BRIDGE 4
Bridge 4 gathers all my research and brings it together, it displays the potentials and challenges at the neighborhood; Jackson Heights. Over the semester, I have learned the skills and methods that explore the environment around me in order to respond to it as designers in an informed and thoughtful way. Now, I’ll put together my findings into a final research report and present the response that stems out of it in my Studio proposal.
– PDF file (8-12 slides)- Final Version presentation (No need for Process photos)
– Learning Portfolio – All the stages and process photos including final product + Reflection
Research
What’s the problem you want to solve?
Who are the users?
What’s your design process?
What are the design options?
Design layout for 2D, Digital design, Pages planning for Website.
What are the constraints and limitations?
What will be your next step?
Pitch
My design proposal is a 3d organic bench and public space were the “skater park” culture can be brought up instead of looked down upon. All benches would be able to do graffiti on bringing back the youthful New York culture. This area is addressed for the youth, young adults, and adults of Jackson Heights, a future spot where diversity, cultural expression, and public trust can be promoted.
The complete and presentable prototype of design solution: 3D Exterior Product
Sketches of design development, Technical drawings:
Reflection
Bridge 4 helped me gather all the information I researched and collected from Jackson Heights and redirect it on a way where design can improve and develop a certain element of my borough assigned; Jackson Heights. To think the overall process of my design I choose one of the biggest potential and challenge of the neighborhood, the lack of public trust and commercialized public spaces, on the other hand, the already strong but segregated communities are strong, stable, and influential. When I put together, all of my findings in order to design the perfect public space I realized how complex it would be to plan a plaza or park that could be duplicated on different parts of the borough, therefor I design a concept and a bench, a concrete bench that carries within the culture that is being lost, the culture that made New York today. A bench that can be put on any area with large communities, an activity, a place, and a design that can develop and push the youth to showcase culturally rich. A public space that feels more private and safe, a station where communities can speak for themselves
Extra Research
JACKSON HEIGHTS – Extensive report
One in three adults in Jackson heights has not completed high school, due to high employment on low skilled labor, low levels of homelessness are found.
The first thing that strikes one about Jackson Heights is its prevalent culturally diverse population. Only 11% of the population of Jackson Heights is White and more than half of the members are Hispanic making this one of the most diverse places in New York. The sense of community that exists in space has to do with the way it has been designed and the way this allows for a variety of cultural expressions and natural commercial development. The area is clearly intended for residence and work, both, as its structure resembles a community designed by Jane Jacobs: a city where cultural expressions, public life, trust, and cross-connections are strongly built by joining the commercial and residential areas together.
Jackson Heights’ population works more in retail and manufacturing compared to the rest of the city. And 17.4% of the population work solely in food services which are around 6% more than the percentage of New York. By the data presented we could assume that people live where they work, as Jackson heights resemble the Jane Jacobs perfect city: the merge between housing and work. Yet, information on transport use shows the opposite, even though there are more local shops and commercialization in the “sidewalks” of Jackson heights does not mean that locals are able to live solely by that income.
- Only 17% of the whole population in Jackson Heights has completed a bachelor’s degree. (population 25 years and over)
- Less than 4% of the population over 16 years old are unemployed.
- 63.1% of Jackson Heights’ population work in public transport.
- Around 10% of the population is below poverty, while in NYC there’s 16.2% probably due to gentrification.
Jackson heights commute to work 6% more than New York City, but its population certainly does not get high paying jobs and wages. People have to get out of Jackson Heights to work because their local jobs don’t pay as much as the city, yet their average income gain is below average. Half of New York city’s population has enough educational access and is currently working on “Management, business, science, and arts while only one-fourth of Jackson Heights’ population get to work in those fields.
“One in four adults hasn’t completed high school” and 54% have English proficiency difficulties. The facts about the lack of education Jackson Heights population has just gone on, and this may be sole because of the history and demographic of its population. Hispanic, middle eastern, and Indian communities who migrate to America are usually coming from a low-class earning society, limited education, and third world countries.
One of the reasons for this being more of a cycle rather than development for the community is because – probably one of the main attractions of the place -especially for immigrants looking for employment is the demand for low skilled labor. This shows that even though they can access the city to work, they still end up working on low paying jobs because of their disadvantage upon their education.and thus, do not stand a chance in the increasingly competitive world of the big jobs in the city.
It makes sense why there are more jobs for unskilled workers such as lots of bodegas. Even though the local shops are small, they still are self-employed workers not related to big corporate business. Thus, the census data shows that there is 3% more of Self-employed workers in their own not incorporated business than NYC. That 3% more of Self-employed workers in their own not incorporated business is significant as NYC is the world’s major commercial and financial place. Based on my visits to Jackson Heights, the data is accurate on the multiple small local shops and bodegas that can be found at Jackson heights. Once again; The small businesses that open in an organic and natural way reflect on Jane Jacob’s perfect city ideology, where housing mixes with true commercialization forms the perfect diverse community.
Perhaps the very existence of such an ethnic -diversity-saturated place is a comment on the kind of people that are not given an equal opportunity outside and feel more comfortable within Jackson Heights.
From my walk, I experienced the diversity of the place first hand. There were Indians wearing their traditional clothing, there were “bodegas”, and people selling stuff on the sidewalk. I saw people of every age working in the shops and found little triangular flags of different colors hanging across the street. That’s a decoration that is used when there are festivities in my country (Peru), coincidentally that street was predominantly Latin, with small Latin restaurants and shops. The place consisted of small portions of every corner of the globe. Upon some research into how this diverse community developed and what were the elements that have allowed it to grow, I found two different approaches to explaining it.
First, is the design of the space. From my observation, I noticed smaller buildings and wider sidewalks. The smaller buildings probably allowed for a smaller community and more contact with neighbors in contrast to large apartment buildings with many floors. The smaller buildings probably also made the space adaptable to family-owned or privately owned businesses that could be attached to the place of residence. The wide sidewalk was used for shops that spilled out into the sidewalk – making the space more interactive and vibrant for the pedestrians. These observations were in sync with my demographic findings of Self-employed workers in their own not incorporated business being a significant proportion of people’s work.
The second explanation is the history of the neighborhood. Jackson Heights was built as a Garden City “to solve the problems of density, decency, and new demands of modernity”. The apartments were built to incorporate the rising number of middle classes and immigrants. The development of this neighborhood at a time when there was a large inflow of immigrants was probably what eventually led to this rather global and international neighborhood. The already existing communities of people from different parts of the world, such as the Latin community, continue to choose Jackson Heights as a place of residence because of the -now- well-established communities there. The open spaces and trees are probably a significant attraction and the small-sized houses made for cheaper rent. From my observations, I saw much fewer homeless people on the streets thus further supporting the conclusions I made from the data.
For Jackson heights, I would like to focus on the correlation between a culturally diverse borough and poor education. I will focus on how local shops and self-employment help unregistered immigrants, people with low education, and people who lack English proficiency to sustain themselves and allow them to work. I think that the influence education has on culture is very important if a place, a borough, or a city relies on a community. One possible design solution for the lack of education in Jackson Heights is to Brand it as a campaign. Bold letters and vibrant backgrounds on posters of all sizes will call attention to the local people and at the same time get a message delivered. The information of the posters would contain information such as free accessible education, programs that teach English, food pantries, local parks, activities that involve community ext. Another design solution would be to talk to people personally, to know how really the lack of education is affecting that community, in particular, some people have had worse conditions of living in other countries and that can be one of the reasons that people feel settled in Jackson Heights.
In my poster based on Jackson Heights, I’ve chosen to depict data related to its strong culturally diverse population and how the community and the area is influenced by it. This is significant as only 11% of the population of Jackson Heights is White and more than half are international, mainly Hispanic, making this one of the most diverse places in New York.
But how do the social and economic aspects of Jackson Heights are really influenced by this?
As primary and statistical data shows; Hispanic and Indian communities who predominate at Jackson heights usually fall in the middle class to low-class earning societies, this is due by multiple reasons such as their lack of education and unstable income as they are usually immigrants from third world countries.
The level of education Jackson heights population has can tell us a lot about the socio-economical and political side of the area. One in four adults hasn’t completed high school, yet, uneducated adults still get jobs as they can open small bodegas and local shops, which personally I found a lot of them at Jackson heights. The small businesses that open in an organic and natural way reflect on Jane Jacob’s perfect city ideology, where housing mixes with true commercialization.
Consequently, a higher percentage of people in Jackson heights work in local food services which are 6% more than in New York, retail, and manufacturing. While a lower percentage of people work in jobs that make them need to commute to the city.
A connection to Jane Jacobs’ writing; Jackson’s height’s design of its community and space does allow for a variety of cultural expressions, public life, casual public trust, and cross-connections; this is found in the vibrant commercial life the sidewalks have. A problem that could be addressed is if residents do not get the privilege to have privacy in one’s life, gossipy neighbors can develop into an untrustful community where adults don’t involve themselves in other friendship relationships.
One of the potential solutions is to engage the young voices of Jackson Heights in city planning. Mara Mintzer, the co-founder, and director of Growing Up Boulder (GUB), youth-friendly city planning, mentions in a Ted Talk: “The city-friendly to children, is the city friendly to all”, I think this quote summarises how genuinely and honesty on kids could serve in order to design better public spaces in Jackson Heights. Kids addressing “adult issues” would be the best solution as their answer is very likely to not be influenced by political parties or loyal ships, that must be the main factor private and non-private organizations should focus on in order to make the public space work. Adults usually close off conversations much quicker as they tend to stand for one side only. On the other hand, Kids don’t tend to be bound to sides or to their own ideas, they keep open-minded by default and are willing to change their minds. The way how Mara Mintzer approaches city planning should take in count in public spaces of Jackson Heights as is culturally divided.
Jackson Heights Phenomena
Studying Jackson Heights as a city and as a community I continue seeing more connections between urban development as well as gentrification, art, and community. It’s astounding the things that can be accomplished when people take risks and invest in community development, like in the 1900s where a community was created by the new immigrants moving to Jackson Heights. It’s also worth noting how there is a link between things and people, a connection that only humans have, and is very particular depending on the place.
This study has made me realize how everyone has the responsibility to prevent disuse and the decay of the city, collaboration, and the necessary skill work in order to re-energize the community and build connections for people’s voices to be heard and ideas to move forward.
In terms of future research, I would like to explore in greater depth the urban planning (such as the sidewalks, living spaces, etc) of the space and the ways that connect to the demographic trends of the place. I found this neighborhood one of the few places that were planned as a neighborhood as a whole rather than individual apartments and buildings. This cohesiveness in the architecture, I am sure, is something that contributes to the diversity, color, and culture of Jackson Heights and I am willing to explore that in more depth.
HISTORICAL RESEARCH
JACKSON HEIGHTS
I think the 1900s to 1920’s New York environment be an interesting time to study because it is when Jackson Heights was first “envisioned as an exclusive suburb for a native, White, middle-class fleeing a city that was not only crowded but increasingly culturally diverse. Initially advertised as a ‘restricted residential community,’ Jackson Heights’ early developers specifically barred both Jews and Blacks, by custom and restrictive covenants.”
Jackson Heights consisted mainly of white middle-class residents. The apartment complexes and the gated community lifestyle offered appealed to that specific class of people. The original intention of the building off Jackson Heights was to provide a safe residence for white middles class folks. Around 1960-70, there was a huge influx of immigrants from South America, Asia, and the Caribbean which impacted the demographic of Jackson Heights as it became a hot spot for these immigrants. The current demographic of the space, when compared to the intended demographic, gives the diverse population of the space a new meaning.
Each ethnicity was effected differently. For the South American and South Asian communities, it meant a stronger community and a feeling of home in a foreign country.
