PROJECT Reclaiming the Fall Zone: Mediating Physical and Cultural Exchange in Richmond, Virginia
LOCATION Richmond, Virginia, United States
PROJECT COMPLETION DATE 5/13/2016
PROJECT CATEGORY Graduate / Upper Level Design
PROJECT TYPE Self-Directed
ENTRANT Kenneth Filler
TEAM MEMBERS
SCHOOL University of Maryland, School of Architecture, Planning & Preservation
FACULTY SPONSOR Peter Noonan, Professor of the Practice / School of Architecture, Planning & Preservation
SUMMARY DESCRIPTION OF PROJECT
As a graduate thesis, this project is meant to be a year long investigation of place-making in Richmond, Virginia. A certain duality permeates through most of the investigated topics: What does it mean to insert oneself between the urbane environment and the unsettled realm of the landscape? How does a user proceed through a layered, juxtaposed sequences of experiences? How can we as designers use the toolbox of a landscape architect and an architect to create a cohesive and meaningful place? How can design reinsert a meaningful concept of place into the minds of residents who may have never known of a place existing? How can a piece of infrastructure live within a floodplain, while taking cues from industrial railroad architecture?
This project is an investigation of what things make place, and how making that place can help one find their own place in the world.
STUDENT'S STATEMENT
This thesis addresses cultural and physical place reclamation, at the fall zone of the James River in Richmond.
At it's core, this thesis is an attempt at place-making on a site which has become no place. This concept manifests itself via a landscape park on Mayo Island in Richmond, anchored by a community retreat center, and architectural follies along a constructed path.
Of particular importance to this design is the crafting of a promenade which affords the user varied experiences, bringing them on a journey through a procession from the urbane to riverfront. Industry, and the role of the railroad, directly influences the architecture, while flood risk creates unique opportunities for resilient design on the site.
The site is currently a privately owned parking lot which sits idle on the main island of the fall zone archipelago, on five acres of potential public gain. Dating back to pre-American history: through the reign of the Powhatan tribe, to when Christopher Newport and John Smith sailed up the James River in 1607, through not only the founding of a nation, but also its greatest strife in the Civil War, the Richmond waterfront has played a vital role in shaping the American psyche.
20th century urbanization has left this site and many others like it, absent in the minds and the hearts of the people.
The interventions coincide with value of place in historical Richmond: an integrated, socially desegregated waterfront hinge; a social nexus of inherent cultural change, at the point in which the river itself changes at the fall line.
IMAGE CAPTIONS & CREDITS
IMAGE 1: Reclaiming the Fall Zone_high res image 1, Landscape Berm Approach, Image by author
IMAGE 2: Reclaiming the Fall Zone_high res image 2, Master Site Plan, Image by author
IMAGE 3: 2, James River Site Plan, Image by author
IMAGE 4: 13, Daytime on the Lawn Perspective, Image by author
IMAGE 5: 15, View From the Point Perspective, Image by author
IMAGE 6: 14, Great Hall Interior Perspective, Image by author
IMAGE 7: 5, Procession Concept Section - Urbane to River, Image by author
MEDIA FOR DOWNLOAD
Reclaiming the Fall Zone: Mediating Physical and Cultural Exchange in Richmond, Virginia
Category
AIA Maryland Student Design Awards > Graduate > Graduate / Upper Level Design
Winner Status
- AIA Maryland: Graduate / Upper Level Design - JURY CITATION
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