ESLARP: Emerson Park Housing Development Group
Introduction
Exciting new changes are taking place in Emerson Park! A promising development that is coming to the neighborhood is the light rail station. This station would link Emerson Park to St. Louis, helping to increase employment opportunities in the neighborhood. Because of the growth potential offered by the new light rail station, the city has proposed the addition of two hundred housing units for Emerson Park.
Backround
Emerson Park is an East St. Louis neighborhood which has rather unique
boundaries. It is surrounded by interstate highways and/or busy railroads
on all four sides. Like much of East St. Louis, the Emerson Park
neighborhood has a significant amount of vacant lots and derelict housing.
With the added light rail link, the entire personality of the neighborhood
can change. The purpose of this group's portion of the ESLARP project
is to determine suitable areas within the Emerson Park neighborhood for
the new housing units.
Aerial Photo of Emerson Park
Related Projects
Many other projects are also being done for the East St. Louis area. The Kriegsfeld housing development group is working on locating housing throughout the East St. Louis area. Another group is looking at the archaeological history of the Emerson Park. A third group is studying tree nursery and street tree programs, as well as creation of wildlife habitat in Emerson Park.
Sources
The main source of information for this project will be the EGRETS map and database from the University of Illinois Landscape Architecture Imaging Lab. Also, the group looked at various web pages from past architecture classes which dealt with similar neighborhood development projects . Another source of information was the Housing and Urban Development website.
Project Definition
The extent of this project will include the Emerson Park neighborhood of East St. Louis. The major community issues which are being considered for this project include: integrating the light rail link to St. Louis, reversing the deterioration of the neighborhood, planning for the new housing units, including open spaces and green spaces, and incorporating wildlife areas, wetlands, and an urban tree plan into the development design. Some key resource issues include: census data, long range plans for Emerson Park, and community oriented facilities such as NTAC. Other sources of information we will likely use is Arcview, FormZ, AutoCAD, ArcInfo, etc.
Site Analysis
One of the most important components of a neighborhood plan package
is the site analysis. An analysis of the neighborhood can provide essential
information in determining the siting of the housing units. There are many
issues to consider when siting homes: location of the flood plains and
any wetlands, areas of vacant land, proximity to schools and public transportation,
location of industry and railroad areas, and location of any cultural magnets
such as churches and historical markers.
By considering the issues above, a suitability map can be created.
A suitability map combines all of the issues that are important in determining
where the units should not be built. This helps to narrow
the suitable sites for the housing units. The suitability map below
combines the floodplains and the areas that are not vacant to determine
where we can site our units.
Project
Definition and Site Analysis
Emerson
Park Neighborhood Proposed Design Development
This section includes a series of design development
maps and narratives of potential residential experiences.
Bibliography
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