Urban interimventions: reclaiming underused automobile infrastructure as community public space

The purpose of this thesis is to underscore the damages to community wroughtby car-centric planning and to seek mending solutions. Large and sweeping measuresare necessary to stem the outward sprawl that drains downtowns of residents,businesses and general vitality. Yet, these large measures are expensive, idealistic, andin the near future at least, unrealistic. This thesis takes an alternative stance in lookingfor solutions to aid our depopulated streets and urban communities. Instead of large,permanent, and costly efforts, it proposes that small, temporary, and inexpensivemeasures can easily and effectively plug in to the existing automobile infrastructure to create public spaces. URBAN INTERIMVENTIONS (urban + interim + interventions)reclaim underused slices of the very infrastructure that fractures neighborhoods toprovide impromptu public gathering spaces. These spaces draw people back out ontotheir streets, where they are able to reestablish contact with one another to beginhealing damaged communities.