A different type of resilience:A paradigm shift for small post-industrial communities

Abstract

Resilience is a term often used in design to refer to natural disaster relief through architectural practices. Yet, a new form of resilience could potentially serve as a paradigm shift for those cities and town seeking economic relief. In the small post-industrial town of Steubenville, Ohio, we find a community that's struggled to reassert its identity in the face of its raw economic decline. Therefore, an economic resilience must be implemented that empowers that town to reinvent itself and to thrive as it once did during its 1940s Industrial heyday. Can economic resilience become the new solution for small town planning? Dilapidated, abandoned buildings and rubble-filled lots remain as reminds that haunt downtown Steubenville. How do we restore the sense of community among residents as well as bring about the economic stability that the town once enjoyed? Historically, the Ohio River served as a key source of the town's economic prosperity. The catalyst for Steubenville's renewal may lie in the coupling of this noble natural resource and the implementation of economic resilience. This endeavor could introduce a paradigm shift for Steubenville using approaches taken by other small and struggling, post-industrial cities. Research has been comprised by interviews with city leaders, business owners and residents, embedded research, and analysis via case studies such as Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Roseburg, Oregon. Peering through the lens of Steubenville's once-flourishing industrial history, cross-temporal connections begin to reveal viable clues that indicate a more community-centered downtown that can be reactivated, re-engaged, and re-invigorated as well as sustained for future generations