Masters Theses

Date of Award

8-2002

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Architecture

Major

Architecture

Major Professor

Jon Coddington

Abstract

This thesis proposes that highways and other infrastructure be looked at in a different manner. Though typically divisive in the urban context, it doesn't have to be so. Just as transportation systems connect across the country, so it can connect at a local level. The proposition is not anti-thetical place or community, but neither is it subjected and held hostage to them. It is both rooted and free, reflecting American culture itself. The site is located under and adjacent to a short section of Interstate 40 in Knoxville, Tennessee, home of what has been the largest socio-infrastructural effort in the country's history, and 40 miles from Oak Ridge, where development of the Atomic bomb changed the perception, scale, and impact of our common arsenal. The site also adjoins very real and valuable communities. The eclectic residential neighborhood of 4th & Gill borders to the north, and the entertainment and retail district known as the Old City to the south. Between the two districts the landscape is deteriorated, though some valuable manufacturing defines the zone, and provides some larger scale massing in an otherwise lower scale of context. Each community that occupies or engages the ground-plane of the site is local and particular to the history of the city of Knoxville. Another, very different community uses the site in a very different way, and a different elevation. That is, the linear community of the highway. The infrastructure here has acted to the detriment of the city and those who pass through it. Recognizing the current, changed nature of the site requires that the modern place of the highway be recognized, designed for, and integrated. Essentially, the intent is not only to reconnect severed districts, but also connect them to the element that disconnects them. The goal is to integrate the exclusive communities by providing for common programmatic needs. The primary program is providing the city and Interstate with an intermodal transportation center; though, additional programs are integrated to engage both the visitor and resident. Everyday needs of people who live the various lifestyles are surprisingly similar. Each need markets, restaurants, laundries, Post offices, places for recreation and exercise, etc. That given, there are other needs that are addressed in particular ways. Travelers are provided with places for rest and relief that are typical of travel centers. City residents are accommodated with evene�paces, a learning center, clinic, etcetera. Though these programs are understood to be directive, they remain non-exclusive and would certainly allow for situations of contact and engagement across boundaries that are currently impassable. Transforming boundaries into thre�holds is the architectural and social directive explored here. It is achieved through simple observation, realization of overlapping opportunities and needs, and a design that recognizes scale, connectivity, identity, and experience.

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