Archinect - News

The debate around prison reuse swells as reform measures continue to decrease incarceration rates dramatically

2021-11-11T12:51:00-05:00

Some prisons have been successfully transformed into whiskey distilleries, youth hostels, museums and boutique hotels. Others have been demolished, sometimes over the objections of local preservationists. But there’s a third option: Carceral sites can be reoriented as places that actively work to undo the damage wrought by mass incarceration.

The movement to design spaces that are actively working to undo some of the social harms caused by mass incarceration is still fairly nascent, with salient projects in Atlanta and other places serving as models that can be applied in the age of bail reform, alternative sentencing, and other measures that have reduced the overall prison population by up to 42% in certain states.

“Our view is that more architects should instead help those who are formerly incarcerated so they don’t go back to prison, and to support populations who are targeted and at high-risk for incarceration,” DJDS founder Deanna van Buren told Archinect’s Antonio Pacheco in a 2019 interview. The impetus should be shifted even further towards designing spaces that alleviate the sources of crime in the mold of DJDS. As Thoreau said: “There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.”

Weiss/Manfredi to repurpose jail facility in Dallas for alternative uses

2020-08-20T15:37:00-04:00

New York City-based Weiss/Manfredi and Dallas-based Malone Maxwell Dennehy Architects (MMDA) have been selected by the Trinity Park Conservancy to redesign an existing jail facility in Dallas for alternative uses.

The project comes to the two firms, MMDA will serve as Architect of Record while Weiss/Manfredi works as the design architect, after a lengthy selection process that involved 45 other competitors and a shortlist made up of seven other firms. An announcement highlighting the team's selection explains that the project team will work with the Trinity Park Conservancy to "integrate the building and its surrounding neighborhoods" into Harold Simmons Park, a forthcoming 200-acre park designed by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates that will eventually connect downtown Dallas to surrounding areas.

“We are inspired by the potential of 106 W Commerce to create a dynamic community destination and gateway to Harold Simmons Park, and are thrilled to begin work with the Trinity Park Con...

Designing Justice + Designing Spaces unveils plan to re-purpose Atlanta city jail into "Center for Equity"

2020-06-19T20:32:00-04:00

Oakland-based architecture and real estate development non-profit Designing Justice + Designing Spaces (DJDS) has unveiled a set of schematic proposals aimed at re-imagining Atlanta’s city jail as a Center for Equity.

The plans follow extensive community consultation and design development workshops focused on finding a new use for a 471,000-square-foot jail facility that has been rendered obsolete due to a wave of criminal and law enforcement reforms enacted by Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms.

A proposed "Super Lobby" space will bring a new community space to the neighborhood.

In an update announcing the latest phase of the project posted to the group's Medium, the DJDS explains that "it is important to recognize that despite the end of slavery 'in theory,' the oppression of black communities continued and transformed into new laws and policies forming a new system of enslavement through mass incarceration."

Citing author Michelle Alexander’s 2010 book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Inc...

Designing Justice + Designing Spaces on "unbuilding racism"

2020-06-05T14:47:00-04:00

Community development non-profit Designing Justice + Designing Spaces (DJDS) has published a vision designed around the idea of "unbuilding racism" in light of the growing movement to abolish police and prisons that has garnered national attention in the wake of the anti-racism and policy brutality protests that are currently griping the United States.

Writing in a Medium post, the group, which is led by Deanna Van Buren, explains that they are "grieving for the intolerable and constant deaths of black and brown people at the hands of the police, and all the other lives lost through the impacts of mass incarceration," adding, "This is why we are prison abolitionists."

Previously on Archinect: "Architect Deanna Van Buren on Designing Beautiful Spaces That 'Amplify Self-Care, Love, Restoration, and Respect'." The Designing Justice + Designing Spaces team with co-founders Kyle Rawlins and Deanna Van Buren third and fourth from the left. Photo by Oretola Thomas.

Speaking to competing de...