Author(s)/Creator(s)

Lara Moock

Document Type

Thesis

Degree

B. ARCH

Date

Spring 5-2016

Keywords

architecture, legislative, loopholes, identity, public, hijacking

Language

English

Disciplines

Architectural History and Criticism | Cultural Resource Management and Policy Analysis | Other Architecture | Urban, Community and Regional Planning

Description/Abstract

ARTICLE 1: GENERAL PROVISIONS.

SEC. 100. PURPOSES.

San Francisco’s current political legislation has critical loopholes that have constructed a predominant shift in the city’s identity and urban fabric, as well as an obvious neglect of the public realm and social agenda. The recent move of the Silicon Valley tech headquarters to the city’s center has dramatically changed the architectural landscape as well as reinforced a growing push for corporate privatization. This thesis aims to expose and confront the hidden political and social dynamics of the constructed environment and reclaim the existing loopholes in order to propose a project without major exemptions from the initial legislations’ intentions. The main purpose is not to critique the lack of strict code requirements but rather envision an alternative proposal that maximizes the potential of the city’s legislative constraints and ultimately hijacks the spaces that have been deprived of the diminishing public usage.

SEC. 101. PARAMETERS

The Bay Area is comprised of four varying typological nodes that are connected through the infrastructural spine of Market Street, each containing a set of different parameters that set up the context for the overall symbiotic interventions. The architectural project will consist of hijacking four exemplary buildings, one within each node, in order to showcase the variety of loopholes as well as design possibilities. The four proposals within each node are as follows:

(1) High-Rise Node. This proposal hijacks the interior lining of the Privately-Owned Public Open Spaces (POPOS) that are either visually buried within the building or not located on the ground floor.

(2) Mid-Rise Node. This proposal hijacks the street frontages of the retail spaces that neglect any pedestrian stimulation or interaction.

(3) Row-House Node. This proposal hijacks the growing number of condos that have failed to incorporate the necessary program to resonate with the surrounding community.

(4) Civic Node. This proposal hijacks the only underground historical landmark currently used for storage.

SEC. 102. IMPLEMENTATION

The dissection of the legislative code of the four existing buildings reveals the loopholes and uncovers the hidden design opportunities that have not been explored. Each approved exemption is reclaimed to be re-designed in compliance with the planning code as well as to illustrate the full legislative potential. All four nodes implement the same design logic of calling out the added spatial, material and programmatic amenities in order to make them cohesively discernible within the city’s landscape.

Source

local input

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

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