Rebuilding a Better Chicago

Since many of my summer programs as a tween were in downtown Chicago, I had to learn how to navigate the city by myself at an early age. Getting lost was my worst nightmare. Slowly after taking the time to explore the city on Google Maps on late summer nights, my love for the design of the city grew. I was able to share my good and bad experiences in the city in my last unit of my class "Urban Planning." It was interesting to go back in Chicago's history and learn about how the planned growth of the grid system came to be. I found it helpful to think of different solutions to the many problems that arise in Chicago, instead of spending time listing out the faults of the past. We focused on the Industrial Revolution and how it played a part in cities all across the world, redlining, eminent domain, and unique ideas on how to revolutionize the future of urban planning. Our last FE of the year consisted of taking a tour of the pedway system in downtown. I was amazed to discover that I can travel in the city by foot without needing to go outside. We took our research to the test by redesigning one area of a city with inspiration from cities and spaces around the world, the SDG targets, data of the area, and a TED talk speaker named Peter Calthorpe.

I chose to redesign a block in the South Chicago neighborhood because that is where I grew up. I often took the South Chicago (93rd) Metra train to go downtown as a kid. The space has always made me jittery while I waited for the train because it is very deserted and is not cared for by the city. Vacant lots surround the bustling station. The kids that live on the block do not spend time outside because the space is not very kid friendly. I think that every family should feel the comfort of being able to spend time around their block while having fun on their free time.

The area of the redesigned space is 404ft (Baltimore Ave to Brandon Ave) x 528ft (E 93rd St to E 92nd St) = 213,312 ft²

I replaced four of the vacant lots with new structures for the community and made the transportation there more eco-friendly.

JMP, Current Space, (2019)

JMP, Redesigned Space, (2019)

You can play in my newly designed block of South Chicago in Roblox by clicking here.

Vacant Lot 1 → Container City
I was heavily inspired by Project 24 in the city of Bangor for this design. They used old shipping containers and repurposed them into art spaces for the community that are open 24 hours everyday. There are not a lot of "third places", or places for families besides home and work/school in South Chicago. I have artsy friends in the neighborhood but we are discouraged that there isn't a clean place to do art freely outside. There are unused shipping containers in Vacant Lot 1, so I think Project 24's idea could be recreated there.

JMP, Container City, (2019)

JMP, Inside Art Container, (2019)

Project 24, Untitled, (2019) 

Vacant Lot 2 → Community Garden
Community gardens promote relationship building, cheaper food transportation costs, and reduces water runoff. Philadelphia has about 470 community gardens all over the city. They have specfifc permits allowing urban farmers to own lands for food for the community. That inspired me to create one in a community that need it a lot. There is usually flooding of water in Vacant Lot 2, so I believe that the water could be used for a good cause. According to Chuy Silva, resident of South Chicago, he sees a lot of hungry homeless people hanging around local grocery stores begging for food. He believes that a community garden can help assist those homeless people so they can have food to eat.

JMP, Community Garden, (2019)

Vacant Lot 3 → Coffee Shop
This block does not have any shops to buy food or drink. Commuters have to go out of their way to get breakfast, lunch, or dinner. It would be easier for Metra riders to fill their stomachs before going to school or work if there was a shop around. A coffee shop will benefit residents on the block and hungry pedestrians.

Volume of Coffee Shop building: Rectangular pyramid: 1/3 ft x 30 ft(L) x 50ft (H) x 25ft (W)= 12,500ft^3

JMP, Coffee Shop, (2019)

Vacant Lot 4 → Playground
A new playground achieves SDG 11.7 by providing accessible access of a "third place" (a place besides home and school) to children in South Chicago.

There is one playground in Bessemer Park for the 7,446 kids living in South Chicago. In comparison, Lincoln Park, a very wealthy neighborhood, has seven playgrounds for only 2,304 children. I want to add another playground in this area of South Chicago because the ratios between these neighborhoods are off. It is not fair for children to not have reachable playgrounds to have fun at after school in South Chicago, while there is an outrageous amount in rich neighborhoods for so little amount of kids.

JMP, Playground, (2019)

South Chicago (93rd St) Metra Train → Solar Panels
The Metra train releases a lot of pollution in the air. This can affect the residents of this block with different diseases, such as heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. Solar panels can reduce the energy use at the station in an eco-friendly manner.

This new addition reaches SDG 11.6 by "reducing the adverse per capita environmental impact of cities". It keeps a lower risk of disease for minorities living in the area. Solar panels use free energy from the sun to use less money for resources that will run out one day. The air quality would be healthier and cleaner.

JMP, Solar Panels, (2019)

Water Fountain
Kids get thirsty after playing in the playground or working hard on art in Container City. Free water should be accessible for these kids so they can continue having fun with comfort and health.

Volume of cone: 1/3ft x 𝛑 x 1ft ² x 2 ft= 2.09 ft ^3

JMP, Water Fountain, (2019)

Peter Calthorpe's principles for building better cities helped set a goal for my design.

1) Mix: Create mixed-use and mixed-income neighborhoods
The newly designed place has gardeners, children, artists, and commuters conjoining together in one place. The mixed-land use by different people is important for new connections to form and create together.

2) Walk: Design human scale neighborhoods
All of the new attributes in this area are designed for pedestrians and are walkable from one point to another. They are all easy to access by walking along the outside of the buildings. It is enjoyable to walk around in a bustling area with more activities to do than a desolate, vacant place.

3) Focus: Match density and mix to transit capacity
Since there is a lot of people waiting until the Metra gets there, I implemented many activities to do around the station so they would not get bored. It may bring travelers back to spend time in the neighborhood on their own and meet the residents that live around there.

Overall, this has been my most favorite project in Urban Planning. I felt like I can actually make a change in my former neighborhood. I had problems with creating a 3D model of the redesigned place. First, I tried making it by hand with cardboard and glue, but it took a long time for the first step. I decided to switch to Roblox to make the 3D design, which turned out amazing. I also has problems with finding the right area to redesign, but I had conversations with my family about what they thought was vacant in the neighborhood and ideas of improvements.

Citations

“Age and Sex in Lincoln Park, Chicago, Illinois (Neighborhood).” The Demographic Statistical Atlas of the United States - Statistical Atlas, statisticalatlas.com/neighborhood/Illinois/Chicago/Lincoln-Park/Age-and-Sex.

“School Enrollment in South Chicago, Chicago, Illinois (Neighborhood).” The Demographic Statistical Atlas of the United States - Statistical Atlas, statisticalatlas.com/neighborhood/Illinois/Chicago/South-Chicago/School-Enrollment.

“What Is Project 24?” Project 24 NI | Transforming a Derelict Location, project24ni.com/about/.

Save Our Energy, Save our Planet

 The Power class made me realize that I take electricity for granted. Electricity is one of the most important utilities we use in the city. It connects us to the internet, lights our streets up at night, and powers appliances that make chores easier. Without Tesla and Edison's inventions of AC and DC electricity, we would be stuck in darkness. I learned how to draw a complete circuit diagram with all of the components. The math in this unit interested me because it felt connected to how real electricians understand the amount of voltage, current, and resistance runs through a circuit. For our Field Experience of the unit, the class and I took a trip to the Museum of Science and Industry, one of the last standing buildings of the World's Fair held here in Chicago. We didn't have a chance to visit the Wooden Island, a calm and peaceful area that Frederick Olmsted advocated for. It is one of my favorite places in Chicago to relax and find peace at in the summer. I was partnered with my classmate PKA to create an energy efficient circuit that is more eco-friendly than our houses in Chicago. It was difficult to create the circuit, but we took our time to create a simple, yet effective one. It was interesting to do the calculations of the voltage, resistance, and current of our circuit because it made our work affirmative. If I had a bigger circuit board, I would like to create a larger circuit with more parallel paths. 

Popsicle Sticks and Glue May Break Ya Bones

We started off our first unit of "Urban Planning" with learning about different kinds of bridges and what their strengths and weaknesses are. I spent a lot of time researching bridges around the city. This class has made me more aware of the structures and bridges I pass by when I am on my way home from school. For the first Action Project, my partner, RP, and I had to create a truss bridge that can support a minimum of ten pounds. From my research, I learned that triangles are the strongest supporting shape in structure, so I wanted to incorporate many triangles into the design. RP and I decided to build a tall, skinny bridge because we wanted to have a challenge. At first we spent a lot of time researching examples of other truss bridges, but our teacher insisted for us to start building as soon as possible because of the tight timeframe we had.

Bridge Hunter, Untitled, (2019)

We were heavily inspired by the Chicago Skyway Bridge. The designers of that bridge used many triangles along the mile long structure, so we wanted to use their design in a miniature way.

It was easy to create the sides of our bridge, but we got frustrated on how to connect the two sides together.  We used books to keep the bridge glued in place without having to be held up by us. The two sides were connected with 10 popsicle sticks cut in half, to equal 20 mini sticks.

Our bridge supports the Sustainable Development Goal 11: Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable. Every stick used in the bridge has a purpose in order to make the bridge strong enough for safety. We planned for hours to make the bridge what we envisoned in our minds. The bridge held double the minimum amount of weight, so there is confidence it can hold the ten pounds it is supposed to hold.

Hiu To, Untitled, (2019)

We ended up with a symmetrical design with 18 tiny triangles on each side of the bridge.We had low confidence that our bridge would be able to hold the minimum weight of 10 pounds because the bottom had begun to start falling apart from tests. We am very excited to share that our truss bridge ended up to hold 20 pounds! It broke after 25 pounds. 

Hiu To, Untitled, (2019)

Hiu To, Untitled, (2019)