Megan Kaminski

Reimagining the 1950s

Architecture [M.Arch]

The majority of Americans live in the ‘suburbs’- this trend has only grown since the 1950’s with a majority of the population either continuing the trend of suburban expansion or returning to city centers. With the continuation of these trends, the original 1950’s suburbs thus receive less redevelopment opportunities, continue to age, and also face socioeconomic changes that they are ill-designed to adapt to. To that end, suburban renewal approaches seek to transform these existing suburbs and tackle concerns like automobile dependency, lack of middle housing, and lack of mixed use zoning.

But, many of these suburban renewal strategies fall short in terms of their application. Current code regulations, insufficient financing, and community concerns are a few of the many roadblocks that renewal strategies face. As such, this Thesis focuses on how these renewal approaches can be understood on a reactive timeline rather than applying these approaches singularly. Instead, the approaches can ‘work together’ in their application in existing suburbs to then ‘unlock’ the feasibility of applying yet more approaches. In this way, an overall reactionary timeline may be a solution to fostering not just more, but better suburban renewal efforts within existing communities and suburbs.

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