Whiting, Sarah2019-05-162019-05-162019-052019-02-27May 2019Rader, David. "Public Infrastructure." (2019) Master’s Thesis, Rice University. <a href="https://hdl.handle.net/1911/105376">https://hdl.handle.net/1911/105376</a>.https://hdl.handle.net/1911/105376“...The question is, “how then to open the avenue of great debates, accessible to the majority, while yet enriching the multiplicity and the quality of public discourses, of evaluating agencies, of ‘scenes’ or places of visibility?” ... Perhaps the question can be addressed with less a sense of inevitable contradiction and impasse if one moves away from the universalizing ideal of a single public and attends instead to the actual multiplicity of distinct and overlapping public discourses, public spheres, and scenes of evaluation that already exist, but that the usual idealizations have screened from view.¹” Contemporary Publics The contemporary megalopolis is comprised of diverse collectives. These collectives, or “bubbles,” within the city contain self-similar socioeconomic and demographic groups with little overlap. We live and work amongst others who are like ourselves. The geographically isolationist tendencies inherent in our megalopolitan condition are mirrored in digital media. Rather than enriching civic discourse and participation, media networks have been shown to populate homogeneous platforms in which various collectives group themselves according to shared interests with the benefit of excluding others². Habermas’ “public sphere,” which relied upon conversational engagement amongst socially diverse groups, is absent³. The result is a fractured society in which the value of physical interaction is not reflected in our built environment. Public institutions which provide moments of overlap among diverse groups must expand this critical role. The community college is one example of a centralized model which may better serve contemporary publics through decentralization. The Role of the Community College The community college is a public institution that serves many collectives comprising students and the general public. Accordingly, community colleges are pursuing strategies which fill gaps in education, provide professional training, and expand social services. These shifts require innovation in form and function. The centralized campus typology is unfit to support these new roles as suburban campuses are physically isolated and benefit only those within the immediate vicinity. This is problematic in any megalopolis where access is further complicated by congestion. The community college, already a relatively decentralized institution, should be further decentralized and integrated with public transportation to form a network which extends access and multiplies moments of social intersection. The Function of Public Transit American cities have neglected public transportation in favor of the automobile. Rapid urban growth has exacerbated street congestion, challenging the feasibility of vehicular infrastructure. As streets designed for cars become dysfunctional, cities which had neglected public transportation are now investing heavily in below-grade transit. The expansion of public transit systems into car-dependent cities provide critical sites for architectural engagement; transit infrastructure must expand beyond its traditional function. Transit hubs with overlapping collectives have been exploited for commercial gain, and valuable urban sites are often underutilized by hosting tiny shelters over a single route from street to platform. Integrating transit infrastructure with public institutions will ensure expanded access and social engagement for contemporary publics, allowing public institutions and urban infrastructure to evolve simultaneously and serve diverse publics in new ways. The thesis makes three assertions: 1. Urban environments are populated by homogeneous collectives with little overlap. We need a new public sphere, a physical space in which diverse collectives may overlap and engage one another. 2. The decentralized community college will increase public access and maximize education, training, and community support while increasing moments of overlapping collectives. 3. The insertion of new transit networks into auto-oriented cities demands that we rethink their functionality. Transit will become a facilitator for engagement by capitalizing on the overlapping of diverse collectives at points of intersection while extending access to public institutions. 1 Robbins, Bruce. The Phantom Public Sphere. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1993. 2 Schroeder, Ralph. Social Theory after the Internet: Media, Technology, and Globalization. UCL Press, 2018. 3 Admittedly, the spectrum of social diversity of his 18th c. example was perhaps not that great either.application/pdfengCopyright is held by the author, unless otherwise indicated. Permission to reuse, publish, or reproduce the work beyond the bounds of fair use or other exemptions to copyright law must be obtained from the copyright holder.InfrastructureCommunity CollegeEducationTransitLos AngelesThesis2019-05-16