Simply dense : a new paradigm for transit oriented development

Abstract

Rising gas prices. Shifting population demographics. Residential inequity. A highly mobile, over-stimulated populace that is always on the go. Contemporary society is replete with forces pushing simultaneously away from the established suburban condition and towards density and development around transit. However the American allergy to city living, with its congestion, stigma and inefficiencies born through history, still perpetuates. This thesis posits that there is both a need and an inherent potential for the emergence of a new development typology: a suburban super-core, grafted onto existing multi-modal infrastructure intersections. Typically these sites have lain fallow following the invasion of the rail lines and multi-lane highways that fragmented the space and rendered the parcels too unattractive for development. The project of this thesis is to define what sort of space/place might start to locate itself in these zones. The first stage of the process determines the maximum floor area ratio (FAR) that could be inserted in the interest of achieving an extremely high density project.

(cont.) This is studied through a systematic analysis of case studies. The second step involves the defining the identity of these places, their organizing element: transfer. These two preparatory phases give rise to a series of rules shaping the development of these places and, in turn, to a series of parti diagrams that can be laid one over another and assembled into a development that is 'simply dense'. This methodology is then tested on the site of Secaucus Junction, New Jersey, where the confluence of infrastuctures makes an ideal site for the project of the thesis.