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| Photomontage of the Character of Worcester: Revival of Industrial City |
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| Map of Worcester: Major transportation networks highlighted (I-290 & Worcester Railways) |
The site for my thesis project is Worcester, MA. Worcester is a former industrial city, which is now reviving its image, similar to Pittsburgh, as a technologically and culturally advanced city that connects visitors to Boston. Worcester is the second largest city in New England, after Boston. The city neighbors my hometown, and I travel in and through the city often.
Worcester has a strong, diverse character that is ethnically mixed with several different races that have assimilated to different neighborhoods throughout the city. But the city is often overlooked my many, who prejudgicely compare it to Boston.
But Worcester is a promising city that offers growth and potential, that fits well with my thesis project. It is one of the fewest cities that experienced a significant growth since the 2000 census count. When applying this specifically to my thesis project, this is a fitting location that would welcome the “transient mover.”
Worcester’s other strength is that it has the potential to be a major transportation hub for the Northeast Corridor to connect cities as far as Washington DC, Philadelphia, and New York City to Boston and the rest of New England because it is situated ideally in the center of Massachusetts. This is even further possible due to the extensive railways that already exist within that city that currently connect to Hartford, Providence, and Boston for freight movement, but is severely underutilized for commuter movement.
Specifically, for my thesis project it is important that the site is well connected to other areas, with ease. The existing building stock of abandoned warehouses and mills, offers great potential for reuse and attachment/insertion strategies, as I explore the development of parasitic, portable architecture for the transient.
