Reinhabiting the Fort Point Channel : a proposal for transforming and extending the warehouse district in South Boston
Name
15368733-MIT.pdf
Description
Full printable version
Size
59.52 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
7d92fcecaee0fe145b733fa1100c58cc
Author(s)
Dale, John Randall
Advisor(s)
N. John Habraken.
Alternative Title
Proposal for transforming and extending the warehouse district in South Boston
Warehouse district in South Boston
Date Issued
1986
Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract
The focus of this design investigation is the warehouse fabric of the Fort Point Channel and its potentials as a model for further development This extensive configuration of warehouses and access roads is the product of an integrated process of planning. design and building. As such, it forms a useful model for creating a cohesive urban fabric. The warehouses reflect the rules of a concise architectural language. Thus, while each building was designed separately for different clients over the span of fifty years. all work together to form an urban environment which is intense. coherent and humane. Functionally, this fabric has undergone continuous change. Some of the warehouses now accommodate small printing houses and workshops; professional offices. shops, museums, studios and loft apartments. Thus. this tightly ordered 'family' of buildings has proven to be inherently inhabitable. The model represented by the warehouse fabric embodies my own goals and strategies for redeveloping and expanding the Fort Point Channel District as a living and working neighbourhood. My thesis proposes strategies for infrastructure and building typologies which will support high density, lowrise development as an extension to the existing fabric. The new development should be flexible, yet · harmonious: specific enough to suggest a distinct, overall character but open-ended enough to allow innovation in individual buildings and changing uses over time. The method tested through this investigation is therefore a process of layering. Rather than develop highly particularized solutions for each property, strategies are applied to the site as a whole. Once such overall strategies are agreed upon, specific solutions can be developed incrementally, but 'thematically', adjusting to changing circumstances as the need arises but contributing to a coherent whole.
Description
Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1986.
MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 209-213).
Subjects
Architecture.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Architecture
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