Tyler Spitzer-Wu


// University of Michigan
// B.S. Urban Technology
// Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning
// Minors in Computer Science and Entrepreneurship
// Class of 2027

I am interested in the use of technology in the built environment to improve the quality of life of those who interact with it. I am fascinated with cities as centers of innovation, culture, and economy with unparalleled vitality. I aspire to use my programming skills, design intuition, and entrepreneurial attitude as a practitioner creating positive and meaningful change within and between cities and communities.


tylersw@umich.edu
Résumé
LinkedIn

FOR CEDAR

The Incomplete City

UT 103: The Incomplete City
JUN 2024

// Sketching
// project management, urban design, user empathy, negotiation“The Incomplete City” exercise is based around the idea that a city is never “complete”; instead, it is constantly evolving to shape and be shaped by humans and the environment. Throughout this project, we were given increasingly demanding or restrictive requirements that our community needed to satisfy, just as real-world practitioners are constantly keeping up with the demands imposed on them by urban residents or governmental agencies.

We were first tasked to create an urban space for an imagined community consisting entirely of remote workers. We first sketched out a blueprint driven by our desire to create a walkable and dense community with plenty of social infrastructure. This led to the creation of a public park and a food plaza directly adjacent to our mixed-use public square. These amenities would offer social and co-working opportunities in close vicinity to the place of residence of our population.

We then were given an increased population requirement and had to merge with another community. Merging with this other community with a completely different user group meant that we had to collaborate to create public spaces that could be enjoyable and accessible to all. This resulted in the expansion of our public park and the creation of a pedicab way, on which pedicabs would operate similar to buses and carry upwards of five people between and within our communities. We also responded to the population quota by building upwards and not outwards so as to preserve the energy and social vitality of our community.

We then had to merge with another community and effectively the entire class. The largest challenge here was creating a seamless transition between the transportation system adjacent to us, which contained bus and car traffic, and our own transportation system, which consisted of subways, pedicabs, and bikesharing. To respond to this issue, we created a mobility center in between our communities at which users could catch the subway, bus, or get on a bike or pedicab to get to where they needed to go. We designed the mobility center to serve as a convenient destination for users as well, with a theater and a picnic area.

What I enjoyed about this project was the creation of design principles guided by the user experience that we used throughout the implementation process. I also enjoyed handling the negotiation between our group and others, all with the motivating intention to create space that works best for the most amount of people.

Initial layout for the community with design choices driven by the need for socialization of remote workers
Buildings layout and pedestrian paths set, with focus on mixed-use and walkable spaces
Initial amenities of food plaza and public park laid out adjacent to main plaza
Fully implemented public park, complete with walking trails, picnic spaces, and athletic courts
Zoom in on pedicab way, providing sustainable car-free transport for residents going between communities
Zoom in on food plaza on main corridor, adjacent to residential and office buildings and a community garden
Mobility center (bus, subway, bike) at the border of the community meant to serve as a destination, adjacent to a picnic area, a theater, and residential buildings
The increased housing density following increased population requirements
The merge between our community and another with a different user group but shared amenities
Our community in between two others with different user groups, seamlessly connected through dynamic and accessible social infrastructure and interconnected multimodal transportation systems

home  next -->