The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Image© Brad Feinknopf

Zena Howard如何应用设计的方式帮助城市复兴
How Zena Howard Uses Design to Help Cities Heal

由专筑网李韧，王雪纯编译

本文最初发表于《Metropolis Magazine》，标题为“游戏改变者：建筑师Zena Howard应用设计来复兴城市”。该杂志每年的“游戏改变者”系列都会报道积极推动行业发展的杰出人群。

如果城市转变过程以社区参与为基础，那么城市化进程就会变缓。但是，在未来的五到十年里，夏洛特、格林维尔、迈阿密、温哥华、洛杉矶的非裔美国人社区将经历巨大的变化，这都源自于建筑师Zena Howard的辛勤付出，这位建筑师是北卡罗来纳州Perkins+Will事务所的主要负责人。

This article was originally published on Metropolis Magazine as "Game Changers: Architect Zena Howard is Using Design as Urban Healing." Metropolis' annual Game Changers series highlights those in design who are pushing the field forward.
Transforming urban centers can be slow going when the process is rooted in community engagement. But within the next five to ten years, historically African-American neighborhoods in Charlotte and Greenville, North Carolina; Miami; Vancouver; and Los Angeles will experience major change, thanks to architect Zena Howard, who leads Perkins+Will’s cultural practice in North Carolina.


As the head of Perkins+Will’s cultural practice in North Carolina, Zena Howard has spearheaded an effort to address decades of community marginalization, posing design as a collaborative tool for change.. ImageCourtesy Perkins+Will, via Metropolis Magazine

Howard于1988年毕业于弗吉尼亚大学，后来在The Freelon Group公司Phil Freelon的指导下，这位建筑师从事了近10年的文化项目，该公司位于北卡罗来纳州。在Howard的工作面试中，Freelon表达了他对于好设计的信仰。Howard是以非裔美国人，她说：“这样的说法引起了我的共鸣，让我十分感动。在当时，Freelon Group公司与社区合作了许多项目，但是那时非裔美国人和其他人都无法参与到设计过程中。”

2008年，作为驻场建筑师的该公司与主创设计师Adjaye Associates进行了合作，共同设计位于华盛顿的Smithsonian非裔美国历史文化国家博物馆。Howard在其中担任了高级项目管理人，在2014年，Perkins+Will事务所与Freelon Group公司合并，在2017年，Howard成为北卡罗来纳州的主要负责人，其影响范围不断扩大。

Perkins+Will事务所认为这是“拥抱回忆的项目”，这个术语来源于将历史背景融入建筑形式的设计方式，而这也是整个项目的核心。在团队的合作中，她通过吸引利益相关者而寻找到特定的灵感，她认为，项目的目标是“富含独特真实感受和文化敏感性的设计体验”。

A 1988 graduate of the University of Virginia, Howard worked for a decade on cultural projects under the mentorship of Phil Freelon at The Freelon Group, an architecture firm based in Durham, North Carolina. During Howard’s job interview, Freelon expressed his belief that great design should be for everyone. “That resonated and stuck with me,” says Howard, who is African-American. “At the time, The Freelon Group was doing a lot of work with communities where African Americans and others were not involved in the design process.”
In 2008, when the firm teamed up as architect of record with lead designer Adjaye Associates on the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., Howard served as senior project manager. Her influence expanded as Perkins+Will acquired The Freelon Group in 2014 and, in 2017, named Howard managing director of its North Carolina practice.
Central to her body of work are what Perkins+Will refers to as the “Remembrance Projects”—a term she coined for community-driven design that infuses historical context into built form. Working with small teams, she finds inspiration in specific contexts by engaging stakeholders. The goal, she says, is “a design experience rich in a distinct sense of authenticity and sensitivity to culture.”


Essential to Howard’s project to address urban design’s historical harms is ensuring that such damages are remembered. In Greenville, North Carolina, a beloved Baptist church was destroyed during a period of “slum” clearance in the 1960s. A series of public meetings identified the clear need to memorialize the church, which Perkins+Will’s design does.. ImageCourtesy of Perkins + Will, via Metropolis Magazine

该项目的实施很大一部分归功于公众会议，以格林威尔为例，在上世纪60年代，这里的整个社区、乃至教堂都被镇城居民视为贫民窟。而在这个项目中，Howard则希望能够通过设计的方式在居民之间建立起沟通的桥梁，“我们希望能够创造一种仪式感，用来纪念曾经的一切。”格林威尔的居民Lillian Outterbridge说道。在进行讨论之后，Perkins+Will事务所进行了Sycamore Hill Gateway Plaza的方案设计，该项目位于当地已被毁灭的教堂旁，预计将在今年进行施工。建筑有22面墙体，墙上纪念教堂的建造者，而这些墙体的布局具有音符般的韵律，同时，院落也能激发其人们对于非裔美国花园的记忆，而纪念塔楼则参考了当地原有钟楼的基础。

格林威尔项目体现出典型的Howard式构思方式，而其他合作伙伴也发现并修复了在Robert Moses时期城市复兴项目的部分损坏。她说：“这件事发生在当地，不止一次地打击着城市社区。”首先是重新规划，即切断投资垄断，允许少数居民去投资和维护城市财产，然后是联邦城市复兴政策，该政策公布了一些贫民窟地区的拆迁计划，其中的建筑都将被拆除，用于城市公路的建设。

A big part of this work happens at public meetings, as in Greenville, where an entire neighborhood—including a community church—was obliterated in the 1960s when the city deemed it a slum. For this project, Howard helped guide the conversation with residents in a design direction. “We were trying to establish a monument that would commemorate the community and the church that was destroyed,” says Lillian Outterbridge, a Greenville resident. Following discussions, Perkins+Will developed plans for what will be Sycamore Hill Gateway Plaza, near the site of the demolished church, which is expected to break ground this year. It will feature 22 walls—one for each of the church’s founders—whose arrangement, in plan, recalls musical notation, while a “swept yard” will evoke African-American gardens, and a memorial tower will reference the foundations of the razed bell tower.
The Greenville project is typical of Howard’s initiatives. Three others also seek to both recognize and repair the damage left in the wake of sweeping urban renewal projects of the Robert Moses era. “It happened across the country—a one-two punch that decimated urban communities,” she says. First came redlining: cutting off access to funds that allowed minorities to invest in and maintain urban properties. Then came federal urban renewal policies, which enabled governments to declare vast areas slums so they could be destroyed, making room for highways.


When the Sycamore Hill Gateway Plaza is completed, the site will be home to a public park with elements that reference the church’s walls, windows, and bell tower.. ImageCourtesy Perkins+Will, via Metropolis Magazine

在上世纪60年代，I-95穿越迈阿密Overtown地区，这里包含大片非裔美国社区，在当时还有40000位居民生活于此。如今，Overtown地区的人口已经只有5000位居民。Michael Stevenson说：“这本身就是个阴影。”Michael Stevenson是Perkins+Will事务所北卡罗来纳州的城市设计负责人。同时，Overtown地区也将成为精心规划中的文化场所。

无独有偶，温哥华的一个项目也解决了Howard曾经说的“长久之伤”，该项目位于历史上的黑人社区Hogan小巷，该项目始于1971年，为当地修建了两座高架桥。Howard当时组织了多次的工作坊，来收集当地居民的故事，由此来确定重建的主题，这些故事包含该地区曾经的“门廊与通道”，这成为了当地社区的一大特色。

When I-95 plowed through Miami’s Overtown neighborhood in the 1960s, it carved up the largely African-American community, which had 40,000 residents at the time. Today, Overtown’s population has dropped to 5,000. “It’s a shadow of itself,” says Michael Stevenson, who leads Perkins+Will’s urban design practice in North Carolina. A master plan will reestablish Overtown as a cultural destination.
Similarly, a project in Vancouver addresses what Howard calls “decades of hurt” arising from the 1971 construction of two viaducts in Hogan’s Alley, a historically black neighborhood. Howard organized multi-day workshops, gathering stories from former residents and identifying themes to emphasize in the redevelopment. These include the area’s former “porches and passages,” which brought a certain character and scale to the neighborhood fabric.


Destination Crenshaw. Image courtesy of Destination Crenshaw.

虽然Howard十分强调“拥抱回忆”，但她也想象了城市与居民的未来。以洛杉矶为例，长达1.3英里的Crenshaw大道与当地的交通项目相结合，而Crenshaw社区也尽可能地为当地交通与居民而服务。Perkins+Will 事务所的文化项目负责人Malcolm Davis说道：“他们说，‘让交通站变得更能焕发活力’。” Malcolm Davis曾经与Howard共同合作过公共艺术项目。除此之外，他们还进行了户外博物馆的设计，这座博物馆包含有11座公园、大型步行道、照明系统、景观系统、永久艺术展厅。洛杉矶议员Marqueece Harris-Dawson说：“曾经人们匆匆而过，如今人们纷纷而来。”

Howard的同事、事务所的主要设计师Kenneth Luker说道：“Zena是Perkins+Will事务所，的精神领袖。”该公司能够很好地了解其独特的想法，因此人们选择她来设计文化项目，这会成为Perkins+Will事务所作品中的光辉一笔。

Harris-Dawson说：“她非常聪明，我曾经与许多建筑师进行过合作，但是她的思维则在不同的高度。她是一位积极的政治家，有着社会工作者的敏锐与优雅，同时也是一位伟大的艺术家。”

While Howard emphasizes “remembrance,” her work also reimagines a city’s future—and its residents’. In L.A., for example, a 1.3-mile stretch of Crenshaw Boulevard is slated to be integrated into a transit project running from LAX to downtown. A vocal Crenshaw community demanded its own Metro stop and sensitive development that would serve its residents. “They stood up and said, ‘Make the station an invigorating force,’” says Malcolm Davis, a cultural practice leader at Perkins+Will who worked with Howard to facilitate public meetings and coordinate public arts programming. These led to plans for an “outdoor museum” with 11 parks, plus sidewalks, lighting, landscaping, and permanent art exhibits, in addition to the Metro stop. “It was meant to be a pass-through, and now it’s a destination,” says Marqueece Harris-Dawson, who serves on the Los Angeles City Council.
“Zena has come forward as a bit of a spiritual leader at Perkins+Will, globally and for the disenfranchised,” says her colleague, design principal Kenneth Luker. The firm has recognized her unique vision, selecting her to serve on its cultural projects practice council, which advises Perkins+Will’s global cultural portfolio.
“She is brilliant,” says Harris-Dawson. “I’ve worked with a lot of architects in my day, but she operates on a different stratosphere. She’s a seasoned politician, with the grace and instincts of a social worker and the panache of a great artist.”


© Mark Herboth. ImageDistrict of Columbia Public Library / The Freelon Group Architects