Flip-a-Strip
Flip-a-Strip – Flip-a-City – Flip-a-Sprawl – Flip-a-Planet!
Our concept is simple: use this competition to confront questions that are on many of our minds. How can we make our cities better places to live? How do we stop urban sprawl? Is it acceptable to erase one acre of Sonoran Desert habitat every hour when we could instead re-propagate this unique flora and fauna as our identity of place? Could we get a little shade? Can policy shift toward infill development—especially in economically depressed communities—capitalizing on existing infrastructure rather than extending it ad nauseam? Could municipalities and utilities fund infill incentives that reinvigorate communities while reducing heat-island effects, shading parking lots and rooftops with solar that both reduces demand and feeds the grid? Our proposal views the 2228 North Scottsdale Road site as an opportunity for healthy dialogue and hopefully a few answers with application across the Valley. South Scottsdale, currently a ‘no man’s land,’ is strategically positioned as a potential node of renewal. Carefully redeveloped, this node can reconnect historic main street patterns linking Scottsdale, Tempe, and ASU’s campus, restoring economic vitality, social energy, and opportunity. The north and west buildings have excellent bones—clear, concise, intact—while Frasher’s Steak House, though a bit of a ‘dog,’ is well positioned as an anchor. Our design is first and foremost a redevelopment proposal, secondly an urban design proposal, and lastly an architectural one: an approach grounded in specificity, reuse, and revealing the authentic materiality already present.
Flip-a-Strip
Flip-a-Strip – Flip-a-City – Flip-a-Sprawl – Flip-a-Planet!
Our concept is simple: use this competition to confront questions that are on many of our minds. How can we make our cities better places to live? How do we stop urban sprawl? Is it acceptable to erase one acre of Sonoran Desert habitat every hour when we could instead re-propagate this unique flora and fauna as our identity of place? Could we get a little shade? Can policy shift toward infill development—especially in economically depressed communities—capitalizing on existing infrastructure rather than extending it ad nauseam? Could municipalities and utilities fund infill incentives that reinvigorate communities while reducing heat-island effects, shading parking lots and rooftops with solar that both reduces demand and feeds the grid? Our proposal views the 2228 North Scottsdale Road site as an opportunity for healthy dialogue and hopefully a few answers with application across the Valley. South Scottsdale, currently a ‘no man’s land,’ is strategically positioned as a potential node of renewal. Carefully redeveloped, this node can reconnect historic main street patterns linking Scottsdale, Tempe, and ASU’s campus, restoring economic vitality, social energy, and opportunity. The north and west buildings have excellent bones—clear, concise, intact—while Frasher’s Steak House, though a bit of a ‘dog,’ is well positioned as an anchor. Our design is first and foremost a redevelopment proposal, secondly an urban design proposal, and lastly an architectural one: an approach grounded in specificity, reuse, and revealing the authentic materiality already present.