IRON HORSE PARK RENOVATION: Preserving Iron Horse Park & Arroyo Chico as a critical social open space in an urban context

Abstract

Cities are full of underutilized or neglected spaces with the potential to be re-purposed into a land use that can provide more valuable open space to urban dwellers. This action is sometimes referred to as “Infrastructure for All” Places such as brown-fields, parking lots, alleys, isolated underpasses and city washes are just some of them. Like many cities in United States, the city of Tucson is becoming more and more dense with a tendency to grow vertically, meaning that the common ground is shared; streets, sidewalks, plazas, parks, to name a few. Public spaces such as parks, give people the opportunity to interact every day, “the more they interact with each other, the more they accept each other. Encouraging people of different generations, race, and income levels to interact and share is a positive experience. Through this experience they learn that they can peacefully coexist with people who are different from themselves”. The purpose of this master's report will be to promote social interaction through the enhancement and reactivation of a city park, that has been neglected or forgotten and that may be threatened by new development and densification. “Densification is happening in Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Boston— in most cities, actually. Even sprawled-out cities like Austin, Texas, are densifying, with tall residential towers in downtown” To preserve an existing urban park by encouraging human interaction brings many benefits to the city in terms of revitalization of places, encouraging people to walk through and connect with their community, and it can also help to build the local economy.