-
7/22/2019 BUSHWICKS EXTENDED GRID: Re-identifying the expanded realm of the street
1/55
-
7/22/2019 BUSHWICKS EXTENDED GRID: Re-identifying the expanded realm of the street
2/55
-
7/22/2019 BUSHWICKS EXTENDED GRID: Re-identifying the expanded realm of the street
3/55
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Although this thesis is a personal work, the c
insights and ideas are instigated and inspired by the
experiences and engaging encounters of a four anmonth stay in New York City, from January through M
with the Atlantis Exchange Program with Parsons, T
School. This thesis, for the Master of Urbanism and
Planning at KULeuven, was in this respect the
opportunity to elaborate further on the wealth of ideas
by the journey. It did not only evolve from the work of t
at Parsons From Urban Homesteading to a New
of Housing that focused on Bushwick, but enco
many of the concepts encountered in the other cou
by actually living in and walking the streets of the me
I would like to thank all the people who introduce
these new insights and experiences, who made the
exchange possible and supported me in the ensuing
of composing this thesis.
First of all I would like to thank professor Bruno De M
KULeuven and professor Brian McGrath of Parsons,
School, for their stimulating comments that really pu
forward.
Thanks to all the teachers of Parsons: thanks to
Rendon and Frank Morales for the guidance of th
to Victoria Marshall, William Morrish, Kimberly Ta
McGrath and Paul Goldberger for their passion and en
with which they introduced new topics.Thanks to all my friends and students at Parsons. A
thanks to the students of the Atlantis Exchange
Jonas De Maeyer, Luca Fillipi, Wendy Van Kesse
Salis, Ferhat Topuz and Stefano Aresti, for all the in
and the great time in New York.
Thanks to all my friends and the teachers of KULeu
thanks to Maura Slootmaekers for taking care of evespecially the Atlantis Exchange.
Finally I especially want to thank my family and frien
the support they gave me along this journey.
-
7/22/2019 BUSHWICKS EXTENDED GRID: Re-identifying the expanded realm of the street
4/55
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
CONTENTS
BATTLEFIELD BUSHWICKVS URBANISMS OF INCLUSION FRONTIER BUSHWICK
EXTENDED GRID BORDERS
AVENUES
STREETS
OUTSIDE THE GRID INFRASTRUCTURE FRAME
EXTENDED AVENUES
EXTENDED STREETS
MICRO-STORY: STOOPS
OPEN SPACE
MICRO-STORY: COMMUNITY GARDENS
EXTENDED GRID
RE-IDENTIFICATION GRID
CONTRACTED BLOCKS THE CONTRACTION AND EXPANSION OF BUSHW
BLOCKS
MICRO-STORY: R6 ZONING
THE BLOCK
STREET-GRID
RE-IDENTIFICATION GRID
COLLECTOR MANIPULATING THE GRID EMPHASIZING
TOPOGRAPHY CORE & BORDERS
COLLECTOR OF RAINWATER
COLLECTOR OF A FRAGMENTARY PARK
COLLECTOR OF DIVERSITY
STREET WATER COLLECTOR
CATALOGUE
WATER TREATMENT SYSTEM
MEANDER
RESERVOIR
PARKING LOTS
BUFFER
TOWERS
CONTENTS
-
7/22/2019 BUSHWICKS EXTENDED GRID: Re-identifying the expanded realm of the street
5/55
BATTLEFIELD
BUSHWICKVS URBANISM
OF INCLUSION
Slowly an unsuspected offensive is penetrating th
of Brooklyn, strategic pawns are placed in battle fo
driving the natives from the current frontier of B
Here the signs of battle mark the faades of old war
that have fallen into disuse. Now, they are scarred
strokes like blood streaks of large murals announ
arrival of the gentrifying army: the artists. The rst
the battle is written in paint and grafti. The inltrato
appropriate the expressive building-high typical m
the local Spanish-speaking inhabitants, claiming the
the underused territory. And, like every battle, also
has its war reporters, observing the movements of
battalion dispatched to the battleeld. The main cthe movement was tracked down to be the L-train w
pioneering artists had to leave their strongholds of S
the East Village that they had established in the 19
the 1980s and crossed the East River to Williamsb
1990s. These hip and creative pioneers were closely
by a migration of young settlers attracted by the w
the large open loft spaces the artists had uncovere
old industries of Bushwick. The ever more afuen
Bushwick in New York City
-
7/22/2019 BUSHWICKS EXTENDED GRID: Re-identifying the expanded realm of the street
6/55
-
7/22/2019 BUSHWICKS EXTENDED GRID: Re-identifying the expanded realm of the street
7/55
-
7/22/2019 BUSHWICKS EXTENDED GRID: Re-identifying the expanded realm of the street
8/55
-
7/22/2019 BUSHWICKS EXTENDED GRID: Re-identifying the expanded realm of the street
9/55
-
7/22/2019 BUSHWICKS EXTENDED GRID: Re-identifying the expanded realm of the street
10/55
-
7/22/2019 BUSHWICKS EXTENDED GRID: Re-identifying the expanded realm of the street
11/55
-
7/22/2019 BUSHWICKS EXTENDED GRID: Re-identifying the expanded realm of the street
12/55
THE HISTORY OF NEW YORKS
FROM GREENWICH VILLAGE INBUSHWICK TODAY SHOWS THA
CONSEQUENCES OF UNPLANN
OCCURING AREAS WHERE ART
ARE HIGHER HOUSING PRICES
CAPITAL INVESTMENT, AND EVAND GENTRIFICATION.1
Sharon Zukin & Laura Braslow,
The Life Cycle of New Yorks Creative DistrictsARTIST PIONEERS
HIPSTER CATALYSTSREAL-ESTATE SPECULATION
atmosphere in this new development as exists in re
loft buildings. An article in The New York Times, app
titled An Artful Way to Rent, looks into Swartz his ta
Drawing on Bushwicks cachet, Castle Braid is being m
by its developer, Mayer Schwartz, as a world cus
to enable the artist, and is aimed at art lovers willin
Williamsburg prices to live in an area sorely lackin
trees and retail. The grafti murals were commission
Schwartz as part of Brooklyn Artillery, a six-week art
house last fall that converted the 125 then-vacant ap
into temporary galleries.
The tactic appeared to work exceptionally well th
concluded: only two units remained to be lled after t
INCLUSION - However, the renewed attraction of B
should be no reason to start battling all changes. Bot
bring something valuable to Bushwick: The new ar
also looking to put down roots and contribute to thof the active and engaged existing community, but o
also to enrich the vision(s) for Bushwick with their ow
Both groups already show this in a multitude of loca
organizations where new and old residents dream ofuture for example the Bushwick Eco Action Netw
actively takes care of the streets or dream of a loc
scene for example the Bushwick Starr where loca
directors make plays with the local youth and ma
In this light it is clear that Bushwicks challenge is n
for a battle strategy to stop change, but how to env
changes in a more inclusive way. It is a search to
potentialities and possible synergies in all areas and
-
7/22/2019 BUSHWICKS EXTENDED GRID: Re-identifying the expanded realm of the street
13/55
-
7/22/2019 BUSHWICKS EXTENDED GRID: Re-identifying the expanded realm of the street
14/55
100 m 1000 m
main borders of Bushwick
L-train
Broadway
FlushingAvenue
Myrtle Avenue
Fulton Street
before the grid
BORDERS
Contrary to Manhattans grid, Brooklyns grid was no
as a uniform pattern covering the whole territory, bu
became a fragmented inll of an existing framework
and through this process inherently followed the log
landscape. This early delineation of the landscape cr
frame of the future neighborhoods, each with its own
grid characteristics: orientation of avenues and stree
size,
Bushwicks grid spans four major borders. The easteof Bushwick today is formed by Flushing Avenue, it
can easily be traced on historic maps before the
of the grid as a winding road around the wet are
Newtown Creek in the north of the map this clater transformed into the docks that boosted Willia
industries. The southern border of Bushwick
Broadway as a linear offset of the perpendicular m
that crossed Flushing Avenue. This border was later
with an elevated subway. (The original crooked roa
Evergreen Avenue still forms a small winding anom
the current rectilinear grid.) In the west the grid is e
by a double border. The hills of the Evergreen C
-
7/22/2019 BUSHWICKS EXTENDED GRID: Re-identifying the expanded realm of the street
15/55
-
7/22/2019 BUSHWICKS EXTENDED GRID: Re-identifying the expanded realm of the street
16/55
-
7/22/2019 BUSHWICKS EXTENDED GRID: Re-identifying the expanded realm of the street
17/55
100 m 1000 m
cemeteries and parks
OUTSIDE THE GRID
Green open spaces form a sudden disruption in the co
patches of grid with the Maria Hernandez Park takin
blocks by far the largest green space in the area is f
the Evergreens Cemetery. The sudden hills that appe
a remnant of a glacial moraine hindered the expans
grid in this direction and it was left as an open green
Envisioned as a rural cemetery by Andrew Jackson D
the cemetery/park took shape in the hands of Calv
and Frederick Law Olmsted and was one of New Yoattractive public green spaces before Central Park
Their works and the works of Robert Moses left behin
green gure of cemeteries, parks and parkways span
Queens and Brooklyn where green areas and transinfrastructure intertwine. The cemetery forms par
gure that is now also connected as the 64 kilome
mile Brooklyn-Queens Greenway. The cemeter
its own logic of picturesquely winding roads through
from where, over the graves of 526 000 people, the s
Manhattan can be viewed. However, the world of the c
is not only outside of the grid, its hills are also hid
view by the stacked tracks of the railroad and subwa
cemetery of the Evergreens with the skyline of Manhattan in the dis
-
7/22/2019 BUSHWICKS EXTENDED GRID: Re-identifying the expanded realm of the street
18/55
100 m 1000 m
infrastructure network
subway subway stop bus bike lane railroad
L-train
M-J-train
A-C-train
williamsburg
bushwic
green-
wichvillage
soho
eastvillage
artists and hipsters following the L-train2
INFRASTRUCTURE FRAME
The borders between the patches of grid in Brooklyn
the obvious carriers for the main transportation, re
the framework of major roads. However, even thou
are the main car-trafc arteries, the punctual nature o
entrances and exits produces local small centers o
activity. The elevated trains of Broadway and Myrtle
create a more continuous commercial strip, with s
larger stores near subway stops. The current reno
Myrtle Avenues stops creates local speculative driven by a close vicinity of metro stops.
The L-train especially instigates small nucleuses of sp
activities, often art-related. The L-train is seen as t
artist-led gentrication artery tying together the madistricts of past decades and now penetrating deepe
interior of Brooklyn.1Especially the Jefferson Stree
rst stop in Bushwick is a clear settlement of artis
every single wall is covered with intricate murals.
succession can be abstracted from the artists mo
always looking for cheap places to work and displa
areas they discovered: The pioneer artists are the rs
revealing the potential of the spaces, and are rapidly
-
7/22/2019 BUSHWICKS EXTENDED GRID: Re-identifying the expanded realm of the street
19/55
100 m 1000 m
extended avenues - the commercial structure of bushwick
commercial use mixed use industrial use
EXTENDED AVENUES
The avenues form the commercial backbone of B
with Myrtle Avenue as a central spine. The rectangu
structure created by the wide spacing of avenues c
to the short distance between streets ensures grea
and as a consequence commerce at the heads of th
The avenues are, so to speak, extended with the co
space of the shop, which often also extends into t
with merchandize.
The commercial backbone spans the entire neighfrom the industries of Williamsburg to the warehous
the railway line. The usual shops at the blocks e
are reinforced by the superimposition of the concen
and added foot trafc, created by the subwaBroadway and Myrtle Avenue become the main
routes and especially at the crossing of the L and
shared shopping cluster is formed between Bushw
Ridgewood. Where most of the streets are lined w
delis, corner shops, hairdressers, eateries, the cr
Myrtle and Wyckoff Avenue clusters larger superma
chain restaurants,
It is noteworthy to indicate how this commercial
commercial spine
-
7/22/2019 BUSHWICKS EXTENDED GRID: Re-identifying the expanded realm of the street
20/55
100 m 1000 m
extended streets - the public-private interface of the stoop
EXTENDED STREETS
The streets make the quiet counterpart of the bustling
and are the heart of the residential realm of the neigh
almost invariably lined with rows of similar houses,
then interrupted by a church or another religious in
However, the street is also in social terms the hea
residential realm as an extension of the often s
crowded living quarters of the residents.
The interface of the public life of the street to the p
of the building is mediated by the stoop, a small areof the house with a, often steep, staircase giving
to the house or apartments. The origin of the stoo
linked to the particular grid of New York that is lackin
alleys trough the centers of the blocks - following a smaximize land values - and was later unchanged d
in Brooklyn and Queens. As a consequence all
concentrated on the street side and the exterior
provided access to the principal parlor oor of a sing
house. The entrance at the street level, or a few ste
grade, gave access to the kitchen and other service
this area still forms one of the principal places to m
neighbors, a quiet spot to watch the daily life, a corne
churches
-
7/22/2019 BUSHWICKS EXTENDED GRID: Re-identifying the expanded realm of the street
21/55
BLEACHERS IN A STADIUM AR
STOOPS, A DRAWBRIDGE, A CO
TOO. SAFE SEATS IN THE AREN
WHICH TO WATCH THE PARAD
Will Eisner,
New York, Life in the Big City
The stoop became, after its origin as a dividing tool to allow
and guests to enter the house without crossing servants, a
brings people together instead and carries next to its practica variety of social functions. The houses are no longer sin
houses and are now divided into multiple apartments a
through the small stairs that leads to the front door. The
this architectural component comes from the Dutch word
sidewalk and thus literally means an extension of the stree
The stoop is a place of short encounters with your fellow
Michael Sorkin dedicates a whole chapter to his stoop while
his daily walk through Manhattan:
Because of the brief enforced pause, and because every
building must repeat the same process coming and going,
is also the site of many holdings of the door, vettings of
reading the bell, schmoozings with neighbors, sidelong g
kids, tourists, and homeless people. [] Along with being
place, the stoop is a space of spectatorship.2
On ne days it becomes the preferred spot for watching pe
a lateral stadium, to observe the dance of daily activity. Th
especially stressed by Jane Jacobs as one of the crucial co
to ensure safety on the street; eyes upon the street, eyes be
natural proprietors of the street:
[T]he sidewalk must have users on it fairly continuously, bot
the number of effective eyes on the street and to induce thebuildings along the street to watch the sidewalks in sufcient
Nobody enjoys sitting on a stoop or looking out of a win
empty street. Almost nobody does such a thing. Large n
people entertain themselves, off and on, by watching street
But above all I observed the stoops primarily as almost co
occupied even in winter when clearing snow on the stoo
priority. Though usually just occupied by a couple of chattin
one stoop being especially popular in the street I lived on in
it also instigated some unique uses, such as stoop ball
that I never observed and stoop sales. Once spring a
neighbors across the street invariably put up the contents o
wardrobe and other odds and ends along the sidewalk, tra
the small fence of their stoop into a colorful display of cl
MICRO-STORY: STOOPS
-
7/22/2019 BUSHWICKS EXTENDED GRID: Re-identifying the expanded realm of the street
22/55
100 m 1000 m
porosity of Bushwick
parks and community gardens parking lots vacant lotssemi-public spaces
public parks cemeteries
OPEN SPACE
Once the cemeteries are extracted from the pub
space, Bushwick is left with hardly green openings
parks add up to three blocks of green space. The b
can hardly be added since they are hardly green and
not a single square.
However, looking through another lens, including
owned spaces in Bushwick, reveals a great poros
large surface of small, semi-public open spaces, mos
very functional in nature. One type stands out clearly nparks: a number of community gardens and small co
playgrounds periodically opened to the whole neigh
Also many of the school playgrounds, basketball
are often open after school hours. In this category magreen open spaces of the public housing projects pla
similar role. But the majority of the ne-grained ope
is little used, often just as a car parking lot or wareho
future sale when property value has risen even mo
add air and light to their streets, others are garba
dumps.
Even though Bushwick hardly seems to have publi
space a ne network of semi-accessible gardens, play
-
7/22/2019 BUSHWICKS EXTENDED GRID: Re-identifying the expanded realm of the street
23/55
The well-groomed formal parks of New York and Bus
contrasted by a multitude of small, highly personalized c
gardens with a multitude of appearances: sometime
organized with neatly planted vegetable patches, sometim
jungle of sprouting plants, or occupied by a density of henh
almost become a new delirious chicken city. All of these par
speak of a strong personal involvement of their communiti
small places play and have played an important role in the
of the neighborhood, equal to the role of other, more traditi
spaces as Sharon Zukin points out:
Against all odds, between the 1970s and the 1980s c
residents and their outside supporters transformed nearly a
vacant lots into havens for their neighborhoods survival. C
gardens gave them the means and opportunity to put do
[] But few people would have predicted that this form of r
survive.2
However, this type of semi-public space invariably lo
gate and fence still unites engaged residents and its ch
re-invented with every new generation. The Earth Day ce
at Bushwick Campus revealed the evocative nature and
of these spaces when enthusiast local groups promoted
visions to the youth of the campus. Newly founded grou
for support to claim an untouched vacant lot, the Bush
Action network hosted a workshop of guerilla gardening, b
latest technological visions were present with an array of h
aquaponic farming systems of Boswyck Farms and of the sc
THE STREET However, the engagement to actively
disused spaces and collectively improve the neighborhood a
its green space, also expands to the public realm of the s
street is not left to the authorities, but for example the Bus
Action Network actively mobilizes its members both new
in Bushwick and long-term residents and supporters to g
MICRO-STORY: COMMUNITY GARDENS
1
leaets of the organizations present at the Earth Day celebrations
-
7/22/2019 BUSHWICKS EXTENDED GRID: Re-identifying the expanded realm of the street
24/55
100 m 1000 m
extended grid
EXTENDED GRID
Although the autonomy of the block within the grid
celebrated as an element that can change within the x
of the grid, the Brooklyn grid clearly directs the deve
of the blocks where the exchange between street a
becomes the extended public realm of this communi
Perhaps Bushwick has hardly public space such
and squares, but added up all together the small f
the intermediary space of the stoop along the stree
surface to the streets almost the size of Tiananmen(the stoop surface is approximately 435 778 m
fragmented wealth of small, close at hand outdoor
is perhaps more valuable than one vast public
generating its own particular street life specic to NCity. The distribution of a usable porosity provides,
demands, a greater personal proprietorship and an
and engaged personal relationship with the neare
community garden, playground, The creation, upk
survival of these places is the result of often small co
locally grounded groups of people, literally improv
street and neighborhood themselves with their own h
incrementally extending the public realm.
public parksparking lots
community gardensvacant lots
semi-public spacstoops
ALL
-
7/22/2019 BUSHWICKS EXTENDED GRID: Re-identifying the expanded realm of the street
25/55
WAREH
OUSE
SCHOOL
SCHO
OLSCHOOL
SCHO
OL
SHOP
SHOP
SHOP
CAR
CAR
CAR
BUS
BU S
BUS
BUS
BUS
BUS
CARC
AR
SHOPS
HOP
SHOP
SHOP
SHOP
SHOP
SHOPSH
OPSHOPSH
OP
SHOPSH
OP
SHOP
SHOP
SHOPSH
OPSHOPSH
OPSHOP
SHOPSH
OPSHOPSH
OPSHOPSH
OPSHOP
SHOP
SHOP
SHOP
SHOP
SHOP
SHOPSHOP
SHOPSHOP
SHOPSHOPSHOP
SHOPSHOP
SHOPSHOP
SHOP
SHOP
SHOP
SHOPSHOP
SHOP
SHOP
SHOP
SHOPS
HOPSHO
PSHOP
SHOP
SHOPSH
OP
SHOP
SHOP
SHOP
SHOPSHOP
SHOP
SHOP
SHOP
SHOP
SHOP
SHOP
SHOP
HOPE
HOPE
HOPE
HOPE
HOPE
HOPE
CHURCH
HOPE
SPEC
ULATI
ON
SPECUL
ATION
SPECUL
ATION
SPECU
LATION
HOPE
HOPESC
HOOL
SCHOOL
SCHOO
L
WARE
HOUSE
WAREHO
USE
SCHO
L
TRAIN
SHOP
SECULATIO
N
fborders infrastructure frame
avenues
streets
outside the grid cemetery of the Evergreens
typical street of Bushwick
Wyckoff Avenue
L-train exit Jefferson Street Morgan Avenue
Myrtle Avenue
open space community garden
the stoopextended streets - stoops
extended avenues - commerce
RE-IDENTIFICATION GRID
Decomposing the grid of a neighborhood in its
components borders, avenues, streets and w
outside the grid shows rst of all its strong relationlandscape. The gridiron is not arbitrarily dropped on th
but instead feels the lay of the land and tries to ration
as good as possible in a new geometric gure. Ho
the process introducing many anomalies that follow
irregularities of the landscape.
Secondly the different components are far from equala different spacing, distribution, orientation, that d
clear hierarchy. Each level corresponds to a traditio
level of the city: The borders dene rst of all a dist
city, but together with the avenue they also mark c
quarters within the larger neighborhood where speci
or activities are clustered, etc. The street enco
yet another smaller increment of the community,
community gardens and other small semi-public spa
nucleuses of small engaged communities.
-
7/22/2019 BUSHWICKS EXTENDED GRID: Re-identifying the expanded realm of the street
26/55
CONTRACTED
BLOCKS
The grid of Bushwick provides a game board
simple rectangles. However, the game pieces do
an archipelago of independent islands, but are inste
interdependent. Counter-intuitively the blocks of Bus
not interact as simple solid components, but instead e
of a block has to be compatible with its opposite ne
becomes a game of mirrors tied to the lines of the
shops on one side of the avenue reect those on
side, a continuous row of urban town houses faces a
identical faade, a broken line of houses complem
openings in the other side. The blocks become the
blocks of the game board, following their own st
as they intertwine with the irregularities of the glocation within this grid becomes key. The edges of t
board allow for multiple, diverse compositions, whe
juxtaposition of similar blocks in the center of the g
the blocks of the inner core into a more homogeneo
As changes of expansion and contraction sweep thr
blocks the distinction between borders and core
ever more pronounced.
-
7/22/2019 BUSHWICKS EXTENDED GRID: Re-identifying the expanded realm of the street
27/55
10 000 AFRICAN-AMERICAN PEOPLE
-
7/22/2019 BUSHWICKS EXTENDED GRID: Re-identifying the expanded realm of the street
28/55
AMERICAN PEOPLE
PEOPLE
HISPANIC PEOPLE
10 000 HISPANIC
10 000 WHITE NON-
1126
34PEO
PLE
8.5%WHITE
20.1%
AFRICA
N-
AMER
ICAN
65.4%HISP
ANIC
1025
72PEO
PLE
5.4%WHITE
24.9%
AFRICA
N-
AMER
ICAN
65.0%
HISPA
NIC
1378
95PEO
PLE
38%WHITE
30%AFR
ICAN
-
AMER
ICAN
27%HISPA
NIC
1230
00PEO
PLE
100%
WHITE
124800
PEO
PLE
89%WHITE
7%AFR
ICAN
-
AMER
ICAN
5%HISPA
NIC
93497P
EOPL
E
15%WHITE
26%AFR
ICAN
-
AMER
ICAN
56%HISPA
NIC
10435
2.9
2
the New York Ring of devastation, area of population loss exce
between 1960-19801
demographic changes in Bushwick(based on: NYC Department of City Planning 1980, US Census Bureau 1980 and 2010, 2000 and 2010 Census PL)
started to torch down vacant property to clear those
crime and drugs. On blocks like Himrod Street and
Avenue between Central and Wilson Avenues eve
building was abandoned, the central core of the neigh
became a ghost town with burned out carcasses o
lining the streets.
INFILL I The great attention the looting and res
attracted put Bushwick on the agenda for recovery
investments of the city in the neighborhood. Th
problems facing Bushwick precluded the use o
investment to support housing development. A prev
of the 1960s to insert a new school in the heart of B
became obsolete since this area had depopulated m
the project was transformed into a large housing p
the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA). How
project took long to materialize and immediate ac
taken by rst demolishing the dangerous abandone
houses as a tactic to improve safety, most of the vacbecame city owned. As a second short-term tactic to
recovery several thousand street trees were plante
the late 1970s targeting those stable and organized b
well as those areas that were especially vulnerable
deterioration. These are the blocks where the trees
-
7/22/2019 BUSHWICKS EXTENDED GRID: Re-identifying the expanded realm of the street
29/55
-
7/22/2019 BUSHWICKS EXTENDED GRID: Re-identifying the expanded realm of the street
30/55
100 m 1000 m
cleared fabric since original inll of Bushwicks grid
and hip bars and restaurants. The typical esthetmarketing) principles of this wave make that it coinc
the border of old industries around a center of main
and affordable inll houses. This center is further ext
the large site of the Rheingold Brewery that the city
for the construction of affordable housing units for
middle class.
Although Bushwick started as a more or less homo
neighborhood of houses interspersed with brewe
other industries, successive waves have created difcompositions of the blocks. The houses and factor
heart of the neighborhood were cleared almost co
and reassembled to a lower density (affordable) c
the larger old industries, especially at the northern b
now the locus of new investments. Instead of a unif
the successive waves of changes have left behind
diversity within the blocks themselves, but also within
emphasizing the difference of its borders and inner c
1 PLUNZ, R., A History of Housing in New York, CUniversity Press, New York, 1990, p. 323-325.2 LYON, D., Let them kill themselves, Le Point
Editeur, 1996, p. 43.3DERESZEWSKI, J., Bushwick Notes: From the 70s
Brooklynhistory.org, http://upfromames.brooklynhi
uff_resources/images_resources/bushwick_notes2.p4 MALANGA, S., The Death and Life of Bushw
Journal, Spring 2008, vol.18 no.2.5GOOGLE MAPS, https://maps.google.com
images:
(1) MERLIS, B. & GOMES, R., Brooklyns Bushwick a
-
7/22/2019 BUSHWICKS EXTENDED GRID: Re-identifying the expanded realm of the street
31/55
100 m 1000 m
demolished blocks during decline of Bushwick (1908) new inll blocks since the recovery of Bushwick (2010)
residential industrial and commercial residential industrial and commercial
-
7/22/2019 BUSHWICKS EXTENDED GRID: Re-identifying the expanded realm of the street
32/55
100 m 1000 m
The R6 zoning regulation of Bushwick draws two potential
for the bulk regulation of the residential fabric of a block. Th
variation does not manifest itself uniformly, but pronou
different evolution of the inner core and more industrial b
Bushwick even more strongly.
QUALITY HOUSING REGULATIONS The quality
regulations dene a cuboid envelope, closely wrapping th
height variations of the old buildings. The height limitatio
that the new buildings blend with the old structures. The
coverage that is allowed and great oor area ratio (building
/ lot area) of 3.0 or 2.2 and therefore high number of a makes this the predominant envelope, even for new deve
HEIGHT FACTOR REGULATIONS The height factor regu
not specify a xed horizontal limiting plane, but requires tha
volume remains within the limits of a huge shed-like volum
exposure plane. The oor area ratio ranges from 0.78 fo
story building to 2.43 at a typical height of 13 stories. The o
ratio ranges from 27.5 to 37.5. However, the requirement
parking space for 70 percent of the dwelling units invariab
the newly gained open space to a huge parking lot. The new
this zoning type sprout form a sea of cars.
These requirements of the double option become a de
equation for new development. The second option only
MICRO-STORY: R6 ZONING
quality housing regulations envelope
zoning map of Bushwick1
-
7/22/2019 BUSHWICKS EXTENDED GRID: Re-identifying the expanded realm of the street
33/55
SIDE-
WALK
STOO
PHOM
E
5 m 50 m
the open spaces of a block between Stanhope and Himrod Street
stoop vacant / parking lot backyard
THE BLOCKThe rectangular shape of the blocks and the differ
between narrower streets and larger avenues h
consequence the accumulation of shops on the
servicing both street and avenue, and at the shorter
the block. However, even though each block seems
and interchangeable piece of the grid, they behave v
as domino blocks where the location of one piece de
a matching neighboring piece.
When walking through the streets and avenues on
a block can have a quite different character than
side, the streets on the other hand will usually h
same character on both sides, unless in the case
structures that span a whole block or take up the who
When people talk about their block they usually refe
street the length of a block rather than the rectangle
their home belongs. This is also the basic entity of
community in a neighborhood as Michael Sorkin poin
Block associations are generally organized not arsquare block, but the street block, so opposite sidestreet are conjoined, despite belonging to differen
blocks. This is another manifestation of the importan
face-to-face. Neighborliness stems from contact,
and experience. We are far more likely to encoun
living on our own streets than those living a block ov
able to identify where a neighbor lives if we see he
her house each morning. Thus, the logic of organi
experience trumps the logic of organization by prop
direct democracy of building committees, co-op boa
block associations exists at a scale of intimacy that
typical house
-
7/22/2019 BUSHWICKS EXTENDED GRID: Re-identifying the expanded realm of the street
34/55
5 m 50 m
street grid
public use semi-private use
STREET-GRID
The extended grid, and consequently extended
accumulates a wealth of particular spaces of collec
ranging from a more public to a more private charapublic parks, the school playgrounds opened after scho
the stoop as a semi-private mediating space, the co
garden where each member has its own patch,
of the extended street can be redrawn as a new g
that looks at the claim made on the clearly delineat
usually fenced spaces. A new irregular grid gure
with the street as central spine branching in more divisions: a parking lot, a community playground,
by tracing the use in this way the appropriation of the
street as a huge parking lot seems a bit disprop
Each spot along the road is claimed by a more priva
people to park their private car. The street is claim
personal use much in the same way as a vegetable
a community garden is personally claimed. Questio
omnipresent and in a certain way highly private us
street as a parking lot could open a vast new territo
block community in their street.
-
7/22/2019 BUSHWICKS EXTENDED GRID: Re-identifying the expanded realm of the street
35/55
-
7/22/2019 BUSHWICKS EXTENDED GRID: Re-identifying the expanded realm of the street
36/55
-
7/22/2019 BUSHWICKS EXTENDED GRID: Re-identifying the expanded realm of the street
37/55
-
7/22/2019 BUSHWICKS EXTENDED GRID: Re-identifying the expanded realm of the street
38/55
100 m 1000 m
core and borders
open spaces of core commercial and industrial strucure of borders
CORE & BORDERS
Closely following the valley structure the rainwater
has a very different impact and interaction with th
core, with the main meandering canal, and the bordegrid fragment of Bushwick.
CENTRAL CORE The central core hardes
previous decline knows today a higher porosity
lower density public and affordable inll houses. He
remaining open spaces have been taken over as co
gardens, playgrounds, The remaining lots are s
less suitable for big developers. In this respect the be characterized as an inhibiting heart of the co
that has been strengthened in the past to absorb be
gentrication and decline. The public housing and pa
houses are less affected because of public and privat
ownership. However, hidden within this core is an un
wealth of open spaces. The existing community
strongly engaged in their streets can take the oppo
the new water infrastructure to transform this in a co
semi-public green spaces, transforming for example t
housing project at the heart of the neighborhood from
into a major asset for its inhabitants and the larger co
porous core
-
7/22/2019 BUSHWICKS EXTENDED GRID: Re-identifying the expanded realm of the street
39/55
-
7/22/2019 BUSHWICKS EXTENDED GRID: Re-identifying the expanded realm of the street
40/55
-
7/22/2019 BUSHWICKS EXTENDED GRID: Re-identifying the expanded realm of the street
41/55
-
7/22/2019 BUSHWICKS EXTENDED GRID: Re-identifying the expanded realm of the street
42/55
-
7/22/2019 BUSHWICKS EXTENDED GRID: Re-identifying the expanded realm of the street
43/55
-
7/22/2019 BUSHWICKS EXTENDED GRID: Re-identifying the expanded realm of the street
44/55
-
7/22/2019 BUSHWICKS EXTENDED GRID: Re-identifying the expanded realm of the street
45/55
-
7/22/2019 BUSHWICKS EXTENDED GRID: Re-identifying the expanded realm of the street
46/55
-
7/22/2019 BUSHWICKS EXTENDED GRID: Re-identifying the expanded realm of the street
47/55
-
7/22/2019 BUSHWICKS EXTENDED GRID: Re-identifying the expanded realm of the street
48/55
-
7/22/2019 BUSHWICKS EXTENDED GRID: Re-identifying the expanded realm of the street
49/55
-
7/22/2019 BUSHWICKS EXTENDED GRID: Re-identifying the expanded realm of the street
50/55
-
7/22/2019 BUSHWICKS EXTENDED GRID: Re-identifying the expanded realm of the street
51/55
-
7/22/2019 BUSHWICKS EXTENDED GRID: Re-identifying the expanded realm of the street
52/55
10 m 100 m
su
mptank
waterfall
aquaponicslearningcenter
typicalconversionofwarehouse
verticalgreenhouse
fs
htank
tilapia/catfsh/trout
hy
droponicgardening
stettlingtank
windpump
longitudinal section aquaponics greenhouse and water treatment park
AQUAPONICS
WATER TREATMENT The water treatment ponds
an upscale of the treatment system of the stre
collector to serve the larger productive cluster. The l
treatment pond with bulrushes is breached with sma
paths and dotted with picnic benches under small elm
row of windpumps forms a linear waterfall for oxygen
the water again cascading over large steps for UV
towards the second treatment pond.
AQUAPONICS The aquaponics system is a clos
circuit using far less water than traditional agricu
the parallel system of shponds efuents accumula
water. This ows into a settling tank where the s
fr
sttreatmentpond
bulrushes
windpump
fr
sttreatmentpond
-
7/22/2019 BUSHWICKS EXTENDED GRID: Re-identifying the expanded realm of the street
53/55
-
7/22/2019 BUSHWICKS EXTENDED GRID: Re-identifying the expanded realm of the street
54/55
-
7/22/2019 BUSHWICKS EXTENDED GRID: Re-identifying the expanded realm of the street
55/55