Forty years ago, New York City took ownership of a parcel of land on the Lower East Side for "slum clearance" and urban renewal - the Seward Park Urban Renewal Area (SPURA). Few renewal projects have been so contested, and it remains the largest undeveloped city-owned parcel of land south of 96th Street. The hopes, memories and meanings of this place are intertwined with the history of housing and politics on the Lower East Side and in New York City at large.

The "Visualizing SPURA" project tries to help envision this site’s future, and emerges from the yearly City Studio class devised and taught by Gabrielle Bendiner-Viani in the urban studies department at Eugene Lang, the New School. City Studio, which stresses civic engagement with a community in New York, has for two years explored SPURA through archival, ethnographic, visual and participatory research.

The class is a collaboration with SPURA Matters, a project of several local organizations, Good Old Lower East Side (www.goles.org), Pratt Center for Community Development (www.prattcenter.net), and City Lore and its Place Matters project (www.placematters.net).

In February 2009, Gabrielle and her students curated the first Visualizing SPURA exhibition, using many media to allow visitors to make their voices heard about the future and everyday life of this complex site. The 2008 City Studio included: Anastasia Ehrich, Savannah Foster, Kara Gionfriddo, Winhkong Hua, Evan Iacoboni, Samantha Lewis, Rachael London, Hannah Lyons, Gabriel Tennen, and Samantha Washburn-Baronie.

Visualizing SPURA continues in the fall of 2009, with a new range of projects by new students, exploring the new possibilities for development and organizing on the SPURA site -- as it has once more begun to be considered by the community board.

Exhibited at:
common room, 2009