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Boundaries in Motion
Highways and Spatial Production
I’m not sure how I imagined my early career would look. It’s not like Public Service wasn’t an option. After all, it was an Urban Planner who sparked my interest in the built environment. I guess after 3 years and some change chasing the alluring title of Architectural Designer, I had discarded the role of the humble Town Planner. Upon acquiring my first role out of Graduate School, I was quickly reminded of the important work of the Planner. Town Planners run into many things, but in my first few months, I found myself crashing into very real boundaries. Touted as “Major Arterial Roads”, US Route 380, US Route 75, and TX State Highway 5 serve as the boundaries of the McKinney Historical Area. These three finite, built, and handcrafted boundaries each impose their own sense of space onto the city. I believe each road can comfortably fall into the “perceived-conceived-lived” triad. This system for understanding space is discussed in Henri Lefebvre’s The Production of Space. Here lie some notes on Lefebvre, McKinney, and Urban Planning.
Commissioned in 1931, US Route 380 was built as part of the Interstate Highway System. As the oldest piece of infrastructure referenced, US Route 380 serves as the best display for Lefebvre’s described ‘conceived space’. Conceived space may be represented by the power and capital of the state; this includes the investments of bankers, the rules of bureaucrats, and the drawings of architects. US Route 380 connects San Antonio, New Mexico to the West, and Greenville, Texas to the East. As North East Texas suburban neighborhoods continue to develop, US Route 380 serves as a major thoroughfare that “connects” the region. Owned and maintained by the Texas and New Mexico Departments of Transportation, the route has had increased demand as developers point and prod at North Texas on maps; all hoping for a glorious return on their greenfield investments.
Texas State Highway 5, as it stands today, was developed in 1959. Its primary function was to service the relocation of US Highway 75. US Highway 75 continues to expand, prompting the continuous refining of Texas State Highway 5. Every change to TX State Highway 5 is demanded by the people who traverse it daily. Within Lefebvre’s triad, TX State Highway 5 represents ‘lived space’: the desires of dwellers, their dreams and memories. All developments along TX State Highway 5 are community-oriented. As you drive along the route, you may notice that businesses and services develop to provide solutions to the communities they serve. Though always in a state of flux due to its entanglement with US Highway 75’s growth and expansion, TX State Highway 5 serves at the pleasure of its surrounding community.
Lefebvre’s third and final category is ‘perceived space’: the way in which dwellers actually use space. Once a cross-country route connecting Canada, the United States, and Mexico, US Route 75 serves Texas as the North Central Expressway. As a major commuting thoroughfare, US Route 75 is the perfect display of perceived space; its development pattern is a direct response to an increased population in the region. As more people move to the surrounding area, the route must increase its capacity. Burdened with never-ending traffic, construction, and contestation, Route 75 represents the daily actions of the people. The route connects the entire Dallas-Fort Worth region; it moves hundreds of thousands to the places where they spend their lives. Its critical positioning to the DFW region has rightfully earned its categorization as a perceived space.
See, I grew up in Los Angeles, a place where boundaries, man-made or otherwise, hide behind terms that prompt visions of an ideal landscape. The city hosts neighborhoods titled: Ladera Heights, Marina del Rey, and Rancho Palos Verdes. All terms that serve one's imagination. With placetype phrases referencing a topography, ecology, or geology, Southern California beautifully crafts an ideal landscape that is easily exportable to one’s dreams. So imagine my surprise when I landed in North-East Texas, where roads do not hide behind terms of endearment like Pacific Coast Highway. The standard nomenclature of the North Texan roads provides a rich context for understanding suburban dynamics of power, ideology, and daily life.
Until next month,
stay BAD.d
Written by Kyara Robinson