Building Linkages: Projects for Pynchon Plaza

This book presents the work done in the inaugural Graduate Architecture Studio under the umbrella of the new UMass Amherst Design Center in Springfield in the Spring of 2010. The book showcases student design work and examines the challenge of balancing the pedagogic objectives of the studio with community needs in a community-based design studio. The studio project, Pynchon Plaza, is a public park with a 40 ft topographic drop. It has the potential to be a prime physical connection between the Springfield’s cultural resources, it’s downtown and it’s river parks. The park has been gated for 20 of its 33 years. The studio developed short-term low-budget installations that could be implemented immediately to build sponsors for the site in advance of a full-scale reworking. Then long term architectural projects were studied that balanced the need of community members and residents, tourists and passersby, and stakeholders as yet unknown.