A History of Solid Waste Management in New York City: Where Every Day is Trash Day
Pratt Institute (2022)
Present-day New York City is home to over 8 million people who collectively produce more than 12 thousand tons of trash every day. This volume of trash production is viscerally apparent to residents and visitors alike; Anyone who has spent an afternoon strolling along the picturesque brownstones of Fort Greene, or has taken an early-morning shuffle off the subway into an office building in Herald Square can attest to the seemingly constant, brutishly imposing presence of garbage in New York. The waste management system in New York City as it stands involves individual residents or building managers placing bagged piles of residential trash in heaps along sidewalks three days a week. Beyond the obvious olfactory implications of this system, having massive heaps of trash lining sidewalks across neighborhoods and boroughs blocks pedestrian right of way and access to the street, in addition to cultivating pest presence. This, unfortunately, is by design…
Statement of Purpose
Pratt Institute (2020)
In the field of wayfinding design, the term “natural wayfinding” describes the phenomenon of spaces designed intentionally to prioritize their users’ journey. In theory, the best environments don’t necessitate any signage at all; the strategic lighting and thoughtful curvature of the architecture itself will lead visitors to their destination instinctively, without language, color, or symbols (the three main communication tools in a wayfinding designer’s toolbox). However, motion is just one element of use, and “natural wayfinding” mostly ends up an elusive, abstract concept…
Homelessness and the Built Environment
Parsons (2015)
In January 2014, over 578,000 Americans were without homes. This includes anyone sleeping outside, in an emergency shelter, or in transitional housing. Modern homelessness tends to be impartial; The racial demographics of the homeless population of any given place tend to be more and more representative of the general population of said place. As criminology professor Gregg Barak reflected in 1991, homeless people are not just the “displaced and deinstitutionalized” individuals (those with mental illness or addiction struggles) but also abused or neglected youth and adults in the form of refugees, veterans, and immigrants…