Houston: A City Without Limits
This film focuses on Third Ward in Houston, TX more specifically in how the urban environment is perceived and treated through the lack of zoning. The film covers the social, economic, and infrastructure systems that are created in response to a different type of organizational order in a neighborhood that is striving for resilience.
Why Third Ward?
Third Ward has experienced major changes in its community such as gentrification, crowdedness, lack of neighborhood maintenance, unequal resources, and a major decrease in housing affordability. The research attempts to explain how some of these root cause are created from different systems that organize their spatial and social environment. There is plenty to analyze and connect with in Third Ward. The boundaries that were used as site boundaries for site research were Scott St. (East), Blodgett St. (South), Highway 288 (West), and I45 (North).
Project highlights
The film
The lack of zoning
The lack of zoning is not treated as a missing piece in the urban planning process but rather a gateway for the usage of different organizational methods for the neighborhood. The different opportunities and spatial conditions that are created are analytically studied and explored.
Land Use
Land use is a major portion of this research analysis of the community. There is a diverse use of land such as for commercial buildings, parks, single-family housing, and multi-family housing. These are organized in a way that creates different spatial experiences and public response.
Public Infrastructure and Circulation
The organization of public, vehicular, and infrastructure is also analyzed as they create specific systems in response to the organization to land usage and public needs. Public relation and physical maintenance of these systems are studied and analyzed.
Resources
These conditions allow or prevent certain resources from being available to the community. The unequal conditions that are created due to the lack of zoning are explored in the film.
Image gallery
Photograph Resources
A series of images, text cutouts, maps, and diagrams are used to help support the claims of the research analysis. It makes it easy to follow and understand the content of the research analysis.
Personal Photographs
Some images incorporated in the film were photographs that were taken during the site visit. They are used to allow the viewer to see more recent urban and environmental conditions while capturing a raw personal perspective of the community.
Film Resources
Written Research
On the second tab at the top of the webpage there is a button to the film, photographs taken from the site visit to help capture personal experiences, and film images. The film images are a fun and productive way to go back and review the film content more closely!
Resources and Links
The last tab shows the resources that were used for the creation of this film. Please take a look at them, they were very helpful, interesting, and full of good information!
University of Houston
ARCH 4373 Urban Environments
crosas7@cougarnet.uh.edu
Student
Crystal Rosas