Housing Connecticut
elective, fall 2024
What began as an initial reimagining of a single CVS lot in the town of Ridgefield grew into a speculative and scalable system of affordable housing around the state of Connecticut. Our semester-long investigation reframed the dual-crises of housing shortages and mid-box retail closures as a thesis in the transformation of defunct stores into convenient and contextual residences. Our goals of our project were to, above all, change the negative perception of affordable housing by demonstrating its capacity to improve neighborhood diversity and vitality, and boost the local economy.
The aesthetic character of Ridgefield’s historic downtown district has been cited as an agent against the stereotypical ideas of what affordable housing looks like. Our site’s conditions – a CVS parking lot – stifled access to the nearby Ballard Park and subjected Main Street to the same mundane, vehicle-dominated planning plaguing many other New England neighborhoods. The placement of the CVS on Main Street called attention to a nationwide trend of mid-box retail closures (particularly pharmacies) within the last couple of years. Many of these chains have ongoing plans to either downsize or close their stores.
Perfectly situated in between the Main Street shopping promenade and park and adjacent senior housing, pedestrian and road accesses placed a lot of pressure on this corner; it was a critical “hinge point.” In all our schemes, this L-shaped configuration allowed us to preserve and prioritize the distinctive edges of the park and the main thoroughfare.
This site also allowed us to intervene in an unsuccessful urban initiative taken by Ridgefield: adding the parking lot and CVS as the climactic point in the Main Street progression. This parking lot stifles access to Ballard Park, the true termination point for the street. The L-shape bar allowed us to revitalize the historical village fabric, which was damaged and frayed by the parking lot.
In our design, the corner is also of high importance, visually marking the intersection with a signature clocktower as an homage to the historicity of Ridgefield’s urban core, reaffirming the history of the town. After creating proposals for the Ridgefield site, we considered how ourdesign intervention could be applied to other towns in Connecticut.
Instructors Andrei Harwell & Alan Plattus
Partners Paddy Mittag-McNaught, Karina Encarnacion, Whitney O’Reardon