[up]s.t.a.r.t.Sustained Teaching and Regenerative Transitions

M.ARCH : Spring 2012 : University of Oregon Dan Scofield

Losa

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Over-the-Rhine, the neighborhood directly north of and adjacent to downtown Cincinnati, Ohio, is a neighborhood rich with diversity yet overshadowed by a stigma of racial tension, crime, drug use and violence. Initially home to a largely German immigrant population, this burgeon-ing neighborhood showed promise of becoming a successful industrial city. Situated on the Ohio River and the Ohio & Erie Canal System, devel-opment progressed through key exports such as pork and whiskey. Due largely to German social customs, establishments for brewing and drink-ing beer became some of the most successful businesses, with as many as 36 breweries in the city, 17 of which were within the .62 square miles known as Over-the-Rhine. Despite seemingly inevitable success, anti-German hysteria surrounding World War I and the enactment of Prohibi-tion proved fatal not only to industry, but to the life of the neighborhood. As immigrants were forced out and jobs were disappearing, other residents began to leave as well for better conditions, less pollution and new livelihoods. This mass evacuation left the neighborhood in shock, vacant buildings, absentee landowners, no one to maintain property or infrastructure. Over-the-Rhine experienced a population drop from its peak at 45,000 down to only 7000. This left the neighborhood open for appalachians from the east and a few small groups from the south, but none of which that could hope to impact the neighborhood. This group was made up largely of squatters and lower class workers, living in pov-erty, simply unable to take care ownership of the property or the neigh-borhood. Mostly transient, these groups never stayed long and generally reduced the quality of the area. Officially declared a neighborhood in decline in 1940, the popula-tion and quality of the neighborhood remained fairly constant through the 1990’s. As the city continued to be ignored, the expected issues with drugs, violence and crime escalated, reaching their peak in 2001. On a standard chase, a white male police officer shot and killed an unarmed black 19 year old. This event sent the neighborhood into chaos. Racial

tensions erupted into 3 days of rioting and mindless violence, the worst urban disorder since the 1992 riots of LosAngeles. Due largely to the riots, the police force undertook a work slowdown, responding only to emergency calls, halting patrols and incidental crime stops. Poor resi-dent-police relations have continued and are still far from perfect today. Summer 2009 was nicknamed ‘The Summer of Guns’ by a local paper as 89 murders were committed within Cincinnati that year. Within the last five years, development efforts have begun in OTR, attempting to resolve these pressing issues and introduce new life to the neighborhood. These efforts, unfortunately, tend greatly towards gentri-fication and resident displacement. Through the establishment of upscale restaurants, boutique shops and high end condos, a new population has taken interest in the neighborhood. This group can afford to support such upscale ventures, and in turn, boost the economy of OTR, but what becomes of the people who call this area home : the people who have leaved here through it all, the people who’s kids were born here, who grew up here themselves and want their kids to to do the same. It’s not always been the best neighborhood, but it’s been their neighborhood and their home.

Brief History Greater Cincinnati, Ohio

Central Cincinnati

University of Cincinnati

Over-the-Rhine

Downtown Cincinnati

Oho River

Project Site

Related CommunityInstitutions

over-the-rhine needs quality housing higher income residents consistent or

better quality of life for current

residents business development job

opportunity eliminate crime improve perception of safety improve

community-police relations acceptance respect appreciation one diverse community eliminate imagined barriers

46 %

< 3 %4 %

3 %18 %

26 %

Highest Level of Education Attained

[City of Cincinnati}

[Over-the-Rhine]

Less than high school

23 %26 %

19 %

6 % 17 %

9 %

High School/Equivalent

Some College

Associate

Bachelor

Master or Higher

[OtR]

Project Site

Related CommunityInstitutions

39.114o 39.114o

Construction Technologies

General Trades[MEP)

Historic Preservation & Adaptive Reuse

Community Garden

Teaching Kitchen

Counseling & Support

Academic Core Classrooms

Media Center

Food Service

Building Maintenance & Property Management

AdministrativeSupport

Finance & Accounting

Management & Operations

Bicycle Co-op

Short-term Lease Space

Vocational Training

New Construction

Preservation& Reuse

Urban Gardens

Food Education

New Trades Programs

Long-Term Lease Spaces Additional

Storefronts

Mixed-Use

Medical Technology

Cafe/Collaborate

Administration

Employment

Communal Dining

Housing

Education

New Construction

Public Buy-inLeasable Space

[Student]Apartments

Market-RateCondos

Business Development

General

TeachingRestaurants

PublicInvestment

Property Ownership

AdditionalRetrofits

Art &Design

Craftsmanship

Development ofAdditional

Sites/Branches

Site

Bui

ldin

gExpa

nsio

n

Overall Urban Program Expansion from Initial Site

[Transitional Self-Help] A model in which people are provided with the tools for self-sufficiency, transitional self-help aims to equip participants with the knowledge and skills to take control in their own setting. On the verge of being forced from their home, this project attempts to anchor long-time residents of Over-the-Rhine in their neighborhood.

Through recent development efforts, a new demographic has made its way into OTR: a great boost economically, but inadvertently tending towards gentrification and resident displacement. A lack of communication and understanding between this new demographic and the long-time residents has led to distrust and the rise of false perceptions between the groups.

Thus, this project aims to account for both sides, the residents who have called this place home and the residents who can ensure continued development and a valuable future for Over-the-Rhine. By recognizing the strength inherent in their differences, these two groups can work together for the neighborhood they love, forging a community united in diversity. This is a new start for OTR, a step away from its troubled history, and a chance for two populations to come together as one community. This project, for both groups, is an introduction to their own context.

Beginning with the design & implementation of my building design, the overall urban plan is meant to expand from this central location out into the neighborhood. The initial design provides a central anchor while the future development is meant to expand the presence in the neighborhood while continuing a cycle of learning and teaching, expanding vocational programs as well as commercial sites and public interaction.

a new modela new model

Expansion from Initial Site

-An immediate change and a continual catalyst, a model for sustained improvementinto the future.

Regeneration at multiple scales.

Goals Immediate : Awareness of the issues : Acceptance of diversity : Understanding of needs : Trust within a community : Education & Employment : Affordable housing : Retrofit existing buildings : Learn through experienceFuture : Sustained employment & continual job creation : Expanded education & training programs : Retrofits at additional sites : Neighborhood preservation : Sustainable community : Mutual acceptance and support

Existing & Proposed

[Commercial & Retail]New Construction

Retail Storefront Short-term lease for small start-ups and business development Bicycle Co-opPublicly Leasable Office Space Above

[Residential]Preservation, Re-use, and New Construction

Long-Term Transitional Housing 2-4 Year Lease Agree to work Enroll in Education Co-housing type apartments

[Education]Re-use and New Construction

Teaching Kitchen Food ServiceVocational Trade School Property Management Administrative & Professional Support Business Management Financial ServicesGeneral Education General Education Programs Health Clinic and Administration Counseling & Dependency Services

BUILDING NEIGHBORHOOD

INDIVIDUALINDIVIDUALNEIGHBORHOOD

BUILDING Extended Site

Existing on Site

Existing & Proposed

[up]s.t.a.r.t.

[up]start is a new take on education. Mixing vocational training with entrepreneurship and business development creates endless variation in curriculum. A non-traditional hierarchy allows students to learn not only from faculty, but more importantly from one another. Open work spaces and visual connections allow users to see and hear activities throughout the building, creating both direct and indirect interaction. It is in this collaborative environment that students learn the most, not specifically classroom lessons, but more valuable lessons about human interaction. [up]start seeks to arm students with skills for self-sufficiency, from general education to specific vocational programs to business development & operations. The main focus, regardless of chosen curriculum, is ownership: the ability to have a stake in one’s own life. From control of general academics to property ownership to developing and operating one’s own business, [up]start aims to provide the tools to anchor oneself and be counted, to make an impact in his/her neighborhood and be an integral part of a larger community.

It’s intended that people who go through the program drive expansion and development at addi-tional sites, taking control of their own property and furthering their education/business by sharing knowledge and experience with others.

“The best way to learn is to teach.”

Sustained Teaching and Regenerative Transitions

[a view from vine st]streetfrontstreetfront

exis

ting

prog

ram

form

: in

teri

orfo

rm :

exte

rior

final

pla

n ou

tline

Design Steps and Formal ConceptsGiven the project’s location in a historic district, it was important to take the context into account, creating a building that respected the historic architecture while introducing its own unique language. In tracing the existing site innumerable times, I discovered patterns in the existing context :

Hard street edge and a formal breakdown at the rear of the siteLayering on the front facadesBrick masonry as structure and aesthetic

Beginning with this pattern, I also took into account issues of security, material and topography to develop the form. The building takes on a folding form that maintains the historic street edge while the same material folds and breaks down at the back of the site. Using the folding and a custom concrete panel, the landscape is allowed to grow onto the building, blurring the lines of architecture and topography in a form that allows views across both interior and exterior for security and views. The concrete panel and supporting steel structure are meant to play on the use of brick, calling attention to the ways we currently use masonry and structural systems.

[existing context]

[plan concept]

[section concept]

Adjacency Diagram

0101

Social

Media Center

Business Development

Existing

Office

Classroom Reading Room

Gallery

Courtyard

Multi-Use Room

Service

TradesClassroom

[Plan] On each level, the plan is arranged in a way that each space maintains an appropriate feeling of privacy while sustaining an indirect association with other spaces throughout the building. Be it through vision, sound, or direct adjacency, each space in the building promotes and facilitates interaction as a means of practical education, teaching not only theoretical skills but interpersonal and social skills as well.

floorsfloors[1/32” = 1’-0”]

0202 0303

The main entry at the streetfront takes patrons into the media center. Situated at the bottom of a three story atrium space, the media center is the first introduction to the building and to the overarching idea of indirect connection. From there, users are most drawn to look at the existing building reused in the project, the most important element programatically and historically. The existing building, now

with large openings punched into it, acts as way finding and the critical overlap between education and employment. Inside and directly adjacent to this are the social spaces for collaboration and chance encounters, the spaces where students and employees interact and learn the most from one another. Education spaces house general education, vocation specific classrooms and counseling/support services. The employment spaces are a mixed breed with both working office space and classrooms specifc to administration, entrepreneurship or finances.

Longitudinal Section [1/16” =1’-0”]

Proposed Housing

E. 14th St.

Courtyard

Multi-use Room M

edia Center

Mercer St.

Transverse Section [1/16” =1’-0”]

Business Development

Existing : Collaboration Spaces

Main Entry

Media Center

Classrooms

Sou

ther

n El

evat

ion

Str

uctu

reEg

ress

Western Elevation

New : Concrete

Panel

Existing : Brick Cavity

Wall

New : Concrete

Panel &

New : Concrete

Panel

Partial Wall Section @ Southern Elevation

[Structure] The structure in the main space is oversized in an effort to compare the existing use of brick as structure to our current structural systems (same as the use of concrete panels, a comparison of historical and modern masonry). The rigid moment frames are comprised of steel members painted to resemble oxideized or weathered steel. The 50’ span is covered by a 28” deep beam while the columns taper from 30” deep at the beam to 16” at grade. As the spaces get smaller on the north side of the building, a lighter gauge steel is used.

[Shading] Shading is used throughout the design to provide an appropriate response to both solar gain and privacy issues. The screens (a tight-weave chain link on the front and native vegetation on the back and sides) provide feelings of privacy while maintaining necessary views to provide security. At the front, the screens are based on Cincinnati’s sun angles to provide passive heat gain in the winter. At the back and sides, vegetation on a similar chain link is meant to introduce new life onto a material with previously negative connotations.

Reinforcing @ Connection between existing & new

Canopy @ Southern Elevation

mediamedia[section @ entry & media center]

[Runoff/Reuse] Roof and downspout details guide water to the northern side of the building where the slanted walls and custom concrete panels further direct water back toward the site. The panels have pieces pushed and pulled to create troughs and channels where water can flow through. Vegetation toward the bottom of the northern walls slows the flow of water and begins to filter the runoff. At the base of the walls, runoff makes its way into a channel that disperses water into the site, either slowly filtering water into the ground or directing it into planting beds and green areas in the site’s coutryard.

[Native Vegetation]Continuing on more than just the screens, the native planting is meant also to grow up the sides of the building, further blurring the boundary between architecture and landscape. Again, vegetation on concrete and chainlink screens is meant to provide a new interpretation of seemingly hostile material. Chain link and concrete are used in OTR to block off alleys and streets deemed to be dangerous. Allowing plants to grow on these typically negative materials is a re-introduction of life into negative environments, which in the long term parallels the goals of the neighborhood, introducing new life into a previously hostile environment.

Parapet Scupper to Downspout @ Glazing

Scupper to combo Vegetation Screen and Downspout @ Parapet

Wat

er c

olle

ctio

n fo

r re

use

& fi

ltrat

ion

on s

ite

Native Vegetation Flowering VInesWoodbine (honeysuckle family - lonicera)Lonicera sempervirens - Trumpet HoneysuckleParthenocissus Quinquefolia - Virginia Creeper TreesCornus Racemosa ‘Geauge’ - Gray Dogwood (7-8’ tall)Cornus Florida ‘Cloud 9’ - Flowering Dogwood (18-22’) -Early to bloom, good fall color, attractive winter form (all seasons)

back doorback door[section @ rear entry]

backyardbackyard[a view of the courtyard]