Project Details

Market as Constructed Edge

3 months

This project reimagines the edge of an urban stream valley as a two story line of market clusters linked to a daylit stream and an urban playground.  This 500' constructed edge will act as a shared front porch joining the residential neighborhoods to the South of the Downtown Mall across a corridor of heightened social and ecological activity.  This corridor will draw social activity from the Mall to the North and connect this to the ecological, hydrological and recreational activities of the Rivanna River and its associated trail network via the daylighting of Pollocks Run to the South.  Figuring this important edge as a shared front porch, market and playground for the adjacent communities will change this site from a problematic divide to a connective element for downtown Charlottesville.  The varied scales and qualities of this constructed edge and the temporal nature of the various programs of market, stream corridor, linear park and playground will support ryhthmic occupations by all of the site's adjacent influences in spaces that are distinct yet connected.