and created by the city dwellers, visitors and tourists experience. A city grows and develops its identity, creating place.  Identity is essential for the success of a city and its cultural growth.
Identity :
As a shrinking post industrial city, rethinking the urban fabric of Detroit is an opportunity to respond to the technological advancements of today’s society.  There is  great potential for growth and development through the perhaps fragmented, yet existing pulse of Detroit.

Unlike many urban cities of the world, the identity of Detroit is a secret.

The pulse of Detroit is identified in three layers: the public, the private and the secret.

The public:

The cultural venues provide a foundation of values and identity which the people of Detroit instill in the next generation.  It is a historical base, a foundation which society has built over time.
The private:

Neighbourhoods and local business provide a strong foundation for the existing and new generations of Detroit.  They serve as beautiful places which make living in Detroit a wonderful experience.  It is important to consider the city dwellers as a pulse and the environment in which they live.

The secret:

The underground venues which are the root of the city and evolve with the culture.

All of these layers are important to the growth of development of the city.  This exploration is a search of allowing these layers to be revealed and discovered.  

In ‘The Overexposed City,’ Paul Virilio explains how in ‘the new perspective devoid of horizon, the city was entered not through a gate nor through an arc de triomphe, but rather through an electronic audience system.  Users of the road were no longer understood to be inhabitants or privileged residents.” 

The deteriorating human connections which Virilio discusses, in security driven airports and the design of the new ‘gateway’ to the city, are manifestations of the direction of human interaction. This deterioration is an opportunity to develop a new layer of human interaction. 

The entrance to Detroit’s secret identity could be created through a venue where human interaction is the engine, but driven by a detached electronic system.  Through technology, human interaction can be encouraged: the engine is started.  The driver is the technological system, providing a network for secret information to be shared without revealing the identity of the person.

“From here on, urban architecture has to work with the opening of a new technological space-time’.  In terms of access, telematics replaces the doorway.”  

The use of telematics in society creates a new means of sharing information.  The definition of time and space becomes arbitrary, indefinable as separate entities.  This leads to a capricious, intangible concept: space time.  It creates an opportunity to use technology as a mode of communication, revealing the pulses in an intangible, secret manner.

Street + Bikes

An urban street condition is a means of transportation.  It is a means to get from one place to the next.  There are people walking, waiting, biking, riding, driving. But its about people.  So regardless of their choice of transit- its a place where people are moving. Starting with biking..

Riding my bike in Detroit all summer, the motor city... was an experience.  

Where some cities embrace bikes, (one of them being my home city Minneapolis- folks are blogging about it) Detroit is just learning to include bikes as an acceptable mode of transit.  One night, biking up Woodward Avenue, I was nearly hit by a bus. And it happened again, and again.  One particular night,  a bus passed me, nearly hitting me.  I caught up to the bus at the next stop and waved at the driver- later when she passed me again, she gave me plenty of room! Hurray for that Smart bus driver! Ok, so why do I refuse to ride the 'safe' sidewalk? Turns out the sidewalk is not so safe, after all.  Besides- the sidewalk is for the people walking or waiting.  A bicycle moves fast- not as fast as a car, but if you put bicycles on a sidewalk, which is considerably narrower than the 3-4 car lanes, that does not leave very much room for people to walk.  Motorists would yell at me, saying 'Get off the road!' - I couldn't help but wonder- ok, so where should I go? Anyway- they have 3-4 lanes and the traffic is not heavy on Woodward- unless there is event.

So, as far as Detroit goes- NOW is the time for implementing bike lanes and bike culture; before the inevitable growth of car culture which will take over the city when it grows.. and bikes will again be neglected and forgotten.  I have great hope for the future of Detroit Bike culture- not only from my personal experience with the bus driver, but with the successful Critical Mass rides and the upcoming Tour-de-Troit ride- these are showing the motor city what bikes are and that we too have a right to the road.  Even bike folks like the friendly employees at SunRise Cyclery in Minneapolis were impressed- they couldn't believe that this year's Tour-de-Troit is expect 3000 riders!  These efforts are designed to create awareness.  Its not about being aggressive and unfriendly- we all know those type of extreme bicyclists.. its about sharing the road and establishing a bike culture.  Well, there is one upside to having a growing but not established bike culture.. less bike thieves.  Guess they don't see the value or use in them, so they are not stolen as much as they are in other cities. 

So- what can we do in the Motor city to integrate bike culture in the street?  Some have said I am tenacious to bike in the city.  How can we change that to be a norm?  How does biking in the city help create a URban street condition?   

That's my rant on bikes.. next we shall explore peds and cars..

urban musings..

architecture is not simply buildings.. 
it is the art of creating spaces, making places.. SO, what is PLACE? 

This is a blog for asking questions, and not answering- but developing suggestions through design- through architecture, urban design, landscape and through urban ephemera..

As a designer, I do not claim to have the answers; rather, I seek to generate critical  discourse about place-making and architecture in an urban context.  An urban environment is all about social interaction within physical space.  

Architecture is about the PEOPLE so I want to hear from you..

The first topic of discussion is the STREET.   What makes an urban street?

Toronto, ON