Archinect - News

Philly's infamous police headquarters faces an uncertain future as a symbol of brutality

2023-02-06T18:51:00-05:00

The city of Philadelphia is prepared to release a report detailing a months-long community engagement effort officials say will inform the fate of the Roundhouse, the unusual concrete building that served as police headquarters for more than six decades. Many of the residents who participated in that process said they want to see the shuttered building at 7th and Race streets repurposed as a community hub that recognizes the site’s long history of police abuse.

Philadelphia has a long-frayed relationship between its police department and the community, including most notably the 1985 MOVE Bombing that claimed the lives of 11 activists while displacing another 250 people and destroying 61 homes. The Roundhouse has a central role in this fraught history, and now opinions are split over its proposed future redevelopment.

Robert Geddes, one of the building’s three designers has chimed in to say he feels it should be given a second life as a font for social justice activities and other types of community-based activism. The 125,000-square-foot Brutalist-style structure has also been floated as the potential site of affordable housing, though its layout remains difficult to convert by most estimates.

A final decision on its fate is expected sometime within the calendar year.

NYC issues RFQ for new municipal jail towers

2020-02-05T13:47:00-05:00

The New York City Department of Design and Construction (DDC) has issued a Request for Qualifications soliciting design-build teams that will create the city's $8 billion plan to create four new "Borough-Based Jails" tower complexes.

According to a press release, the project will bring into being four new jail facilities in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. These facilities will be designed to house 3,000 people. The jail tower projects represent the city's attempt to reposition its carceral system as the Rikers Island complex begins to close down.

Previously on Archinect: AECOM to build Rikers Island replacement facilities across New York's boroughs. Aerial photo of Rikers Island in New York City, Photo courtesy U.S. Geological Survey.

According to the press release, DDC is asking firms to submit a Statement of Qualifications (SOQ) in response to the RFQ that will be used to create a short-list of firms that will then be asked to respond to a Request for Proposals (RFQ)....

Following Kansas City, Portland contemplates fareless public transit

2019-12-20T14:07:00-05:00

"I think the public needs to understand that as an agency, we are exploring what [a fareless system] could look like," [TriMet board member Kathy Wai] said. "These conversations are happening at a high level. … I think we are further along in 2019 on the conversation about the funding, what that could look like, and what those mechanisms could be."

Officials with the TriMet regional transit agency in Portland, Oregon have begun to discuss the possibility of embracing free public transit for area residents. The move comes after Kansas City, Missouri announced it would make its public transit free to ride.

Running alongside the push to make transit accessible and free, however, is a recently increase in fare-enforcement efforts in Portland itself and in other major cities nationwide, including Los Angeles and New York City. TriMet receives roughly 18% of its operating budget, roughly $90.9 million, from fare revenue. TriMet recently increased its Safety & Security budget by $4.7 million to $29.4 million in order to have "more people on the system checking fares and enforcing the TriMet Code."

"Renewable Rikers" plan takes shape

2019-06-13T18:37:00-04:00

The “Renewable Rikers Act,” crafted by Queens Councilmember Costa Constantinides, aims to create a green vision for the 400-acre correctional facility that would keep the island out of the hands of luxury developers, while lessening the burden on communities loaded with city infrastructure.

A trio of legislative efforts are underway in New York to transform the Rikers Island jail into a green energy powerhouse for the city.

Queens Council member Costa Constantinides told Curbed, “Closing Rikers Island, if we do this right, can not only end overpolicing and the atrocities that have gone on there, but we can look at what renewable opportunities we have and really get into the weeds and come up with a plan."

Jonathan Lippman, the former state chief judge who led a 2017 commission that recommended closing the jail, added, “It is also time to look ahead to how our city can repurpose this island, which has been a symbol and accelerator of misery for so many, and turn it to the use for public good."

Jeanne Gang's 'Polis Project' — an experiment in empathetic policing

2016-07-25T13:20:00-04:00

Conceived by MacArthur “genius” and architect Jeanne Gang, the simple project is part of her broader proposal to reimagine isolated, fortress-like police precincts as welcoming community centers. In her vision, better police precincts could house a barber shop, a garden, a gym, and lounges with free wi-fi—all designed to draw community members to hang out in stations and eventually build friendlier and more trusting relationships with the cops sworn to protect them.

In Gang's project, the West 10th district's police station in North Lawndale, Chicago, includes a basketball half-court right next to it, as an attempt to create shared spaces between police and the community whom they serve. Gang's 'Polis Project' was first exhibited at the 2015 Chicago Architecture Biennial, and was conceived in response to the report on "21st Century Policing" commissioned by President Obama.

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Revising the city in the aftermath of violence

2016-07-11T18:39:00-04:00

A mass shooting scenario changes the function of every object in the built environment. [...] The buildings themselves, the fabric of the city, ends up not mattering so much. In fact, sometimes it becomes a kind of enemy. [...] Americans aren’t going to rebuild their cities to accommodate the possibility of violence. The people who protect the people in those cities will just have to learn to see them differently.

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