The Site...
union machine works
2nd and clay st, oakland
saying it out loud that this could/should be my site made me more unsure about it than ever. so i went back today. it's all boarded up now, in preparation for its conversion to a whole foods. i found this discouraging, although ahmed suggests that perhaps integrating with the whole foods is the way to make the project financially viable. do these things matter in an architecture thesis? i know they do in my project, i want a program that includes a legit business, and real estate and education model. trying to best serve one of these goals will probably damage the other.
this pair of buildings are beautiful and historic and neglected. they sit in a neighborhood that is on the upswing, nearing crtical mass. on the same street lie key artist-run galleries and venues such as pro arts, swarm gallery and oakland metro. one building provides an open framework with wonderful light, which could be infilled with studios. the longer building is a stark, industrial hallway, like the tate, a public gallery that can help open up the block.
my thesis can constitute a counterproposal, for what the neighborhood could be if oakland publicly support the arts there instead continuing to treat area like an outdoor mall. either way will it simply be a catalyst for yuppies and the cultural elite to take over and make it their own, or will it do something for real place. and what is that place, jack london square, anyways?
is there somewhere in the city where this project can do more? will choosing a site that is more appropriate and within the means of my proposed program, will i end up disspointed with the architecture?
posted by dbackman at 12:26 AM
3 Comments:
From the beginning, you have seemed to want to design something doable--a project that could be built after graduation. So regardless as to whether these things matter in an architectural thesis, they matter to you. Right now you seem to be stuck between what you thought your thesis would be and what you are seeing it become. I would embrace these questions; stay open minded about a wholefoods and gentrification. How can architecture fit into these economic models? Maybe the architecture itself becomes a new economic model...your entire studio becomes a timeshare where these yuppies wanna be artist can get together with real artists and paint for a weekend. Nobody feels like it is an outdoor mall, no beauracracy is involved, the artists sustain themselves by way of the yuppies, who feel like they aren't corporate slaves for a weekend.
Right now, think about possibilities rather than absolutes, and your ideas will take on some flexibility. Doubts will fade into interests.
legit business, real estate and an education model...
do more?? why more?
Just X might be enough. You get to name X. And maybe an additional X. And that's it; thesis // cultural catalyst. Happy Dan.
Happy is good...instead of trying to anticipate every problem before it occurs, i have to roll with punches, take these problems as challenges rather than try to avoid them.
Thanks for all the comments, really helpful...my first digital collage is on its way, the site as part of the post-industrial landscape...
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