SwedishtheChef: Urban Planning Studio

Studio takes up a lot of my time. Class meets for 12 hours a week--I'm working the full 12 hours. Add on however much extra time outside of class to finish the project (25, 50 hours a week?) I'm so caught up trying to reach the final project that I rarely look back and see what I've accomplished. My process of reaching the goal is obsolete in my grade. As long as it's on my final board and looks good, it's fine. I could have drawn it all the night before and the professors wouldn't care. But I think it's important. The journey is the reason for the end result--I can't ignore it.

So, I'm going to keep a 'diary' of sorts of the process of this (my last) studio project. You guys are invited to watch :)

I guess some background is in order. In my urban planning studio we are given 'sites' in downtown Indianapolis that we have to improve. There's usually a noticeable problem or opportunity (ie large, unused, open space in prime location).

Our site sizes have grown progressively larger. From approximately 500 x 100 square feet to (now) 1 million square feet. This main portion has an empty Coca Cola Bottling Center and is headquarters for the Indianapolis Public School bus parking lot. We're to pretend the IPS have relocated their buses elsewhere, having full control of the site (it would be 1,000% harder to work around them, fyi).

My professor has given us a set of guidelines and buildings to place in the final plan. Here is the list: live/work loft units, mix of market rate and affordable housing, ground floor retail, public open space, parking solution, public and support services of your choice (ie community center, health center, senior center...a draw to the space). More details on the requirements in another blog (if I remember).

We have now until the end of the school year to finish the project. We're in the first phase of the project. In team of four, we have to have an analysis of the site (about a 2-3 block radius from our site). This includes demographics, circulation diagrams, neighborhood analysis...basically a bunch of diagrams.

Our professor makes us do everything by hand (for the final) so I'll take pictures of my drawings in process and the final drawing. I just started these today but didn't have my camera. I'll work in studio all day tomorrow so hopefully I can post pictures soon.

Because of the schedule and unknown amount of time for me to upload and type a entry, these will probably be delayed. For example, what I do this week might be posted next week, then a new post 3 days later. They won't be regular intervals.

Here's the site satellite map of the site: