Neighborhood regeneration - Through New Patterns of Urban Public Space

Abstract

Like many other decayed downtown areas in the U.S, the one in Montgomery, AL has a pedestrian framework which was provided for walking at the beginning of its settlement. However, most of the downtown neighborhood streets and roads are now used primarily for automobiles. Furthermore, numerous vacant spaces and degraded buildings and structures are left because of the rise of personal automobiles and the consequent urban sprawl. The limitation of life in Montgomery Alabama, where some people need to drive a long way for working or tourism and some people who have no cars have to go out for work and shopping, can be addressed through appropriate urban public pattern design. This project attempts to find more options for people to use the downtown area and live a better life, drawing on existing physical and cultural conditions. It seeks to get rid of the limitation of the excessive automobile-based development and return to the city what people and the world really want and need. The project achieved this by establishing a new pattern system of green public spaces made up of existing overlooked spaces that connect with specific uses in the urban area. This new pedestrian network will provide more options for people to move around, and new patterns of living in the decayed downtown. The objective of the research is both to save an area which is going to die and reduce people’s dependence on cars.