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2012

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Water Landscapes

Singapore Blue- Green Infr a st ruc t ures · Mekong Delta Water Urba nism · Japan disa ster pre vention by dy n a mite · New Zealand post indust ri a l wat erfron t in Auc k l a nd · Australia Murr ay Da rling river syst em · China We t l a nd Pa rk in H a ng zhou · Spain restor ation of a river l a ndsc a pe in Ba rcelon a · Slovenia renovation of t he river ba nk s in L jubl ja n a · France River L a ndsc a pe of the Seine in Pa ris · New York Waterfront Projec ts · Florida Restoring t he E vergl a des · Lima Water-sensitive cit y de velopment

water

landscapes

table

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contents

Cover: Water experiment for public participation in urban design workshops Design: Herbert Dreiseitl Photo: Atelier Dreiseitl

Herbert D reiseitl

Fran çois Vadepied

16 Blue-Green Infrastructures

77 The River Landscape of the Seine in Paris

Water management and infrastructure systems at

Access to the French capital’s main river

Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park in Singapore

16

Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park in the Asian metropolis

Singapore is an example of integrated infrastructure

management in a dense neighbourhood.

24 Water Urbanism

K elly S hannon, B r u no D e Meulder

H alina Steiner

84 Hunts Point Landing, New York A flood-resistent open space in South Bronx

Topography-based masterplan for the Vietnamese city of Cantho, Mekong Delta

Thomas Balsle y

TCL

88 Transforming New York’s Waterfront Y u j i Hoshino

Riverside Park South and Hunters Point South Waterfront

32 The Flood Diversion Channel of Sogi Falls 43

Water management in the Australian Murray

Natural disaster prevention by dynamite in Japan

Constance Price

94 Restoring the Everglades

Darling Basin: In 2009, Lake Mokoan was decommissioned to re-establish the Winton Wetlands.

S u e A nne Ware

Initiatives for the Everglades Water System, Florida, U.S.

37 Post-Industrial Public Auckland’s North Wharf Promenade, the Jellicoe Street

Precinct and Silo Park, New Zealand

102 Lima Beyond the Park

A nt je Stokman

A water-sensitive future for Peru’s capital

C aitrin Daly, R ick y R ay R icardo

43 Murray Darling

37

Murray Darling Basin, Australia Municipality of Ljubljana

Atelier Dreiseitl

Simon Devitt

Landscape architecture projects for the river system of

At Auckland’s Wynyard Quarter Waterfront, New Zealand, park programme and

wetlands for water cleansing are combined with existing industries and harbour activities.

J u tta K ehrer

Currents 6 News, Projects, Competitions

110 Authors

50 Design in Dialogue with Nature Jiang Yang Fan Ecopark, Hangzhou, China

111 Credits/Imprint

Uwe R ada

70 88

Riverside Park South along the west side of

54 The Flow of History

In Ljubljana, people get new access to the River

European Rivers as ambassadors for a united Europe

Ljubljanica. At the new Žitni bridge, piers were added

Manhattan provides a network of boardwalks and

to connect the river and the town.

promenades with views to the Hudson River.

A lfredo F ern á ndez de la R eg uera

60 River Llobregat Park Restoration of a river landscape in Barcelona, Spain

M ascha onderwater

66 Artificial Watercourse in Velsen Wijkeroogpark, Velsen, the Netherlands

A na K u cˇ an, A ndre j a Zap ušek cˇ erne

70 Re-Invention of Public Space

Michael Koontz

Andy Fairbanks

Renovation of the banks of the River Ljubljanica, Slovenia

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The Everglades’ Fisheating Creek is the only

remaining unengineered, free-flowing water course feeding into Lake Okeechobee.

5

Yuji Hoshino

The Flood diversion channel of Sogi Falls The flood diversion channel of the Sogi Falls in Japan, a 足disaster-restoration work, improves natural disaster prevention, provides leisure activities and increases the aesthetic value of the landscape as a tourism resource. In order to achieve a natural look, blasting and excavation with dynamite along rock joints simulated the force of volcanic eruptions.

The effects of post-disaster restoration projects on the formation of the landscape are considerable in Japan, a country where natural disasters frequently occur. Such projects are expected to improve disaster prevention and require speed and efficiency that can result in the neglect of landscape, environment, and local community factors. The flood diversion channel of the Sogi Falls however, is a groundbreaking disaster-restoration civil engineering work that provides improved natural disaster prevention and a better quality of life for local residents. It also increases the aesthetic value of the landscape as a tourism resource, despite the emergency situation that existed at the design and implementation stages.

The design of the flood diversion channel was informed by the complicated topography

Historic temporality. This term describes technical measures for any fore-

of the site. As much as possible of the mountainous landforms was preserved by creating a

seeable risks of natural disasters that come out of experienced observation and recorded history. The design for the restoration work was selected from three options after careful consideration and a hydraulic analysis. The plan was chosen for its cost effectiveness, minimal environmental impact, and a hydraulically rational and stable function. Specifically, the complicated mountainous landform was to be preserved as much as possible by creating the flood diversion channel along topographic undulations in a naturally meandering course that was concealed from the view of visitors at the Sogi Falls park. In contrast, the existing plan from 1988 suggested a piercing and rather brutal 60 meter wide and 700 meter long concrete molded channel.

natural looking meandering watercourse.

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Jutta Kehrer

Design in Dialogue with

Nature

Jiang Yang Fan Ecopark is a recent complement to Hangzhou’s splendid water landscapes and gardens, promoting a new sustainable chapter within the rich tradition of Chinese landscape design and garden art.

2008 Atelier DYJG won the competition for an ecolo­gical park and museum in Hangzhou, China. Pergolas are nestled in the wetland area, offering points of destination and rest.

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here there are hills, there are gardens.

Where there is no water, there is no scenery. This is a core phrase of traditional Chinese garden art. Jiang Yang Fan Ecopark is blessed with both, yet transcends the scenic, to achieve a contemporary landscape design response to the problems facing China’s 21st century landscape and environmental design.

Located in Hangzhou, Jiang Yang Fan Ecopark is a recent complement to the water landscapes and gardens, which have characterized and enriched Hangzhou for centuries. Two water systems distinguish the cityscape of Hangzhou: Qiantang River and West Lake. The latter is a natural lake of prime cultural significance in China and widely recognized as an icon of Chinese landscape art, reflecting an idealized fusion ­between man and nature. Dating from the Qin Dynasty (221-206BC), West Lake has influenced garden design not only in China, but also beyond its borders in Korea and Japan. In 2011 it was listed as a Unesco world heritage site and ranks as one of the top tourist destinations in China.

West Lake’s poetic landscape is intrinsically linked to its natural siltation process. Throughout the centuries the lake had undergone regular dredging, each time altering its outline and creating new scenic spots in and around it.

Causeways were erected and new islands evolved, all praised and carved into collective memory by painters and poets alike.

In 1999, a remote 19.8 hectares valley ­between West Lake and Qiantang River was selected as a silt reservoir and subsequently ­ damned at its southern border. At more than 20 meters in depth, the newly created reservoir was fenced off from the city due to safety concerns.

Detached from human interference, natural sedimentation processes began reshaping the site leading to the formation of a lake, initially covering the entire valley. With its waters continuously drained by pipes, gradually a weed marsh arose, replacing the lake. Given the richness of

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Halina Steiner

Hunts Point Landing, a former industrial site, provides ­ a pier and riprap, and offers possibilities to do kayaking and canoeing. The park is part of the South Bronx Greenway Master Plan that includes a green street network (left page).

Hurricane Sandy hitting New York at the end of October ­2012 re-emphasized that the city is surrounded by water. Urban spaces at the waterfront have to resist flooding. A good example of a robust and adaptive space is Hunts Point Landing in South Bronx.

Hunts Point Landing, New York 84

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week before this article was written, much of the waterfront edge of New York City was submerged. The flooding, a result of Hurricane Sandy, covered the city’s industrial, residential and recreational areas.

Edge conditions including riprap, bulkhead, pier, wetland, and beach found themselves within the harbor they usually define.

Suddenly, the entire city focused on its relationship to the water. Communities began to learn about the city’s vulnerabilities and place them within larger environmental and engineered systems. They began to understand the topographic shifts that underlie the city’s grid.

They began to comprehend the infrastructure of the city, where power grids begin and end, how stormwater is managed by combined sewer overflows, and the layers of complex substructure that exist below the pavement. They began to remember that they live in a city surrounded by water.

What does this event mean for landscape ­architects? In the days following the hurricane, e-mails, articles, and conversations centered on sharing information landscape architects had been gathering for decades. Parks were surveyed and their performance in relation to the inundation was gauged. Past research projects with potential preventative measures were unearthed and r­ ediscovered. Existing master plans including stormwater management strategies became immediate guidelines for the future.

Master plans in New York City function across scales, systems and jurisdictional and property lines. As the city seeks to re-articulate its relationship to the waterfront, multi-scalar and system-based approaches will be critical. Though the process of realizing the master plans will be complex as flood lines shift and zoning changes, the city can learn from the successes and shortcomings of existing waterfront projects. One such ­example is Hunts Point Landing, part of the South Bronx Greenway Master Plan designed by Mathews Nielsen Landscape Architects.

Hunts Point Landing is a brownfield site located on a former coal gasification plant on the northeastern edge of Hunts Point Peninsula. The peninsula’s edge, like much of the city’s waterfront, was defined by industry. The natural edges were augmented and extended by adding fill to wetlands to create additional land along the East and Bronx Rivers. Today, a tapestry of residential and small and large scale industry exists on the 279.2 hectare peninsula that sits within a Category 2 and 3 flood zone.

The largest occupant of the peninsula is the 133 hectare Hunts Point Food Distribution Center, one of the largest food distribution centers in the world. The distribution center is part of the industrial band that dominates the waterfront. This band blocks river access to the nearly 12,000 residents who must walk past scrap yards and waste management transfer systems to gain access to the waterfront.

Recognizing the potential to improve the area, Mathews Nielsen Landscape Architects ­

worked with New York City Economic Development Corporation to create the South Bronx Greenway Master Plan based on a package of strategies outlined in an earlier study, the Hunts Point Peninsula Vision Plan. Key components of the South Bronx Greenway Master Plan include creating a 13.6 kilometer green street network to improve pedestrian connections through the industrial corridor to 4.8 hectares of new waterfront open space. Goals were established by working with community groups such as The Point Community Development Corporation and the Sustainable South Bronx, city agencies, and local stakeholders. Hunts Point Landing is a Phase 1 project selected from the South Bronx Greenway Master Plan. Through the master planning process, Mathews Nielsen learned what the neighborhood had, what it lacked, and how people were likely to use the space.

Hunts Point Landing is a reminder that, with a little passion and perseverance, designers can shift borders and redefine edges. The parks

­ esign comprises a few main gestures, which d ­appear simpler than is evident from the surface.

The site was originally located at the end of ­Lafayette Avenue. The underused street end was eventually de-mapped as a result of the design team urging city agencies to move utilities with easements that would have had a considerable impact on the design. The easements would have limited 60 per cent of the site to no more than lawn. The utilities were eventually relocated into nearby land owned by Department of Sanitation; the final 0.6-hectare site could now be designed.

The program of the park responded directly to neighborhood needs. The proximity of Barretto Point Park, located on the southwestern shore of the peninsula, eliminated the need for traditional park elements, like sport fields and playgrounds. Signe Nielsen, principal o ­f Mathews Nielsen Landscape Architects, ­explained that sport fields would dominate the site, leaving little room for much more. What Barretto Point Park lacked was an educational

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Thomas Balsley

Thomas Balsley Associates’ Riverside Park South (photo) provides the missing green link along Manhattan’s West Side between the historic Riverside Park

by Frederick Law Olmsted and Hudson River Park. Hunters Point South Waterfront Park, designed by Thomas Balsley Associates and Weiss/Manfredi, is a continuation of the revitalization of the Queens riverfront.

Transforming

New York’s

Waterfront Riverside Park South and Hunters Point South Waterfront ­ Park in New York City, help to fulfill the objectives of New York’s Vision 2020 plan to revitalize the city’s shoreline.

N

ew York in the mid 1970’s was a city demoralized by the combined ravages of poor city planning and poor stewardship of public space.

Nowhere was the city’s decline more evident than around its peri­ meter: the banks of the Hudson and East Rivers. Once teeming with com­ merce, they had fallen into near total ruin, becoming a forbidding no man’s land of broken cement and defunct machinery. Most of the areas around the rivers were abandoned marginal zones, severed from the city by Robert Moses’ highways, and emblematic of how far the city had fallen.

One could wonder how, amidst the wreckage, anyone could have evinced a belief that the nation’s future lay in its great metropolitan cen­ ters. However, for the last three decades we at Thomas Balsley Associates have been striving to provide people with a reason to return to, or stay in, the city. The office has had a particular focus on the long-neglected postindustrial waterways in cities across the United States and around the world; harnessing the transformative process of remediation and design to create provocative new riverfront public spaces that reconnect city dwellers to their own waterfront and rich heritage.

Two new projects, one underway, the other a partially completed mul­ tiphase park, demonstrate how our approach continues to evolve in re­ sponse to the often conflicting ideologies of ecologists, developers, city agencies, residents and politicians.

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