Station Spirits
When a building like the Pawtucket Central Falls train station is allowed to fall into disrepair it intensifies the conditions that lead to its initial abandonment. The dilemma of ownership's responsibility and their interests is a ubiquitous condition in any postindustrial city. Buildings in these places are ensnared in a political economic nexus like a fly in the spider's web; the cost of repair is too high and gets higher each time repair is put off. As these places rot from inside out, the architect watches, powerless.
The station's coffin is very much nailed. The owner has constructed a CVS pharmacy on the same plot; an act of warfare that destroyed the station's public orientation. It is fenced off and boarded up, but cannot be legally demolished.
Architects can imagine a different life for a city, but they are few and lack the resources. This project adopts the position of a guerrilla fighting a larger and better armed foe. Guerrilla architecture uses unconventional techniques and materials to accomplish its goals. The project hopes to revive the building’s spirit for others to discover again.
Special Tactics
The work to complete the installation needed to be covert: quiet construction techniques to avoid detection; lightweight materials to facilitate unorthodox site access; inexpensive to accommodate a 3 figure bank account.
The design is a 4 x 4 grid of 9’ x 3’ satin banners that float above the floor’s surface. The goal is to entice through curiosity. The color and reflective properties of satin were chosen so that a passerby who looked through a crack or broken window might catch a brilliant glimmer. The array creates a field that obscures its own center from the exterior as well as obscuring the outside from any who enter it. This makes the experience of entry into the field immersive and differentiated — perhaps worthwhile to break and enter for.
It was constructed by casting a specially modified lacrosse ball with detachable line in tow over the existing trusses of a clerestory at the center of the station’s atrium. Once the line is in place the banners are hoisted.
Accurately casting the ball at a distance of about 30 vertical feet while avoiding the irrelevant trusses is time consuming and many ball lives were lost in the making of this project.
