Neighbourhood Reconstruction
For our very last unit of Urban Planning, we took a leap from learning about the city and its design choices, a bridge and what makes it sturdy, to finding and redesigning an entire Chicago city block. After learning all about the composition of a space and how parks and public spaces come to be, we got to meet with renowned architect Ptere Exley who taught us about his experiences making great buildings and attractions around the city. after some reflection it was time to get to work on our summative projects for this class and close off the year with one final big task. The task was to research a neighborhood that is struggling or doesn't get much attention from the city. Within that neighborhood, we chose a singular city block to redesign into space to better the community around and make it a nicer environment.
The first was finding a location, this was probably the most challenging because I honestly don't know much about the different neighborhoods of Chicago, one I did find interesting though was the Greater Grand Crossing area in South Chicago. The town has a history of railroads and being a central place for the transportation of goods during the late 1800s, that did include most of the city though because that is of course what it was known for at the time. The origin of the name grand crossing though came from a crash of two of these transport trains. During the term of Roswell B. Mason, the same mayor who was in office while the great Chicago Fire, he thought it was a good idea to place an illegal intersecting crossway smack in the middle of what would be later known as Grand Crossing because he found it would be more efficient. After the accident, a law was passed making it so all who rode past that intersection in the tracks would have to stop and wait for the nearest train to pass. As a result, people started to set up shops to sell to the people on the train while stopping and so it became a ¨grand crossing¨.
After the 1930s a massive increase was seen in the black population, all other residents of Swedish, German, Irish, and Italian descent eventually moved away and as recorded now the population is 99 percent people of color. This neighborhood does have its perks, it being an extraordinary place for housing but it is one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in Chicago seeing a 77 percent increase in shootings since 2020 and is seeing major depopulation. In the last few years, it´s gone down in the tens of thousands. The neighborhood has a lot of very nice things to experience they just aren't getting much attention. With this grand project, I aim to make it so that all people and families can come and spend time together, draw more attention to the neighborhood itself, and provide resources that are missing from the town that is crucial.
The way it looks as a whole, the majority of the space is either taken by businesses or residential space but what I wanted o focus on was the big empty lot in front of the senior center. The block is made up of the streets South Cottage Grove Avenue and South Dexel Avenue sandwiched between East 75th and East 76th Street.
Because I felt bad moving or destroying homes I only really focused on the open slot in the bottom right with some changes to the sidewalk and streetlamps being used. What I wanted to make would be an experience people will remember, especially kids and since the space is shared with the senior center I thought the park could technically be owned by the center for seniors to come outside and be with family. With winding paths leading up and down the park, there´s a big tree that sits in the center that was previously the only thing on the property, now circled with a cutout bench to fit it perfectly. All would be open to the public with tables for chess and one-on-one games on the left and at the top left corner when entering a huge community garden can be seen growing absolutely anything and everything and in the bottom right an extensive playground for any kid to climb on. The most important part I thought though was the structure I was going to add to the back of the park.
An experience that I wanted to bring to this community might not be one to relate to but it is something if possible I would love to share with the people of Greater Grand Crossing. When I was little one of my best memories was going to Green City Market, getting a bunch of different kinds of breakfast food and sitting down under the nearest big tree, and eating while watching the people of the market go along and get all kinds of groceries they needed. Sitting and being with my family on a Saturday morning made me feel so reassured about the day and sitting in the shade where a bit of breeze came by made it that much better. What I would hope is that with those shells of the cabins sitting along the back wall, vendors and a few different local businesses would fill them in every weekend or so when the weather is warm to sell their products as a make-shift market. There was only space for five small store fronts but with all the open space around the park, in general, I think it could be made a good option for people to come and indulge in good food. Greater Grand Crossing is one of many neighborhoods in Chicago that´s considered a food desert so allowing reliable vendors to come by and sell fresh vegetables and dairy products for fair prices is a pivotal thing to have.
By our school´s curriculum, I believe this project and its goals align very well with some of the eleventh Sustainable Development Goal. In particular targets 11.7 and 11.4; 11.7 state that by 2030 the goal is to provide universal access to safe, inclusive, and accessible green public spaces, in particular for women and children, older persons, and persons with disabilities. I am making this space specifically for families and their grandparents, the paths are to be paved with even layers of easily walkable concrete so it's safer to take a wheelchair across. 11.4 says to strengthen efforts to protect and safeguard the world's cultural and natural heritage, while this park may be for some small neighborhood of Chicago its a reminder of how the neighborhood came to be, along with the floors of the playground small train tracks will run throughout the bottom right corner to connect back to the original story of how the neighborhood initially became a popular place during the 1800s I have also made it so that all floral beds incorporated into the park are only prairie flowers native to Chicago and its original ecosystem.
With all the main ideas of the park set in place, I was to then make a 3d model of what I was planning. It took me two days to complete but I am very proud of the outcome, I made the entire thing on a 122 by 78 block plot in Minecraft I had to size it down because otherwise, it would've taken way too long.
With the dimensions of the block being realistically 313ft by 489ft the park would come at an area of around 153,057 feet squared, when taking into account the entire block through its 663ft by 643ft coming at an area of 426309 feet squared for the area. The volumes I'm taking are of the to-be-built storefronts and of the senior center. The senior center is 163ft by 68ft at its base, just estimating its height based on its number of floors is around 931,056 ft cubed if the height for six floors is 84 feet then multiplied by 163x68 to get volume. As for the small cabins, I would want them to be about seven and a half feet in height, twelve feet long, and six and a half feet wide so it's small but there's still room for one or two tables of products and a cash register. The volume calculating 6x12x7 would be 504ft cubed.
My inspiration for this park build is a community garden I stayed near back in 2019 over in Detroit named North Cass Community Garden, they have awesome flower and vegetable beds and a well-organized system for the beds as well. The second piece of inspiration would be the Green City Market referred to earlier in the post they pop up in Lincoln park almost every weekend when it's warm starting in spring.
This project was one I had a really fun time with even though it felt really sped up cause the end of the year is coming up. I did struggle with finding a good location and a place that I found interesting but after that, it was to transfer the size of the space across different mediums and get to work. It was a bit difficult to find what to do for the residential portion of the block, I didn't want to do much because I felt it unfair to move or edit any homes but I think the increase of sidewalk space and better streetlights for visibility during the night is a good idea.
This is a quick tour of the place looking at most of the areas I made for the build.
https://news.wttw.com/2020/10/08/chicago-tonight-your-neighborhood-greater-grand-crossing
http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/547.html
https://www.habitatchicago.org/neighborhood-impact/greater-grand-crossing/why-greater-grand-crossing
https://interactive.wttw.com/chicago-by-l/neighborhoods/chatham-and-greater-grand-crossing
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