ENTRANT │ Entrant: Amanda Herr | Team Members:

PROJECT TYPE │ Undergraduate – Studio

SCHOOL │ Morgan State University

FACULTY SPONSOR │ Pavlina Ilieva, BSAED Program Director / The Bachelor of Science in Architecture and Environmental Design (BSAED)

PROJECT COMPLETION DATE │ 5/8/2015

Summary Description of Project

Perkins Homes, a historical public housing community surrounded by vibrant neighborhoods, was the focus of study for urban conditions and their implications on urban development. The project consisted of applying best practices for urban design, sustainability, and community development when suggesting design interventions for this deserving community. Goals included: Collect, format, and organize site data and visual characteristics of the urban environment, analyze data and communicate graphically, understand urban elements and characteristics that influence urban development, extract data, compare, and analyze urban development precedents, design urban blocks with Triple Bottom line consideration, analyze and organize programmatic requirements for urban design, develop strategies for urban design intervention, and compose urban elements and building types into a coherent urban design scheme.

Student's Statement

Starting with understanding the context surrounding Perkins Homes helped to form the thought processes that helped create Perennial Park. The proposed Perennial Park neighborhood carves through Baltimore's gridded streetscape to create an infinitely circulating street loop within the site, designed to organize the flow of vehicular and pedestrian traffic as well as visitor and event parking. One of the most significant discoveries was how compared to its surrounding neighborhoods, Perkins Homes is an area that not many people like to frequent. Presently, South Caroline street serves as a race way to get through the site from Northern Baltimore straight down to Harbor Point. In the proposed Perennial Park solution, South Caroline street serves as the main thoroughfare through the site where mixed-use buildings line the park, creating a push / pull effect on mix building uses and a variety of open spaces. The main focus of my project was to include Perkins Homes into not just its surrounding communities, but also Baltimore itself. Designing a site that keeps circulation through the site helps to influence pedestrian and vehicular traffic to stay on site instead of flying straight through to the rest of the city.

IMAGE CREDITS (if any)

IMAGE 1:  Aerial view of Perennial Park toward the Inner Harbor of Baltimore. Credit: Amanda Herr

IMAGE 2:  Analysis of City Movement surround Perkins Homes. Credit: Amanda Herr

IMAGE 3:  Perennial Park Figure Ground. Credit: Amanda Herr

IMAGE 4:  Section Perspective of Caroline Street (Perennial Park on the left). Credit: Amanda Herr

IMAGE 5:  Section Perspective of Bond Street (Typical residential street). Credit: Amanda Herr

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Media For Download

Project PDF