Our class project for this semester is a a little different than your traditional urban design studio set up. Instead of creating a hypothetical master plan for a neighborhood or site, we are working with WXY Studio to develop a tool for the New York City Housing Authority to use in engagement.
The Context
NYCHA is the largest provider of affordable and public housing in the country, but currently faces a number of budgetary and maintenance challenges.
A combination of ‘what-if’ scenario planning and dialogue-based community engagement, our goal this semester is to create an online simulation platform for future engagement with various stakeholders – such as developers, NYCHA, tenants, neighbors and political leaders – to imagine opportunities for Baruch Houses on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Using a European gaming software called Tygron, our class will be one of the first American student groups to test the platform for a development project.
Real-Life Sim City
After an initial research phase at the building, neighborhood and policy scale, we are currently setting up both our ‘virtual game’ and ‘physical model-based game’ with stakeholders, actions, financial budgets, indicators, and performance metrics for a variety of real estate development options, including:
Residential
Commercial
Mixed Use
Open Space
At the end of the day, planning and development can be likened to a game with many players and many agendas. We hope our engagement tool can foster a well-informed dialogue between the various stakeholders in the development community in and around the Baruch community. The final semester will conclude in a book that compiles our methodology, findings and site models.
