Localness : a village proposal for mixed use reappropriation of the industrial landscape

Abstract

This urban design thesis addresses the transformation of single-use industrial space to mixed-use public and private space, linking pedestrian and vehicular paths within the village of Sussex, WI. The industrial revolution often reinforced the separation of functions (residential, commercial, industrial, civic) into separate buildings and often separate districts. In the midst of the built landscape, former places of industrial work and production are now large tracts of underused land. The reappropriation of urban and suburban industrial space provides the opportunity to create mixed-use, vital spaces relating well to pedestrian and vehicular traffic. Such reappropriation deals with the site not only visually, but also in terms of the way its history and natural processes are transformed. The reappropriation is essential on the urban scale of a village, and I choose to explore it at the site of the former quarry and canning factory in Sussex, WI. As a central link between Main Street and the pedestrian Bugline trail, the six acre urban landscape design (in several phases) includes over 100,000 indoor square feet of residential, commercial, and public spaces. This thesis examines issues of ownership, financing, phasing, landscaping, and architecture as they apply in the village. Through an urban design analysis and a series of schemes in drawings and models, the process shows the role of natural processes and public sector involvement in the site development, along with creative solutions to address these relationships on the site. It uses the prominent scale and location of former industrial land and spaces as a point of departure for improving a location's sense of local character, its local economy, its neighborhoods, and its public space.