Adapt. Reuse. Reclaim. 10 Landscape Design Projects That Turn Damaged and Neglected Spaces Into Healthy, Beautiful Environments
by Pamela Hartford
Landscape architects frequently work to transform areas that contain industrial and toxic waste, infrastructure no longer in use, or land affected by war, natural disaster or disuse. These neglected places, while often having a negative impact on the environment and surrounding community, are simultaneously part of our cultural heritage. To highlight the significance of these spaces, and the potential that they hold to become something more than a blight, I showcase a range of projects that illuminate how designers use unlikely opportunities to transform landscapes into spectacular spaces—all while preserving their historic and cultural meaning. These 10 case studies showcase the creative approaches city governments, preservationists, developers and designers have taken to transform marginalized places into healthy and meaningful environments for everyone to enjoy.Reuse & Reclamation: Abandoned Industrial Site
Gas Works Park in Seattle, Washington
Designer: Richard Haag
In 1965, the design for Gas Works Park transformed a former coal
gasification plant into an enormously popular public park. A central
feature, the boiler house, was converted into a picnic shelter complete
with tables and fire grills, while a former exhauster-compressor
building was turned into an open-air play barn that houses a maze of
brightly painted machinery for children. This groundbreaking project has
been celebrated for its ability to garner local support and shift
public perceptions of post-industrial landscapes. It is considered
revolutionary for its reclamation of polluted soils using the natural
processes of bioremediation, while uniting aesthetics with sound
ecology.
Reuse & Reclamation:
Post-Industrial Factory Landscape
Landscape Park Duisburg Nord in Duisburg, Germany
Designer: Latz + Partners
Working on a 570-acre site of a former steel plant, Latz + Partners’s
approached their reuse and reclamation project with optimism. Rather
than looking at the site’s disturbed and complex conditions as nuisances
that should be erased or camouflaged, they worked carefully to mine
them for their creative potential. The transformed site creatively
repurposes existing structures, and throws in number of amenities that
promote recreation and community, including a deep diving pool, a rock
climbing wall, picnicking areas, hiking trails, and multiple performance
spaces—all woven together to create a tapestry of memorable places. The
aim was to change the industrial landscape with minimal intervention,
recycling and visually renewing decaying architectural objects into
poetic places that pay homage to the site’s past.
Reuse: Abandoned Transportation Infrastructure
The High Line in New York City
Designers: James Corner Field Operations, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, and Piet Ouldorf
The High Line is a one mile stretch of abandoned elevated railroad on
New York’s West Side, which was under threat of demolition. After years
of public advocacy, it has been resurrected as a park that’s become one
of the city’s most popular destinations. The park’s attractions include
naturalized plantings that are inspired by the self-seeded landscape
that grew on the disused tracks, unexpected views of the city and the
Hudson River, and cultural attractions that are thoughtfully integrated
into the architecture and plant life. The project cost was substantially
less that it would have been to wholly demolish and redevelop the area,
and further serves as a precedent for adaptive reuse.
Remediation: Brownfield into Greenfield
Alumnae Valley, Wellesley College, Wellesley MA
Designer: Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates
Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates worked with Wellesley College to
revitalize the toxic brownfield of Alumnae Valley, an area that
previously hosted the college’s power plant, industrialized natural gas
pumping stations, and a 175-space parking lot. Managing the corrupted
soil involved several strategies: removing the most toxic soil, capping
and collecting the mildly contaminated soil, and then finding a way to
reuse it as part of the landscape. The site was originally shaped by Ice
Age glaciers. The mounds along the paths mimic the original sculpting
of the land while storing remediated soil. The integration of
topography, hydrology, and campus life brings Alumnae Valley back into
harmony with its surroundings.
Reclamation: Wetlands from Wasteland
Fresh Kills Park in Staten Island, NY
Designer: James Corner Operations
Fresh Kills Landfill has become a model for landfill reclamation
around the world, having been transformed into a vast green space full
of wildlife. The site is large enough to support many sports and
programs that are unusual in the city, including activities and features
such as horseback riding, mountain biking, nature trails, kayaking, and
large-scale public art. Demonstrating the role of wetland buffers in
battling rising waters, Fresh Kills absorbed a critical part of the
storm surge during Hurricane Sandy. With the help of advanced landfill
gas collection infrastructure throughout the area, methane is actively
harvested from the decomposing waste, providing enough gas to heat
22,000 homes. The transformation of what was formerly the world’s
largest landfill into a productive and beautiful cultural destination
demonstrates how landscape architecture can restore balance to the land.
Reclamation: Waterfront Revitalization
The Red Ribbon in Tanghe River Park, Qinhuangdao City, Hebei Province, China
Designer: Beijing Turen Design Institute and Peking University Graduate School of Landscape Architecture
Much of the original site, located at the edge of a largely
inaccessible beach, was used as a garbage dump and included deserted
slums and irrigation facilities. The goal of the Tanghe River Park
project was to preserve as much of the natural river corridor as
possible, promoting the lush, diverse, natural vegetation. Instead of
paving over the riverfront with hard pavement and planting ornamental
flower beds, the design employs a “red ribbon” steel structure
stretching 500 meters along the riverbank. This feature provides access
for jogging, fishing, and swimming, with minimal impact on the
landscape. The red ribbon snakes along a boardwalk that provides walking
access throughout the park. Many of the park visitors are former
farmers and “newly urbanized.” The park gives visitors an environmental
connection with rural China.
Disaster Response: Sustainable Farming
Viet Village Urban Farm in New Orleans, Louisiana
Designer: Mossop + Michaels
Viet Village Urban Farm is an urban farming project located in New
Orleans East, an area hard hit by Hurricane Katrina. Before the
devastation of the hurricane, there were over 30 acres of
community-farmed land growing traditional Vietnamese fruits and
vegetables. Mossop + Michaels‘ new design for a 28-acre farm will sit in
the middle of a dense urban environment, continuing the tradition of
urban farming that Vietnamese immigrants started there in the 1970s.The
design will employ sustainable irrigation techniques that require little
or no electricity to pump and filter water used in the fields. And the
organic crops produced on site will be sold at a new on-site farmer’s
market estimated to accommodate the 3,000 Saturday shoppers who had
previously bought foods these community farms before Katrina hit.
Recharging: Permeable Paving
The Green Alley at Boston Architectural College in Boston, Massachusetts
Designer: Halvorson Design Partnership
Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood, built on landfill in the 1880s,
features rows of elegant brownstones along tree-lined streets with
public alleys running behind the buildings providing service areas for
deliveries, trash storage, and parking. The Green Alley, located on the
Boston Architectural Campus (BAC) in Public Alley 444, lies between the
college’s 951 Boylston Street building and 320 Newbury Street building.
It has been redesigned to recharge the groundwater by filtering
stormwater from alley surfaces and two BAC rooftops through permeable
asphalt and paver systems and substrate. Below ground, geothermal wells
serve the college’s core buildings and lead BAC towards their net-zero
campus energy goal. A vertical steel grid rises up two sides of the
Boylston building for greenery to help reduce the heat effect in this
narrow urban canyon. As a design school promoting practice-based design,
BAC’s commitment to sustainable approaches in urban design and
collaborative processes is fully demonstrated through this replicable
approach to the Boston Back Bay alleys.
Rehabilitation: Public Gardens
The Gardens of Alcatraz in San Francisco Bay
The Garden Conservancy, National Park Service, and National Parks Association
During the military and federal prison periods, staff and prisoners
transformed much of the Alcatraz Island’s landscape into intensively
maintained gardens. The gardens served as refuges from the harsh
surroundings, becoming an important part of everyday life for officers,
families, and prisoners confined to the island. With the closure of the
federal prison in 1963, the gardens were abandoned. After extensive
planning, removal of overgrowth, planting, and repair of deteriorated
structures, the gardens are blooming once again for the thousands that
visit the island daily.
Re-imagining: Memorializing Battlefields
Herinneringspar in Westhoek, Flanders, Belgium
Designer: Stoss Landscape Urbanism
Scheduled to open in 2014 on the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of
World War I, Herinneringspar park is a joint venture between the
Flemish state government and the Belgian federal government. The war and
its aftermath have had significant physical and ecological impacts on
the Westhoek landscape—from the flatlands to the deforested and
bombarded fields to the agricultural farmlands. This project will create
a regional remembrance park along the front lines of the war,
memorializing key battlefields through a series of ephemeral plantings
and atmospheric effects within the agricultural fields. The design pays
tribute to the area’s military past, while also acknowledging the
agricultural present and suggesting a resonant future.
About the Author
Pamela Harford, since earning a BA in architecture, has put her design education to use in both editorial and landscape design projects. Moving to Salem, Massachusetts and working in a historic district piqued her interest in landscape history and preservation, inspiring her to pursue a certificate in Landscape Design History from the Landscape Institute. In between organizing conferences for historic preservation, she is researching the work of landscape architect Warren Manning, a disciple of Frederick Law Olmsted, for the Library of American Landscape History, and unearthing the horticultural history of Salem in the archives of the Peabody Essex Museum. She is interested in how cultivated (productive) landscapes have shaped our aesthetic and emotional response to landscape. Contact Pamela at bookbosk@covad.net.From the original article available at :
http://www.ecolandscaping.org/
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