Mt. Pleasant
On Tuesday’s lecture, we learned about how a city evolves as political powers dominate the urban fabric and it can be seen as a type of gentrification. This reminded me of a project that I worked on in the Charleston studio during my undergraduate studies. The project was a cultural center focusing on the history of Mt. Pleasant and passing on the traditions of the Gullah traditions.
We learned about the displacement of the natives that were granted land ownership in Mt. Pleasant as a consequence of consumerism. Highway 17 used to look a lot different 30 and Mt. Pleasant was covered with farmland. This is an example of Harvey’s statement “Quality of urban life has become a commodity for those with money”. Today, Mt. Pleasant has been taken over by subdivisions and Highway 17 has transformed from a road filled with sweetgrass artisan merchants and local vendors to privatized properties providing the needs for tourists and the upper middle class.
Great topic! We design the Farmer stand in Charleston last semester. The problem we find during the research is the old sweet basket stand was pushed to abandoned by the highway. The road wider road bring more people passby the stand but they did not stop to buy the sweet basket anymore.
ReplyDeleteAfter living in Mt. Pleasant last semester, I saw a side of urbanism that I'm not too fond of. The notion of a society that has essentially developed for one type of people, one type of lifestyle, and one overarching idea of being elite has transformed a land that was occupied by a people of simple means into a congested mess of royalty. Charleston is a perfect example of politics in the realm of architecture. The BAR meetings there is a show that explains the downfalls of the urbanism occurring in the CHUCK.
ReplyDeleteA relevant example of the role of politics in city development. I appreciate how you explained the issue and how it changed not only the formal aspects but social layers. how the new design modernized the previous space but excluded some social classes is an inevitable result which should be thought about.
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