GSAPP’s Amman Lab, with studio workshop, seminar room, offices and exhibition space, opened within the Columbia University Middle East Research Center (CUMERC) in March 2009 and has already acted as the site for studies of city planning processes, engaged historic preservation projects, architectural design studios in the historic downtown, and urban planning studios in the poorer neighborhoods in East Amman. GSAPP teams are collaborating with the city to restore a historic house that will act as the downtown Studio-X Amman.

HISTORIC PRESERVATION AT THE LAB

Since March 2009, the Historic Preservation Program has been actively at work documenting a small, abandoned villa in that has been given to the GSAPP by the city of Amman. The villa was built in about 1935 for one of Jordan's first prime ministers. Five students began the documentation during spring break and seven students (along with George Wheeler and Andrew Dolkart) spent time during the summer completing the project. Our presence in Amman relates to the opening of Columbia University's Center for the Study of the Middle East. The Queen of Jordan is the patron for this larger project and students had the pleasure of showing her their work in March.

(Left) On March 22, 2009, Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah listened to a presentation on GSAPP student work in Amman on documenting the house of former prime minister Ibrahim Hashem. Dean Mark Wigley of Columbia University GSAPP is to the left of the photo and in the rear are Historic Preservation students Tara Rasheed, Lisa Michela and Laura Michela.

(Right)Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah and Columbia University GSAPP student Will Raynolds review the student drawings documenting conditions of the house of former prime minister Ibrahim Hashem in Amman, Jordan.

Door at Beit Ibrahim Hashem, Amman. The house was throughly documented and its conservation issued assessed by a team of seven students from the Columbia University Historic Preservation Program in the summer of 2009.

URBAN PLANNINGAT THE LAB

In 2009, Columbia University opened its Middle Eastern Research Center (CUMERC) in Amman, Jordan. The Urban Planning Program has been involved since the beginning, as Director Robert Beauregard was one of the first GSAPP faculty to travel to Jordan to assess the possibilities of collaborative projects from GSAPP to be held there. The results have led to the Urban Planning Program's involvement in two projects in Amman. The first was a documentation of the recent Amman 2025 master plan process done for the Greater Amman Municipality. The project was headed by Professor Robert Beauregard, and assisted by Andrea Marpillero-Colomina, (MSUP 2009). Both the report, Amman 2025: From Master Plan to Strategic Planning Initiative, and a second publication titled Amman 2025: A 21st Century Plan are available on the web site of The Amman Institute (www.ammaninstitute.org).

The second project is now underway - a planning studio to develop a proposal for the building of youth facilities in disadvantaged neighborhoods. The client is the Ministry of Social Development for a Planning studio led by Alfredo Brillembourg and Hubert Klumpner of Urban-Think Tank. Students and their instructors will visit Amman over spring break in March 2010 to carry out the on-site investigations for the studio.