Sorting Out thoughts

I've had a lot of ideas rolling around in my head, and I'm not quite sure how they all go together.
I tried t begin to diagram something meaningful to me, but then I was bogged down by too many ideas. So far I dealt with my overwhelming number of goals by ignoring most of them, and focusing on one that I could represent and speak about.

I realized that it was time for me to settle my thoughts, and give real credence to ALL my ideas, not just the convenient ones.

The problem was that I still couldn't articulate them. I could speak to one at a time, but not the overall idea, and so far that is what my blog and process has shown, a gross isolation of ideas and disregard for the desired goal.

To remedy this unfortunate theme, I have attempted to write all of the Mish-Mashed ideas down (in no specific order) so that I can begin to create a structured goal.

I needed to get my head down on paper so that, from here, I can break the ideas down and then reweave them together into a problem/project that I can articulate

Here's my Jumbled mind:

--------it may not make a lot of sense just yet------------

THoughts on THesis

Idea: create walk through city: PATH
Possibilities:
- link institutions geared toward children
-create new environment for neighborhood lacking amenities
-prescriptive method of integrating museum + park into streetscape + riverscape Pittsburgh
-prescriptive method for engaging the outside of museum institutions in Pittsburgh

Where I’m thinking:

Communities along The Allegheny
(the Allegheny because it is smaller than the Mon, and the communities flanking it’s coast have seen less development in the past 10 years, and the neighborhoods are primarily residential) :

The North Shore (because of the children’s museum and the Carnegie Science Center

Lawrenceville (because of it’s adjacency (via the Allegheny to the North shore)
- Allows opportunities to explore river crossing
- Investigate linking neighborhoods separated by river
- 40th street Bridge (interesting underside condition)
- Artist community = opportunity to engage neighborhood culture into program

Trying to understand what I’m thinking TAKE 2

The experience of visiting a museum is stimulating… once you enter the realm of the museum.
The traditional experience is completely contained within the building (or wherever the perimeter is defined)

I want to turn the museum inside out, where the activity is on the outside, stretched through the urban fabric of the city, and the inside is secondary. Specifically, turn the Children’s museum inside out.

I also want to make this a truly accessible experience. My Aunt is subject to a wheel chair and parks are one of the hardest environments for her to navigate. Living is that much harder in a world that is not designed for you, so I think it is the responsibility of the architect (especially when dealing with public spaces) to integrate and think about the design for wheels and hands to the same thoughtful degree we invest into design for legs and eyes.

(My vocabulary thus far has been unclear, and this what I meant by tactile)

To do this: Use techniques common for handicap (ala the Braille Trail in Aspen CO) to
1. Teach users about them alternate lifestyles
2. Engage all senses
3. Create truly integrated design that allows disabled parents (and children to engage with the park)

Turning the building inside out, means that the program is no longer contained only by walls and site. The program can stretch out along a linear path.

The Idea of linearity and multiple start and end points is of particular interest

Landscape Architect Louis Halprin (FDR memorial in DC) developed the idea of scoring experience and architecture (as is done with music or dance) choreographing a linear, and malleable experience over time.

I want to create a thoughtful score with aspects of time in mind

TIME is another aspect of the project that I want to think about
The passerby
The Casual lunch eater
The 20 min user
The 2 hour user
And so on
What is it like for each of them


There are also a myriad of opportunities for remediation of the built environment in Pittsburgh that I want to look at; however, after visiting conditions in the areas I’m looking at, two things stand out:
-North Shore
How to cross the Train tracks and Interstate
-Lawrenceville
How to relink the neighborhood with the waterfront and engage the space under the 40th street bridge
I think that the scope of this project can and should address both issues:
outline one method for re-engaging the water front and celebrating its bridges as a strategy for all of Pittsburgh.
Outline one method for traversing the interstate on foot

Things to think about:

Program exists on North Shore to Justify intervention
Sister Program need to be developed in Lawerenceville to mark the two ends of the path
what kind of program.

Dealing with communities at two scales:
The Children's museum and Science center draw people from all over western PA (as do the program pieces around them: The National Aviary, PNC Park, Heinz Stadium)
The surrounding neighborhood operates at a more local scale - Mexican War Streets
There are other institutions around that operate at a city (not regional scale) - The Matress Factory - The Warhol Museu
Lawrenceville operates almost entirely at a local scale

Melding them together will need to take this into account
Maybe I will end up focusing on one scale

Scale plays big roll in who and how long - variations could be interesting

IN SUMMATION
Inside out children's museum
Stretch out program and integrate into linear path
Score experience along path in deliberate manner
Think about the time involved in using
Be completely accessible
Use accessibility as a teaching tool
capitalize on artist culture in Lawrenceville (and maybe Mexican war streets)
Address physical barriers (river, bridge, interstate)
---consider different site (if it is not tied the museums, scale could be more easily addressed, but the nature of the project would change drastically given the siting)
---maybe analyze the pros and cons of a few sites?

-being next to museums creates two distinct types of interaction. Should probably pick one.

Museums often sit as objects within an environment, shaping the nature of the environment. I want to break down the shell into a human, occupiable scale.