A visionary proposal that re-imagines the Jones Falls Expressway as a system of programmatic flows weaving through the urban city fabric to stitch the gap between the existing ecology, the cultural disruption among adjacent neighborhoods and the socio-economic infrastructure of the site.

We attempt to reclaim both the ground plane and the elevated corridor for the Baltimore proper. Through our research, we posited a series of questions about the prototypical design intervention and extents of how we can reclaim the JFX:
Can the spatial geometry of the JFX be reclaimed by the city?
Can the corridor serve as a conduit for the city as well as the suburbs?
Can the history of the Jones Falls corridor as a neighborhood inform a new vision of the expressway

THE BOTTOM UP APPROACH

One part of our vision addressed three neglected aspects of the city at multiple scales. At the city scale, a weaving promenade for pedestrians and cyclists hovers above the reconditioned floodplain wild within the valley while constructed wetlands provide a new edge to both sides of the Jones Falls Expressway (JFX). At the scale of the neighborhood and in order to encourage gentrification to the east of the valley where some properties have been abandoned, streets crossing the JFX are lined with linear rain gardens that not only promote interaction among neighbors but also double as bio-swales to mitigate pollution and contaminants from surface runoff water. At the scale of the building, inmates at the Baltimore City Detention Center help grow a fruit and vegetable garden as a means to develop their cooperative, social and life skills while stimulating their physical and mental health.