coalescing the urban fabrics

from Dominique DeGracia | Landscape Architecture Portfolio

D ominique D e G racia

Bellingham, WA | Bellingham Waterfront Scan|Design Foundation Studio | 2022

Our (Re)worked waterfront patchwork is an integrated marine working district that is walkable and offers education, employment, sustainable industry, play space for families, as well as passive and active recreation in nature. Through our proposed urban design and planning interventions, we aim to use the existing fabric of the Central Waterfront Site to create a (Re)working Waterfront district for Bellingham. A district that is climate-focused, accessible, functional, and sustainable for humans and the more than human world.

(Re)working Waterfront redeﬁnes how a modern waterfront operates. This strategy employs three focus areas to work towards the future of a climate focused district. (Re)working Waterfront changes the roles and relationships between these seemingly siloed focus areas, through phasing, to achieve a waterfront where these parts are inseparable from another. The resulting patchwork becomes a district where marine industry, research, living, commercial activity, and recreation are all possible while reducing environmental impacts.

This was a group project in which there were two landscape architecture student, an architecture student, and one urban planning student. The site design programing was conceptualized as a group. The site design and connections to the waterfront and adjacent waterfront were a joint urban design effort between Bri Weekes, and myself. I drafted the site plan in AutoCAD and rendered the site plan with Photoshop. I created our site’s grading model and calculations in Rhino and Revit. Floating structures were designed and rendered by Kat Golladay. All renders and sections shown were created by myself using Enscape, Rhino, and Photoshop.

Group Members: Kat Golladay, Bri Weekes and Alec Finewood

Temporality And Transition

This phase emphasizes regrading of the site to allow for remediation of the ASB pond and site contaminants. We’ll be dredging the ASB pond and remediating on site. During this time there we will be a transitioning of the maritime industry to an established core. The northern portion of this site will continue to house All American Marine and Bornstein Seafoods, and make room for new and evolving industries to phase in.

Transitioning To New

Tenants move into the maritime/marine core, already highly utilized and seen by the industry, making it a prime location for growth and adapting industries. The addition of mixed use buildings, and a pedestrian bridge connecting the two waterfront sites, brings public interest. The central area of the site continues remediation processes, which introduces opportunity for temporal activation of space. The addition of our Tech Hub brings students, researchers and industry workers to a unifying space that allows for incubation of ideas and growth in technologies.

New And Evolving Waterfront

This phase envisions our site becoming a clean and desirable district, with housing and mixed use programming being added, as well as amenity spaces for residents and people of Bellingham. The addition of these spaces allows brings a neighborly and accessible environment to our district. This phase will introduce ﬂoating structures into the ASB pond that are adaptive and provide healthy habitat for the more than human world.

(RE)WORKED

Looking at the continued potential of this site, once remediation is completed and we see consistent positive impacts from our interventions, the ASB pond opens up. Just outside of the ASB pond is the areas largest eelgrass bed, critical habitat for salmon. Opening up the ASB pond will bring new life to the area and enhance research for those in the Tech Hub. With public docks, and direct connections to both residential and commercial areas we see our (Re)worked waterfront becoming a key Bellingham destination for industry workers, students, researcher, families, tourists and more.

PUMPTRACKALLAMERICAN MARINE

MARITIME/ MARINE CORE

MIXEDUSE MAKERSPACE

Evolving Industry

PUBLICDOCKS

RESIDENTIAL CORE

FLOATING STRUCTURES

FLOATING HOMES

CONNECTIONS

Healthy Habitat

BIKE KITCHEN

PUBLIC AMENITIES

MIXEDUSE+ ROOFACTIVATION LIBRARY

CONTAINER MIXEDUSE

People Places

WHATCOM CREEK ACTIVATION

PEDESTRIAN CONNECTION

Evolving Industry

A designated industry core and creation of a Marine Tech Hub. This adapted built environment framework provides opportunity for new connections between various users, creating an eco-industry district

People Places

Creating people places with various forms of housing, including townhomes, live/work, and mixed use. Providing public and semi-private amenities: greenhouse, bike kitchen, etc.

Healthy Habitat

Remediating toxins on site and paving the way for new research technologies to continue and monitor. Creating healthy habitats through ﬂoating wetlands, expanded green spaces, etc.

As one moves through this residential core, they could bike through and by the bike kitchen, townhomes, pump tracks, container village, greenhouse, and mixed use spaces before hitting our bridge, or continuing on to the variety of ASB and AS(HUB) connections.

The ASB Trail provides a visual boundary for the ASB Pond, that will work as an immersive research site for users of the AS(HUB). The AS(HUB) is a space for students, marine researchers and industry workers to innovate and grow within their ﬁeld.

Potential to open the ASB Pond would allow for ecological growth. New bridge connections are made of light penetrating surfaces, providing ideal conditions for passing wildlife.

a maritime maker space, connecting residents to the waterfront

Seattle, WA | Commodore Way

Maritime Futures Studio | 2021

This site was once a waterfront oil reﬁnery, that is currently in the process of remediation. With the intent to sell the entire site to a developer, our studio broke up the space into seven (7) sites that would be part of a main campus. Our site was the southern most, and would be separated front he rest of the campus by a main road. Keeping this in mind we designed a space that could stand alone, but also seamlessly connect the surrounding commercial and residential areas to our campus. Our project could be the ﬁrst thing you see when you approach the campus, or it could be the last place you visit when you are at the waterfront.

With views of the Salmon Bay Bridge, Salmon Bay, and the Ballard Locks, this waterfront location is a time capsule of maritime history in Seattle. It serves as a space for maritime makers and innovators, and a stepping stone that connects industry and recreation to the waterfront.

With a maker space, testing areas, and residency program, The Commodore Step creates a foundation for temporal projects that highlight the ongoing potential of the maritime industry.

This was a group project in which there were two landscape architecture student and one architecture student. The site design and building programing were conceptualized as a group. The site design and connections to the architecture and rest of the campus were designed by Cyrus Deloye and myself. I drafted the site plan in AutoCAD and rendered our group’s site model, created by Cyrus, in Enscape. Bryant Callahan was the lead designer for our residences and maker space, collaborating with Cyrus and me on integrating the architecture into the landscape.

Group Members: Bryant Callahan and Cyrus Deloye