Urban Designer/Planner/Architect + Social Equity Activist using Steemit to push awareness and inquiry of cities!

Hello Steemit:

I’m Tyler! I am an urban designer based in New York City, living in Brooklyn, studying cities and people across the United States. I work at FXFOWLE Architects in Manhattan during the day and write and research race, social equity, and the role design plays in it by night.

I grew up in prototypical suburbs 10 minutes outside of the mid-tier city, Kansas City, attended undergraduate school in Fayetteville Arkansas, lived and worked in Rome for 8 months, a current resident of New York City for 7 years, and I spend a few weeks a year in India and Oman with my wife’s family. I have had exposure to cities across the world, yet my fascination still lies in American cities and how and the reasoning behind their unique pattern of development. I have a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture, a minor in Architectural History, and a masters in Urban Design; this combination of degrees and diverse living experiences has granted me a holistic viewpoint to see cities through. In my 8 years of professional experience I have worked in all realms of Urban Design; from suburban retrofits to large scale urban master plans from traffic management systems for cities to full transit system designs for metropolitan regions. The one constant measure of success for the projects has been people; how people interact with the built environment and other people. Recent times have brought topics such as race and equity to the forefront of conversations. I have been researching the role of race and equity on the shaping of the American City and professionally practicing its implementation. Steemit and its community will act as both a sounding board for thoughts and ideas but also a megaphone to share knowledge and raise awareness to the forces behind current city growth.

(Transect of professional urban design projects. Tyler Cukar)

What I have been Up to:

Currently, I have two roles, both of which influence each other. Professionally, I am urban designer at FXFOWLE Architects working on large scale masterplans and development strategies for city and public agencies. On the side, as the conversation of “gentrification” and equity have gained prominence, I research and advocate on how the American City got its distinct built form.

In the last two years I have worked on two major projects for the City of New York. The first was the feasibility study for Sunnyside Yard in Queens. This project was to study the financially plausibility of decking over 180 acres of railroad and providing roughly 28 million SF of mixed-use development. The project focused on infrastructural concerns of the rail, social issues of the 5 dramatically diverse adjoining neighborhoods, and the pragmatic issues of New York City’s housing shortage. The project is one of the largest masterplans for the city sense the 1811 grid and is almost 8 times the size of Hudson Yards.

The Feasibility Study: https://www.nycedc.com/project/sunnyside-yard

(Sunnyside Yard Feasibility Study Overall Plan. FXFOWLE Architects)

(Sunnyside Yard Feasibility Study Section Perspective. FXFOWLE Architects)

Concurrently at FXFOWLE I worked with “The Independent Commission on New York City Criminal Justice and Incarceration Reform” to rethink Riker’s Island, the nation’s largest correctional facility complex located in New York City. The commission looked at decriminalization and bail reform to lower the prison population, the future of jails, and what to do with the island itself. All components of the project looked at community benefit, specifically for those effected by the criminal justice system in the United States. The report spurred Mayor Bill de Blasio to exclaim “we will close Riker’s Island within 10 years”.

The report: http://www.morejustnyc.com/the-reports/#the-commissions-report

(Riker's Island Infrastructure Scenario Axon. FXFOWLE Architects)

(Riker's Island LaGuardia Airport Expansion Scenario Axon. FXFOWLE Architects)

For the last 5 years I have been working on a research project titled “Orchestrated Urbanism: The Race Built City”. The project’s focus is to create a lens for architects, designers, city agencies, and the public to view the constructed city through. The project uses Kansas City Missouri as a prototypical American City to emphasize the role race played in shaping the city and the compounding, long lasting effects it has had on African American’s. Using overlays of racial covenants, redlining, current development trends, and other components cause and effect relationships can be established. “Orchestrated Urbanism” rethinks the typical linear timeline of a city’s history and reorients them as cause and effect webs to illustrate the true underlying “shapers” of cities.

(Cause and Effect webbed timeline. Tyler Cukar)

(In progress overlay of urban renewal and red line districts in Kansas City. Tyler Cukar)

Orchestrated Urbanism is working towards a public lecture on November 29th at the American Institute of Architect’s Center for Architecture in Kansas City, Missouri. There will be a simultaneous release of a white paper, by the same name, which be available at the event and download online.

Looking Forward:

My ongoing research and upcoming lectures focus on urbanity, public space, and architecture within a social equity thread through them all. This platform will serve as an outlet for my thoughts, findings, and opinions of other projects and articles on urbanism and social justice; while also acting as a sounding board to get feedback and thoughts from the larger community on this pressing topic. I look forward to insightfully conversations and feedback!