Industrieel Living: Inhabiting Active Industry

Thesis

Master of Landscape Architecture

NAME:

JINGCHEN ZHAO

THESIS TITLE:

INDUSTRIEEL LIVING: INHABITING ACTIVE INDUSTRY

School of Architecture Graduate Program in Landscape Architecture and Urbanism University of Southern California

PRINTED 2017 School of Architecture Department of Landscape and Urbanism University of Souther California Watt Hall, Suite 204 Los Angeles, California 90089-0291

Program Director

Kelly Shannon

Thesis Advisors

Sarah Cowles

Peter Culley

Thesis

Master of Landscape Architecture

Name:

Jingchen Zhao

Thesis title:

Industrieel Living: Inhabiting Active Industry

School of Architecture Graduate Program in Landscape Architecture and Urbanism University of Southern California

CLASS OF 2017 Ruoxi Cao Siqi Chen

Justin Gallo

Tsaiquan Gatling Zhen Guo

Christina Hood

Chichen Huang Su Huang

Soohee Jin

Donielle Kaufman Yuke Liu

Tongxin Mao Jiaying Mu

Yushu Qian

Joshua Quiring Zhengyi Shang

Michelle Villarreal Yichen Wang Blake Weber Wen Wu

Ying Xiao Yao Yao

Bella Zhang

Jingchen Zhao

Sarah Cowles Peter Culley

Thesis

Master of Landscape Architecture

School of Architecture Graduate Program in Landscape Architecture and Urbanism University of Southern California

INDUSTRIEEL LIVING: INHABITING ACTIVE INDUSTRY

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Jingchen Zhao// USC MLA 2017

Epigram

“There is absolutely no need of parks anymore because the 19th century problems have

already been solved and a new type of city has been created. The parks and greenery have

become worn-out cliches. Our parks will never have the beauty and the power of those in the 19th century. But that is not the only reason. This century created a new type of order. Order can be based on disconnection and super-imposing.” -- Adriaan Gueze, 1992 1. Udo Weilacher, Syntax of Landscape The Landscape Architecture of Peter Latz and Partners, Birkhauser 2008

Adriann Gueze made this provocative comment about the future of parks in a symposium

held in Rotterdam in 1992, where Latz took part in the discussion and presented his vision of “park of 21st century”. In the book of Syntax of Landscape, Weilacher synthesized Gueze’s

comment “that in the course of the 19th century the city had developed into a kind of monster that was destroying its occupants, and so the invention of municipal parks like the Parc

Buttes Chaumont in Paris or Central Park in New York with their exquisite illusion of nature, borrowed from popular 18th century landscape painting, had been absolutely essential for survival, but today?”

Weilacher indicated that in the 19th century it was a trend as well as a need for landscape

architects to overly fantasize the power of owning nature inspired from the unrealistic 18th

century painting might have been a necessity for landscape architecture at the time, but also suggesting illusion is not at all what we need for the 20th century(because later in the book Latz’s projects played an important role in redefining 20th century’s landscape necessity), nor in the 21st century.

“Since the late 20th century, the radical transition from an industrial to an information society

had brought about a radical change in general living conditions. Parks still have a key role to

play in urban open space systems, but as Peter Latz had already made clear with his park in

Saarbrucken, the stereotypical reproduction of antiquated nature and landscape images was not the way forward.”

Weilacher referenced Latz’s comment on central park as Latz thinks “refreshment is still

what a park promises, but the contrast no longer lies between greenery and cement“. As a

result, the American journalist Arthur Lubow in The New York Times Magazine called Peter

Latz the “anti-Omsted“ because of “his rebellion against the antiquated images produced by

traditional parks. Weilacher questioned “But what should a 21st century park actually be like

in order to illustrate present-day perceptions of nature and landscape appropriately? And yet nevertheless, just like the American icon, to become an integral part of the world we live in

now, indeed possibly even to become a type of open space that can point the way forward for the present day?”1

Jingchen Zhao// USC MLA 2017

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Research Themes

Sarah Cowles

Testing Beauty Yet, I have come to believe that the experience of certain kinds of beauty – granted new forms of strange beauty – is a necessary component of

fostering a sustainable community, and that beauty is a key component in developing an environmental ethic.(Meyer 2008: 9)

Today designers are expected to produce works that perform ecologically, and represent ecological ideals. Both aspects of practice are subject to aesthetic discretion. Beauty and ecology have a complicated relationship. A beautiful landscape may not be sustainable.

What is ecologically-­‐orthodox may not be beautiful, and subsequently devalued. We may evaluate ecological performance on quantifiable metrics, but beauty is an elusive target. Working within and beyond these notions, studio participants will develop a series of tests – and subsequent site proposals – that push conventional notions of the relationship between beauty and ecology in landscape architecture, and in the process, we will create new forms of strange beauty. These experiments may include: testing landscape prototypes, establishing and tending test plots, or conducting rigorous observations of reference sites. In the fall semester, participants will identify a topic of investigation in site work and landscape architecture, choose a test site (or sites), research practitioners and case studies related to their topic, develop a series of projective yet rigorous design experiments, and observe and analyze the results. The results of these initial experiments will inform a subsequent series of tests, experiments or applications at the site scale during the spring semester.

Meyer, Elizabeth. K. (2008). Sustaining beauty. The performance of appearance. Journal of Landscape Architecture. 3, 6-­‐23.

Peter Culley

Los Angeles. Non-Native, Rich, Thin?

Cosmopolitanism is often cited as a definer of the healthy city. Yet we

one back yard to the next sits at odds, set against the arid expanses of

grapple with the fact that in Los Angeles only a very small proportion

uninhabited ‘too steep’ hillsides, themselves a picture of the effects of

of the population is truly ‘indigenous’. In Southern California there

increased drought and climate change.

is a lingering sense of displacement in the name of the advancing megalopolis.

The theme of this year, which we have set in another, namely 2027, takes for granted this new potential gray water scenario, but also

Meanwhile, other idiosyncrasies of our city might be described as

focuses heavily on the native/non-native discourse, on many levels.

curiously or even unacceptably ‘foreign’. The film industry continually

Looking initially at the wider Los Angeles area, and then observing the

remakes the city in fiction as it chooses, and the freeway network lays

microcosm of the riverside community of Frogtown and its strong binary

itself down as a thin layer of engineered geometries seemingly at odds

conditions, we will look for poetry between the natural and artificial, and

with the ground surface. And yet these are also new native conditions

both rigorously and open-mindedly form individual positions. Armed

in the eyes of outsiders, ecologies that define the city if not the earlier

with visits to the consciously ‘concocted’ interpretive setting (Huntington

region.

Library, Descanso Gardens); the more domestic yet highly controlled (Beverly Hills); balanced with moments of the corrupted wilderness

And in fundamental terms, the city’s primary reason for being, the Los

(Griffith Park, Elysian Park and Ballona Wetlands), we expect proposals

Angeles River, has no resemblance to its natural course, materiality

and theses that range from urban scale to domestic, that revel in ‘thin’ as

or even water provision, and is in many ways a motif for the city’s

much as ‘deep’.

extraordinary and fast move away from its native mode. The many species of plants found in well-tended front yards, corporate plazas and public parks are historically typical in being conspicuously non-native and often deemed invasive. Now a growing best practice approach has become the use of plants native to the region and an increased focus on drought tolerant xeriscapes.

But if currently perceived best practices in water recycling—”gray water”—develop as legislation intends, in the generally flat and densely populated LA basin, a picture of gray water abundance emerges— think of every washing machine load run and every shower taken—way beyond the limits of what a typical ‘native’ habitat can handle. An image of verdant gardens, perhaps even micro-farms and citrus groves from

Contents

Thesis

Title: Industrieel Living Subtitle: Inhabiting Active Industry Abstract

Method

Questioning industrial segregation Living with redundant industry (decomissioned)

case studies Living with active industry

case study

design case study Introduction to Taylor Yard

history and proposed plans A more viable la river Site geography Archival research

historical marsh land v.s river banks Survey

land use Analysis parcel accessibility

city proposals hydrology Ecological positioning

Material research

Technologies (lauren bon) Horticultures

Proposition

Design iteration Function: occupation Proposals

Conclusion

Reference

Bibliography Image credits

Appendices

Interlude I: Myopic alternates Interlude II: The interface

Acknowledgements

Key advisors or resources, collaborators.

“How can landscape architecture provide for living systems within active urban industrial operations to make use of precious open space for an increasingly dense city projection?�

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Jingchen Zhao: Industrieel Living: MLA USC 2017

Thesis

Grist Mill, Guildhall, Vermont by Rajko Jovicic, October 2012, Online Image, http://despicableme0x.blogspot. com/2012/10/grist-mill-guildhall-vermont.html

Jingchen Zhao: Industrieel Living: MLA USC 2017

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INDUSTRIEEL LIVING: INHABITING ACTIVE INDUSTRY

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Jingchen Zhao// USC MLA 2017

Industriel Living: Inhabiting Active Industries This thesis is conducted by Jingchen Zhao, a third year MLA student in the School of Jingchen Zhao April 18, 2017 University of Southern California

Architecture at University of Southern California under the supervision of thesis instructor

Peter Culley. The book is published in April 2017. The title of my thesis project is: Industriel Living: Inhabiting Active Industries.

Instructor: Peter Culley

Olmsted and Vaux laid out the Central Park plan in the 19the century to fulfill the fantasy of an English pastoral painting living in the city; Later in the 20th century Peter Latz renewed

the heavy industrial site in Ruhr, Duisburg-Nord Park. It became the most successful model and pioneer in landscape architecture since remediating polluted post-industrial site was much needed in central Europe in the 20th. 1

James Corner has touched base on a much different future landscape architecture is

heading toward “In the opening years of the twenty-first century, that seemingly old-fashioned term landscape has curiously come back into vogue (eg. the High Line). The reappearance of landscape in the larger cultural imagination is due, in part, to the remarkable rise of

environmentalism and a global ecological awareness, to the growth of tourism and the

associated needs of regions to retain a sense of unique identity, and to the impacts upon rural areas by massive urban growth.” 2

The purpose of this thesis project is to open a dialogue of what it is that we desperately need for landscape architecture to address in this century -- was widely and intensively discussed in the Landscape Urbanism symposium and exhibition in 1997-- and test the design ideas of inhabiting not dead industries but active industries to redefine expanding urbanistic, programmatic and infrastructural areas.

To research this topic, Taylor Yard adjacent to the Los Angeles River is chosen and has

provided a design medium. Designing a livable yet public space in an envisaged active water recycling plant in Taylor Yard is the key method along with archival research, site visits, case studies, and design case studies.

1 Udo Weilacher, Syntax of Landscape: The Landscape Architecture of Peter Latz and Partners, Birkhauser, 2008.

2 James Corner, “Terra Fluxus” in The Landscape Urbanism Reader, Charles Waldheim, ed.

New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2006.

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INDUSTRIEEL LIVING: INHABITING ACTIVE INDUSTRY

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Jingchen Zhao// USC MLA 2017

Industriel Living: Inhabiting Active Industries Hypothesis Jingchen Zhao April 18, 2017 University of Southern California Instructor: Peter Culley

Landscape architecture can provide for living systems within active urban industrial

operations to make use of precious open space for an increasingly dense city projection.

Thesis Summary

I am going to look at how classic contemporary landscape designs address the urge to break the binary of indutrial site and living/recreational space, then also review the brief history of Los Angeles river, Taylor Yard, in both channel condition and section across Taylor Yard as well as its adjacent context.

A first study at the Baldwin Hills Oil field helped me understand the cultural aspects of an oil field landscape and the potential for public access, and laid a foundation for quickly

designing a recreational park responds to the huge unnecessarily vacant space in Baldwin Hills. Then taking away the site for a moment, I will look at the broader urbanized Los

Angeles area, analyzing the increasing urban density and identifying the potentials for public access to industrial setting.

Realizing parks are not just green spaces with aesthetic values, and that is definitely not

enough for today’s urbanism, I will shift my eyes to inhabiting a new operative industry --

gray water cleansing utilizing the technologies from Lauren Bon’s water wheel, constructed

wetlands and inflatable dams to achieve spray irrigation water standards. Other technologies of inundation (daming and flooding control), phytoremediation (mushroom fields) and polishing effluents using productive crops (canola fields) are also employed.

After laying out the technical strategies to remediate the current urban sludge in the Los

Angeles river and cleansing gray water from proposed housing, I am going to expand the site

to an urban scale -- creating new urban fabrics to allow its compatibility in a city performance.

The city and the industrial landscape interwine.

Jingchen Zhao// USC MLA 2017

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Method

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Jingchen Zhao: Industrieel Living: MLA USC 2017

Jingchen Zhao: Industrieel Living: MLA USC 2017

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INDUSTRIEEL LIVING: INHABITING ACTIVE INDUSTRY

Questioning Industrial Segregation

Venice, Italy In a typical post industrial city transforming or has transformed to an urban city for living, patterns of urbanism and landscape infrastructure can be profoundly compared and

contrasted. A typical segregated scenario of living condition and the old industries can be

seen in Venice, Italy. The home of a water urbanism city, brewed over hundreds of years of living on the water edge and the fallen industries.

The island is completely separated from the old industries, like looking at some historical

ruins over a giant’s shoulder. Industries in venice are definitely not unnecessary in Venice,

nor anywhere else. It has the instrumental gesture of what’s once there and plenty of room and opportunities for today’s landscape urbanism. Especially when most of these binary scenes have large scale green space--would almost look like acres and acres of open

space on an aerial view--completely shut down from human lives. Such areas are beautiful

and have tons of leisure and wildlife benefits but due to their previous operations they often cope with soil pollution, air pollution, water pollution--heavy metal, structural hazards and potentially more.

Lots and lots of landscape architecture pioneers have invested in the reclamation topic in post-industrial landscapes in the past 100 years.

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Jingchen Zhao// USC MLA 2017

rt

rpo i A To

City

Industries

1. Base map: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Venice+Marco+Polo+Airport/ Image not to scale

Jingchen Zhao// USC MLA 2017

To

Ve n

ic

e

Is

la

nd

______1

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INDUSTRIEEL LIVING: INHABITING ACTIVE INDUSTRY

Living with Redundant Industry (decomissioned) ______1

From Omsted to “anti-Omsted” to “anti-Latz”?

______2

?

Central Park City and green space in symbiotic dialogue

Duisburg-Nord Park

Olmsted

“anti-Omsted”

“anti-Latz?”

“Central Park in New York is an ideal symbol for the

Background: The New York Times journalist Arthur

The future shouldn’t look like an “Olmsted

adapting to a changing social background. It is a model

landscape architect decided not to stage an Arcadian

design of Central Park is fantasizing a

new type of open space that had been invented,

of flexibility and usefulness, but does the same apply to its images of nature?”

1

This “Volkpark”(people’s park) was one of the most

progressive and farsighted concepts in the world in its day. It was characterized both as an artistic success

and a reflection of people’s romantic pursuit living in a concrete jungle.

Lubow called Peter Latz “anti-Omsted” because “the

counter-world to the industrial age in Duisburg-Nord, but to make the industrial landscape speak.”

In the 20th century when parks with great illusions of nature in the cities are no longer a necessity in

park design comissions, landscape architects shifted

their attention to dealing with “bad places”. Especially when in the 20th century post modernism and post industrialization is a done deal, there were a lot of

“bad places” left behind where machinery and blast

furnaces were once dominant and heavily operated.

Such places are so-called dead industries to us.

Peter Latz took on the project Duisburg-Nord Park and 1 Udo Weilacher, Syntax of Landscape: The Landscape Architecture of Peter Latz and Partners, Birkhauser, 2008.

converted to a successful urban space celebrating

industrial traces where it became human accessible -- Duisburg peaked when steelworks were founded

in 1902 and was completely inaccessible to outsiders until in the 1950s.

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Jingchen Zhao// USC MLA 2017

moment” nor a “Latz moment”. If the

picturesque illusion people had in the 19th century, the design of Duisburg-Nord Park is objectifying dead and ugly machinery in the 20th century, the future of landscape

design can head toward a more authentic taste of what’s most needed in the 21th century.

1. Image: http://yourshot.nationalgeographic.com/ photos/6577920/ 2. Image: http://www.germany.travel/en/towns-citiesculture/palaces-parks-gardens/galerie-duisburg-nordindustrial-landscape-park.html 3. Image: http://www.amusingplanet.com/2015/08/ gas-works-park-in-seattle.html 4-5. Images: Gustafson Porter

Gas Works Park

______3 Westergasfabriek Park

______4

Low Remediation Gas Works Park, was a similar project that predated Latz’s

post-industrial site remediation, however, has a lower impact

on the site renewal. It has a reduced complexity and low level of processuality but a high level of predictability and lack of

integration into a forward looking discussion about sustainable urban and landscape conversion is scarcely comparable with later conversion projects in Ruhr.

High Remediation

______5

Kathryn Gustafson’s project has a higher level of complexity

and is more dynamic, it deals with site contamination caused by former industries on a deeper and more thorough level.

The project specified different zones of contaminated soil and had a detailed plan of capping, replacement, and eventually

remediation. Although it has pushed a lot forward in innovative

post-industrial site remediation, Westergasfabriek Park has not yet integrated living into urban place making.

Jingchen Zhao// USC MLA 2017

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INDUSTRIEEL LIVING: INHABITING ACTIVE INDUSTRY

Living with Active Industry Part 1

MVVA

______1 26

Jingchen Zhao// USC MLA 2017

Connecticut Water Treatment Facility New Haven, CT “Located on the suburban outskirts of New Haven, the facility is a reserve water source for the South

Central Connecticut Regional Water Authority. It draws water from nearby Lake Whitney, at the base of the

Mill River Watershed...The result is a rich, humanely scaled terrain that invites neighbors to engage with

the land from the perspective of the water that flows

______2

through it.�4

The water treatment plant is a significant design

project by Michael van Valkenburgh as it provides

access to the public and begins to communicate with

the outside instead of basing upon its functionality as a treatment plant.

1-3. Image: MVVA 4. http://www.mvvainc.com/project. php?id=13

______3

Jingchen Zhao// USC MLA 2017

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INDUSTRIEEL LIVING: INHABITING ACTIVE INDUSTRY

Living with Active Industry Part 2 Design Case Study

1

Baldwin Hills Oil Field Conditions in the Baldwin Hills Oil Field include Kenneth Hahn Recreational Park, a park with water ponds and picnic areas. Boundaries are defined by fences that set apart the Oil Field. The only way to get a close view to the Oil Field is look at it from the recreational park.

4

2

3

Imagined Industrial Park 1-4. Images: Jingchen Zhao 3-4. Perspectives: Jingchen Zhao

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Jingchen Zhao// USC MLA 2017

4

3

Imagined Industrial Park

Jingchen Zhao// USC MLA 2017

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INDUSTRIEEL LIVING: INHABITING ACTIVE INDUSTRY

Land Cover

LA Land Cover Vegetation is both native and non-native.

Balwin Hills thrives in the fotgotton narrow areas between drilling pads, tank farms, and work areas. The climate is moderate mediterannean, where the winter percipitation runs off to its adjacent Ballona Creek without treatment.

1. Image: http://www.cityprojectca.org/ blog/archives/3750 2. Mapping data: USGS

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Jingchen Zhao// USC MLA 2017

Baldwin Hills Oil Field in Los Angeles and Land Cover Data

______1

______2

2 miles Jingchen Zhao// USC MLA 2017

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INDUSTRIEEL LIVING: INHABITING ACTIVE INDUSTRY

Baldwin Hills Oil Industry active oil well vs

active water injection well and Duisburg-Nord Park by Peter Latz would be

objectifying landscape instruments, although the

latter was more successful. Because dead industries

1. Mapping data: USGS

shouldn’t have to remain “dead” for people to use

2. Udo Weilacher, Syntax of

the landscapes as urban parks, nor do they have

Landscape: The Landscape

to be restricted to the functions of parks only. In the

Architecture of Peter Latz and

previous review the binary condition of separated

Partners, Birkhauser, 2008.

living and dead industries (or operating industries) can be found internationally. My thesis project is to begin to search for a reconcilitation between urban living in the operating industry to address the increasing population in urbania.

Baldwin Hills has provided me the ideal conditions

of my studies. Not only it is an operating industry but very common in Los Angeles as the oil industry in

The first success in turning abandoned industrial

southern California can be traced back to the early

relics into a leisure park is believed to be the Gas

19th century. Through investigating the site I’ve found

Works Park in Seattle designed by landscape

that most of the oil drilling derelics are still operating

architect Richard Haag. As Haag did take a first

step on the path to post-industrial use in the States -- successful in both land renewal and preserving

industrial monuments -- it did not cause further extent in the USA. Because “there is not the same urgent

compulsion for sustainable land conversion in North America as in densely populated Central Europe.”

2

(Now I will argue this just in the next chapter but it is a valid point of why the Gas Works Park can only be a success in the past and not in the future USA.)

on this beautiful landscape -- with quite a few invasive plants but on a very dramatic yet romantic landform.

Sadly but not surprisingly it is completely fenced off for safety reasons.

Design case study I is pretty much of a “Latz moment” by not introducing housing projects to the site but

restoring the “ecological disaster” to an ecological fantasy.

If Central Park designed by Olmsted and Vaux is

fantacizing picturesque landscapes in dense urban areas, then the Gas Works Park by Richard Haag

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Jingchen Zhao// USC MLA 2017

______1

Jingchen Zhao// USC MLA 2017

2000 feet

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INDUSTRIEEL LIVING: INHABITING ACTIVE INDUSTRY

______2

1. Data: http://la.curbed.com/2015/7/9/9942036/ baldwin-hills-oil-field-house 2. Data: http://www.inglewoodoilfield.com/

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Jingchen Zhao// USC MLA 2017

______1

Jingchen Zhao// USC MLA 2017

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UF Membrane

Post Carbon Filter

Sterilizer Filter

Sediment Filter

INDUSTRIEEL LIVING: INHABITING ACTIVE INDUSTRY

WATER OUTLET FIRST FALL

FLOWING CHANNEL

1. Images: Jingchen Zhao

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WHITE BUBBLES

Jingchen Zhao// USC MLA 2017

Future Treatment

One noticeable fact in the Kenneth Hahn Park is the

water looked polluted on site. Even if there is always running water in the pools and in the manmade

streams, the water is smelly from afar and very bubbly.

It is an indication of heavy pollution and water injection as the technology to drill oil in most industrial sites.

UV Sterilizer

New industry is proposed to cleanse water on site and recycle it for recreational use and irrigation.

Upper Resevoir Tank

FIRST POOL

SECOND POOL

SECOND FALL

WATER DISCHARGE

______1

Jingchen Zhao// USC MLA 2017

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INDUSTRIEEL LIVING: INHABITING ACTIVE INDUSTRY

Site: Taylor Yard

History and Proposed Plans (adjacent)

Taylor Yard Parcel G2

Not a Cornfield

the Los Angeles River, and I’m proud to have made

in Downtown Los Angeles into a 32-acre cornfield for

“This parcel is a crown jewel in our plans to restore 1. http://la.streetsblog.org/2014/08/25/ city-nears-purchase-of-key-parcel-for-la-river-revitalization/ 2. https://www.dtsc.ca.gov/SiteCleanup/ Projects/upload/Taylor_Yard_CN_RAP.

acquisition of it a top priority for the city. This site

represents a large amount of open space that will help us free the river from its concrete straight jacket and connect local communities to its natural beauty.”

Mayor Eric Garcetti 2017.

1

pdf 3. Not a Cornfield -- Lauren Bon. http:// www.metabolicstudio.org/section/ actions/not-cornfield 4. http://boe.lacity.org/lariverrmp/ CommunityOutreach/masterplan_ download.htm 5. Rumblefish -- Pali Fekete Architects. http://www.spfa.com/project/rumblefishpedestrian-bridge/

The Site is located at 2800 Kerr Street in northeast Los Angeles, near the intersection of the Golden

one agricultural cycle. The work, Bon’s first metabolic sculpture, began almost a decade of remediation

of this iconic yet neglected site, the last remaining

undeveloped land of the native Tongva and Gabrieleno people and the site of the Zanja Madre, or mother ditch, that linked the LA River to the first Spanish settlement in Los Angeles.

State Freeway (Interstate 5) and the Glendale

Involving 90 miles of irrigation stripping, 1,500

by the Los Angeles River and to the east by Rio

and 42 bails of corn fodder, the work signaled

Freeway (State Route 2). It is bounded to the west De Los Angeles Park. Since the 1890s, the overall 243-acre Taylor Yard property has been used for

rail yard operations by Southern Pacific. The Parcel G-2 is approximately 50 acres in size. The Site

was historically used for maintenance and fueling

beginning in the 1930s and continued through 2006 when the yard was permanently closed. Former

facilities at the Site include a diesel shop, a machine

shop, a roundhouse, two turntables, underground and aboveground storage tanks (USTs and ASTs) which

contained fuel, oil, water, and boiler wash; a service track area, and miscellaneous buildings. In 2009, most of the remaining structures at the Site were demolished.2

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Not a Cornfield transformed an abandoned rail yard

Jingchen Zhao// USC MLA 2017

truckloads of clean soil, 30,000 lbs of corn seed the beginning of a decade of experimentation

on reconnecting land with water, engaging and

collaborating with agencies and communities in

the city, questioning and probing the edges of the permissible. Other work grew from it, a series of

actions that have unfolded across the hundreds of

miles that make up the watershed of Los Angeles.3

L.A. River Revitalization Plan

The plan does not program the remaining 31 acres.

Once the site is in public hands, the city would work with the state and others to facilitate a community

planning process. The park would need to interact with existing active rail, including Metrolink and Amtrak,

that runs parallel to the river, as well as anticipated future high-speed rail. Based on the concept plan,

access would include the existing road, plus a new

pedestrain tunnel to Sotomayor High School, and a new walk/bike bridge to Elysian Valley.

4

______1

Not a Cornfield

Rumblefish Pedestrian Bridge

As one of the first in the new generation of crossings at the Los Angeles River, Rumblefish marks the

threshold of the river and the act of its crossing by

drawing attention to the change in elevation from one back to the next.5

______2

LARMP 2007

1. Image: Metabolic Sudio, http://www.metabolicstudio.org/section/actions/not-cornfield 2. Image: LARMP 3. Image: Pali Fekete Architects

______3

Jingchen Zhao// USC MLA 2017

Rumble Fish Bridge

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INDUSTRIEEL LIVING: INHABITING ACTIVE INDUSTRY

Wetland Studies

1. Image: Metabolic Studio. http:// www.metabolicstudio.org/page/ metabolic-studio-pilot-wetland-study

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Jingchen Zhao// USC MLA 2017

Water Wheel Studies

The only difference would be the addition of a

treatment method-- since the river has been severely polluted since its channelization. The Metabolic

Studio has introduced the constructed wetland with 8 California native aquatic species that specifically cleanses and filtrates water from the river.

She has also got the 21 permits from the city to pull water out of the river including riparian rights.

______2

The intervention is considered both sculptural and

utilitarian. The waterwheels will drive the river water through “bending“-- the creation of inflatable dams, which will be used to irrigate, and transported to institutions and individuals after treatment.

2. Image: Metabolic Studio. http://www. metabolicstudio.org/section/actions/ bending-river-back-city

Very insterestingly, not only did Lauren Bon from Metabolic Studio “reanimate the legacy of the

waterwheels that drove water on and around the site in the 19th century”, but have the same theory and

destination of using the water as ancient Babylonians.

Instead of using manpower (the only source back

in the Babylon era) she has integrated giant water

wheels to pull water from the river to adjacent urban

parks in the project: Bending the River Back into the City. 1

1 http://www.metabolicstudio.org/section/actions/ bending-river-back-city Jingchen Zhao// USC MLA 2017

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INDUSTRIEEL LIVING: INHABITING ACTIVE INDUSTRY

______2

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Jingchen Zhao// USC MLA 2017

Context: Historical Los Angeles River Brief History and Lauren Bon

Historically, the river ran and meandered across the alluvial floodplain, nourishing and

disturbing the ecology at the same time. The natural disturbances provide great diversities of habitat including “riparian woodlands, coastal dunes and freshwater and brackish wetlands”.

“The river would join with springs from surrounding hills to form shallow lakes, ponds, and vast marshes. Sedges, cattails, and bulbrush thrived in open wetlands and sloughs.”1

In 1895 Los Angeles River Maps it was barely legible but indicated traces of growing alfalfa and other cover crops in the river bed. Similar to all the other river ecology, the naturalized

channel was once used to irrigate crop fields during non-flooding seasons in ancient Babylon

______1

river. Before drip irrigation was invented, people used to mechanically pull water out from the river to irrigate other crop fields along the bank.

1 1-2. Image: L.A Map Archives

David Fletcher, “Flooding Control Freakology: Los Angeles River Watershed”, in Chris Reed

and Nina-Marie Lister, Projective Ecologies (New York: Actar Publishers, 2008)

3. Image: Penelope Hobhouse, Plants in Garden History: An Illustrated History of Plants and Their Influence on Garden Styles -- from Ancient Egypt to the Present Day. Pavilion, 1992

Jingchen Zhao// USC MLA 2017

______3

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INDUSTRIEEL LIVING: INHABITING ACTIVE INDUSTRY

Site geography

Fletcher Bridge Access The only access for G2 Parcel

44

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______1 1. Image: Jingchen Zhao

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INDUSTRIEEL LIVING: INHABITING ACTIVE INDUSTRY

“Walking the Line” Exercise “Walking the Line” took a section across the G2 parcel and revealed site conditions and perimeter conditions -- all fences wrapping the site.

1. Image: Jingchen Zhao 2. Mapping data: Google Earth, Zimas

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______1

“Text Map” Exercise Generated by text only, directly from original archival maps and overlay their text layers only.

______2

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INDUSTRIEEL LIVING: INHABITING ACTIVE INDUSTRY

Archival research

Taylor Yard

The 1884 Los Angeles topographic map shows street

grids are beginning to read on the east side of today’s

Taylor Yard parcel. Mount Washington bordered a part of the site.

1. Image: H.J. Stevenson. Map of the City of Los Angeles, California, 1884. Los Angeles Public Library. lapl.com < https://www.lapl. org/collections-resources/visual-collections/ map-city-los-angeles-california-1884?page=1>

______1

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Jingchen Zhao// USC MLA 2017

Taylor Yard

A historical Los Angeles detail irrigation map shows

the irrigation companies/works that are responsible of the cover crops. The historical Taylor Yard parcel has planting (mostly agriculture) on the west side of the

river, where the industrial buildings are built and where the 5 cuts through today.

2. Image: William Hammond, Los Angeles.

Detail Irrigation Map. Digital. David Rumsey Historical Map Collection. davidrumsey.com, Retrieved 21 Apr. 2017. < http://www.oldmapsonline.org/map/rumsey/5830.003>

______2

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INDUSTRIEEL LIVING: INHABITING ACTIVE INDUSTRY

Survey

2017 Parcel Land Use

______1

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LEGEND GENERALIZED ZONING OS, GW A, RA

Taylor Yard zoning map in context, indicating the

RE, RS, R1, RU, RZ, RW1 R2, RD, RMP, RW2, R3, RAS, R4, R5

parcel is zoned for industrial uses and sandwiched

CR, C1, C1.5, C2, C4, C5, CW, ADP, LASED, CEC, USC, PVSP CM, MR, WC, CCS, UV, UI, UC, M1, M2, LAX, M3, SL

by medium (orange) and low (yellow) residential with

P, PB

a highway infrastructure on the southwest side and

PF HILLSIDE

some industrial warehouses on the west side.

GENERAL PLAN LAND USE LAND USE RESIDENTIAL

INDUSTRIAL

Minimum Residential

Commercial Manufacturing

Very Low / Very Low I Residential

Limited Manufacturing

Very Low II Residential

Light Manufacturing

Low / Low I Residential

Heavy Manufacturing

Low II Residential

Hybrid Industrial

PARKING

Low Medium / Low Medium I Residential

Map not to scale

Parking Buffer

Low Medium II Residential

PORT OF LOS ANGELES

Medium Residential High Medium Residential

General / Bulk Cargo - Non Hazardous (Industrial / Commercial)

High Density Residential

General / Bulk Cargo - Hazard

Very High Medium Residential

Commercial Fishing

COMMERCIAL

Recreation and Commercial Intermodal Container Transfer Facility Site

Limited Commercial

LOS ANGELES INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

Limited Commercial - Mixed Medium Residential Highway Oriented Commercial

Airport Landside

Highway Oriented and Limited Commercial

Airport Airside

Highway Oriented Commercial - Mixed Medium Residential Neighborhood Office Commercial

1. Map data: Zimas maps

Airport Northside

OPEN SPACE / PUBLIC FACILITIES

Community Commercial

Open Space

Community Commercial - Mixed High Residential

Public / Open Space

Regional Center Commercial

Public / Quasi-Public Open Space Other Public Open Space

FRAMEWORK

Public Facilities

COMMERCIAL Neighborhood Commercial

INDUSTRIAL

General Commercial

Limited Industrial

Community Commercial

Light Industrial

Regional Mixed Commercial

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INDUSTRIEEL LIVING: INHABITING ACTIVE INDUSTRY

Analysis

Parcel Information Glendale Fwy

Los Angeles River

Taylor Yard Parcel G2

52

1000 feet Jingchen Zhao// USC MLA 2017

Accessibility

Local Street Access

Union Pacific Rail Road

Los Angeles River Bike Trail

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INDUSTRIEEL LIVING: INHABITING ACTIVE INDUSTRY

Glendale Fwy

City Proposals

Union Pacific Rail Road

Proposed Underground Tunnel

Proposed Park

Proposed Underground Tunnel

Exisiting Underground Tunnel

Proposed Aboveground Bridge

by SPF Architecture

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Jingchen Zhao// USC MLA 2017

Stormwater Outfalls

Glendale Fwy

From Tillman Reclamation Plant

Los Angeles River Storm Water Outfalls

To South Bay

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INDUSTRIEEL LIVING: INHABITING ACTIVE INDUSTRY

Ecological positioning: technologies

Borrowed technologies from Lauren Bonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Metabolic Studio proposal to use inflatable dams to dam the river and create artificial flooding and giant water wheels to pull water from the river for furthur treatment. Air-filled or water-filed flexible membranes are attached to concrete to create a permanent, dam or floodgate. Made of high quality U/V resistant Hypalon rubber compound

reinforced with high-strength polyester fabric. Flexible dams offer full flood control with the ability to fully open or fully close very quickly. Floodwater or flash floods will spill over the top automatically without additional support or adjustment.1 1 http://www.savatrade.com/GreenDivision/index.htm

1. Image: http://www.savatrade.com/GreenDivision/index.htm

Inflatable Dam

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Jingchen Zhao// USC MLA 2017

Bending the River Back into the City will eventually provide a waterwheel named LA Noria that reanimates the legacy of the waterwheels that drove water on and around the site in the 19th century.1

1 http://www.metabolicstudio.org/section/actions/bending-river-back-city

2. Image: model from Metabolic Studio by Jingchen Zhao

______2

Water Wheel

Jingchen Zhao// USC MLA 2017

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INDUSTRIEEL LIVING: INHABITING ACTIVE INDUSTRY

Ecological positioning: horticultures

Bidens laevis

Juncus xiphioides

Scirpus americanus

Eleocharis montevidensis

Juncus textilis

Scirpus maritimus

Pluchea purpurascens

Scirpus californicus

PLACE HOLDER

CO2 + H2O plant uptaking N & P nitrogen gas

organic matter

P releases at low oxygen level decomposition mineralization

nitrification dentrification

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Plant List for Constructed Wetland

______1

1. Plant list: Metabolic Studio Wetland Study. http://www.metabolicstudio.org/page/metabolic-studio-pilot-wetland-study 2. Image: http://lukeaustinphotography.com/gallery/product/canola-field-york-western-australia-170 3. Image: http://www.haseloff-lab.org/education/PMS1B_index/page-11/

Canola Research for Soil Remediation

______2 Brassica rapa seed has 45% oil content, is a good source for a clean energy replacement of fossil fuel

______3

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Proposition

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Jingchen Zhao: Industrieel Living: MLA USC 2017

Jingchen Zhao: Industrieel Living: MLA USC 2017

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INDUSTRIEEL LIVING: INHABITING ACTIVE INDUSTRY

Design: Industrieel Living Living in a Clean Energy Industry

Railroad in Taylor Yard

Image: Jingchen Zhao

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existing landuse

constructed wetland

Industry Residential

Commercial/public

increased residential Industry Residential

mushroom field+ inundation

Commercial/public

New Residential Development

canola planting

Jingchen Zhao// USC MLA 2017

regional plan

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INDUSTRIEEL LIVING: INHABITING ACTIVE INDUSTRY

Design iteration

Increasing Density In the past 100 years some landscape architects have really put together amazing work and revealed the

unlimited vistas of landscape urbanism can become.

They also broke the binary from complete dead industries to complete residential.

Opportunities Although, industrial land use with large open spaces that people canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have access to is very much

objectifying the landscape and using it as a total

instrument. Some revitalization projects are no better than fantasizing the dead instruments or beating

the dead horses in a non-poetic way. A challenge to emerging landscape architects is to see the

opportunities of city inhabitation and so much more that copes with the authenticity of a landscape and its special cultural significance -- industrial history.

Strategic design combined housing opportunity with clean water treatment takes place in Taylor Yard, a previous (and current) industrial site.

Strategy Sketch

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1000 feet Jingchen Zhao// USC MLA 2017

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INDUSTRIEEL LIVING: INHABITING ACTIVE INDUSTRY

High Level Activity

One way Porous Membrane

Sycamore

Water Wheel (Lauren Bonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Project)

Cottonwood

Sycamore

Willow

Rocks Los Angeles River

Rich Organic Matt Elderberry Sandbar Willow Coyote Bush

Inflatable Dam

Low Level Activity

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Constructed Wetland

Water Tank

Constructed Wetland(continue)

Canola Camelina

Fern Mushrooms

ter

Design Interventions

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7

Site Design from Sketch to Illustrative Plan

8

1. 20â&#x20AC;&#x2122; above ground paltform 2. constructed wetland on platform 3. housing across platform 4. mushroom field with oaks trees 5. canola field 6. flood observatory 7. los angeles river 8. bridge access

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100 feet

5 6

4 3

2

1

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Illustrative Perspectives from Rhino Modeling

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important approach to embrace a power plant as a

living situation. (Katie Campbell, Icons of TwentiethCentury Landscape Design, 2006).

My thesis project means to test living environments in new digestive industries at a human scale instead of an industrial scale, The test will use the Los Angeles

River to inoculate new living typology into sustainable technologies.

It seems impossible to imagine human living

experiences inhabiting the native Los Angeles River--

not just the perimeter but infusing the river culture. As As we lose touch with where our water goes, where

our power comes from or how our food is processed, there is a missing aspect in our life. For example

the way people look at the Baldwin Hills Oil Fields

has been fearful, rejective, everything but interactive or educational. There are primary industries right

in the middle of the city but the boundaries couldn’t

have been more clear. As higher density residential

starts to build up in frogtown, the river edges become heavier and indigestible, which could accelerate the fragmentation/separation of the river and make a community less interactive and more monotonic.

clean industry is springing in Taylor Yard, it might be a good place to start the thesis project of Industrieel

Living. With bio-degrading interventions on separate layers but overlapping with each other, the project

aims to increase the city/river’s elasticity. By taking in

all the water sources directly from the water wheels on the river (including treated black water, untreated gray water, stormwater runoffs...), the system will start to

digest the “urban sludge” through layers of inundation, mycological filtration, ecological filtration and biomass production. Such practices are not only to improve living suitability but the overall health of the river ecology.

Chances are, some architects/designers are tackling the designs that begin to connect movement to

industries. Lauren Bon’s building project-- “Bending the river back to the city” expresses the wish of

integrating the river culture with the community by

utilizing treated river water for irrigating surrounding urban parks through giant water wheels and

constructed wetlands. Similarly Eggborough Power Plant, was designed to be “aesthetically pleasing and ecologically sound, it respected nature while

celebrating technology; it refused to hide the products of modern industry, though it did integrate them

harmoniously with the existing environment“, as an

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INDUSTRIEEL LIVING: INHABITING ACTIVE INDUSTRY

Living in Clean Water Treatment

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Communal Housing

20 Foot Platform with Constructed Wetland

Water Tank

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INDUSTRIEEL LIVING: INHABITING ACTIVE INDUSTRY

Function: occupation

Inundation Widened river channel with proposed inflatable dams will allow seasonal inundation. Porous membrane used to retain mushroom fields and infiltrate water.

Water wheels from Metabolic Studio pull water from the river and dams control artificial flooding.

Water Treatment Raised concrete platforms to allow buildings to built upon and over constructed wetlands.

There are 8 native California wetland species in the contructed wetland provided by the Metabolic Studio. The plants will infiltrate water pulled from the Los Angeles river and remediate water quality to become irrigated to the canola field.

Soil Remediation Canola and camelina from the brassica family are proposed in the fields for agriculture reservation. Research shows the capability to grow canola and camelina as a winter rotation in southern California. They will improve the soil quality overtime.

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INDUSTRIEEL LIVING: INHABITING ACTIVE INDUSTRY

One-way Porous Membrane Along Mushroom Field

1. Seasonal and Managed Inundation

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Source Water

Los Angeles River (Treated black water, runoffs, industrial and agricultural efflluents) “Urban Sludge”

Treatment Method

Bio-infiltration Mushrooms Physical Blockage

State of Water Output Basic level of cleansing

Bi-product

Designated of Water Output Los Angeles River Aquifer

Microorganisms cleanse soil and water through phytoremediation

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INDUSTRIEEL LIVING: INHABITING ACTIVE INDUSTRY

Wetland Plant Infiltration

2. Constructed Wetland

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Jingchen Zhao// USC MLA 2017

Source Water

Los Angeles River (Treated black water, runoffs, industrial and agricultural efflluents) “Urban Sludge“

Treatment Method Raised Wetland Active Organisms

State of Water Output Sufficiently cleansed for spray irrigation

Bi-product Bio-mass Energy Compost

Designated of Water Output Pressurized Water Tanks Spray Irrigation Aquifer

______1 Water tanks to catch infiltrated water by constructed

“Qanat”-- underground water

wetland

storage in Iran

1. Water Storage (Ab Anbar). Karavansera. http://www.karavansera.com/water-storage.html

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INDUSTRIEEL LIVING: INHABITING ACTIVE INDUSTRY

Canola Infiltration

3. Canola + Camelina Field

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Jingchen Zhao// USC MLA 2017

Source Water Local Graywater Run off

Treatment Method Winter rotation of canola and camelina Legume cover crop

State of Water Output Plant growth Nitrogen fixation Cleansed graywater

Bi-product Bio-fuel

Nitrogen fertilizer

Designated of Water Output Percolating to aquifer

Canola planting to cleanse graywater and fix soil

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INDUSTRIEEL LIVING: INHABITING ACTIVE INDUSTRY

Proposals

Glendale Fwy

Proposed Housing

Relocated Factories and Learning Centers

Renovated Galleries+Living Spaces

Flood Observatory

Condos Living within Industry

Townhomes Living within Industry

SFH Residential

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1000 feet Jingchen Zhao// USC MLA 2017

Proposed Urban Fabrics

Gradually Graded to Street Level

20 Foot Above Ground

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Glendale Fwy

Inflatable Dams

Concrete Bridges

Inflatable Dams

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Proposed River

Existing L.A. River

Proposed L.A. River

Jingchen Zhao// USC MLA 2017

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Relocated Factories and Learning Centers

Renovated Galleries+Living Spaces

Flood Observatory Pedestrian Bridge Union Pacific Railroad Condos Living within Industry

Townhomes Living within Industry Inflatable Dam

SFH Residential

Jingchen Zhao// USC MLA 2017

500 feet

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INDUSTRIEEL LIVING: INHABITING ACTIVE INDUSTRY

1. Industrieel Living Project 2. Future High Density Housing 3. Existing Oil Fields/Future Industry Parks 4. A More Viable L.A River 5. Tillman Water Reclamation Plant

90

1 mile Jingchen Zhao// USC MLA 2017

5

1

3

2

4

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91

Conclusion

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Jingchen Zhao: Industrieel Living: MLA USC 2017

Jingchen Zhao: Industrieel Living: MLA USC 2017

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INDUSTRIEEL LIVING: INHABITING ACTIVE INDUSTRY

Conclusion

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Jingchen Zhao// USC MLA 2017

Urban Living Inoculation When we talk about urban living today most people think of living in a concrete jungle, underneath swooshing traffic, or having access to high quality of amenities. But in a

congested world that keeps expanding, living with industry shouldn’t be left out of the scope

of urban design. This project is a test to propagate living conditions in an operative yet clean energy generating industry. It takes water from the Los Angeles River that includes: treated black water, runoffs, industrial and agricultural effluents together with the local gray water

and treat it on site to meet spray irrigation standards to save water in southern California.

The Taylor Yard parcel was chosen not only because it’s adjacent to the river but because it has an historic and interesting agriculture and industry overlay -- it served as a flood control plain before the river was channelized and had a more diverse ecosystem. Later the parcel was used as a railyard to Southern Pacific railway as well as for operating Amtrak and

metrolink rails. The abandoned site has a lot of issues like soil contamination before it could be converted to an urban park as the city planned. Other existing industry is the railway

bypass on Taylor Yard’s edge along the river. My design interventions aim to promote a clean energy industry and take gray water from local homes to integrate residential as part of the

industry. By using three strong strategies deal with different water inputs, all water output can be easily accessed and reused as an irrigation solution and for recharging the aquifer.

Methods focus on using bio-energy for toxin degradation (mushroom field), polishing

effluents (raised constructed wetland), and water cleansing (canola field) with by-product of bio-fuel.

To pull water from the river, I studied Lauren Bon’s project: Bending the River back into the City, where she has acquired more than 21 permits including the riparian rights in order to utilize the water from Los Angeles River. In my case study of her project, I used the

technologies of water wheel -- to mechanically pull water from the channel and constructed

wetland -- to infiltrate the “urban sludge” from the river and be sent to the canola field. In the

canola field, I intend to use the local gray water to irrigate the field, and harvest canola seeds for oil extraction. This proposed agriculture system is not intended to grow edible crops but bio-fuel crops for industrial use only.

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INDUSTRIEEL LIVING: INHABITING ACTIVE INDUSTRY

Another technology I researched from Lauren Bon’s Metabolic Studio, is the use of inflatable dams made of rubber to be filled with water or air to dam the river and create an elevation difference for the water wheels. Pedestrian bridge structures will be built upon multiple

locations of the river to provide public access to the river from its neighbors and outside.

These concrete bridges will be 20 foot above ground in the park and gradually graded to street level when blending into the city -- on both sides.

Self Reflection and Critique

An urban design project like this is probably going to take a very long time longer than I

wish. It took Lauren Bon nearly a decade and a tremendous amount of work to have all

the permits to access water from the river -- never would I have thought I won’t have the

access to the water of Los Angeles River. It was also a surprise to me that my project was

eventually headed to the direction of inhabiting housing projects in an open space, as well as an industry park, that wasn’t originally planned out. (Originally it was designed for industries in a park only.) One concern I have is that how to educate the general public to accept an innovative living condition where water isn’t clean when first being brought in.

Landscape architecture’s potential as a discipline to shape our environment

The thesis project started with questioning the industrial segregation which is very common in a lot of industrialized cities. Modern cities are no longer depending on heavy primary

industries hence factories and railroads are abandoned on site. New developments are built right next to these decommissioned sites whether for housing or new businesses.

But the abandoned sites usually take a lot of space and have potentials to be converted to open spaces, some even look like huge areas of public parks on the map but with no public access. Such spaces are a waste of resources and an ignorance to its cultural

significance. Especially under today’s high pressure of land use, there must be a solution to

its segregation. Landscape architecture design is not only an aesthetic tool to make artificial

wonderlands but more of addressing today’s urban issues due to climate change, increasing density, pollution and much more. It becomes necessary for landscape architects, urban

planners and designers to use design as a powerful tool to solve emerging issues and make the most use of our precious land. Ecological restoration is another crucial aspect in urban

place making. As we have becoming to lose touch of where our water goes, where our power comes from or how our food is processed, there is a missing aspect in our life.

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For example the way people look at the Baldwin Hills Oil Fields has been fearful, rejective, everything but interactive or educational. There’re primary industries right in the middle of

the city but the boundaries couldn’t have been more clear. When residential starts to build up in frogtown, the river edges become heavier and indigestible, which could accelerate

the fragmentation/separation of the river and make a community less interactive but more monotonic.

It seems unstoppable to imagine human living experiences inhabiting the native Los

Angeles River-- not just the perimeter but infusing the river culture. As a new clean industry is springing in Taylor Yard, it might be a good place to start the thesis project of Industrieel

Living. With bio-degrading interventions on separate layers but overlapping with each other, the project aims to increase the city/river’s elasticity. By taking in all the water sources

directly from the water wheels on the river (including treated black water, untreated gray

water, stormwater runoffs...), the system will start to digest the “urban sludge” through the

layers of inundation, mycological filtration, ecological filtration and biomass production. Such practices are not only to improve living suitability but the overall health of the river ecology.

With a design solution to support my thesis, I believe Taylor Yard in Los Angeles is an

inhabitable and successful test. The module can be duplicated in many other urbanized

regions where there are limited resources such as water inefficiency, health problems and environmental problems.

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Bibliography

Udo Weilacher, Syntax of Landscape The Landscape Architecture of Peter Latz and Partners, Birkhauser 2008.

James Corner, “Terra Fluxus” in The Landscape Urbanism Reader, Charles Waldheim, ed. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2006.

David Fletcher, “Flooding Control Freakology: Los Angeles River Watershed”, in Chris Reed and Nina-Marie Lister, Projective Ecologies (New York: Actar Publishers, 2008) Penelope Hobhouse, Plants in Garden History: An Illustrated History of Plants and Their Influence on Garden Styles -- from Ancient Egypt to the Present Day. Pavilion, 1992 Bradley Cantrell and Justine Holzman, Responsive Landscapes: Strategies for Responsive Technologies in Landscape Architecture, Routledge, 2016 Piet Oudolf and Noel Kingsbury, Hummelo: A Journey Through a Plantsman’s Life, The Monacelli Press, 2015 Richard Weller and Meghan Talarowski, Transects: 100 Years of Lnadscape Architecture and Regional Planning at the School of Design of the University of Pennsylvania, Applied Research and Design Publishing, 2014 Katie Campbell, Icons of Twentieth-Century

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Landscape Design, Frances Lincoln Publising, 2006 Reyner Banham, Los Angeles: the Architecture of Four Ecologies, University of California Press, 2009 ed.

Helene Izembart and Bertrand Le Boudec, Waterscapes: Using Plant Systems to Treat Wastewater, Gustavo Gili., 2003 Gunther Vogt, Miniature and Panorama: Vogt Landscape Architects Projects 2000-12, Lars Muller Publishers, 2012 Nadia Amoroso, Representing Landscapes: Hybrid, Routledge, 2016 Anuradha Mathur and Dilip da Cunha, Soak:Mumbai in an Estuary, Rupa & Co., 2009 Ian L. McHarg, Design with Nature, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1992 ed.

George Hargreaves, Julia Czerniak, Anita Berrizbeitia and Liz Campbell Kelly, Landscape Alchemy: The Work of Hargreaves Associates, Gordon Goff Publishing, 2009

Data: http://la.curbed.com/2015/7/9/9942036/ baldwin-hills-oil-field-house

http://www.cityprojectca.org/blog/archives/3750

Data: http://www.inglewoodoilfield.com/

http://www.mvvainc.com/project.php?id=13

http://la.streetsblog.org/2014/08/25/citynears-purchase-of-key-parcel-for-l-a-river-revitalization/

http://www.gp-b.com/cultuurpark-westergasfabriek

https://www.dtsc.ca.gov/SiteCleanup/Projects/upload/Taylor_Yard_CN_RAP.pdf Not a Cornfield -- Lauren Bon. http://www. metabolicstudio.org/section/actions/not-cornfield http://boe.lacity.org/lariverrmp/CommunityOutreach/masterplan_download.htm Rumblefish -- Pali Fekete Architects. http:// www.spfa.com/project/rumblefish-pedestrian-bridge/ https://www.usgs.gov/products/maps/topo-maps http://zimas.lacity.org/ http://www.metabolicstudio.org/section/actions/bending river-back-city http://www.savatrade.com/GreenDivision/index.htm Plant list: Metabolic Studio Wetland Study. http://www.metabolicstudio.org/page/metabolic-studio-pilot-wetland-study http://www.inglewoodoilfield.com/

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Image Credits

Jovicic Rajko. Grist Mill, Guildhall, Vermont.

Digital image. blogspot.com, Oct. 2012, Web 24 Mar 2017. <http://despicableme0x. blogspot.com/2012/10/grist-mill-guildhallvermont.html> Venice Suburb Map, https://www.google.com/ maps/place/, retrieved on April, 2017 Dolmatch Kathleen. Central Park West.

Digital image. Nationalgeographic.com, 5 Nov 2014. Web 12 Apr 2017. <http:// yourshot.nationalgeographic.com/ photos/6577920/> Wohlrab Mark. Duisburg-Nord Industrial Landscape Park. Digital image. germanytravel.com, Web Feb. 2017. <http:// www.germany.travel/en/towns-cities-culture/ palaces-parks-gardens/galerie-duisburgnord-industrial-landscape-park.html> Kathiresan Ramanathan. Gas Works Park.

Digital image. amusingplanet.com, 26 Oct. 2008. Web 15 Apr. 2017. <http://www. amusingplanet.com/2015/08/gas-works-parkin-seattle.html> Gustafson Porter. Cultuurpark Westerfabriek, Digital image. gp-b.com, 2006. Web Feb. 2017. < http://www.gp-b.com/cultuurparkwestergasfabriek> Michael Van Valkenburgh. Connecticut Water Treatment Facility. Digital image. mvvainc. com, 2001-2005. Web Jan. 2017. <http://

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www.mvvainc.com/project.php?id=13> The City Project. Baldwin Hills Aerial. Digital image. flicker.com, 14 Oct. 2004, Web. Jan. 2017 <http://www.cityprojectca.org/blog/ archives/3750> Metabolic Sudio, Not a Cornfield. Digital image. metabolicstudio.org, 2005-2006. Web Oct. 2016. <http://www.metabolicstudio.org/ section/actions/not-cornfield> Los Angeles Department of Public Works.

Los Angeles River Master Plan. Digital image. ladpw.org, Retrieved Jan. 2017. <http://ladpw.org/wmd/watershed/la/larmp/> Pali Fekete Architects. Rumblefish. Digital image. spfa.com, Retrieved Apr. 2017. <http://www.spfa.com/project/rumblefishpedestrian-bridge/> H.J. Stevenson. Map of the City of Los Angeles, California, 1884. Los Angeles Public Library. lapl.com, Retrieved 21 Apr. 2017. <https://www.lapl.org/collections-resources/ visual-collections/map-city-los-angelescalifornia-1884?page=1> Penelope Hobhouse, Plant Illustration.

Book image. Plants in Garden History: An Illustrated History of Plants and Their Influence on Garden Styles -- from Ancient Egypt to the Present Day. Pavilion, 1992.

Scaned Sep. 2016.

1. Metabolic Sudio, Wetland Study. Digital image. metabolicstudio.org, Web Oct. 2016. <http://www.metabolicstudio.org/page/ metabolic-studio-pilot-wetland-study> William Hammond, Los Angeles. Detail Irrigation Map. Digital. David Rumsey Historical Map Collection. davidrumsey. com, Retrieved 21 Apr. 2017. < http://www. oldmapsonline.org/map/rumsey/5830.003> Metabolic Sudio, Bending the River Back into the City. Digital image. metabolicstudio.org, Web Oct. 2016. <http://www.metabolicstudio. org/section/actions/bending-river-back-city la>

PMS1B_index/page-11/> Karavansera, Water Storag. Digital image. karavansera.com, Retrieved Oct. 2016. <http://www.karavansera.com/water-storage. html> Los Angeles River Revitalization Plan. Taylor Yard Park. Digital image. la.curbed.com 2013. Web. 12 Apr. 2017. < http://la.curbed. com/maps/a-map-guide-to-the-gloriousfuture-of-the-los-angeles-river-1/taylor-yardpark>

Thomas Brothers Maps, Inc, 21 Apr. 2017. http://zimas.lacity.org/ Savatech Corp. Surface Water Flow Management Inflatable Dams for Water Control. Digital image. savatrade.com, Retrieved Apr. 2017. <http://www.savatrade. com/GreenDivision/index.htm> Austin Luke. Canola Field. Digital image. lukeaustinphotography.com, Retrieved Mar. 2017. <http://lukeaustinphotography.com/ gallery/product/canola-field-york-westernaustralia-170> Haseloff Lab. Canola Growth Stages. Digital image. hassloff-lab.org, Retrieved Feb. 2017. <http://www.haseloff-lab.org/education/ Jingchen Zhao// USC MLA 2017

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Acknowledgement

I would first like to thank my thesis advisor Peter Culley of the School of Architecture at

University Sounthern California. The door to Peter’s office was always open whenever I ran into a trouble spot or had a question about my research or writing. He consistently allowed

this project to be my own work, but steered me in the right the direction whenever he thought I needed it.

I would also like to thank the experts who were involved in the validation survey for this research project and faculty who have directly and indirectly strenghthened my thesis

theory: Lauren Bon’s Metabolic Studio, Director Kelly Shannon, Professor Esther Marguiles, Professor Travis Longcore, Professor Alex Robinson, Professor Alison Hirsh, Professor Bob

Perry, Professor Gerdo Aquino, Professor Ying-yu Hung and Instructor Kate Harvey. Without their passionate participation and input and thorough teaching, the validation of the thesis could not have been successfully conducted.

I would also like to acknowledge the professors I had when first getting into the MLA

program at Stuckeman College of Arts and Architecture at the Pennsylvania State University before University of Southern California: Ron Henderson, John Dixon Hunt, Christopher

Counts, Maria Counts, Charles T. Baird and Neil Korostoff. I wouldn’t be able to lay a strong foundation for conducting my thesis at a prestigious research institution in University of Southern California without their expertises and mentorships.

I would also like to acknowledge professor Sarah Cowles of the School of Architecture at University Sounthern California as the second reader of this thesis, and I am gratefully indebted to her for her very valuable guidance on this thesis.

Finally, I must express my very profound gratitude to my parents and to my grandmother who couldn’t witness the completion of my thesis for providing me with unfailing support

and continuous encouragement throughout my years of study and through the process of researching and writing this thesis. This accomplishment would not have been possible without them. Thank you.

Author: Jingchen Zhao June 2017

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Domain expert review

Name Fulfillment of contents

Design eloquence

Disciplinary salience

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Interlude 1: The interface MYOPIC DIAGRAMS “Sprawl-ville”

This scenario will keep the current car ownership of its residence. A central station is proposed to bring people to and from the neighborhood using a railway system.

It allows as much passbys as possible, by proposing a social friendly community to get from point to another by reinforcing a social interaction through multiple stations in the park.

“Anti-riverism”

In this scenario the LA river will be completely stored in water tanks all over the river beds and the industrial park. The artificial river will collect rainwater and pump it to charge the aquifer underground. Seasonal flooding is allowed.

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“Communi-city”

“Socio-city”

Jingchen Zhao// USC MLA 2017

Using rings to connect residents this scenario has a broader community. Cars will be completely replaced by bio-fuel buses.

“Pseudo-alluvial”

This scenario has a complete control of flooding, using artificial flooding and seasonal flooding to fuel the productive agriculture landscapes. It transforms the energy from runoff to plants and stores it in plants.

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Interlude II: Myopic alternates MODELS “Pseudo-alluvial”

“Socio-city”

“Communi-city”

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“Anti-riverism”

“Sprawl-ville”

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