Justice in Place: Downtown Regeneration in the Shadow of Urban Renewal in Hudson River Valley, NY

Aug 1, 2017 – Aug 18, 2017

Poughkeepsie, New York

David Smiley,

Justin Moore,

Michael Murphy

and

Lee Altman

Research Question

The aim of the Poughkeepsie Workshop was to create a community-informed, design-based narrative of a particular place: in this case, the Fall Kill Creek, an historic and long-ignored piece of urban infrastructure that runs through several neighborhoods in Poughkeepsie, and into the Hudson River. The Workshop was organized to test how students in different programs within the GSAPP (Historic Preservation, Architecture, and Urban Design) might co-learn; to create a safe space for interaction between students and local residents and organizations; and for students, faculty and local partners to collectively develop forward-looking urban research.

Methodology and Process

The workshop entailed intensive documentation of the Fall Kill and its adjacent and diverse communities. Each day consisted of site and area walks, recorded interviews, archival research, photography, cinematography, handheld phone datamining, and empirical note taking. On-site work was coupled with guest lectures from local speakers (politicians, journalists, historians, activists, and a youth group that organizes periodic cleanups), with GSAPP faculty, and from MASS Design Group team members (research and community engagement associates, and videographers). Students created and compiled images, maps, texts and other information to start a new archive for future work on the Fall Kill and in the region.

Output and Findings

The Workshop concluded with an exhibit demonstrating the complex history and status of the Fall Kill, and its role in the shaping of Poughkeepsie. With new maps, photographs, and an informational video showing site visits and community interviews, the exhibit sought to amplify local interest in the creek and its potential for change. The Workshop participants also produced a booklet documenting the process of research. Both the exhibit and the booklet raised questions about the social ecology of the creek, including historical patterns of industrial use, ongoing problems of waste and debris, stewardship of the creek, its walls and adjacent properties, questions of property tenure and absentee ownership, and long-term patterns of local and regional inequality. Pedagogically, the Workshop experimented with a model for Urban Design which treats the spaces of the city in experiential terms alongside their role in regional dynamics.

This is Poughkeepsie's FallKill

Other 2017 workshops

Burning Man	Christoph Kumpusch, Alessandra Calaguire	Black Rock City, Nevada	Aug 7, 2017 – Sep 2, 2017
Building Yacoubian, A Social Biopsy of Modernist Architecture	Ziad Jamaleddine	Beirut, Lebanon	Aug 5, 2017 – Aug 19, 2017
Data-Mining China: Urban Village in Shenzhen	Danil Nagy	Shenzhen, China	Jul 15, 2017 – Aug 12, 2017
Aging Tokyo in Japan	Adam Frampton	Tokyo, Japan	Jul 24, 2017 – Aug 4, 2017
Afro-Imaginaries in Harare, Zimbabwe	Mario Gooden	Harare, Zimbabwe	Jun 26, 2017 – Jul 13, 2017
The Environmentalist Dilemma: Reducing the economic and social costs of a low carbon city in Madrid	Alejandro de Castro Mazarro	Madrid, Spain	Jun 10, 2017 – Jul 9, 2017
Heritage Sites of the Jordan Trail: Documenting and Interpreting 7,000 Years of Urban Living in Jordan	William Raynolds	Jordan Trail, Jordan	Jun 13, 2017 – Jun 26, 2017