borderline metropolis: port richmond

8/3/2019 Borderline Metropolis: Port Richmond

1/71

Borde rline Metropolis | Philadelphia | Port Ric hmond


2/71

Borderline Metropolis | Philadelphia | Port Ric hmond

| Trinity Tea m|

HUGO TRISMEGISTUS LEMES

HOANG VIET NGUYEN

YELIZAVETA LISA NESTEROVA

ARCH 4101 - FALL 2010_______________________________________________________________

INSTRUCTORS:

VAL WARKECLAUDIA CLEMENTEFRANC ESCO ISIDORI


3/71

Borde rline Me trop olis | Philadelphia | Port Richmo nd

Philadelphia s Ra ilroads: Penns Antithesis

William Penn designed Philadelphia with the Hippodami-

an, Roman castrum plan in mind. This gridded plan, sup-

posed to ofer large square open landscaped spaces orits inhabitants, started to become quickly ragmented as

people settled along the waterronts, and as industrializa-

tion, and particularly the advent o the railroads, initiated

the subdivision o the city into organic parcels.

Railroad competitioon led to increasing demand or

space along the rivers and the docks, causing chaotic pat-

terns and borders to emerge.

Stations sprouted throughout the city as railroad com-

panies, specially Reading and Pennsylvania, competedor power in a way that resembled the architectural eud

amongst medieval amilies o towns like San Gimigniano.

Reading and Pennsylvannia built lavish grand central sta-

tions located almost adjancent to each other, and equally

vied or the control o the docks. The progression and

consequences o this capitalist greed can be best seen in

historic maps o Philadelphia. Upon studying these maps

one begins to see that the railroads caused phenomena

that together can be understood as a collective antithesis

to the original conception o Philadelphia.


4/71

TIMELINE - 19th CE


5/71Borde rline Me trop olis | Philadelphia | Port Richmo nd

19th CENTURY M


6/71

19th CENTURY FRAGMENT


7/71Borde rline Me trop olis | Philadelphia | Port Richmo nd

19th CENTURY RAILROAD COMP


8/71

19th CENTURY RAILROAD COMP


9/71


TIMELINE -20th CE


10/71

20th CENTTURY


11/71


20th CENTURY


12/71

20th CENTURY - COMPE


13/71


20th CENTURY


14/71

19th + 20th CEN


15/71



16/71

1

2

3

4


17/71


21st c . DERIVE - PSYCHOGEOG

Trian

gulat

ion

Self-

re-ro

tatio

n

Paralel

logram

Cornering

Urbansuburb


18/71

PORT RICHMOND S


19/71

Stripped Urban Agric ult


20/71



21/71


22/71



23/71


24/71


Swa


25/71

Swa

LOW TIDE HIGH TIDE


26/71


Ne

Waterfront

Interwined

residential

uninterputed

city grid

Separated

defines block

commercial

Interwined North

Separated South

Commercail and

Residentialconditions

Genera

lSiteConditions-Relationtshipw

ithboundaryconditio

ns


27/71

Gene

ralSiteConditions-Deconstruc

tionofLayers

Through Streets- Cut into Corridor

Continuation o Grid- interrupted by corr

Rail Corridor

I i i l Di


28/71


Initia l Dia

Initia l Propo


29/71


Lisa Ne

Initia l Propo

Sec tiona l R


30/71

Sec tiona l R

Siite Dia


31/71


Siite Dia

Sec tions through t


32/71

Sec tions through t


33/71


Final Project Pr


34/71

Final Project Pr


35/71

Borderline Metropo lis | Philad elphia | Port Richmo nd

HIGH TIDE LOW TIDE

o rd erline Metro o lis Phila d el hia Po rt Richmond

TIDE

Green


36/71

HIGH TIDE LOW TIDE

Site


37/71


Site


38/71


39/71



40/71

URBAN VOIDS ETYMOFound Artifac ts


41/71


Viet

HORIZONTAL SPINE VERTICAL SPINE CLUSTERING PERMEATING

URBAN VOIDS ETYMO


42/71

CORNERING MAZE CHUNK CENTRALISING

STR


43/71


URBAN VOID INTERPRETATION INTERPOLATION BY EXCAVATION

SITE


44/71

INTERPOLATION BY EXCAVATION

SEC


45/71


SECTION THROUGH TUNNEL

SECTION THROUGH COURTYARDS

SITE SECTION

COURTYARD


46/71

COURTYARD


47/71


COURTYARD


48/71


49/71

Borderline Metropolis | Philadelphia | Port Richmond


50/71


51/71



52/71


53/71



54/71


55/71



56/71

Hugo

Proposing Parad ise


57/71


Premise

In the long existence o humanity, at least beore the

demotratization o a derived capitalist orm (Las Vegaset al.) the idea o paradise has always been exclusive,

only or a certain number o people, an elite chosen or

ortunate group o deities, o royals, and even o assassins

(as we learn rom the legends concerning the Hashashin,

or example).

Port Richmond has been everything except paradise.

It has seen the voracious and greedy expansion o the

railroads and coal docks, and the interventions o the

shipping industry or two centuries. And more recently, it

has been let in disrepair, serving as a perect representa-tive and refection o the distopic local neighborhood in

Philadelphia.

Despite the rst impressions, Port Richmond is still very

much active. CSX trains run through the site daily, and

the young use the area or diversion and delinquent

behavior. The environment, however, lacks such aspects

as vibrance, soul, harmony, and happiness.

An urban intervention or the area would have to be a

dramatic one in order or it to aect the immediate sur-

roundings. It would have to be an idea having a similarcaliber to that o the second man as noted by Edmund

Bacon, and architecturally represented at the Piazza An-

unziatta. In other words, it would have to be a proposal

that could essentially transcend and, in a ew genera-

tions, enhance the area programatically, aesthetically, and

nancially.

It is interesting to note that William Penn symbolically

named his experiment ater a biblical city which would

be spared during the apocalypse. The current conditions

o the city are ar rom utopic, and one could argue that

there are many reasons to save the marble and glass city,

and the cradle o American Independence rom sel-

destruction. Perhaps one possibility, at least or the Port

Richmond waterront, would be to bring in some orm o

paradisical intervention.

Let: Eden as depicted in the rst or let panel o Boschs The Garden o

Earthly Delights Triptych

MERGING OF

PORT RICHMOND


58/71

Border Talk

The entire research and orm creation during this se-

mester has ocused on metropolitan borders, divisions,ragmentation, and a plethora o emergent phenomena.

As an extension to the railroad studies, I decided to ocus

on the docks o Port Richmond - or many years dominat-

ed and expanded by the coal industry and the Reading

railroad company.

Architecture Derived rom Existing Axes

and Ruins

Axes created by the docks and the streets, o diereing

angles, confict at interstate 95. The design intervention

tries to merge these conficting axes by their extension

into one another. These paths, while linking the docks to

the public realm, also enclose the area through natural

green walls and public pathways (the idea o the enclo-

sure linking back to that o the enclosed paradise, and at

the same time also to the idealized democratization o

public space ingrained int he city o Philadelphia since its

conception by William Penn).

The architecture is derived rom the existing architecture

o the ruins, eaturing repetitious, industrial modular

sequences such as covered pergolas.

The progams ar e mostly recreational, athletic acilities

- eaturing saunas, sporting courts, pools, gyms, restau-

rants, and gardens.

RichmondSt&SchirraDr

RichmondSt&HuntingdonSt

RichmondSt&LehighSt

RichmondSt&SomersetSt

RichmondSt&CambriaSt

RichmondSt&AnnSt

DERIVATION OF ARCHIITE

AXON: 1/128 = 1-0


59/71


SECTION: 1/128 = 10


60/71

PORT RICHMOND DOCK CO


61/71


PORT RICHMOND DOCK CO


62/71

SHADOW

SHADOWS THROUGH THE SOLSTICES


63/71


M

SITE MODEL


64/71

M

PIER 3 MODEL


65/71


M

PIER 3 MODEL


66/71

M

PIER 3 MODEL


67/71


RENDE

SITE PERSPECTIVE


68/71

RENDE

MAIN DERIVATED AXIS: PERGOLA AND RUNNELS


69/71


RENDE

MAIN DERIVATED AXIS: TOWARDS DELAWARE RIVER COURSE


70/71


71/71


borderline metropolis: port richmond

Documents