East St. Louis Action Research Project
Due to the decline of the Industrial Era in the United States, much of our urban waterfronts have become vast tracts of desolate spaces. Some cities have begun reclaiming these profitable tracts of land for a variety of uses. While many of these new urban waterfronts have been claimed by real estate developers with full intention to exclude the community that created these places, few have created areas that "give back" to the local community. The following paper looks at some of the finest examples of abandoned land reclamation in the United States that have helped the economic, social, and environmental conditions of the surrounding communities.
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Perhaps the most familiar example of abandoned land reclamation is Gas Works Park, a 20.5 acre park in Seattle located on the site of a former gas manufacturing plant. From 1906 until 1956, the Seattle Lighting Company occupied the site on Lake Union. In 1963, the City of Seattle started buying the property with intentions of building a park for the city, and in 1968 the development of an urban park on the site was approved. In 1970, the city commissioned Richard Haag Associates, Inc. to prepare a master plan for the park.
Because the area was a former site of a manufacturing plant, the land was sitting atop layers of industrial wastes. Just a few feet below the surface the groundwater was polluted with contaminants, all due to the years of industrial production at the site.
In a campaign led by Richard Haag, the designers of the park planned to preserve the unique gas works structures on the site and recycle the site into an urban, intensely used pleasure ground to celebrate the emerging recreational energies and to direct these energies into creative play ("Gas Works Park," 1981: 594). The landscape architect believed that the structures on the site were a symbol of American technology and needed to be preserved. After much opposition from both the local community and environmental officials, the master plan was approved in 1972.
Using many of the sites existing elements, the master plan includes a wide variety of attractions for the city. The original boiler house was transformed into a picnic shelter with tables, fire grills, and a mezzanine stage for special events. The former exhaustor-compressor building is now the site of the children's playbarn. Here children play in a maze of brightly colored machinery. One centerpiece of the park is the sundial, a solar and people powered piece of artwork. All of which is constructed from recycled materials.
Besides preserving the existing structures, Haag also designed several features in the surrounding landscape. These include the Great Mound, an area that provides visitors with magnificent views the adjacent Seattle Skyline, and the "Prow", an amphitheater area adjacent to Lake Union.
When the park opened over 20 years ago, it received much praise as an example of an innovative post industrial revival. In 1981, it won the ASLA Presidents Award of Excellence. Since then, Gas Works Park has become somewhat of a post-industrial headache (Roberts, 1983: 50).
Although always considered a problem, the pollution in the groundwater has become a major area of concern in the last 15 years. Because of pollution related problems, the park has been closed several times since it first opened. Environmental officials are saying that the pollutants are washing into the surrounding Lake Union. The United States Environmental Protection Agency wishes to have the groundwater pumped out and treated. A process that could take 10 years to complete, at a cost of $2 million dollars.
On the other hand, Richard Haag, of Richard Haag Associates, Inc., disagrees with those officials. He claims that the surrounding Lake Union, which suffers from other pollution problems, has been polluting the park. Haag also claims that the clean-up should be left up to the pollution eating microbes, through a process called bio-medication (Roberts, 1983: 50). This struggle between the designer and various environmental agencies had gone on for years and will undoubtedly continue well into the future.
Looking back at this project, 35 years after it was first conceptualized, one must wonder if this project still deserves the praise it was given when it first opened in 1974. One must note that this was at a time when there was not the same understanding of environmental pollution. Perhaps the praise and criticism for this project be put on hold, until a time when pollution situation become more clearer. If such an area were to be planned today, developers would have to go through a much more intense site clean up, before any development occurs.
The history of this park brings up a highly controversial question we need to ask ourselves as landscape architects: can America's old industrial sites be transformed into public spaces in a safe and cost effective manner? In a time when public cleanup funds are in short demand, the $2 million cost of possible cleanup for a Gas Works Park might exceed the benefits of a public open space in many peoples minds.
Perhaps the finest example of urban land reclamation in the United States is New York City. For many years, the waterfront surrounding lower Manhattan, remained a desolate open space. A reminder of the fall of industrial production within the city.
Today, the west side of New York's downtown financial district ends with Hudson River Park, Battery Park City's newest and largest greenspace. Battery Park City consists of a 91 acre landfill project comprised of both mixed use development and open space. The overall 35 acre open space plan of Battery Park City includes several smaller parks that stretch from Hudson River Park to the southern point of Manhattan. These include Hudson River Park on the northern most end, stretching to the south lies the Esplanades I & II, and then continuing to the southernmost portion of the park is South Cove. Overall, this series of parks has enabled the residents of New York City, as well as the tourists to experience the river that helped the city grow into one of the worlds most important port city.
Although the 8.2 acre, $18.2 million Hudson River Park looks much like any other waterfront park, the process in which it was created was much different. In the early phases of the design process, the local community board won a court decision to have a voice in the design process. Residents wanted a more active recreation space than was originally planned for the park. Besides sport and play areas, the community wanted a "green, pastoral park, open to the sun, sky and river" (Griswold, 1993: 64). Unlike many community participation oriented designs, the design process for the park went rather quickly, only four months to produce a schematic plan.
Today, the park offers a wide variety of spaces and activities for people of all ages. The central attraction of the park is its large, open green lawn area, surrounded by a series of berms. Other features include a pergola, various water features and sculptures, and a playground that includes raised sandboxes that allow total access for handicapped children.
The access points to the park are perhaps the most memorable part of this park. Each of these provide a unique gateway to the park. These range from architectural features, detailed with iron railings and lampposts that evoke the history of the city, to long curvilinear staircases, complete with views overlooking the park and distant Hudson River. This idea of enhancing the visitors first image of the open space continues throughout the entire Battery Park City.
Perhaps the successes of this park can be linked back to the people who designed the park, the community. In a world where the design process is often left to some outside organization, Hudson River Park exemplifies the need for proper community based design.
On the southernmost tip of Manhattan lies South Cove, a small open space built on a platform of filled land. Because of the site location, the landscape architect had to deal with high winds, sea spray, climatic changes, as well as loading constraints and artificial soils due to the platform. In collaboration with artists and architects, the landscape architect worked to create a natural cove that would serve as a link to the surrounding community and the rest of Battery Park City.
Linking these two open spaces along Battery Park City is The Esplanades. Besides acting like a linear corridor, the Esplanades provides the public with various access points with magnificent views to the city's most impressive historical elements including: the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, and the Upper New York Bay.
Designers of this project were given five challenges:
These challenges were met by creating a bi-level esplanade, built atop a platform that just out over the river. All of this area is the western edge of the landfill that has now become Battery Park City. The upper level of the esplanade provides visitors a variety of seating areas in amongst both understory plantings and a double row of silver lindens (Tilia tomentosa). Diversity is achieved in this upper level by a series of major and minor subspaces and events, such as niches in the planting beds for introverted seating, and sites for commissioned artwork ("Battery Park City, Esplanades I &II", 1988: 42). The lower level of the esplanade also consists of benches that overlook the Hudson River. The openness of this lower level is a direct response to the adjacent river. This area also contains pavement, railings, and lights, all of which reflect the traditions and historical character of New York City.
Another urban area which has recently reclaimed its waterfront is Charleston, South Carolina. In its early history, much of Charleston's waterfront had been devoted wharves and warehouses, and in the later years, surface parking. In the early design phases of Waterfront Park, Stu Dawson, FASLA, envisioned a waterfront for the many pleasure craft that frequent the Intercoastal Waterway in Charleston. Because of opposition from mayor Joe Riley, that concept was replaced with a more egalitarian waterfront - "something for people who couldn't afford boats" (Thompson, 1991: 44).
Early in the design process, the prime designers on the project, Sasaki Associates, along with local landscape architect Ed Pinckney, FASLA, immersed themselves in the cultural icons of historical Charleston. It was their intention to bring the icons of the city into the project.
The master plan of Waterfront Park included several different design icons familiar to the area. The most impressive item in the park is the pineapple fountain. This detail was found throughout the Charleston area on gates, fences, and porticoes. Today, visitors are encouraged to wade in the waters of this feature as well as the park's other fountain. The construction of the park was a rather complex process. Because much of the site of Waterfront Park was unstable fill, the ground had to be compressed for two years. Despite these measures, the fountains, plazas and other heavy elements in the park had to be supported on piles (Thompson, 1991: 47).
To date, this urban reclamation project has been considered successful. It has provided the surrounding community a link to its most important asset, the waterfront. Since its opening in May 1990, the diversity of park patrons has proved exceptional in this historically segregated city, where natives still set clear limits regarding whom they will associate with and where (Thompson, 1991: 47).
Woldenberg Riverfront Park, located in New Orleans is an example of a civic gesture that "gives back" to the local neighborhood as well as the surrounding city. The original design of the park intended to be a passive green space for the local residents of the adjacent historic French Quarter, not the tourists.
Prior to the development of the park, the area served as an active port along the Mississippi River. Because of the abandonment of the port, lining the river were concrete wharves and the remains of concrete foundations from the many warehouses and structures that were once a vital part of the areas economy.
The local landscape architecture firm responsible for the park, Design Consortium, connected the park to the surrounding city with bluestone-paved stairways, walkways, and historic lighting which helps to tie the park into the nearby 18th century French Quarter. Although it is still early, the success of this project can be linked to the landscape architects method of reclaiming the waterfront in a manner that is both historically sensitive and beneficial to the surrounding community.
Just one mile to the south of downtown San Francisco, lies Mission Bay, 300 acres of derelict railroad yards and undeveloped industrial land. Since the early 1980's, several master plans have been developed for this area, only to be later turned back to the developer as unacceptable to the city and its residents. The team manager,EDAW, along with the remaining team members, was selected by both the developer and community representatives. In addition to the mixed use development that is planned for the new San Francisco neighborhood, 75 acres of new parks, recreation and natural resource areas are also being planned.
In addition to the size of this project, another major factor in the future success of this project is the integration of the design participants involved. EDAW has identified four criteria crucial to making a project of this magnitude and complexity successful:
Although the project is still in the planning stages, the project is set to take 20 to 30 years to complete. An agreement has been made that the development will be structured in phases to provide the city with a way not only to monitor progress, but to modify the development as changing conditions and circumstances warrant (Bash, 1988: 65).
East St. Louis Action Research Project
