Grad School Project

Studio 601

Critic: Brian Phillips

Fall 2010

Urban Culture is a ~50,000sf housing project geared to activate the vacant void directly over route 676 between 11th and 12th streets, formerly the thruway of the Reading Viaduct.

Urban Culture is not just a general reference to city life, but an industrial plant processing algae biomass from CO2 emissions of autos travelling on the expressway underneath. In this, the project incorporates one part housing, one part industry, and one part urbanity while exploiting three cyclical themes in its execution- urban flows, green flows, and water flows.

Conceptually, the building is a vector connection between north and south, center city and the adjacent north neighborhoods, and a vertical and horizontal extension of urbanity -- an architectural threshold welcoming travelers, visitors, and locals.