Layered SPURA

Abstract

This article explores Bendiner-Viani's visual urbanist Layered SPURA project, which explores the everyday experience of housing, urban renewal, and urban change at the highly contested Seward Park Urban Renewal Area, a failed urban renewal site on New York City's Lower East Side. In collaboration with community organizations and students, the project produces creative yearly exhibitions and walking tours, which, rather than suggesting solutions for a place beleaguered by top-down planning, create unusual spaces for discussion in a site where dialogue is often lacking.