MITCH HODIONO
This is a map of Manhattan Islland in New York, specifically SOHO and Chinatown.
SOHO takes up 215 acres of land in Manhattan, but it is dwarfed by the
size of Chinatown which spans 492 Acres.
SOHO stands for South of Houston Street, located in the Lower Manhattan District. The area consists of branded stores, which is a contrast to Chinatown, where the area focuses more on market, food, and culture.
The site that we are going to focus is a block that is right between on the edge of Chinatown and SOHO. I chose this block because it represents the two different environments from Manhattan. We can see from this bird’s eye view that the east side (right) of the block retains the curved eaves reminiscent of designs we come to expect from Chinatown. While the west (left) of the block houses shops that are more aligned to the SOHO area.
The annotated map display information about the block between SOHO and Chinatown.
The block’s main road is Canal Street. The block has 4 owners: China Buddhist
Association (P4), City Urban Member (P5), Centre Plaza (P3), and 123 Lafayette
LLC (P2). There is no information for who owns lot P1, but since it is mainly a
residential building, we can assume each unit is privately owned. Underneath
the block, we can access 2 subway lines: N-Line and 6-Line. The N-line goes all
the way down to Coney Island, while 6-Line goes uptown to the Bronx.
The Actor-Network Map traces the history of both
SOHO and Chinatown. SOHO has been mainly a place for businesses, manufacturers,
wholesalers, and warehouse until World War II.
Today, SOHO consists of shops and office building. The history of
Chinatown is a vastly different story, spanning from the first Chinese immigrants
that first arrive in San Francisco. The ANT-Map also focus on how transportation
from outside Manhattan would cost. We look at three different methods of
transportation (Car, Subway, Walking) from where most of Manhattans reside, Brooklyn.
This image shows an alternate representation of
the location if it is in the coastal area instead of downtown Manhattan. Coastal
area will have more interesting structures, like the Sphere from Amazon
headquarters in Seattle. It would also have a Pier where pedestrians would
enjoy their times with music, exercising, street food, or just a simple walk by the coast. Since it won’t be in a downtown area, there would be less light pollution and we could see the stars at night.