Urban Infrastructure Reconnection: Recuperating the Riverfront of Cincinnati.

Transportation infrastructure has created divides within cities, but as cities continue to grow again, these spaces can be recuperated, utilized, and integrated into the urban fabric to reconnect neighborhoods, engage people in urban culture, and insure long-term viability of cities. Cincinnati is a city that has been divided by convergent highways cutting the riverfront from the downtown and surrounding neighborhoods. These large voids of space must be activated to develop a reconnection that once existed between the city and its riverfront. Connectivity will create an abundance of pedestrian flow which will increase growth and economic opportunities for the city. Infrastructure makes up a large part of the city’s footprint and serves only one purpose: transportation. This space can be reclaimed by the pedestrian and be activated by the downtown community. Transportation does not have to be hindered by this process, but can become integrated into the urban network. Cities are growing again and they need to create new connections and repair old ones as they transform.