The Intersection

This project was completed for an undergraduate urban design studio in the Spring of 2018 taught by Professor Linda Samuels.

This project looks at a major intersection in the Dutchtown neighborhood of St. Louis, Missouri, and reimagines it in the year 2040. A new light-rail line is planned for the intersection, and this project integrates the line as well as adding new programs to make this a new hub of culture and pedestrian life.

By making previously unusable space occupiable, strategically infilling and refitting vacant lots, and incorporating a multitude of renewable energy strategies around the intersection, this former concrete ocean becomes a much more livable and walkable community center.

Each of the four corners of the intersection represents a different program: The top left corner is a small but dense urban forest. The top right corner is a pedestrian plaza with commercial and mixed-used spaces. The bottom left corner includes a public amphitheater and a rooftop bar. And finally, the bottom right corner holds the train station as well as a green park dotted with vertical wind turbines.

The use of color to notate different systems became very important during this project. In this process model, as well as in the final model, “blue” represents a commercial, green, pedestrian-oriented axis, while “pink” represents a dense, mixed-use axis . The intersection is meant to blend the two intersecting systems and create something novel.