Date of Award

Spring 5-30-2015

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master in Interior Architecture [Adaptive Reuse]

Department

Interior Architecture

First Advisor

Liliane Wong

Second Advisor

Jeffrey Katz

Third Advisor

Rafael Luna

Abstract

Large-scale architectural projects rely on political stability, and take considerable time to realize. The survival of an architectural development depends on outliving the governing bodies that initiate these improvements. With a change in power, often these large-scale projects are halted, demolished, or left unfinished.

The adaptation of these unfinished structures can reconcile the difference in a power shift, providing an important sense of continuum that is not only a record of the shift in power but also a source of connection through time with this fragmentation. For these reasons, Cincinnati’s subway system is a good example of a public project that was left unfinished due to changes in power through time. The subway system is not only a symbol of the cost of a regime change influencing public policy, but also creating an active campaign to hide the achievements of a past administration. Mark Mallory, a previous mayor of Cincinnati, said, “ Now more than forty percent of people who live in Cincinnati do not know there is a subway system existing underneath Central Parkway Boulevard.”

Completing the subway system in Cincinnati will provide a connection between the different neighborhoods and downtown area. The underground structure will be reused as a large-scale public transportation system that will extend the reach of the old transportation network to connect different forms of public transportation while revealing a hidden history to new generations of the city. To re-stitch the abandoned subway system throughout the urban fabric will pull different parts of the city together, while the subway will become a destination on its own, with areas of the underground system relating to neighborhood need aboveground. The new system will become a node of connection that can be a new destination while providing an easier travel route for people to travel through the city. 3 Abstract

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