What is/are the processes at work within your park? The major process at work in my park design is that of puncturing the man-made and allowing the natural processes to take hold and eventually take over in these designed areas. The puncture speeds up the natural processes already in the works on this site, while seizing the opportunity to strategically site spaces for human use.
How do this/these process(es) contribute to the organization of your
park? These processes are based on a grid that works from the bottom left of the site in a gradient both horizontally and vertically. This organization takes advantage of the natural area to the left of the site, in hopes that the combination of favorable conditions and natural succession being sped up by the design would culminate into a new and unique park, while retaining the sites historical significance.
Which elements of your park are open? The punctures are an example of an open part of my system as they depend on succession as they age and the concrete gives way to plants. Some puncture are flexible, so they allow for a range of activities as well as the opportunity for natural succession to take place and give the park a range of flexibility into the future.
Which are closed? Some of the sports field areas are closed in my system as they are predetermined for a specific activity or range of activity while some other punctures are left flexible to allow for active or passive recreation.
How is your park legible? Give a specific example. The park not very legible for its greenness now is designed in a way that after the design is finished the natural process continues as the plant material with the favorable conditions supported by the design will continue to fill the punctures and afford plants the opportunity to spread to areas that were well out of reach before this design.
How is your park resilient? Give a specific example. This park is resilient in a way that I have designed disturbance, in the form of the puncture and set in motion a process which will eventually reverse the amount of paved surface into vegetated surfaces, not quite the land that existed before it was filled in but never the less a usable space for the surrounding residents and visitors that can transform as the need for changing or evolving programs arises.
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The overall concept of my design for the former Pennsylvania Ave landfill is to allow this wasted area the opportunity to create energy and fuels its way into a beautiful park. Upon entering the park from the bio-fueled public transportation, visitors arrive at the main hub filled with several stores and a recreation center that will then lead the visitors throughout the park. Energy is being created and circulated throughout the park. The vegetation and green waste areas work together to flow the energy throughout the park; one providing the materials and one converting them into the energy. In addition they influence the circulation for people as they move through out as well as create smaller gathering spaces for those not interested in the active recreation provided. However over time the circulation will begin the shape the vegetation as it grows out and fills in areas surrounding the pathways. The bio-fuel system changes shapes depending on where they are located in the park. Vegetation and green waste on the inside of the road create the small gathering spaces, however the ones on the outer side of the road are longer and begin making boundaries of the park, for example hiking area, practice fields, and the main field. The vegetation areas are made up of a gradient beginning with large trees and progressing to small trees and shrubs and eventually to wildflowers. Many of the chosen species are picked because of their large production of waste from their fruits. This vegetation can be deposited into the green waste areas to further provide for the methane to bio-fuel process.
ReplyDeleteThe types of circulation change throughout the site. The roads and bike paths follow the curves of the biofuel system to allow for a safer pedestrian atmosphere. However the walking paths vary. Paths within the maintained and manicured recreation areas are straight an get the visitor to and from where they need, however when walking paths lead through the small gathering areas within the biofuel system the paths begin winding along the curves of the vegetation.
The flow of the biofuel system helps circulate people and the energy to allow the park to maintain itself.
What are the processes at work within my park:
The bio-fuel process is the main process linking my park together. The process of bringing the waste in with maintenance crews, process of connecting fields with the green waste, the process of making methane to bio fuel.
How do these processes contribute to the organization of your park?
The bio-fuel process companioning the green waste and vegetation dictate the organization. They create the paths for circulation and once the paths are installed they will be constant and the vegetation with be molding to the circulation.
Which elements of your park are open?
The vegetation and the green waste are open because they are susceptible to change over the years and change shapes
Which are closed?
The circulation paths and fields are closed because they will most likely not change in the near future.
How is your park legible?
I think it is legible because the visitor walks between the green waste and vegetation and sees that connection, in addition after passing through the recreation center the path goes directly through the vegetation gradient which gives the visitor that opportunity.
How is your park resilient?
I think it is resilient because it has room to evolve, and has space planned and ready for changes. For example spaces between the paths and the vegetation are not from edge to edge so that it allows for the vegetation to take its own shape over time.
I saw Jamaica Bay as a neighborhood- albeit a dysfunctional one whose history is riddled with ecological abuse, inappropriate usage, and above all a great disconnect between it’s primary residents; the people and the natural environment. In order to bridge this gap a set of strategies were developed to foster connections between people and the Bay on a more localized neighborhood to neighborhood scale. To further explore how these connections could actually be implemented on these smaller scales I selected the part of the Bay that borders Canarsie and East New York, and sits at the tip of Pennsylvania Avenue.
ReplyDeleteCanarsie and East New York have been experiencing a downward spiral in the quality of education and graduating high school students. This negative trend, seen in the recent shut down of three main public high schools in the area, did not begin in secondary education, but is the result of a complicated matrix of issues, one of which I believe is a great disconnect to nature and a sheer lack of understanding of the natural world outside of the concrete jungle.
My design for the Pennsylvania Avenue Landfill is organized around of two main uses- one private and the other public. The first of these, the more private of the two is a public school comprised of smaller schools which break students into elementary, junior and high schools. All of which introduce the children to agriculture in tangible ways, teaching them real skills which not only reconnect them to a greater natural system, but can help equip them to lead more productive and accomplished lives after graduation.
The second use is the more public of the two, is a recreational complex including community baseball, football and soccer fields, tennis and basketball fields, swimming and diving pools, and passive recreation for walking, jogging and enjoying the natural environment.
These two programs; the agriculture education complex and the recreation complex are two approaches to draw the people of Brooklyn back into a more healthy relationship with the Jamaica Bay National Park, which at the same time making connections between communities which weren’t present before. Their differences in programs were resolved through the physical expression of a gradient in which the recreation transitions into the agricultural areas, and the agriculture into the recreation. Vehicular traffic on the site is partially submerged below grade- accommodating frequent and safe pedestrian crossings and allowing program to flow across the site. The orthogonal arrangement of the gradient is juxtaposed by a winding pedestrian system which gives the parkgoer the chance to cut through both recreation and agriculture and perceive the mix of programs. In the agriculture complex private and public space is explored through the contrast of individual garden plots for each student, and larger more general areas such as the orchards.
Runway Park
ReplyDeleteThe main intent of my site design is to create an accessible and experiential route down Flatbush Avenue and into Floyd Bennett Field. This objective is achieved by a strategy of puncturing existing spaces to create new connections and sealing patches within the site and around the immediate context. In focusing on this priority to reduce the scattered spaces associated with both pedestrian circulation and with natural habitats the initial strategy is to bury the east half of the Belt Parkway at the intersection of Flatbush Avenue underground. By transforming half of this visual and physical barrier a new route for pedestrian access into the park is achieved and the dissected habitats are reconnected. In celebrating this new promenade down Flatbush Avenue a sequence of programmatic events and spaces starting at Kings Plaza, a major shopping center, parade down Flatbush Avenue to deliver a new identity to the site and provide a safe and enjoyable path to Floyd Bennett Field. Within Floyd Bennett Field the majority of the programs as well as the new recreation center all face the road as part of the new street side attraction. A community plaza, sports fields, a large public fountain, and a museum along Flatbush Avenue, serve to entertain and welcome pedestrians.
With this new awareness of the site and the accompanied increase in traffic, both the recreational fields and other sports activity on the site as well as the community garden and proposed spaces for new types of events will increase. The adaptive reuse of the existing hangers into spaces that provide program will transform the run down appearance of the site and create new visions for public enjoyment. Connections between indoor and outdoor spaces will unite the different activities found on the site; turning the large open park into a series of rooms each with a different personality. An example of this can be found at the southern most hangers which have been integrated with the existing community garden. This will provide opportunities for different types of vegetation and spaces for community events such as fairs and flea markets.
With most of the main activity focused along Flatbush Avenue a less intensive gradient of activity and program makes its way into Floyd Bennett Field. The long runways that seem to run through the site forever are converted into extensions of the promenade that slowly fade away into nature. By continuing this strategy of slits and punctures along some of the runways, a slow mutation from hardscape to softscape begins. Eventually a majority of the runways will be no longer in existence and only be remembered by the grid of trees that take their place. This slow transformation will aid in strengthening existing habitats and celebrate the history of the site in a unique way.
The parks legibility is evident in the uninterrupted circulation and connected programmatic and habitat sensitive spaces. The strategies to achieve the park design become guidelines in promoting any future change and leave the rest of the site open to change and future evolution. This ability to change with time also supports the park’s resilience. The continued connection to the site from a main plaza and to the site’s relationship to the water and linked natural habitats will only grow as other waterfront projects adjacent to the site expand and greenways that radiate out of our existing parks begin to connect. Floyd Bennett is presented with the opportunity to become a new “Gateway”, presenting various programs and connecting back to the urban grid.
What is/are the processes at work within your park?
ReplyDeleteThe primary process being explored in my park is the creation of wetland habitat. In conjunction to this first process there is also the process of creating nesting habitat for birds.
How do this/these process(es) contribute to the organization of your park?
The process of creating wetland habitat requires resources and space. To meet these requirements I have taken into consideration the amount of earth that will be available on site once it has been graded for recreational fields. In addition it helped to guide the placement of programs within the landscape by requiring a buffer between the most active use areas of the site and the placement of the device. This essentially meant that not only could the fields and buildings not be located directly on the water, but that there needed to be a large enough area to reduce the velocity and improve the quality of any water coming off the site. When conjoining this process with the process of creating nesting habitat special care had to be made to leave room for natural plantings. To increase the probability of successfully creating nesting sites the naturally planted areas through the park connect to the existing landscape creating corridors or birdways to promote species movement.
Which elements of your park are open?
The open areas of my park are primarily comprised of pedestrian paths, trails, and bike routes. These routes are more flexible and can change over time based on desire and need. In addition there are 2 areas that are flexible, and there future is entirely dependent on the needs of the park. One will start as a retention basin that is naturally planted with grass species and the other starts as a rolling naturally planted field. Both of these locations can evolve into recreational fields on an at need basis.
Which are closed?
The buildings and recreational fields are closed elements. They are closed because they provide a different type of use. The use they provide is not flexible, it is distinct. If you are on a sports field you are there for that specific sport just as attending one of the buildings is in the interest of exploiting its specific facility. They are also closed because they are the least flexible elements of the park.
How is your park legible? Give a specific example.
It is legible because even in the most closed areas the user is still among planting that promote natural systems. The birdways are incorporated into the pathways no not only further the connection of the natural system throughout the park but to further the connection between people and the natural systems.
How is your park resilient? Give a specific example
My park is resilient because it takes into considerations the effects changing the landscape has on the natural systems. In addition, the use of flexible spaces gives the park the opportunity to evolve successfully. A specific example of this is the flexible field near the entrance of the park. This field is also a retention basin for the runoff from the fields north of the vehicular circulation. This basin gives the water a chance to infiltrate into the ground before going into the bay. This retention basin can evolve into another recreational field or a more intense rain garden depending on the future needs of the site.
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ReplyDeleteTucked away in Brooklyn and Queens, New York, sits Jamaica Bay, a site that is currently under the care of the National Park Service. However, even with the protection of the National Park Service, there are many parts of the Jamaica Bay Unit of GNRA that are still in dire need of some extra attention that the National Park Service cannot afford to fund. Therefore, my previous proposed device worked to bring more revenue to the park to help maintain GNRA to the standard that it deserves. One of the places that I chose to help bring the revenue in was Floyd Bennett Field.
ReplyDeleteMy goal from my device was to bring in more people from the surrounding areas to help maintain and fund areas of GNRA. My proposed park at Floyd Bennett Field is set up to does just that. The existing runways from the site are brought down to a pedestrian friendly scale which radiate from a central gathering space, which is the main node in my site. The runways run across the entire site and give direct access to Flatbush Avenue, the main road connecting the site to the rest of New York. These runways helped form the main route of circulation through the park and in places extend to reach existing structures such as the sanitation department and the Marine Corps Training Base.
The park is mostly an open entity with its effect radiating for miles to bring in people from all over. Everything is meant to bring the visitor into the central node from all directions on the site. However, the center node is somewhat enclosed. Patches, created by planting imitating the shapes made by the runway, change in elevation, enclosing the visitor in this area. Each of the different areas of the site offers a different combination native planting with agriculture and farmers markets, and recreational fields. The runways also make this a very legible site; you can see that everything is based off that part of its history. The runways radiate from the center, as does the rest of the design, which slowly makes its way towards Flatbush Avenue and Jamaica Bay.
Based on the concept of using agriculture to provide revenue for Gateway, Floyd Bennett Field has large amounts of land devoted to farming. However, since it is not recommended to farm in the same spots repeatedly, the agricultural fields will rotate around the site, making most of the site very flexible and open to changes, new programming, and native plant growth.
The concept for my design of Jamaica Bay is to rectify the current ecological misuse of the site, most notably the use of the bay as a sink for contaminated runoff and wastewater. The design includes the installment of a large greenway extending from the bottom of Floyd Bennet Field to the Pennsylvania Ave landfill. As the greenway follows the perimeter of the bay it creates a pathway for pedestrian circulation and more importantly is routed to the points around the bay that are under stress from pollution and storm water runoff. It is at these points that the greenway expands outwards from the main pathway, expressing the requirement for ecological stabilization while simultaneously creating an area for park programs. The solution devised to mediate the pollution problems is a series of underground water storage systems that retain polluted runoff after a storm event, slowly releasing it into nearby constructed wetlands that filter out much of the pollutants from the water before it drains into the bay. This is coupled with floating wetland modules that line the entrances of the heavily polluted channels around the perimeter of the bay, providing for the environmental education opportunities while moving a long the greenway.
ReplyDeleteThis particular site is just north of Floyd Bennet Field, at the location of what is currently the Jamaica Bay Riding Academy. The large stockpile of horse manure on site is a source of highly polluted runoff that drains almost directly into the bay during rain events. Expanding on the equestrian roots of the site, my design proposes the installment of a complete polo facility, integrating full size and arena size polo fields, indoor training school, preserved natural riding trails, and the designed pollution control system. Viewing houses for polo spectators are situated on the side of the field, opposing the grassy seating created by the rolling landforms that outline the far side of the field. The main greenway path cuts a wide swath through the site with smaller pedestrian pathways winding through the more program intensive areas. Much of the pedestrian circulation is designed to follow the different pathways of runoff on the site as it is directed from parking lots and manure piles to the storage areas, eventually being pumped out the constructed wetlands for filtration.
Looking at the different elements of my park, it is the landforms, green spaces, and natural trails that are the most open. They have a range of functionality from very passive to very active and no strict designation to their use. The buildings, pathways, and fields are the closed part of the park. They have a definite form, volume, and specific use.
The park and its connection to the process within the park is very legible. The process of filtration is made visible by the constructed wetlands, where as the collection and conveyance of runoff is made visible by the drains, trenches, and basins that are intertwined with the circulation of the park.
The process that defines the park creates resilience to pollution in the area. The storage and wetlands create a buffer against even extreme fluctuations in runoff, allowing the park to continue to function as a recreational area and as a filter even though pollution concentrations may change.