THESIS LAB: Updated Abstract and Process Models

It has been almost a half a decadesince the effects of Moses have became outwardly apparent on our cities, andcritic’s like Jacobs have opened our eyes to them. There is no question thatPublic Housing and Urban Renewal have failed in America. It is often seen as aburden or blight on our cities, perceived to be crime ridden and dangerous.Urban renewal and Public housing in America have failed because of the negativeconnotations that they now carry. As ourpopulation grows exponentially and we look for new methods of housing, we needto ask ourselves this: Is it possible for Architect and planners to rework thefundamentals of public housing and urban renewal to benefit the future? Is re-stitchinga community and a failed ideology beneficial to not only spaces butcommunities? By looking at their failures we will be able to adaptively reusethe ideas of the past to work for us, in conjunction with cutting edgetechniques on the forefront of our profession.

Adapting the ideas of urban renewaland public housing are of the utmost importance to us as architects andplanners today. This year we will see our population reach 7 billion,stretching our resources and our planet to its limits. Turing our attention tohousing these people and integrating this new population boom into our citiesseamlessly is going to be critical. We will not only need to find new andinnovative ways of doing this but we will also have to examine the past. Urbanrenewal and public housing failed in the earlier part of the century, we cannotafford to fail again. We need to create spaces that work for living andgrowing, and are no longer tied down by the negative connotations that keepthem from evolving. Seeing where our failures lie will inform where we can gofrom here.

By examining the policy of Moses andwhat his best intentions were, and supplementing these ideas with those ofJacobs, we can form a foundation for tomorrows urban renewal and public housinginitiatives. By involving deep community connections from the ideas of Jacobs,and using Moses’ initiative for redevelopment and progress we can createsomething new. Although both sides saw failures, Jacobs not taking enough initiativeto change and make things better, and Moses completely removing entire neighborhoodsregardless of the effect on the community. Using these ideas as a base, we canadapt them with ideas of sustainability, critical regionalism and urbanplanning to give them a strong foundation to prove useful far into the future,unlike their predecessors. If we are able to adapt areas of our city far removedfrom the urban fabric because of these policies, we will have a chance ofkeeping our population comfortable and content as we continue to grow.