[Urban Planning] Building a New Block

    It is now time for the final Action Project of my Junior Year Steam Course! In this final unit of Urban Planning, we have been talking about "flow". Flow is basically the way that cities work at a large scale, and how someone would navigate through it. We watched quite a lot of Ted Talks this unit, including ones by Majora Carter, Ellen Dunham-Jones, and James Howard Kunstler. These went in depth about the problems with cities, including sprawl, (how far apart many cities are) and dead-zones, abandoned empty lots that are covered in asphalt. From this, we get our Action Project. For this Action Project, we have been tasked with taking a section of a city and improving it in ways that could be realistically done by the city. For this project, I have decided to redesign the intersection of Division and Cicero in Chicago. I personally have dealt with this intersection by means of driving and walking, and it is awful for both. Here is my redesign!

L.A.H., Thumbnail, 2023

    To begin with, we have to identify the issues with this intersection. Below I have taken a screenshot of Google Maps and outlined the issues I have with this intersection.

    

L.A.H., Issues with C&D, 2023

    As you can see, there are many issues. I made a similar image that aims to plan out my solutions to this space, pictured below.

L.A.H., Improvements, 2023

As you can see, I am planning on making five improvements:

1. I am planning on turning that empty lot into a park.
2. I am planning on turning the ugly, abandoned building into apartment buildings.
3. I am planning on making the intersection less complicated.
4. I am planning on adding bike lanes to the roads.
5. I am planning on making the sidewalks bigger.

From here, I wanted an easy way to better visualize the improvements I want to make. So, I recreated it in Minecraft:

L.A.H., 3D Model, 2023

    The scale of this video is 1 block=2 meters^2. The Area of the whole place is 119 blocks*112 blocks=13328 Blocks^2. This converts to 238m*224m=53312m^3. I also calculated the volume of the fountain. To do this we calculate the volume of a cylinder with a radius of 5 blocks and a height of 1/2 a block (pi*5^2*1/2) which comes out to a volume of 39.2699081 blocks^3. Translating this to real life, we have a radius of 10m radius and 1m height (pi*10^2*1) for a volume of 314.16m^3. We then have to remove the center section that does not have any blocks there. With a radius of 4 blocks and height of 1/2 a block (pi*4^2*0.5) for a volume of 25.13 blocks^3. Subtracting this from the wider section=14.14 blocks^3. Doing the same thing to the real life side, a radius of 8m and a height of 1m equals (pi*8^2*1) a volume of 201.06m^3, 314.16-201.06=113.1m^3. Finally, we have to add the rectangular prism in the center which has a width and length of 1.5 blocks and a height of 3 blocks for a volume of 6.75 blocks^3. Adding this to the other part, 14.14+6.75=20.89blocks^3. In real life, it would be 3m*3m*6m for a volume of 54m^3. Adding this would be 54+113.1=167.1m^3. These would be the volumes of the fountain. The volume of the benches is slightly easier to calculate, being two rectangular prisms put together. the bottom rectangular prism is 1/2 a block by 1 block by 4 blocks leading to a volume of 2 blocks^3+the top rectangular prism is 1/2 block*1/2 block*4 blocks=1 block^3 leading to a volume of 5 blocks. Doing this in real life, it would be 1m*2m*8m=16m^3+1m*1m*8m=8m^3=24m^3.

    From my classmate P.C.C.C., "The intersection is very unpleasant to move through. The streets are hard to navigate and the area is very ugly". I have aimed to solve these issues. I added bike lanes and overall made it a nicer place. I have taken a lot of inspiration from other cities, and even just other parts of Chicago. Pictured below is the intersection of Grand, Milwaukee, and Halsted, an even busier intersection. Despite this, as you can see, there are still bike lanes and it is much better managed.

L.A.H., Granwauksted, 2023

    Another inspiration for this project was Chicago's Loop. Throughout the loop, there are not only bike lanes, but protected bike lanes. I have implemented this in my project by putting them behind the sidewalks. The loop bike lanes are pictured below.

L.A.H., Bike Lanes, 2023

    As you can see, there is concrete between the bike lanes and where cars drive. My five improvements serve to solve the two problems laid out by P.C.C.C.. The Park and the Apartment buildings serve to make the area a little nicer. Currently, it is almost like an industrial area and people don't want to be around there, much less live there. By adding nice apartment buildings and a nice park, it will make people want to exist in the space more. The bike lanes, wider sidewalks, and improved intersection serve to make the area easier to move around in. Every time I have tried to go through there, I get bogged down by traffic if I'm in a car or fear for my life if I am on a bike on on foot. With these improvements, it is much more walkable, safe, and appealing. 

    At GCE Lab School, we have a heavy focus on the Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs, created by the UN in 2015. The SDG that most closely connects to this project is SDG 11, Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable. Each SDG has targets for nations to attempt to reach. This redesign hits targets 11.2 and 11.7. 11.2 mentions road safety being a thing to strive for, and in this design I have improved this area's road safety by widening sidewalks and adding bike lanes. Target 11.7 mentions giving access to green spaces in cities. A big part of my redesign is taking a mostly empty lot and turning it into a really nice public park with trees, flowers, grass, and a fountain. All of this leads me to think my redesign is beneficial to the community.

    This was a very fun project! I'm very happy with how it turned out and being able to do it in a way I'm so familiar with, namely Minecraft, streamlined the process and allowed me to make my model much better. If I were to do this project again, I might pick an area that is not in Chicago, but other than that this was a very fun project!