Reshaping Gentrification: An Urban Design Proposal for the Redevelopment of Columbia Heights

by Michael Aziz

Gentrification has long been one of the most pressing economic, design, and public policy issues in the United States. At its best, gentrification breathes new life into depressed and neglected neighborhoods, bringing them opportunities that would otherwise remain out of reach. At its worst, gentrification fractures healthy communities by pricing out working-class families and replacing them with uninspired redevelopment projects. This book examines how gentrification affects the shape and texture of our cities. Through the lens of one Washington, DC neighborhood, this book proposes new ways to shape development such that gentrification's negative social effects are minimized. Designers and urban dwellers alike are bound to find things in this book that speak to the places they know and love. Students in the fields of architecture and planning will gain insight on how they can take an academic exercise, void of client affiliations or biases, and produce a meaningful design study.

168 pages, Paperback

Published September 3, 2010