Finding Waste Land: Strategies of Site, Landscape, Politics, and Building
Distinguished Visiting Critic: Jinhee Park, AIA.
featuring
Christopher Novelli, Damian Liddiard, Jeff Leupold, Laura Portney, Margaret Green,Rebecca Maisch
“What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow
Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man,
You cannot say, or guess, for you know only
A heap of broken images, where the sun beats,
And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,
And the dry stone no sound of water”
-T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land
HYPOTHESIS
What if there was a new U.N. agreement, something more far-reaching than the Kyoto Protocol, mandating that all new urban development be constructed on areas already damaged by human or environmental impact? Greenfield development would be banned and new strategies for identifying, remediating, and sustaining existing sites would have to be advanced.
This fictional hypothesis is quickly becoming a necessary reality: As cities and suburbs expand, ‘virgin’ sites are becoming an endangered commodity. On the other hand, the curing of existing urban wounds entails overcoming two difficult hardships: a ‘wasteland’ site must be made habitable both literally, through technical and scientific means, as well as figuratively, through reversing previous public perceptions that a site is in someway undesirable or even diseased.
Overcoming this double-task of the technical and experiential has led governments to label some wasteland sites as economically unfeasible. Merely ‘cleaning up’ a site without somehow solving its negative image is a costly effort that does not produce further economic investment by businesses, institutions, and individuals. Meanwhile, the ways in which to ‘repair’ a damaged site’s perceived image is a much more elusive task and cannot take place without first undertaking extensive (and expensive) environmental engineering.
Instead of assuming that these challenges are opposing forces that create overwhelming economic and political risks however, this studio research suggests that reclaiming urban sites involves a simultaneous and dialectical relationship between the real and perceived aspects of a site.
SITE: Lawrence, ‘City of Textile’
Located twenty-five miles north of Boston, Lawrence, Massachusetts is truly a city of immigrants and industry. Lawrence was built in the 1840’s as the nation’s first planned industrial city. The massive mill buildings lining the Merrimack River, the striking clock and bell towers, and the Great Stone Dam are all a tribute to Lawrence’s industrial heritage. The harnessed strength of the Merrimack River and its system of canals fueled the Lawrence mills that produced textiles for the American and European markets. By the early twentieth century, with a population of nearly 95,000, the city was a world leader in the production of cotton and woolen textiles in massive mills.
In the 1950’s however, Lawrence, like many of the industrial centers in the Northeast, went through decades of economic downturn leaving millions of square feet of space underutilized and many residents either vacating for other cities or suffering through the results of urban disinvestment. How can existing and new buildings in our site be reinvented into a new image of Lawrence – one that acknowledges its past while looking toward the future? How can the industry and image of textile manufacturing become both literal and metaphorical springboards to new urbanisms and architectures? A multitude of compelling catch-words come to mind such as weaving, fabric, loom, sheer, skin, fit, stretch: however, can one use these evocative concepts as performative and programmatic methods to re-invigorate a depleted urban context?
By
Margaret Green -history
Damian Liddiard -transportation
Jeff Leupold -zoning
Christopher Novelli -construction
Rebecca Maisch -environment
Laura Portney -marketing
By
Christopher Novelli
Damian Liddiard
Jeff Leupold
Laura Portney
Margaret Green
Rebecca Maisch
Lawrence can be accessed from a wide variety of public transportation networks (mbta, commuter bus, local bus, regional and international airports). it is also highly accessible to the motorist with the major highway of i-495 directly to its south and i-93 to the west. the relic of the industrial era (canal networks) are currently not utilized but offer a link to the past that might become a transportation / tourist link.
Immigrants flooded to Lawrence and - regardless of their age - worked in the mill for 56 hours per week. The Bread and Roses strike of 1912 made media to focus on the hardships endured by mill children. The strike inspired sweeping changes in labor laws across the country, especially for children.
The site of our project is the Upper pacific mills complex. Once of the largest mill complexes in Lawrence, it used to be home to six massive buildings that produced a major portion of the city’s cotton cloth. Once considered a gateway complex to the mill area because of its siting at the end of the mill island, it now is testament to the economic depression Lawrence has be mired in since the mills moved out over 60 years ago.
The Pacific Mill site is strategically located in the heart of Lawrence on the banks of the Merrimack River, within easy walking distance of the downtown business district (red below) and the civic buildings surrounding the city square. Lawrence boasts an extensive park system (green below) woven into its residential neighborhoods - one of these parks borders the river on the project site.
Extending the “fingers” of the business district onto and across the site will bring needed activity to the site and link the business districts that are now separated by the river.
The proposed revised zoning map extends the business zones across the river and across the site while proposing a park network linked by bicycle, jogging and walking paths.
To manipulate the existing building structure the use was studied and expressed as a tectonic unit. This tectonic unit indicates the area needed for the original industrial machinery (four bay wide spinning machines and one bay wide looms) and the sectional relationships between spinning and loam stations.
The cultural center provides a place for the community to gather and learn about each other’s cultures. With such a diverse city, the center would thrive off of the diversity within Lawrence. By providing programs and events, the center could become a safe community space.
“Retail Row” provides a place to shop for locals but also offers a place to hang out. With the sidewalk that extends out to the existing building, an opportunity for fairs, markets and other outdoor events is created.
View of Cultural Center and Restaurant Plaza
The canopies speak to the industrial integrity of the mill with the galvinized steel supports. They serve to break up the plaza area and provide areas for sitting and gathering.
The gallery wall serves to draw the attention of users
by displaying artwork on the exterior.
reflection of the depth of the masonry piers which form each of the structural bays of the existing building, as well as filtering sunlight into the gallery space.
The weave is based on a twill pattern that would have been used to weave the cotton at Upper Pacific Mills. It is a 1 over - 2 under alternating pattern.
Culture and Commerce work together to help
Lawrence re-emerge as a regional cultural and economic center
Brownfield Remediation
Voids serve as clean out points for heavy metals on site
three options provided that can be utilized for the design of the transportation and pedestrian pathways throughout the site.
landscape ribs bend to form pockets of program and park use, as well as serving to introduce water through the site as a soft element.
The new structural ribs weave delicately through the building, providing both a link back to the past use and ab invigorated programmatic design. most visibly, the ribs provide the structure for the new roof program, puncturing through the existing roof and forming the main support. within the existing building, the ribs weave within the column bays forming program areas where they create floor and roof plains.
If a walkway is too narrow two people cannot walk side-by-side and during passing one person must walk on the grass. (Top)
If a walkway is too wide there is no forced social interaction and the area loses a little of intimacy. (Bottom).
Most of the site is hardscape and the green open space available is made up of steep terrain and underutilized parkland. The parkland is close to a polluted river that is said to smell badly in thesummer months. Proof that just defining an area as a “park” doesn’t make it used or usable.
The impermeable hardscape and lack of vegetation mixed with steep slopes allows stormwater runoff flow directly into the Merrimack River. The EPA lists stormwater runoff as the number one cause of waterway pollution.
culture program, as well as an outdoor ampitheater is located within the center sections of program, surrounded by business, retail and entertainment uses.
This project recognizes the importance of the Pacifi c Mill’s central location in the City of Lawrence and connects the activities proposed for the site with the business districts and neighborhoods on both sides of the Merrimack River.
Conceptually, the new building meets the massive Pacifi c Mill building with an equally massive yet complementary building type. Here, the mat building embraces the bar building, creating a megastructure capable of holding the expansive site. The site, in its present state is not fully engaged;
the mill building stands reticently on the sidelines away from the river bank. The new building ties the site together by reaching into the ground and, through a series of hovering roof panels, climbs up and over the site and mill building, ultimately reaching across the canal towards downtown Lawrence. If fully realized, the new Pacific Mill site will build on the city’s rich history providing a new vitality for tomorrow.
The recreation fields program is further broken down into different sports or activities.
Sports like volleyball, soccer, basketball or tennis are mixed with skateboarding and
adventure activities like zip lines and rock climbing.
The pencil sketch to the left is a development of the puzzle piece idea. Each patterned hatch represents a different type of program.
Since the EPA identifies stormwater runoff as the number one polluter of waterways in this country, stormwater mitigation is a good place to start especially since a majority of the Lawrence site was asphalt and buildings. My proposal is to combine stormwater mitigation and resurrecting the site by turning the asphalt heavy “front yard” of the mill building into a clutter of athletic fields. Sports ranging from soccer to basketball to beach volleyball would landscape the site with permeable materials. And, the fields could be layered to provide a drainage scheme that would cleanse the stormwater as it travelled its natural path down to the river starting with permeable paved basketball courts and ending with a community pool that used water plants & algae to clean itself.
Recreational fields and community pools add open space and open activities to an area that lacks both, providing a “backyard” for the whole community. And, when you add in “alternative” activities like rock climbing, skateboarding, zip lines and multipurpose spaces you provide an opportunity for a diverse mix of traditional, cultural and alternative recreation.
By analyzing the way in which an existing site is viewed, one can begin to construct the way a person sees the created site. focal points and hierarchy determine which views are enhanced and which are hidden away. the site lines then begin to define the buildable area within the site. the shapes of the buildings are generated from the space that they define.