This was a student project by Kelly Murphy for Jane Amidon's LARCH 457 Urban Design course, Autumn 2006. Cycling the City was completed as a study and masterplan strategy of Springfield, Ohio for Jane Amidon's Urban Design studio. It explores the innate functioning of cities and questions contemporary static masterplan strategies by proposing a responsive and flexible method of exchanging material between viable and nonviable spaces within the urban core. The city functions as a mosaic of inter-working organisms; different life stages exist within each of them. While decomposition and death of one space in a city may conventionally be considered as a weak node, this model suggests that it is indeed healthy; the subsequent stages are the seeding and germination of something new. Analyzing the city of Springfield, Ohio by means of existing organisms (municipal, commercial, arts & recreation, residential, and educational spaces), the life stages represented within each of those organisms, and the nutrient flows (movement of people & money) provided an insightful comprehension of the viable and nonviable built spaces and voids in the core. A substantial development is currently in the works for downtown Springfield including a hospital and commercial opportunity. This growth is the catalyst for change within the urban core-- one that calls for new nutrient flows of people and economics beyond its boundaries. The existing organisms will be displaced, calling for a need elsewhere within the city. Cycling the City explores opportunities for reclamation of this post industrial city to create a viable balance within the core. -- Kelly Murphy This work is a part of the online collections of the Knowlton School of Architecture Student Archives, The Ohio State University. It is part of an effort to make accessible student work ranging from the first student that graduated from the program in 1903 to the present. Keywords: student work, KSA, settlements, drawings and plans.
