Open Gaza Advocates Social and Spatial Justice for the Beleaguered Strip

A new book edited by the late Michael Sorkin and Deen Sharp offers speculative visions that prioritize the recovery of the people’s agency and humanity.

Spatially speaking, the Gaza Strip is a hyper-dense string of Palestinian cities and refugee camps whose geographic smallness belies its global import. Implicating an international web of geopolitical interests (most saliently those of Israel, which effectively encircles it), it is also the subject of a new volume from Urban Research, the imprint of urban think tank Terreform, founded by the architect and critic Michael Sorkin, who died earlier this year. (One of Sorkin’s last works, the book is dedicated to him.)

Coedited by Sorkin and Deen Sharp, the contributions collated in the book are “surely eclectic,” they write, from architectural accounts of uniquely Gazan typologies to speculative visions of future development trajectories in the beleaguered territory. Gaza’s resilience in the face of abject desperation has long inspired the international community, making it a highly salient crucible in discussions of spatial justice, occasionally to the point of abstraction…..

Gowntown Reviewed in dDAB

Our first book, Gowntown: A 197-X Plan for Upper Manhattan, was reviewed by John Hill, dDAB (A Daily Dose of Architecture Books). He begins by taking us on a walk:

See: John Hill, NYC Walks: Guide to New Architecture Book, 2019.

Having given a walking tour of Columbia University's four Uptown Manhattan campuses strung along the 1 Train — Morningside Heights, Inwood, Washington Heights, and Manhattanville — for many years now, I've been forced to dig into the long and contentious process of the last, the new campus taking shape northwest of 125th Street and Broadway.

More from A Daily Dose of Architecture Books.

“While it probably won’t influence the city, developers, and other actors in Upper Manhattan, it just might have a strong impact on a new generation of urban designers and planners more interested in sustainable, community development than private development.”

— John Hill, dDAB

This book was a project of many hands, minds, and hearts! Much appreciate support from The Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts.

From Gowntown: Introduction:

What exactly is this document? To begin, it’s a series of meditations on Manhattanville—and Upper Manhattan—intended to provoke discussion, even action. It has been prepared in light of Columbia University’s massive expansion into the neighborhood and the inevitable enormous changes this will bring. This proposal is the work of Terreform—a nonprofit, freestanding research center, which as part of its mission formulates unsolicited interventions for vexed urban situations. Gowntown has not been commissioned by anyone, although its preparation has entailed extensive consultation, shares many points of view, and, of course, stands on the shoulders of giants. We are pleased to call to the achievements of Ron Shiffman, who has been New York’s most dedicated community planner for decades and who was instrumental in producing Community Board 9’s fine 197-a plan1 (encompassing Manhattanville).

We likewise salute the many groups and individuals in the neighborhood who—through a combination of imagination and resistance—have struggled to secure a happy and equitable future. With these fair efforts in mind, we choose to call this document a 197-x plan to acknowledge that it is not the result of consensus building and to suggest that such “unofficial” contributions should enjoy the same standing and warrant the same attention as the more official, community-sponsored 197-a and the generally developer-driven 197-c.

A truly open planning process must be just that: one in which all contributions are respected.

Download the introduction from our project page.

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In 2016, Terreform launched its publishing imprint, UR (Urban Research). UR is a medium for disseminating our work and as a support structure for designers and researchers who share the project of a progressive and liberated urbanism.

Zoned Out! in the New York Times

On the city’s rezoning plans for Inwood, “Manhattan’s Last Affordable Neighborhood”.

“Little did they expect the fight back, which has been incredibly vocal and active in all of the neighborhood,” said Tom Angotti, a professor emeritus of urban planning at Hunter College who wrote the 2016 book “Zoned Out! Race, Displacement, and City Planning in New York City.”

“In Inwood, it’s specifically the Dominican population that is going to be the most vulnerable,” Mr. Angotti said.

New York Times.

On Sunday, the Northern Manhattan Is Not For Sale coalition, which includes local residents and community groups like Centro Altagracio de Fe y Justicia as well as citywide organizations like the Metropolitan Council on Housing and Faith In New York, held a public forum to discuss the city's current rezoning plan for Inwood.

City Takes Time With Inwood Rezoning Process By Abigail Savitch-Lew, CityLimits, October 26, 2016.

ZONED OUT! RACE, DISPLACEMENT, AND CITY PLANNING IN NEW YORK CITY

Editors: Tom Angotti and Sylvia Morse

Contributors: Tom Angotti; Philip DePaolo; Peter Marcuse; Sylvia Morse; Samuel Stein

Last year’s conversation between Tom Angotti and Domingo Estevez, Inwood resident and community organizer. The event was held at Word Up: Community Bookshop.

The work continues! 💪 See also Zoned Out! Bushwick, Ridgewood, Gowanus, from the Left Forum to the Boiler, Rezone or Leave Alone? Northern Manhattan is Not for Sale. Resisting Displacement and Dispossession.

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UR (Urban Research), the imprint of Terreform, publishes progressive books about cities and their futures. Understanding that no single approach is adequate to the promise and problems of the urban, we publish a wide range of designs and analyses.