Animated presentation of my first two years of studio work in the MLA program at Penn. Click to play.
Regional analysis of Camden shows the radial pattern of development (orange), the lack of retail opportunities within the central city (green), and the pattern of impervious surface (black).
Floodplain + transportation corridors = parcelization. Smaller parcels within the boundaries versus larger parcels along the boundaries.
Floodplain + transportation infrastructure = population density. Greater density within the boundaries.
The result is distinct identifiable neighborhoods with dysfunctional boundaries and connections.
A 400 scale master plan for the City of Camden.
Sections through the Retail Center/Riverfront Connection and the Riverfront Park and cultural center.
A model of the Riverfront Park and adjacent development.
Reactivating the In-Between
This studio was an exploration of scale, working from the regional to the city and down to specific interventions and designs. Our site was Camden, NJ, a complex and deteriorated urban environment: economically, socially and environmentally.
My analysis of the city showed that it has been abandoned by commercial retailers. In addition, distinct identifiable neighborhoods have grown in the areas between the floodplain and the transportation infrastructure, but environmental degradation and the loss of industry and agriculture which once occupied these in-between spaces have created dysfunctional boundaries.
My proposal seeks to reactivate these areas by creating a hybrid retail market in the center of Camden anchored by formal large scale retail and more informal markets and plaza spaces. This bridges a dividing highway and connects to a large public space and inner harbor on the Cooper River which anchors new development. New parks, ecological corridors, and development reactivate abandoned waterfronts and transportation corridors at the edges while invigorating and supporting the existing neighborhoods within.