Reconnect: A New Identity for Suburban Commercial Space

In this thesis, I address a critical situation found today within the American suburbs. Many suburban developments lack human scale and places for community interaction traditionally found in the downtown model of the city. The places of interaction, or forums, are inherent in the downtown model and are built into the block structure, and close to where people live. They promote multiple uses and the healthy interaction of the residents of the community. In the suburban model, the places of interaction are separated from neighborhoods and residences, they are highly insular and geared towards a single purpose, usually shopping.

This project is an attempt to investigate the possibilities of adaptive reuse of the spaces built with a consumerist mindset that have disrupted American communities since World War II. The structures of malls or big box stores have been used in the past to try to remake public spaces, to varying degrees of success. The purpose of this investigation is to propose a system that can be implemented in order to restore the sense of community to the American suburbs. Specifically, the program will focus on the phenomenon of the mall or big box stores that inhabit much of the suburban areas, and the feasibility of using these locations as a way to try to restore community through adaptive reuse. I feel that these sites have a great potential to become a center or node to bring a more human scale and walkable, sustainable community to the suburbs.

In the project, I propose to look at an individual shopping mall, West Town Mall in Knoxville, Tennessee, which is, in my opinion, a product of sprawl and the consumer culture. Through adaptive reuse and densification of the site, the mall and its surroundings will better connect to the site and to the surrounding neighborhoods. This is not intended to be an isolated case, but the connection point of a network of sites that can make transit and walkability a greater possibility in suburban neighborhoods.