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BETWEEN THE MINES AND THE MOUNTAINTOPS: REMEMBRANCE, ACTIVISM, AND LEARNING AT BRUSHY MOUNTAIN PENITENTIARY
Thesis chair: professor Sharon Sutton
Thesis committee: Susan Jones, Kathryn Merlino
Brushy Mountain Penitentiary, an abandoned prison near Knoxville, TN, traces its roots to the forgotten and shameful history of convict leasing. Today, it stands as a reminder of complicity to the practices of the past and mass incarcerations of the present, and as such should not – must not – be erased from the collective memory of American society.
The goal of the thesis project was to discover a way in which a place of difficult memory can become a vibrant locus of learning and activism for various groups of users, proposing that Brushy Mountain become a center for study, research, and education. The new function will allow to preserve the memory of the penitentiary while raising awareness of the conditions that created it, with the goal of nurturing activists who can change those conditions.
The thesis made an argument that the physical elements of Brushy Mountain Penitentiary and their historic and emotional attributes can be utilized through the framework of the concepts of pedagogy of remembrance and place; material realization of these concepts was the goal of the thesis’ architectural interventions.
Cardboard, wood. Existing site conditions.
Existing conditions (left) and schematic proposal of architectural intervention (right). The goal of interventions is to accommodate various groups of users and facilitate the new function of the site as a memorial, as well as a place of study and activism.
Several architectural interventions were designed and presented in the thesis. The following are two of several.
INTERVENTION FOUR: VISITOR LODGINGS
The lodgings are organized along the western extent of the prison wall. The wall, which bears the markings of the hands that quarries the stones, becomes part of the daily experience of the students and scholars staying at Brushy Mountain. The buildings pierce the two-foot thick wall (physically and symbolically), a formerly impenetrable barrier.
INTERVENTION FIVE
EXISTING: MAXIMUM SECURITY BUILDING, NEW: LIBRARY AND ARCHIVE
Unlike the original buildings within Brushy Mountain campus, this later addition does not possess historic significance and will not be a part of the permanent exhibit. The thesis proposes a transformation of the building into library and archive, which will include classrooms and a small auditorium.
SHED: "TIMBER IN THE CITY" COMPETITION
WINTER 2013
Instructors: Elizabeth Golden, Rick Mohler
Team Members: Jason Tran, Olga Amigud, Tami Lan
SUPER-SHED® re-imagines the conceptual and symbolic power of a simple shed, creating a vibrant complex for living, working, and community on a single site of an abandoned ship-yard. The project was an entry in the “TIMBER IN THE CITY” competition.
The teams were asked to propose a design for a community center, which combined areas for wood production, vocational training, exhibit, as well as ample living space. The entry was required to utilize CLT (Cross Laminated Timber) as primary structural and construction material. The center was to be located in Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn, NY.
SPRING 2013
Instructor: Susan Jones
The site of the project is deeply connected to both the city (and its rigorous grid) and the nature (natural terrain of the glacial formations, neighboring Kobe Park and Denny Woo garden). Conceptually, the complex of buildings strives to unite the two, maintaining the rigor of the grid and, at the same time, bringing in and making visible the natural processes that take place on the site and around it.
The primary construction material is CLT (cross laminated timber) - one of the requirements of the project. In its prominent position at the top of the hill, the building has an opportunity to educate: to expose the cycles of nature, to make them visible in a beautiful way.
part of PUBLIC SCHOLARS INSTITUTE PROJECT
FALL 2012
Instructors: Susan Jones
Project coordinator: Sharon Sutton
Center for jazz education is one of the four buildings comprising the Public Scholars Institute. The Center is located in Central District, between the historic Washington Hall and St. George hotel. The location forces the designer to address such issues as the placement of a contemporary project in a historic context and aesthetic response to the neighborhood’s cultural heritage.
The Center will provide spaces for jazz education, dormitory for the visiting musicians, performance space, and a restaurant and jazz bar on the ground level, which extend into the street and the courtyard.
BRIDGING THE GAP: CHICAGO CHILDREN'S MUSEUM
Fall 2013
Instructors: Joe Burns, Sam Miller
Project: a combination of a high-end residential tower and children’s museum on the abandoned site of Chicago Spire.
The project represented two different groups of users whose interests and cultures are often far removed from each other. This solution proposed a way for the users to co-exist on the same site, offering a master plan, as well as detailed architectural and structural solutions.
The main volume of the museum is pulled away from the tower and turned toward the river, at the same time physically and symbolically bridging programmatic and cultural gap by reaching toward the tower’s core with long “arms.”
