Moveable Marketspace

Abstract

This thesis explores the architectural nuances of relinquished waterfront parcels of land in the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Because of deindustrialization in this area the city has been left fragmented in that the waters edge is no longer a branded image of the city; this is because the waters edge condition has become sectioned off by barriers such as the built environment, urban infrastructure and heavy train rail. The inertia of manufacturing capabilities in many cities (especially along the manufacturing belt) has ceased. Through urban innovation along the waters edge can a city be re-taught how to address its waterfront? Can a shift in the self-image of the city’s waterfront be the re-facing needed to ignite investment and future urban development? The intention of this thesis is to title derelict industrial ports in the city of Pittsburgh as a system of parks and to insert program onto these parks that engage community interaction, to take what is currently unused, abandoned, abused and broken and exploit it into a new branding of the city. Through this thesis a statement can be made that the revitalization of the waters edge in a city should become the catalyst for future development in the urban environment. Creating design that allows for physical interaction with the waters edge begins to delicately, place interest in the prospective attributes that the waterfront can begin to offer. Pittsburgh has one of the most unique water edge conditions along the manufacturing belt. Located between the three rivers, Monongahela, Allegany and the Ohio, Pittsburgh’s lands edge is attenuated with derelict ports and heavy rail tracks, remnants of a glorious industrial past. The train tracks have multiple uses now. The Strip District in the City of Pittsburgh is a historical preserved market and industrial site. It has become a destination for many in the area, an access to produce and other goods and services. The Strip District is a sustained built environment but its grounding is the Pennsylvania Railroad Fruit Auction & Sales Building. Over 1,400 feet long, this building has become a barrier to the waters edge, so through reuse and redesign the building can begin to dissolve allowing access to the waters edge, while maintaining the existing program. The Strip District is not the only site, rather just home base to the Moveable Market, a centralized nod to a matrix of satellite sites, which are end destinations for the train. The project has become an extension to the Strip District, a moveable market-space in that the Market Building will be transformed to allow access to a new outdoor market area close to the waters edge. The train and its fright containers become the container for the market. How the train moves throughout the city and how the fright containers fold + unfold on to each individual, unique site, become a performance. A rebranding of the image of Pittsburgh, a city that understands the quality of produce and the service that farmers hold to the general public; the city will bring the market to its citizens. The extension to the Market Building becomes a catalyst to the idea that, while the Strip District is an experience it does not need to be only accessible via car. Its history is grounded enough through train traffic that establishing a system of nods throughout the city will allow for a significant reduction in vehicular traffic as well as traffic congestion inside downtown. Pittsburgh is a city where the topography can become a struggle between accessibility to goods, or denial. The Movable Market creates this accessibility, allowing the purchase of groceries to become routine in the daily lives of it inhabitants. This extension to the Strip District is where the idea of move-ability comes into play with the park scheme in Pittsburgh. The Moveable Marketplace becomes a performance throughout the city. A performance in that when it arrives at its scheduled location the freight containers unfold, this unfolding and dismantling is unique to each individual satellite site. With the two ideas overlapped, first, that there are multiple sites in Pittsburgh for a park space, and secondly that each park space welcomes the moveable train on a rigid schedule, allows for a constant transformation of the site. A constant repurposing of how people engage and use the site and how the site responds to the waters edge.