Interim City: Recreate, Record, Recover

UltraBarrio

“This beautiful project brings new life to what would otherwise be dead and neglected space. The jury was particularly impressed with the integration of both architectural programmed elements and landscape. The drawings are beautiful and excellently crafted and work to convey a rigorous sense of time and phasing throughout the project’s lifetime.” 

—Jenny Sabin

This infrastructure toolkit proposes strategies for temporary urban activation aligned with interim viaduct infrastructure constructed to accommodate freeway expansion and traffic diversion over an approximately 10-year period. The demolition, excavation, and expansion plan, which includes temporary concrete flyovers, requires an enhanced definition of what territories are available for rescripting. Interventions are especially urgent in areas where public access is needed, neighborhood edges risk erosion, and safe passage for all remains necessary. These structures act as countermeasures that preserve access and generate activity to better inform permanent recovery. The toolkit expands to capture a nearby transit center, unifying ambitions of sustainability, accessibility, and connectivity that blend ecology, safety, and equality with placemaking. Properly orienting interventions across transit and infrastructure sites creates higher interdisciplinary responsiveness.