A Sustainable Urban Village for the "Six Corners" & "Old Hill" Neighborhoods of Springfield, Massachusetts

• Main Author: O'flaherty, Patricia
• Format: Others
• Published: ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst 2013
• Subjects: sustainable; urban; village; Springfield; affordable; housing; Architecture
• Online Access: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/theses/1074; https://scholarworks.umass.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2209&context=theses

In the United States, traditional urban centers, particularly in the Northeast, have suffered from neglect, dilapidation, and the general decay of their built environments over the last 50-60 years. Corresponding with this on the social side are increased poverty, unemployment, crime, and the disruption of the family unit. Our current knowledge of the disciplines of architecture and sustainability can be applied to a built solution that will yield a greater public good. Good design can improve the lives of people by creating homes, neighborhoods, and villages that are comfortable, secure, and sustainable for all of the activities that make life enjoyable. Sustainability not only allows us to help save the planet and ourselves, but it also allows for the conservation of the limited resources that might be available to inner-city middle to low income populations. If a family’s or a city’s basic resources are drained by homes and buildings that perform poorly, there will be an impact on the overall quality of life and reduced possibilities for that family (or that city) to improve their standard of living. Early on, in this process, I had thought about the Six Corners neighborhood of Springfield as a candidate for this design intervention. When an F3 tornado devastated the neighborhoods of Six Corners and Old Hill on June 1, 2011, the problem became clear and I decided to focus my attention on a particularly hard hit area on the border of the two neighborhoods, which has become the subject of this thesis.