a more holistic view.

For the next scale of the project the studio collaborated with graduate architecture students over at Syracuse University. The studio professors divided 27 students into five groups and collectively as individual groups we had to decide on an issue that affects the Central New York Market (CNYM). Through a lot of brainstorming we ended up deciding to look at the factors that make a market a market. Issues that others focused on were the flows of information and transportation.
Factors that I looked at, and represented in the accompanying images, were identifying where the major aquifers and geologic deposits are in CNY this is a step to better understand what crops could be grown in the region to eventually expand the agricultural base. Then I identified the other
year round food markets in other counties and finally did a graphic looking at what counties
the CNYM would be serving.

The above graphic looks at what the average Syracuse resident annually spends on groceries. The weekly total was taken from my weekly grocery receipts and did some math to figure out yearly totals for various population scales. A missing metric to this graphic is that the average person in the USA consumes  440 lbs of food a year.

The graphic with the dark grey background looks at the number of farms operating in NYS and how much food, in terms of dollars, they produce in a growing season.

the historic-market walk

This project never came to fruition and what I mean by that is nothing more than this graphic came out of this idea.

The principle behind this is that there are historic properties that are on a local or National Register of Historic Places that have become an eye sore for the residents of towns and cities. Combined with the issue of urban food deserts- these places can become an asset to the community.

The idea I am getting at is if agriculture joined the local preservation movement and cultivated the historic landscapes in a way that reflects the original garden /lawn/landscape intent. Cities can use land to educate the community while celebrating all types of heritage. In several unrelated examples a historic Italianate landscape is all greenery and no other color accents. An adapted-cultivated reuse would be planting cabbage, artichoke, or kale in long carpeted spreads. The other not shown example is of a Greek Revival; normally plantings are far away from the foundation, four paths that make a cross, and a fruiting or nut tree as a center point of this symmetrical design. The four separate plots of land can let a farmer rotate crops and the focal point could be an apple tree if for example in Central New York.

The example pictured to the right is an abandoned and derelict property on the NRHP. Regardless of the current state, the opportunities is there. Within walking distance between University Neighborhood and the Near Eastside it can weave in and out of biking paths, other historic properties, parks, the Connective Corridor to melt and weld this idea of historic agricultural production with the modern network of landscape elements that Syracuse has to offer.

*As a side note and afterthought the building reuse could be handed over to the preservation offices, but ideally it would be used for food storage, processing, consuming or marketing.

precedent on a macro lvl.

In this next phase of studio we looked at certain components of the Central New York food system. We divided into groups that  were to collaboratively focus on topics of the topics of the regional market, urban agriculture, and the group I was in regional food production.  Through discussion we broke regional food production down again- into separate topics of garden cities, food shed design, and suburban agriculture. We decided who in the group would be responsible for what case studies could be applied to Central New York. I decided to look at suburban agriculture.

Represented to the left is Granite Quarry in North Carolina. I made an inventory of the grocery stores with in a mile radius of the 128 acre suburban farmstead, represented in red. While a step in the right direction it is in my opinion, not the best model. It was poorly executed and if you have read one of the most recent Landscape Architecture Magazine's, the community collapsed financially.

Represented to the right is Cotorro, Cuba what I would call a better model for the Central New York area. They are currently building a farming web outside of municipalities which then feed a larger food web that goes to capital provinces. This is all in an effort to make the country food secure.

As a final synthesis of the previous precedents I applied what I learned to the local scale of Syracuse, New York. Similar to the procedure of the Granite Quarry case study; I inventoried marts that sells food. If you noticed I did not use supermarket instead I said mart. This is because this portion of Syracuse is considered a food desert. 

Syracuse also has 3,500 vacant properties, estimation highlighted in red, which can open up design opportunities by bridging disciplines.

thinking in systems.

This years studio focuses on regional foodshed design. As you might imagine looking at a foodshed is daunting so the the studio is broken down into groups to focus in on specific scales which a foodshed operates on. My contribution to this project is documented in the following blog posts

The first project of the semester focused on the idea of a system being the concept for design. I was paired with an MLA who has an undergraduate in marketing; the idea that came to this person was having a composting unit that could be on a kitchen counter. Through brainstorming with one another, we decided on what we call the Kitchen Companion.

It is a composting unit that is coupled with two planter boxes that can grow three different types of vegetables, that you would harvest after a growing season, cook in a dinner and and then place the waste in the counter top compost unit. Over time the soil would be changed out with the compost material of your leftovers from the meals you prepare.

The scale that is not represented is the macro scale. This scale would start to represent the community around the kitchen companion. Some of these factors are the trucks and infrastructure that process the food, the delivery of food from the farm to the distributor, and how the consumer decides to get to the supermarket.