This
design is entrenched in the explorations of the different degrees and tensions
of voyeurism in both historical and contemporary contexts, which pertain to
the relationship a spectator has with its subject and landscape. The
street, its context and the role of the user all play a pivotal role in the
make up of a voyeuristic landscape and the intimacies captured along this
street will provide a unique experience for the user while creating an outdoor
environment that blurs the boundary between public and private spaces.
The genius loci of the site begins with
the existing building’s architecture and their scale. These businesses along
these streets have upheld the integrity of this residential community by
maintaining the building common mean height of approximately twenty feet.
Businesses have renovated and retrofitted existing homes and apartment
buildings to accommodate their individual needs. High-rise buildings located on
adjacent blocks within walking distance conversely range from heights of 200’
to 400’ and reflect the growing condominium market, hotels and businesses the
site services.
The spurts of the city’s growth, coupled with a lack of
investment in the upgrade of the right-of-way’s public infrastructure, has left
the site’s streets riddled with imperfections to include surface cracks,
obstructed sidewalks, poor drainage, and low-hanging, overloaded power lines.
In addition to these issues the outer lanes of the three-lane roadway is used
for daytime vehicular parking, resulting in a single operative lane.
Similarly,
the valet and nightclub parking needs mimic the daytime condition at night.
These conditions, coupled with infrastructure and shade tree’s obstructing
locations within the public ROW, constrict and impede pedestrian mobility.
Given
these site conditions, users, either pedestrian or vehicular, still posses the
ability to navigate the site by sidestepping and creating their own distinctive
paths wherever and however possible. Daytime activity is more static due to the
users ability to park at front of their place of destination, preventing the
possibility of a user engaging with other spaces and stimulating economic
growth.
At night the opposite is more true, the grittiness of the street
conditions become part of the DNA that compliments businesses and assist with
attracting all forms of users. The street congestion at night allows the single
lane a place for the vehicular user to observe the activity visible on the
street, whether deciding which venue to attend, gazing at others dine,
conversing, or simply observing the commotion on the street.
The street
obstructions also play a role for the pedestrian, by establishing moments for
pause, which harness activity, create places within spaces, and frames the
views this project will attempt to emulate.
The
essence of this design can be narrowed down to the ability of capturing the
realism behind a landscape and its people. Design goals to promote daytime
leisure activity, fortify around-the-clock commerce and entertainment, and
instill memory within the user have been met and answer the question: How is
landscape voyeuristic? With this design Calle Uruguay becomes the stage, for
where the users are the actors in a drama that portray the essence of realism
this street has always harbored.