Proposal 7: MID CITY PORCH [ back to entries ]
In Mid City, life happens on the porch. Every day, people sit outside of their homes simply to be there, to idly watch, casually talk with others, and to just be there in the public. Though porches are found nearly everywhere, Mid City lacks a common porch, a space for people to come together and engage with one another and the community. Mid City Porch fulfills that need, providing a building for visitors and the neighborhood so they may come together.
Above, orange denotes the many porches in the neighborhood. Their sheer number inspired the concept.
Analyzing the vernacular of the neighborhood reveals three zones at work in the typical shotgun house: the public street, semi-public porch, and private interior. The porch serves as a mediator and threshold between the two extremes. It is composed of several vital elements that typically give it an identity.
Extrapolating the idea of the porch to the scale of the neighborhood reveals that the site acts in the same way. The highly public and visible North Blvd. is buffered by a row of front facing blocks that shelter the private residential neighborhood.
The structures of Mid-City are small scale, generally two levels or less. The residential units are usually one story, with a semi-public area dedicated to the front facade of the buildings. These porches create opportunities to instigate conversations and social interactions. Mid City needs a “porch” where residents and people can gather and interact. The siting of the grocery/ cafe creates a semi-public condition in which its location allows for greater connectivity between visitors and residents.
The main site movement is lateral via the walkable promenade which runs latitudinally across the site. The promenade serves as a community gathering place providing shade and rest for both shoppers, diners, and those come to just enjoy the grassy lawn flanking the approach to the grocery/ cafe. Tree lines create natural privacy screens for surrounding residents and serve another role as acoustic dampeners. The large swaths of concrete surfacing are broken up by vegetative swales which not only cut down on the urban island effect, but also assist in drainage and rainwater runoff.
The site and its arterial qualities for roads such as North Blvd. and Government St. allows for integral opportunities to bring together conversations and creating a focal point through which these dialogues can take place. Bike racks, crosswalks, and parking accommodations allow the urban plan to focus on how people arrive and navigate the site. Not only does the surplus of parking spots allows for greater motor vehicle capacity, but it also augments the church parking demand. For those without cars, the urban plan provides a recessed bus stop along the existing route 43 of the CATS Bus transportation system with speed bumps and crosswalks strategically placed to slow through traffic and make passage across the site safe and comfortable.
The urban plan as a whole creates a cohesive environment in which to visit. The overall design moves link the Computer Literacy Center to the playground and housing. Balance between open space and parking is paramount in order to bridge between the public visitors and private residents.
The programmatic spaces of the building are arranged around the courtyard, providing a constant link between the functions of the building as both a place of education and of community. The cafe and grocery are on the first floor to better serve the people, and the workforce development classrooms and offices are situated above, tying the spaces together.
The building had to respond to the different contexts surrounding it, both the public and private. The courtyard space serves as the porch between the two. Vertical columns and horizontal fins serve as both structure and shading while tying into the porch language in the neighborhood. The building is situated on a plinth the further enhance the sense of threshold when moving through it. Tables and benches serve as places of eating for the cafe space as well as gathering points to site and discuss.
