Ryan Horton_Work Samples

RYAN HORTON

CAUSTIC THREAD.RECONSTRUCTING AND ILLUMINATING THE LATENT UNDERPINNINGS IN THE ABANDONED URBAN CORE.

The composition of the urban cores were drastically altered through the middle decades of the twentieth century. A combined set of properties including, a post war housing boom and a globalizing economy offered a migratory exodus from the center city of both economics and population, a combination which alienated aging neighborhoods within the city as well as the post industrialized working class which continue to occupy those zones. The loss of capital and interest has caused a continual contrition within those urban neighborhoods, and the aging building stock has begun to erode under the pressures of time and neglect. The remaining populations as well suffer from the same traumas caused by indifference. What results and emanates from these zones is a fearful energy, which questions our economic and governmental systems but more it fails to consider the humanity of its citizens, which are constricted amidst a kind of urbanism of alienation. Along these edges, we create subconscious boundaries; we approach them and move away from them.

This thesis is specifically interested in the de-urbanization of inner city neighborhoods, ones whose past and building stock hold a vast series of rich industrial narratives, demarcated through cultural and historical threads which continue to persist through time. Utilizing those characteristics as an initial framework, the project looks to deepen it’s knowledge of the placeless moments in the city, actively cataloguing the abandoned remnants within these zones, and questioning what role these remnants continue to play within the makeup of the city. After establishing that as a discourse, the resulting attitude will begin to make projections at how architectural insertions can restitch the latent readings of place, and develop strategies which are capable of traversing and crossing these physical and psychological boundaries, which exist to continually deteriorate and separate portions of the urban core. The architectural insertions will look to introduce a sympathetic tectonic language able to reestablish the role of the historical fabric, and furthermore, able to occupy the residual spaces in a manner capable of repositioning and repairing the demoralized street scape.

RESEARCH POSITION

Across a small alley two oppositions stare awkwardly at each other; the first the northern statue, riddled with strange iron contraptions dancing and darting along its face, wires and signs piercing through rotting holes, patched with some silicone paste which has taken on the complexion of dust. The second, the southern neighbor, is pierced as well, yet it is a considered piercing, and along a set of tiered railings, a few residents dot their heads over the balconies to smirk at me as I maneuver my way past. It’s bricks are rectilinear, and smooth. It’s windows are not ridden with iron gates and plywood boards, but in a few moving up its face, little sold signs seem to gleam like picked puppies at the pet store.

The newcomer seems to have instigated a kind of game. Across the street, a wide broad building is hushed behind a series of scaffolds, muzzled and drowned for a moment as its skin is pulled away. Like some kind of burn victim, Tyvek plasters itself up the exposed muscle, and slowly a new-yellowed brick quiets the disheartened structure. The remaining buildings seem to have themselves done up just as well, perhaps already enraptured by the demonizing replacements, or simply pampered a bit so as not to appear too sad and out of place.

1900

NAT

ION

AL

REG

ION

AL

LOC

AL

OV

ER- T

HE-

RH

INE

CIN

CIN

NAT

I, O

HM

IDW

EST

POLI

TC

AL

ECO

NO

MIC

SOC

IAL

Black BottomDetroit, MI.

_writer Henry Payne, “it may be more accurate to call it cultural homicide.”

1800 1850 1920 1950 1960 1970 1980 2000 20101990

_construction of Eerie Miami Canalconnected Cincinnati with Region, expanded industrial potential

1837

_Initial city grid laid perpendicular to Ohio River

1802

_Intial parcels laid in Over-The-Rhine neighborhood.

1819

_3 days of rioting from April 10-13 of 2001, in response to back teenager shot and killed by white officer. ended with city-wide curfew issued by the Mayor (aided by heavy thunderstorms that evening

70% of 19th Century historic fabric lost between 1956-1991.

GLO

BA

L

_63% of OTR’s population consists of German immigrants

1850

_revolution of German states forces mass emigration

1848

_Miami Eerie Canal is drained; replaced by Central Parkway an Olmsteadian Parkway.

1920

_Cincinnati’s Street Car lines run from 1889 - 1951; connecting downtown to the northern outlying neighborhoods.

_reconcieved in 2002, Cincinnati’s broke ground on February 17th, 2012 to bring Street Car lines back into the city

19th AmmendmentProhibition

1967-1968_Riots break out across the country in response to festering tensions over issue of Civil Rights and Liberties.

_opening in 1855 Findlay Market has been continuously operated and is the only public market remaining in the city.

1857_Canal is abandoned as main mover of goods into the city.

185043,000+

190044,475

196030,000

197015,525 1980

11,91419909,572

20007,500

20106,801

Detroit, MI.

URBAN REMOVAL

_Lafayette ParkModernist Mixed Use Communitydesigned by Mies van der Rohe

_cultural height over 350 Black owned businesses; pride being the Paradise Theotre

SUBURBAN EXPANSION_post world war II housing boom_urban flight

_ground zero in inner city decline.Reason Magazine

2008 Bank Bailout

Prohibition chokes off vibrant brewery district

during 1857 crisismany residents entrust their money to brewersrather than banks

brewers dominate the industrial base of the area. over 35 breweries by 1860

many local brewers live in OTR; become fixtures within the community

April 4, 1968Martin Luther King Jr. shot

GLOBALIZING OF ECONOMY

July 19, 1987Black MondayMassive Stock Market Crashaffected Global markets

Civil Rights Act of 1964outlawed discriminatory processes

GREAT DEPRESSION1929-EARLY 40’S

Vine Street Revitalization

1855 1891 1950 1991 2011

PROHIBITION ERODES ECONOMIC STABILITY OF OTR.

CIVIL WAR1861-1865

WW1 WW1I VIETNAM

Allied win in WWI open door to persecution of pro-german sympathies of OTR population. Beginning of a cultural exodus from neighborhood.

1913Henry Ford’s Model T and Assembly Line Revolutionize manufacturing process

# of Americans living in Urban Settings increases from 10 million to 54 millionBridgeport.Chicago, IL.

Stearn’s Quarry. Supplied Limestone to Chciago from 1833- 1969

Stearn’s Quarry Reconstructed to become a 27 acre park

founded in 1833; strong Irish working class settlers

Chicago

Cleveland

New Orleans

St. Louis

Pittshbugh

New York

London

ParisDublin

Berlin


Over 500 vacant buildings

City was founded along the banks of the Ohio River.A 6 block by 10 block 400’ X 400’ city grid was laid out parrallel to the river.

Beyond those borders, Main Boulevards were carried northward, the most im-portant beling Vine Street, the postal road, connecting Cininnati to cities such as Dayton, OH and beyond.

Highway act allowed building of I-71 and I-75, which encircled downtown.Transit corridors made interacting with Urban Core less necessary

Riots were staged in low income neighborhoods surrounding OTR, and some skirmishes went along breifly in the neighborhood. The stigma associated caused a fear and exodus of many remaining residents and businesses

Second wave of riots in 1991, reversed much of the economic momentum the neighborhood was experiencing.It’s after affects caused a prolong period of economic stagnation, only now wearing away.

Growth basically flatlined between 1970 and 1990

1802. 1819. 1850.

VIN

E ST

.

VIN

E ST

.

VIN

E ST

.

VINE ST. VINE ST. VINE ST. VINE ST. VINE ST.

DEVELOPMENT OF CINCINNATI. (OTR first neighborhood settled after downtown)

URBAN FABRIC OF OTR THROUGH TIME(OTR first neighborhood settled after downtown)

CULTURAL HEIGHT OF NEIGHBORHOOD.

1900

NAT

ION

AL

REG

ION

AL

LOC

AL

OV

ER- T

HE-

RH

INE

CIN

CIN

NAT

I, O

HM

IDW

EST

POLI

TC

AL

ECO

NO

MIC

SOC

IAL

Black BottomDetroit, MI.

_writer Henry Payne, “it may be more accurate to call it cultural homicide.”

1800 1850 1920 1950 1960 1970 1980 2000 20101990

_construction of Eerie Miami Canalconnected Cincinnati with Region, expanded industrial potential

1837

_Initial city grid laid perpendicular to Ohio River

1802

_Intial parcels laid in Over-The-Rhine neighborhood.

1819

_3 days of rioting from April 10-13 of 2001, in response to back teenager shot and killed by white officer. ended with city-wide curfew issued by the Mayor (aided by heavy thunderstorms that evening

70% of 19th Century historic fabric lost between 1956-1991.

GLO

BA

L

_63% of OTR’s population consists of German immigrants

1850

_revolution of German states forces mass emigration

1848

_Miami Eerie Canal is drained; replaced by Central Parkway an Olmsteadian Parkway.

1920

_Cincinnati’s Street Car lines run from 1889 - 1951; connecting downtown to the northern outlying neighborhoods.

_reconcieved in 2002, Cincinnati’s broke ground on February 17th, 2012 to bring Street Car lines back into the city

19th AmmendmentProhibition

1967-1968_Riots break out across the country in response to festering tensions over issue of Civil Rights and Liberties.

_opening in 1855 Findlay Market has been continuously operated and is the only public market remaining in the city.

1857_Canal is abandoned as main mover of goods into the city.

185043,000+

190044,475

196030,000

197015,525 1980

11,91419909,572

20007,500

20106,801

Detroit, MI.

URBAN REMOVAL

_Lafayette ParkModernist Mixed Use Communitydesigned by Mies van der Rohe

_cultural height over 350 Black owned businesses; pride being the Paradise Theotre

SUBURBAN EXPANSION_post world war II housing boom_urban flight


2008 Bank Bailout

Prohibition chokes off vibrant brewery district

during 1857 crisismany residents entrust their money to brewersrather than banks

brewers dominate the industrial base of the area. over 35 breweries by 1860

many local brewers live in OTR; become fixtures within the community

April 4, 1968Martin Luther King Jr. shot

GLOBALIZING OF ECONOMY

July 19, 1987Black MondayMassive Stock Market Crashaffected Global markets

Civil Rights Act of 1964outlawed discriminatory processes

GREAT DEPRESSION1929-EARLY 40’S

Vine Street Revitalization

1855 1891 1950 1991 2011

PROHIBITION ERODES ECONOMIC STABILITY OF OTR.

CIVIL WAR1861-1865

WW1 WW1I VIETNAM

Allied win in WWI open door to persecution of pro-german sympathies of OTR population. Beginning of a cultural exodus from neighborhood.

1913Henry Ford’s Model T and Assembly Line Revolutionize manufacturing process

# of Americans living in Urban Settings increases from 10 million to 54 millionBridgeport.Chicago, IL.

Stearn’s Quarry. Supplied Limestone to Chciago from 1833- 1969

Stearn’s Quarry Reconstructed to become a 27 acre park

founded in 1833; strong Irish working class settlers

Chicago

Cleveland

New Orleans

St. Louis

Pittshbugh

New York

London

ParisDublin

Berlin


Over 500 vacant buildings

City was founded along the banks of the Ohio River.A 6 block by 10 block 400’ X 400’ city grid was laid out parrallel to the river.

Beyond those borders, Main Boulevards were carried northward, the most im-portant beling Vine Street, the postal road, connecting Cininnati to cities such as Dayton, OH and beyond.

Highway act allowed building of I-71 and I-75, which encircled downtown.Transit corridors made interacting with Urban Core less necessary

Riots were staged in low income neighborhoods surrounding OTR, and some skirmishes went along breifly in the neighborhood. The stigma associated caused a fear and exodus of many remaining residents and businesses

Second wave of riots in 1991, reversed much of the economic momentum the neighborhood was experiencing.It’s after affects caused a prolong period of economic stagnation, only now wearing away.

Growth basically flatlined between 1970 and 1990

1802. 1819. 1850.

VIN

E ST

.

VIN

E ST

.

VIN

E ST

.

VINE ST. VINE ST. VINE ST. VINE ST. VINE ST.

DEVELOPMENT OF CINCINNATI. (OTR first neighborhood settled after downtown)

URBAN FABRIC OF OTR THROUGH TIME(OTR first neighborhood settled after downtown)

CULTURAL HEIGHT OF NEIGHBORHOOD.

Over-the-Rhine has persevered through a tumultuous half century. It’s historic populations were highest toward the beginning of it’s histories. It contracted slowly to a more optimum population by 1950, and was an ideal urban neighborhood for a mixture of cultures. By the late 1960’s much of that population had left. The construction of 1-71 and 1-75 allowed for quick travel from suburban neighborhoods to downtown. The mass exodus was expedited by racial riots which left massive physical and psychological scarring on the neighborhood. In the span of twenty years a neighborhood whose population was at a healthy 30,000 residents was emaciated, under 10,000. The lack of residents and interest led toward a loss of capital and investment in the neighborhood, and OTR spent much of the latter half of the 20th century as a wasteland.

Despite the difficulties in the neighborhood, certain elements and thread continued to persist through time. Findlay Market, the oldest outdoor market in Ohio has been continually open since 1855. It still remains the center of capital in the neighborhood, and acts as positive ambassador to continuing fears surrounding OTR.

In an effort to draw on Findlay Markets example, Cincinnati and residents are beginning to re-establish other historic elements consistent with OTR’s golden age. In November of 2012, the city broke ground on a new light rail system that will run through key corridors in the neighborhood, harkening back to Cincinnati’s history as a trolley car city.

Also, OTR’s early German immigrants establish large breweries which were responsible for much of the neighborhoods capital investment in the 19th century. Prohibition was responsible for the industries demise, but the culture is returning in a series of trendy microbeweries keen on rekindling the ancient recipes brought over from Germany 200 years ago.

These key elements begin to draw potentials for OTR’s rich building stock, as it attempts to reinvigorate nearly 500 vacant or abandoned structures.

WASHINGTON PARK AND FINDLAY MARKET ARE TWO OF THE OLDEST CONTINUALLY OPEN PUBLICLY USED PLACES IN THE CITY. THEIR PRESENCE HAS BEEN CRITICAL TO THE SURVIVAL OF OTR, AND WILL PLAY A MAJOR ROLE IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD REVITALIZATION.

FUTURE STREET CAR LINE

LIBERTY STREET

WASHINGTON PARKEST. 1802

OVER THE RHINE CINCINNATI

DOWNTOWN CINCINNATI

THE STREET CAR BRINGS BACK THE SPIRIT OF THE ORIGINAL TROLLEY CARS WHICH RAN BETWEEN DOWNTOWN AND OTR.THE MOVE SIGNALS STRONG POTENTIAL GROWTH WHICH COULD REINVORATE THE DELAPIDATED OTR.

THE MORELEIN BREWERY AND THE CINCINNATI BALLET ARE REPRESENTATIVE OF THE FLEDGLING CIVIC ENVIRONMENT THAT IT WORKING ITS WAY BACK INTO OTR. THE BALLET HAS RECENTLY UNDERGONE A MAJOR RENOVATION, AND THE BREWERY IS A REPRISAL OF ONE OF THE ORIGINAL BEER BARONS OF CINCINNATI

LIBERTY STREET SERVES AS TO SEVER THE NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN ENDS OF THE OVER THE RHINE NEIGHBORHOOD.IT’S PRESCENCE HAS DEBILITATED THE SUR-ROUNDING GRID, AND FORCED A LACK OF GROWTH AND REVITALIZATION ACROSS ONE OF OTR’S MAJOR BOULEVARDS.

FINDLAY MARKETEST. 1855

WASHINGTON PARK AND FINDLAY MARKET ARE TWO OF THE OLDEST CONTINUALLY OPEN PUBLICLY USED PLACES IN THE CITY. THEIR PRESENCE HAS BEEN CRITICAL TO THE SURVIVAL OF OTR, AND WILL PLAY A MAJOR ROLE IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD REVITALIZATION.

FUTURE STREET CAR LINE

LIBERTY STREET

WASHINGTON PARKEST. 1802

OVER THE RHINE CINCINNATI

DOWNTOWN CINCINNATI

THE STREET CAR BRINGS BACK THE SPIRIT OF THE ORIGINAL TROLLEY CARS WHICH RAN BETWEEN DOWNTOWN AND OTR.THE MOVE SIGNALS STRONG POTENTIAL GROWTH WHICH COULD REINVORATE THE DELAPIDATED OTR.

THE MORELEIN BREWERY AND THE CINCINNATI BALLET ARE REPRESENTATIVE OF THE FLEDGLING CIVIC ENVIRONMENT THAT IT WORKING ITS WAY BACK INTO OTR. THE BALLET HAS RECENTLY UNDERGONE A MAJOR RENOVATION, AND THE BREWERY IS A REPRISAL OF ONE OF THE ORIGINAL BEER BARONS OF CINCINNATI

LIBERTY STREET SERVES AS TO SEVER THE NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN ENDS OF THE OVER THE RHINE NEIGHBORHOOD.IT’S PRESCENCE HAS DEBILITATED THE SUR-ROUNDING GRID, AND FORCED A LACK OF GROWTH AND REVITALIZATION ACROSS ONE OF OTR’S MAJOR BOULEVARDS.

FINDLAY MARKETEST. 1855

_A

_B

_C _D _E_F _G

_H

_I

VINE

ST

RACE

ST

ELM

ST

PARKWAY

CENTRAL

WALNUT

ST

BLVD

MCKMICKEN

SYCAMORE

ST

PARK

PARK

PARK PARK

PARK

FARM

145’ BETWEEN BUILDING FACE








_A

_B

_C

_D

_E

_F

_G

_H

_I

128’ 128’128’

1/4 MILE

390’ 390’

LIBERTY STREET

Future Street Car Line:Growth corridor connecting to Downtown. Morelein Brewery building.

Cincinnati Ballet

to: Washington Park_Cincy’s oldest park

to: Findlay Market_Ohio’s oldest Farmer’s market

ELM STREET

RACE STREET

Pleasant Street:potential organizing spine for recreaction uses

Residual spaces: left over from dissipating fabric

LIBERTY STREET

Future Street Car Line:Growth corridor connecting to Downtown. Morelein Brewery building.

Cincinnati Ballet

to: Washington Park_Cincy’s oldest park

to: Findlay Market_Ohio’s oldest Farmer’s market

ELM STREET

RACE STREET

Pleasant Street:potential organizing spine for recreaction uses

Residual spaces: left over from dissipating fabric

The frontage to Liberty Street has suffered from decades of neglect, as the widening of the transit corridor connecting I-75 and I-75 took precedence over the neighborhood. The resurrection of the street car line should help to repair the northern and southern edges of Liberty, and connect vital historical threads; Findlay Market and Washington Park, and further south to Downtown itself.A center street in between the street car corridor, has the ability to offer an interior pedestrian life, and sponsor a variety of recreational uses as the neighborhood reknits itself into a vibrant functioning piece within the city.

Transversely, cultural fabric is begging to reorganize along Liberty street, as the Ballet has relocated to the area, bordering the OTR neighborhood. Also, one of the city’s original brewers, the Morelein Brewery, has resurrected itself, and relocated to a larger warehouse space to North of Liberty street. Those two have the ability to act in concert and generate a cultural spine which can restich the street face with purposeful mixed use fabric.

Aquatic Park along the San Francisco Bay

Aquatic park acts as the terminus for two experiential pathways through San Francisco: first, the axis from downtown along Van Ness Avenue, and secondly, as the final jutting of wharfs and docks into the bay on San Francisco’s northwest edge. Those two approaches allow it to be a significant point of rest within the city, and the current nature left something to be desired. The studio investigated ways of accepting both of those axis points, and generating a restive plan of terraces and gardens able to afford the city with outdoor rooms that could look both at the city as well as the water.

.circulation diagram showcasing dual arrival methods from downtown

VAN NESS AVENUEDOWNTOWN AXIS

BEACH STREETWATERFRONT AXIS

B

A

A BMuch of the design’s real challenge was to generate a livelihood throughout the site, extending the laissez-faire festival atmosphere from the waterfront (figure B), further into the city through the Van Ness entry, currently an

underwhelming lot.(figure A)

.aquatic park master plan

As a datum that runs through the length of the project, a series of pergolas establishes a rhythm that is best showcased in the center space along the terracing that helps define an urban room which is instilled with program included tea leaf pods, an aquarium within a low retaining wall, as well as benches and tables. These elements allow the space to become a restive element within the city from either direction traveled by patrons. The room also offers a wide vista off into the San Francisco Bay looking toward Alcatraz. The datum is carried through in lowered elements, such as planters and benches, toward the Southern Edge of the site, and also reappears as a column grid for a restaurant along a pier thrust into the water. The project is meant to offer an array of options which can act as a recreational terminus fitting with the relaxed atmosphere of San Francisco.

1. utilizing adjoining fabric

2. adding a secondary masonry wall

3. glassing in the perimeter of the structure

4.thickening the secondary wall to include utility.

5. adding privacy to bedrooms

1.

Parson’s Rectory. Capitol Hill.As part of a studio which investigated modest modern insertions into critical historical fabric, this project was part of a larger masterplanning effort for the growth and definition of a church in the historic Capitol Hill neighborhood. Much of the effort focused on finding sympathetic tectonic language which would reveal its modernity while still assimilating into the modest fabric of the neighborhood. A number of sketching and diagramming exercises yielded an in depth study of the place, as well as a intimate knowledge of the new structure itself.

2. 3. 4.

5.

1/4”-1’ museum board model

“G” Street Elevation

Five Part CredenzaHelping moving my brother into his new apartment, my father and I wanted to build a piece of furniture to settle him in. We had a good deal of poplar left over from another project, and we were able to make a pair of cabinets from the leftovers, but we wanted a slab to encompass the two, and make it a cohesive piece of furniture. We thought we might head out to the lumber supplier, but while he was at work, I sieved through another one of his woodpiles, and found some useful scraps from an old pallet, at least for a prototype. As we cleaned it up, I was enamored by the colors in the grain, and it maintained the charm of a reclaimed project. We used some further remainders as facing for one of the cabinets, and the result was a five part reclaimed credenza, finished with some stainless accents.

Westcott House Foundation. Masterplanning As part of the Frank Lloyd Wright Honors studio at Miami University, this project was part of a annual masterplanning effort for the Westcott House, which is seeking to become a regional cultural center for Southwestern Ohio. They have purchased lands to the rear of the site, and are investigating ways of adding in programming compatible with the narrative of the museum and foundation. This project was the second in these yearly efforts, and built upon previous studies, and pushed forward in defining more clearly placement of new structures, as well as defining the major exterior spaces. The project went through a variety of techniques employed by Frank Lloyd Wright’s fellows, in an effort to meld the project within the tradition of Wright’s work.

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Ryan Horton_Work Samples