"Site Matters"- Response to Place

In defining a project in terms of place, the reading “Defining Urban Sites” speaks about looking at sites on an urban scale and how to define the boundaries of a site. This can be looked at as both the whole city, as well as in terms of limited sites within the city. What a site actually “does” in the city must be taken into consideration, and how it affects the broader urban context. By observing these conditions with many boundary conditions and on multiple scales, it can become a new model for describing, interpreting, as well as analyzing places. Looking at precedents, in some cases there are very set and defined boundaries, while in other cases the city is seen as floating in space. Urban sites become incredibly influenced by their surroundings and become the ideal place for interactions and intersections to occur. An example that I found very interesting because I find that it applies to my own thesis project is that of Hell’s Kitchen in New York serving many different urban uses. It is a residential neighborhood, a commercial district, and a key intersection of transportation infrastructures. This also further reinforces the idea that urban sites are dynamic, porous, and “messy.” Multiple realities must be looked at when site representation is undertaken, and this representation helps to give definition to the urban site because it is a process in which different ideas of the site are able to settle down.

Intersections between different agents become incredibly important in terms of the “mobile ground” of a site, as many interesting overlaps begin to occur. Workers, owners, neighbors, builders, developers, politicians, bankers, preservationists, ecologists, and economists among others must all inhabit the space of the site and they all have their own terms of use. Different sites will also have different reaches, and this will depend on spatial and operational extensions. When sites are looked at in terms of regional, metropolitan or local, different aspects of the site can be studied and this can begin to shift the site boundaries. Links to outside spaces are also crucial to understanding, and drawing a clear distinction between the “inside” and “outside.” With all of these new ideas, the challenge of the thesis project will be to define something that is indefinite.

No urban sites are stable, and this is an idea that I would like to build upon as I move forward with my thesis. Homestead has a very rich history that is plagued by instability due to strikes by locked out steelworkers. Henry Frick hired armed guards from the Pinkerton National Defense Agency, and when barges carrying the Pinkertons arrived at the mill, the workers met them at the riverbanks, emphasizing the strong connection to the river. The population of Homestead has also seen many ups and downs, as in 1900 there were 12,554 people with more than half employed in the plants. By 1940 there were 19,041 people, but in a few years half of the population was displaced as the US government added to the steel mills to prepare for WWII. After the end of the war, there was a great decline in the steel-making industry in the US. In 1948, the mill closed and was replaced by the Waterfront shopping mall. By 2000, the population was down to 3,569. These ups and downs show the instability of the site, as well as the porous boundaries due to out-migration. The site directly impacted the activity that was occurring there due to the access to the river, and the goal is to let the site once again guide the project in a major revitalization effort.