GRADUATE PROGRAM LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE + URBANISM 2015 - 2016 Professor Kelly Shannon
Adriana CarÃas AGRICULTURAL THINK-TANK Mendota, Fresno CA
AKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I’d like thank my family. They have sacrificed everything in order for me to accomplish my educational goals. They have been by my side during good and bad times, and even though there are many miles between us, their love and support has never been stronger. Especially to my grandpa, Salvador Carías, who I wish could see in person all my achievements, you taught me how to fight for my dreams and more importantly to love and respect others. To tio Carlos, for putting up with me and giving me the guidance I need to make it in this country. I’d like to express my gratitude to my instructor Kelly Shannon. Your direction has let me see Landscape Architecture with a different perspective and has opened up my eyes to the many possibilities on how we can be key elements on making a better world. Special thanks To Tammy Lau and Carol Doyle from Fresno State Library Special Collections, for opening your doors to me and my classmates and allowing us to have access to maps and information key to our research. To all of you who have been part of this interesting journey, I’m deeply grateful.
Dedication to Salvador CarĂas
INTRODUCTION “Rethinking the California’s Urbanizing Agrarian Landscape” Design Research Studio The present thesis was developed within a two-semester design research studio at the USC Landscape Architecture + Urbanism program. The initial phase - developed during the Fall of 2015 under the instruction of professors Aja Bulla-Richards and Kelly Shannon - was organized in the form of seminars and studio activities operating in parallel in order to enhance critical thinking and the production of creative design solutions. The course consisted on a collective effort to analyze and comprehend contemporary challenges in the San Joaquin Valley, focusing on pressing issues and austere scenarios such as drought, climate change, subsidence, pollution, health hazards, economic setbacks, social and environmental injustice, urban decay, amongst others. The outcomes generated by the end of this phase consisted in two collective design proposals that utilized strong landscape architecture strategies in response to such urgent concerns. Individually, students were able to identify the subjects that arouse their interest for further investigation, formulating a series of research questions that established a framework for analysis. This process culminated with the choice for the thesis topic developed on the following semester. The learning objectives of the studio and seminar was to develop essential skills for the landscape architecture formation, such as: critical thinking and analysis, verbal and visual expression, investigative abilities, design questioning and strategizing. The methodology of work included reading materials, analysis of historical and contemporary maps, as well as other representative imagery, archival material research, selective data collection, fieldwork investigations, mapping and modeling activities. Through multiple exercises along the semester, the course developed students’ abilities for creating narratives, focusing on the synthetic visualization of information, projective cartography, interpretive collages, scenario building, and the development of landscape design strategies across multiple scales. As a final product, students created a total of three booklets that encompass the amplitude of such work. In conclusion, the design studio and seminars provided research fundaments that established the general framework and guided the focus of the theses investigations.
TABLE OF CONTENTS Thesis design studio .....................................................................................1 1. Archival research ..........................................................................................................3 1.1. Topographical and irigation map .............................................................4 1.2. Fresno County - 1914 ................................................................................6 1.3. Fresno County, California Division of Highways 1935 ........................7 1.4. Fresno Sheet. Detail Irrigation Map, California State Engineering Department - 1885 .....................................................................8 1.5. Map of Fresno, California - 1938 ............................................................9 1.6. Valley steamboats - 1911 .........................................................................10 1.7. Shaver Sawmill dam - 1892 .....................................................................11 1.8. Downtown Fresno - 1936 .......................................................................12 1.9. Potervile, Ca. Postcard ............................................................................13 2. Interpretative maps ....................................................................................................15 2.1. Endangered lives ......................................................................................16 2.2. Identifying optimum levels of development ........................................17 2.3. Agribusiness and the productive landscape .........................................18 2.4. Expansion of agricultural lands .............................................................19 3. Mid-review ..................................................................................................................21 3.1. [Re] Charge Fresno 2100 working model .............................................23 3.2. Population growth prediction ................................................................25 4. Final office vision .......................................................................................................27 4.1. [Re] Charge Fresno 2100 ........................................................................29 4.2. Fresno model layers .................................................................................30 4.3. Wildland afforestation and urbanism & [waste] land park ....................34 4.4. Bioenergy egine & Agricultural think-tank ..........................................36 4.5. Choreographing riverine ecologies & Mediated wetland ......................38 4.6. Urbanization of an agricultural cry creek - Water & fabric .................40 4.7. Individual project ....................................................................................42 Final Design Research ...............................................................................49 1. Cultivated landscape: from and to the world .........................................................51 1.1. From humble beginnings ........................................................................53 1.2. Agricultural progress ...............................................................................54 1.3. The world feeds itself ..............................................................................56 1.4. Urbanization: a loss of agricultural land ...............................................59 1.5. Case study: How “ugly” fruits and vegetables can help solve world hunger ...............................................................................................................60 1.6. Case study: Cuba’s suistainable agriculture ...........................................64 1.7. California’s agricultural history ..............................................................67 1.7.1. California’s backbone ............................................................69 1.8. The San Joaquin Valley. National agriculture powerhouse ...................70 1.8.1. Connecting geographies .......................................................73 1.8.2. Threat of urbanization to productive landscape ..................75
1.9. A collection of agricultural history .......................................................76 1.10. [Re] Charge Fresno 2100 ......................................................................77 1.11. Principles of agroecology........................................................................80 1.12. Regrounding agriculture in the west of Fresno County .....................84 1.12.1. The geometry of agriculture ..............................................86 2. Narrative of the land .................................................................................................89 2.1. Archives ....................................................................................................91 2.1.1. Historical changes, west of Fresno .....................................93 2.1.2. Soil survey ...............................................................................94 2.1.3. Expansion of agricultural lands ..........................................19 2.2. The Union Pacific Railroad and its ecologies ......................................97 2.2.1 The artery ................................................................................98 2.3. Interpretative mapping ........................................................................107 2.3.1. Paradox between productive landscape and poor soils ...108 2.3.2. Water landscapes .................................................................110 2.3.3. Linking disperse settlements ..............................................112 2.4. Mendota ..................................................................................................114 2.4.1. Growth of a natural landscape ..........................................117 2.4.2. Union Pacific as form giver ................................................119 2.4.3. Mendota’s waterways ...........................................................123 3. Mendota: Agricultural think-tank ..........................................................................125 3.1. Precedents ..............................................................................................127 3.1.1. Water technologies for agricultural production in Israel .......................................................................129 3.1.2. Wastewater treatment and reclamation in Israel...................132 3.1.3.Solar sharing project .............................................................136 3.1.4. Cultuupark westergasfabriek ..............................................138 3.2. Design strategies ....................................................................................145 3.2.1. Integrated systems of agroecology ...................................146 3.2.2. Subsurface remediation ......................................................148 3.2.3. Man-made and natural ways ...............................................150 3.2.4. Think-tank - soil remediation ............................................153 3.2.5. Networks ..............................................................................155 3.2.6. Sections .................................................................................156 4. Conclusion ................................................................................................................165 Apenddix ......................................................................................................................168 Bibliography .................................................................................................................170
THESIS DESIGN STUDIO FALL 2015
‘Rethinking the San Joaquin Valley: st 21 century Agri-Urbanism, Focus on Fresno County’
1
2
3
4
Source: Hall, Wm. Ham (1887), Topographical and Irrigation Map of the Great Central Valley of California, California State Engineering Department (http://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/ servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~207699~3003430:Topographical-and-Irrigation-Map-of ?sort=Pub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_List_No%2CSeries_No?&qvq=q:William%2BHammond;sort:Pub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_List_No%2CSeries_No;lc:RUMSEY~8~1&mi=37&trs=38) 5
6
Source: McKay, Scott (1914), Map Fresno County, Britton & Rey, Lithographers Inc. (http:// www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/ RUMSEY~8~1~22072~760043:Map-Fresno-County-?sort=Pub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_List_No?&qvq=q:mckay%2Bscott;sort:Pub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_List_No;lc:RUMSEY~8~1&mi=0&trs=1)
Source: California Division of Highways (1935), Fresno County, California Division of Highways (http:// www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~247281~5515351:Fresno-County-?sort=Pub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date?&qvq=q:California%2Bdivision%2Bof%2Bhighways;sort:Pub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date;lc:RUMSEY~8~1&mi=29&trs=160) 7
8
Source: Hall, Wm. Ham (1885), Fresno Sheet. Detail Irrigation Map, California State Engineering Department (http://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/ servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~207665~3003412:Fresno-Sheet--Detail-Irrigation-Map?sort=Pub_ List_No_InitialSort?&qvq=q:William%2BHammond;sort:Pub_List_No_InitialSort;lc:RUMSEY~8~1&mi=19&trs=38)
Source: Thomas Bros (1938), Thomas Bros. Map of Fresno, California, Thomas Bros (http:// www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/ RUMSEY~8~1~248616~5515973:Thomas-Bros--Map-of-Fresno,-Califor?sort=pub_list_no_ initialsort%2Cpub_date%2Cpub_list_no%2Cseries_ no?&qvq=q:THOMAS%2BBROS;sort:pub_list_no_ initialsort%2Cpub_date%2Cpub_list_no%2Cseries_ no;lc:RUMSEY~8~1&mi=47&trs=91) 9
10
Source: John Waker (Oct 4, 2010), “Valley steamboats”, Historical Perspectives, (http://historical.fresnobeehive. com/2010/10/valley-steamboats/)
Source: John Waker (Feb 15, 2012), “The old Shaver dam�, Historical Perspectives, (http://historical.fresnobeehive.com/2012/02/the-old-shaver-dam/)
11
12
Source: John Waker (Nov 11, 2009), “Before Fulton Mall�, Historical Perspectives, (http://historical.fresnobeehive.com/2009/11/before-fulton-mall/)
Source: John Waker (Feb 15, 2012), “The old Shaver dam�, Historical Perspectives, (http://historical.fresnobeehive.com/2012/02/the-old-shaver-dam/)
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
INDIVIDUAL DESIGN RESEARCH At the end of Fall 2015, after developing the [Re] Charge Fresno 2100 vision as part of the Game Changers office, each student selected individul locations that related to their thesis. Social and environmental justice was selected as research topic to be established in the Mendota area, where communities as well as soils for agriculture suffer depleted conditions. The first step towards achieving a thesis positions, was to elaborate a reserch question that included the critical intervention of landscape architecture to solve them.
42
43
44
45