FIU Landscape Students Featured by Toledo’s Media Thinkhub!

Three graduate landscape architecture teams from TJ Marston‘s Spring Graduate Design 4 Studio were selected to be featured by Midstory, Toledo’s media think-hub, this summer. The students will produce a video presentation of their innovative proposals for Toledo’s Warehouse District. Their work will be featured on Midstory’s website and at the citywide summer gala titled “A City in Transit” at the Downtown Train Station on August 3rd.

“Midstory is dedicated to retain, cultivate, and attract youth and the public from disparate segments of post-industrial cities—beginning in the city of Toledo, Ohio—by interweaving stories of science, art, and culture. Our Vision is to have a powerful midstory in the nation, curating a voice for postindustrial communities—toward renewed sociocultural capital in the Midwest.” – Midstory’s Mission

The three teams selected had a range of ideas such as deploying tactical urbanism through experience themed loops, creating a new productive urban waterfront along Swan Creek, and developing urban agro-tourism in downtown Toledo.

Below is a snippet of the student team submissions:

THE LOOPS (Josandra Castillo, Olga Mekari Lopez, Katja Rocha, Catalina Dugand) : The LOOPS is a three system strategy that re-invisions the Warehouse District as an active, vibrant heart of Toledo, bringing people back downtown with dynamic ways to explore their rich history and innovative future. The master-plan activates the Warehouse District through tactical urbanism, identifies the community through four distinct districts that are anchored by major landmarks, and unifies them through a series of thematic loops

AGRIPOLIS (Rutusha Nagaraj, Selene Basile, Juliana Musmanni) : Agripolis re-purposes the warehouse district as an urban agricultural hub, where agriculture is the key source to promoting the revival of underutilized buildings + areas throughout the district. The proposed master plan is strategically laid out in order to emphasize the concept of “Live, Work, Play” through three big moves: re-purposed streets, an “Agricultural Hub” and a green “Ribbon”.