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The Suburban Outpost: Reshaping Dead Space in the American City

Palmer, Keenan A
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1559057842069101

Abstract Details

2019, MARCH, University of Cincinnati, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning: Architecture.
Urban sprawl is an often-unloved urban condition that can be found in nearly every city and town within the United States. Crafted out of many of the ideals espoused by some of the brightest minds of the post-war period of the late 1940’s to the 1960’s, the modern American city was designed and built around the automobile, and with it came millions of acres of roads, highways, parking lots. New and fashionable typologies emerged such as the indoor shopping mall, and outlet strip mall. For much of the last sixty years, these programs have defined and shaped the American urban landscape, but new emerging technologies such as online shopping and delivery have challenged this status quo. Now shopping malls across the country are on their way out, but their large footprints remain. Large superblocks of pavement and abandoned retail space that is going completely underused, often within urban areas with increasing prices of real estate. These sites have fallen from grace, and are generally abhorred by the public. Their immense size also makes them difficult to redevelop or parcel into smaller lots or zones, which leads to many of these sites sitting vacant for a decade or more, and their ubiquity means they can be found almost anywhere in the country. In a time where costs of living and housing continue to increase in most US cities, it seems wasteful to use so much of our land in cities for purposes such as surface parking lots. People today demand a more holistic approach to their communities and their urban policy. Things such as increased walkability and public green space are a much higher priority than they were even twenty years ago. Much of what people despise about these sites, may be an advantage moving forward. Being generally unloved areas of our cities makes them great candidates for significant change. Very few would protest the redevelopment of a suburban mall parking lot or abandoned mall. Rather than replacing these existing conditions with something equally as suburban and car-centric, what would these sites look like with zero percent surface lots and much higher density? Instead of being the most empty and dead parts of town, these large swaths of dead space could become communities and desirable cultural centers of their own.
Aarati Kanekar, Ph.D. (Committee Chair)
Michael McInturf, M.Arch. (Committee Member)
70 p.
Architecture
Sprawl; Urban Planning; Suburban; Automobile; Architecture; United States

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Palmer, K. A. (2019). The Suburban Outpost: Reshaping Dead Space in the American City [Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1559057842069101

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Palmer, Keenan. The Suburban Outpost: Reshaping Dead Space in the American City. 2019. University of Cincinnati, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1559057842069101.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Palmer, Keenan. "The Suburban Outpost: Reshaping Dead Space in the American City." Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati, 2019. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1559057842069101

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

ucin1559057842069101
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© 2019, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by University of Cincinnati and OhioLINK.