Alex Wall’s discussion of the manipulation and use of the urban surface as landscape urbanism seems relevant in thinking about our project in the median strip outside of the Cheeseboard. In this instance, as we’ve discussed at length over the course of the semester, what I find especially interesting is the porous boundary of the restaurant, and the subsequent inhabitation of the urban surface that takes place. The median strip, because of the proximity of the Cheeseboard, functions very much as “an active surface, structuring conditions for new relationships and interactions among the things it supports”. Is this a case of a private/public surface (the Cheeseboard) running into the urban surface, or the urban surface bleeding into the restaurant?

I also find it particularly interesting to contemplate our space in terms of Tschumi’s discussion of the relationship between action and space. Tschumi states that one must consider whether the relationship between action and a particular space are symmetrical or asymmetrical. Is this a condition where the space dominates the people, or one in which the people dominate the space? One can make an argument either way, I think. On the one hand, the slow space of the median strip, as perceived from the median strip, is a rather intimidating and thrilling place to be. Cars whizzing by seem to be moving much faster from your position at eye level with the tires and close proximity to them. In this way, the space clearly dominates the people. But then there’s the violence done by the people in inserting themselves in a place where pedestrians are not supposed to be present. This questions the hierarchy and dominance of the car in this space, and no doubt makes the people inhabiting the fast space of the road feel violated in some way. These inversions—of the dominance of the car in the roadway and the inversion of urban surface and private/public space—are what make the space so rich and excite both its users and observers.