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THESIS PROJECT  

WILLIAMSBURG, BROOKLYN

 

Cultural Synergy: Linking Threads

 

Gentrification, the process by which higher income households displace significant numbers of lower income residents of a neighborhood, thus changing the essential character and flavor of the neighborhood. This phenomenon is a driving force behind the loss of connection to and mixed makeup of the area. Gentrification is heavily dependent on economy, political climate, and high-end urban planning strategies. It is an issue that should be addressed by those threatened by it or concerned about it.  

 

By threatened I mean, those residents who reside in targeted neighborhoods, like Williamsburg, Brooklyn.  Williamsburg was once an epicenter for manufacturing, abundant with large factories and prized for its waterfront location for seafaring commercial activity.   It was also densely populated with resident workers.  With time, the need for manufacturing diminished, but the factories and residents remained. This circumstance, makes Williamsburg, and other urban waterfront neighborhoods like it, ground zero for high-end gentrification.  

 

The issue lies within the influences of urban planning, or lack there of.  Many would argue that the solution to misused or under developed urban land is not high end luxury condominiums, rather, it is the adaptive reuse and sensitivity to the old character of the neighborhood, and the people who have resided there for generations. 

 

In a study of ten Chicago neighborhoods, Diane Grams and Michael Warr identified social networks as a key mechanism by which community arts contribute to neighborhood improvement. By developing social networks, low-budget arts programs leverage local and non-local assets that result in direct economic benefits for the neighborhood; new markets, new uses of existing facilities, new jobs for local artists; as well as broader community engagement.  This, combined with much needed affordable housing project can serve as a model for an inclusionary based initiative to be a possible alternative to large scale luxury development.

 

My project proposes to develop affordable housing and a community center which includes arts programs in Williamsburg, Brooklyn that aims to develop a synergistic relationship between the individual and community at a hyper-local scale.

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