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MLA DESIGN STUDIO PROJECTS

Studio III | Site: Steps at Pinehurst & 181 Street

Located on Pinehurst Avenue between 181st Street and 183rd Streets, the original terrace was created in 1924 because Pinehurst Avenue stops dead 75 feet north and 25 feet above 181st Street.​ Creating the Pinehurst Commons is an evolution of the original intent of the space: to serve as a gathering space and passage way. Inspired by Cornelia Oberlander's innovative "stramp" design in Robson Square, Vancouver, this studio proposal seeks to manage the 25 feet elevation change in a more accessible way so as to better serve the elderly and children that frequent the passageway. Further, seated terraces are created for more gathering space.

Studio I | Site: Central Park Ramble

​Project Soak seeks to commemorate the extraordinary underground engineering of Central Park which creates the artificial waterways throughout The Ramble, while addressing stormwater management and creating a new way to experience the park through a rain garden pathway system.

The design brings the underground infrastructure to the surface by creating a dry stream bed path system above ground that will direct storm water to rain gardens throughout the Ramble, creating moments of 'overlap' where asphalt paths, new streambed paths, and rain garden meet. These conditions offer exciting new opportunities to understand the engineering of the park and evolution of NYC from a marshland to its current urban concrete condition.

Studio III | Site: Brooklyn Navy Yard

The Brooklyn Navy Yard sits in the curve of Wallabout Bay, right where the East River broadens into New York Harbor, at the crossroads of North and South Brooklyn. During its 165 years as an active naval base, the Yard was known as one of the nation’s premier shipbuilding facilities. This rich industrial legacy permeates the site today, in both the physical form of its buildings and its management’s commitment to retaining manufacturing jobs in contemporary New York City. 

The design proposal seeks to restore the historical marsh edge as a protective 'living edge' of the site. Aquaponics will also be introduced into the BNY as an innovative and sustainable urban farming method, a modern response to the historical destruction of wetlands for farmland and development. Terraced seating is created for access to the water's edge.

Studio II | Site: Nicodemus National Historic Site, KS

The Narrative: The disillusionment and betrayal of the first settlers' ‘the arrival’ into Nicodemus, juxtaposed against the profound resilience and perseverance manifested in the creation of Homes that were dug out of the earth.

The Design: An experiential trail that brings the visitor into the ground, to invoke the visceral feelings associated with the challenges of living on such a harsh, flat, and treeless landscape, created though manipulation of grade, light, enclosure, and evocative materials.

By recreating the Dugout experience as a trail, and not a separate constructed artifact, the National Park Service can try an alternative method to historic site presentation that presents a paradigm for historic experience to be absorbed in the same way as the original settlers - through the direct and active engagement with the landscape, rather than through passively observing an artifact. The trail has been designed to animate the walk with an understanding of the qualities of Dugout inhabitation and an understanding of on-going archaelogical study.

Studio IV | Site: Elizabeth, New Jersey

The master plan concept 'Bridging Barriers' seeks to enhance the existing connections of Elizabeth, NJ, and to create new spatial, economic, and social ones as well. The landscape design proposal responds to the physical barrier that the highway represents, proposes the expansion of Elizabeth Street as an commercial/economic spine that also spills out beyond a single street, and activates the full potential of the river as ecological infrastructure and cultural amenity. On a large scale the design uses landscape as the connective tissue that serves to create ecological bridges as well as the infrastructure that links the community to the river and new areas to live, learn, work and play.

Studio V | Site: San Diego, California

A new water infrastructure is created by daylighting recycled water through the canyon valley, activated to rehabilitate the San Diego River and to provide a new locally stored water source. When hydrated with water, the canyons will also develop a riparian zone over time. While the steep topography is an asset for gravitational water conveyance, the terrain makes physical and social connections of the mesa-top neighborhoods difficult and encourages driving. As such, a trail system is designed for the deliberate development of bridging networks. Along the trail, social nodes provide new opportunities for the community to gather, recreate and understand the urban ecologies in a new way.

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