Faisel E R S Altawheed

Professor Klepper

English 113B

24th October 2013

The Good, The Bad, And The Empty

               In the early age of vehicles, people started to construct buildings horizontally, which had impacted our present world negatively, most of the empty spaces are built. The space is a recourse that may get consumed by the time if it wasn't managed carefully. A thought that no one can deny is that our daily routine usually consists organizing and reorganizing our workplace to enhance it performance, that is why we should reorganize the old building in a way to make it more useful.

The Meridian Pointe

            It is a residents complex located across the street from CSUN campus, it is considered as one of the closest apartments to the East side of campus. The first few glances once you enter the building will be astonishing , a big luxury lobby that have a spectacular view on a pool. But after taking a tour in the place, you would never like to live in that place. The hall ways resembles a jail, because of the cramped path and the bricks design. In addition, This kind of design usually blocks the phone signals at the complex. The apartment design is also missed up, the bed room is way much bigger than the living room. Humorously, sometimes you can find two doors to one apartment, but only one of them opens, because the other door is built on a wall by mistake. All of those negatives shows how is this space is designed carelessly.  Unfortunately, this great amount of space beside the campus has always been half empty, because students prefer to commute from faraway palaces, rather than living in a cramped complex.

            The Meridian Pointe made a noticeable effort on the complex entrance, but to be able to attract more students and get into the competition with the other complexes, it should work more on the hallways and the apartments. A great way to enhance this miss usage of space is to focus more on what would attract the students.

            Alex Steffen once said that "people all over the world are embracing the walkshed life style", by walkshed life he meant a life without vehicles. Since the complex is close to campus, the place should be designed in a way that encourages people to use bicycles to reach the campus. The only current place where you can park you bicycle is in the far back of the complex, away from CSUN, in an outdoor and very small gated area. Instead, it should be more in the front beside the main entrance.

            Other way to enhance the building is by rebuilding its walls in a more fashionable way, to avoid that jail impression. In addition, adding more windows to the complex, rather than the big bricks, would strengthen the phone signal.

            One of the main reasons that prevented me personally to live in that place is the smell of cigarette. The complex did not make a smoking room for the smoker residents, therefore, the smell of cigarette is spread in the hallways. What's  happening is that the complex is attracting the minority category of people "smokers" and pushing away the majority of the non-smokers. In order to attract more people to live in this empty complex, is by marking a space for smokers to smoke in, and forbid the smoking in halls.

            If the complex worked on these enhancements, it will definitely attract more people to move in. As what Steffen once said, “Urban retrofitting: creating different sorts of spaces and uses out of places that are already there.” People should learn how to improve what we already have, rather than  consuming space by building new more buildings.

 

Works Cited

"Alex Steffen: The shareable future of cities | Video on TED.com." TED: Ideas worth spreading. N.p., July 2011. Web. 24 Oct. 2013.

Steffen, Alex. "Alex Steffen: The shareable future of cities | Video on TED.com." TED: Ideas worth spreading. N.p., July 2011. Web. 25 Oct. 2013.