re-lief
Juror summary: a series of clever small scale interventions that, collectively, could repopulate and reprogram an existing downtown like Hicksville.
In examining the existing implements that constitute the urban zero-point, we saw the opportunity to rebuild Long Island literally from the ground up. While architecture has changed over time, the built environment’s hardscape – that which constitutes any given stretch of sidewalk, asphalt, tree planters, newsstands, hard paving and even street lighting – has essentially remained constant regardless of location, be it city center, suburban strip mall or rural countryside. The needs of the Long Island ‘burb requires more than just purely functional implements but something which can sustain an aging population, while catering to and attracting an active younger demographic with new implements that improves the surroundings while offering a different living environment from the metropolis.
Seemingly convenient, the current suburban landscape in Long Island is geared towards the default use of the automobile by its inhabitants. An analysis of land use within the Hicksville downtown vicinity reveals that residential areas are distinctly separate from amenities and conveniences. A typical Hicksville inhabitant has to endure minutes of downtown traffic junctions in order to get a bottle of milk, a magazine, visit the laundromat or even to get some groceries. Contrast this with downtown Manhattan, where all the needs of an apartment dweller are met within just a two-block radius.
Performance thus has to be aimed at mechanisms that can accommodate physical accessibility and economic and social atmosphere. Instead of a top-down imposition of asphalt and concrete, the new hard-scape springs from bottom-up, taking into account existing conditions and inhabitants and enabling improved pedestrian and bike connections between related programs, and ultimately greater access to regional networks such as the LIRR and LIE. At the more immediate scale of the Long Island home, a five to ten minute walk to the office, or a light jog to the deli, are visions which the new hardscape will enable, in favor of neighborhoods which encourage human interaction and not traffic-light distraction.
One startling obvious fact about most hamlets in the Long Island region is its unrelenting flatness. The lack of topographical variety has undoubtedly contributed to the unsavory nature of Hicksville’s downtown, which lacks an appealing environment for living, working, and play.
Key themes: infill development, walkability, stemming the brain drain, streetscape elements
Collaborators: Kipp C. Edick, JJ Yeo