REWIRE

Critic _ Brian Phillips, Fall 2015

Following a history of healthy development mid-century, the neighborhood in West Philadelphia surrounding 60th street station is now experiencing high vacancy rates and a stagnant urban fabric that no longer attracts modern social, technical and economic circuitry.

To combat this, REWIRE proposes a new development on the vacant block between the 58th and 59th streets that will:

1. Establish a new relationship fabric to maximize interaction, promote social synergy and create engineered serendipity [micro]
2. Re-wire the urban block infrastructure to adhere to the modern spectrum of socioeconomic demographics [macro]

The complex plugs into the various wires of the city: the train (students + commuters), the neighborhood (family), the sky (luxury), and the ground (commercial). This is all brought together by the lifting and liberation of the groundscape, which provides a much needed recreational oasis for the area and creates a new 'ground'. This platform fabric works in conjunction with a facade system of fluctuating opacity to create a hyperactive version of 'walk-up urbanism'.

_ Published in Pressing Matters 5
_ Featured on Pitcrit