Union Square Human Wildlife Project

"I have spread my dreams under your feet / Tread softly, for you tread on my dreams." - William Butler Yeats

Union Square has a past, a present and a future. But what will that future look like?
We know that a Green Line extension stop is slated for the near future. And with accessibility comes inevitable change in urban fabric. As design students, Studio Situationist Local recognizes that this change often comes from the top down, rather than from the bottom up.... from on high, where people look like ants and gold can be seen glinting in the hills.

We envision a better future for Union Square, one that responds to really existing conditions, has a positive impact on moods, situates the community for inspiring interactions, and stimulates the people - not just the economy.

To describe this kind of change, a new lexicon may be needed. The Situationists of the 1950's, among them Guy DeBord, used the term 'spectacle' to describe the effect of an  "inverted image of society in which relations between commodities have supplanted relations between people, in which 'passive identification with the spectacle supplants genuine activity'." By addressing a problem with a new term, he created a new way to think about the degeneration of society through capitalist efforts.

Union Square is already a place of genuine activity, with a burgeoning culture and a tight community. We need a new way to think about and to describe this really existing condition, because 'community' or even 'autonomous/successful community' is not enough. We need a strong new term by which to make an argument for the conservation of Union Square's way of life. 

Some common species of Union Square human wildlife.

I propose that we adopt the term 'wildlife', for this reason: when urban developers and planners and architects talk about conservation, we really mean historic architecture or engineering artifacts - not people or ways of life. However, when we talk about wildlife conservation, we really mean both the fabric of the ecological landscape and the particular ways of life of species which inhabit that landscape. We study these species, we figure out what makes them thrive, and we strive to protect their actual habitat. I propose that as we support wildlife conservation, we also apply the study and understanding of nature and wildlife to include us, as humans, in our natural urban setting. 

Because we need to tread softly on your own landscape, on your own dreams.

A study of uses and ecotone collisions in Union Square.
Unioneers are particularly good at inhabiting and enriching
ecotone transition areas.

How is Union Square able to host such a range of species and  activity? This success owes in part to historically loose zoning regulations that allowed a range of uses to develop over time. This is why you may see a house next to a metalworking plant, a restaurant next to an autobody shop, or a bar within a police station. We can describe this rare and exciting mix of use in Union Square as 'ecotones,' which in nature refers to the collision of distinct ecologies, where communities transition and merge.

The Union Square Human Wildlife Project is a proposal for a new center, 
which makes space for the conservation and development of human wildlife activity and habitat.
The site selected is across from the existing 'center' of Union Square - the triangular open space occupied by the SCAT building and Precinct Bar. The new center will connect to the existing center by means of a pedestrian bridge, which spans the heavily trafficked Somerville Ave, easing the path of migration and continuous activity.

THE ARCHITECT'S DREAMS...........................................................................................................