About Vliet Street
Jared Schmitz Vliet Street is a commercial corridor on the Milwaukee's near west side. The district once thrived as an active place for the surrounding Washington Park and Martin Drive Neighborhoods. A streetcar line ran the length of Vliet to bring city residents to the Milwaukee County Zoo formerly located at Washington Park. In the mid-1900’s the city of Milwaukee saw a steep decline in population as middle-class families relocated to the suburbs and companies supporting working-class families moved away from the neighborhood. Washington Park began to see a period of disinvestment and economic decline as well-to-do families had left and residents still living in the neighborhood were left with few resources. Retail establishments along Vliet Street closed, leaving this as a space to pass through rather than arrive at. Today, the few pedestrians to be seen along the street are usually on their way to the bus stop to head to another location in the city. Cars passing through often speed, because there are few impediments for a driver to slow down for. The intersection of Vliet and 35th St. was recently recognized as one of the most dangerous intersections in the City of Milwaukee. Due to the lack of eyes on the street, many social problems have thrived in this area, leaving many residents and visitors of the neighborhood feeling unsafe. While the street has an abundance of charming vernacular architecture, it is not seen as a desirable destination to the surrounding neighborhood or the city of Milwaukee. More on Vliet Street here. |
In 2014, Hillary Byrne, suggested time as a design strategy to vitalize Washington Park avenues. According to her, temporality produced particular rhythms along these streets, creating a syncopated world that changed during days, nights, seasons and with different uses. Time, as it changes, also brings in transforming conditions of light, color and seasonal activities. The 2015 studio considers infill design, urban rehabs, and programmatic innovations in order to continue exploring ways to reproduce a vibrant, polyrhythmic world along Vliet Street.
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Building form as an economic model
Kelsey Nuthals, Jwayne Gordon Continuing the careful analysis of building morphology Nuthals and Gordon focus on the economics of thematic transformation. The building grain itself becomes an experiment in economic and social sustainability. Taking cues from the historic building stock on Vliet Street, Nuthals and Gordon argue that old buildings can be generative through accretion and over time such a building can produce income and additional value. In this experiment, Nuthals and Gordon make the very form of the building an economically and socially sustainable resource. Nuthals redesigns the formal qualities of a typical mixed-use store/residence building and makes use of the internal economic buying power of the neighborhood to produce a sustainable building type. Gordon explores how a monumental public institution with a non-thematic form can emerge from a sustained incremental rehab of a preexisting historic institutional building, a movie theater. Both understand the basic formal morphology of the historic building fabric as they respond to new ideas for the future. Design Strategy: Rethinking Infrastructure |
Reprogramming the in-between
Matt Stuessy, Zach Pate Stuessy and Pate show how existing building forms and in-between spaces may become resources for rebuilding. Whether it is the reuse of back yards and garage spaces or the creative reprogramming of setbacks between buildings, their explorations argue that, with some innovative thinking, we can transform these vacant and fallow spaces into productive and unique sites. Their creative reuse of existing facilities holds the potential to rebrand this neighborhood and make it a destination node within the city of Milwaukee. Design Strategy: New Programming |
Emily Talen, Design for Diversity: Exploring Socially Mixed Neighborhoods, (Architectural Press, 2008).
N. John Habraken, The Control of Complexity, Places 4: 2 (1987), 3-15.
Renee Y. Chow, Suburban Space, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002).
Amos Rapoport, "Systems of activities and systems of settings," in S. Kent (Ed.) Domestic Architecture and the Use of Space (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), 9-20.
Chapters from Common Ground: Readings and Reflections on Public Space, edited by Anthony M. Orum and Zachary P. Neal. New York: Routledge, 2010.
Ray Oldenburg, Great Good Place: Cafés, Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salons, and Other Hangouts at the Heart of a Community. (New York: Marlowe, 1999).
N. John Habraken, The Control of Complexity, Places 4: 2 (1987), 3-15.
Renee Y. Chow, Suburban Space, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002).
Amos Rapoport, "Systems of activities and systems of settings," in S. Kent (Ed.) Domestic Architecture and the Use of Space (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), 9-20.
Chapters from Common Ground: Readings and Reflections on Public Space, edited by Anthony M. Orum and Zachary P. Neal. New York: Routledge, 2010.
Ray Oldenburg, Great Good Place: Cafés, Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salons, and Other Hangouts at the Heart of a Community. (New York: Marlowe, 1999).