Lauren Moffett McClure, MLA by Lauren McClure

Lauren Moffett McClure MLA Master in Landscape Architecture | 2012 Harvard University | Graduate School of Design

Spring 2011 OYSTERCITY AT WILLETS POINT, QUEENS, NY

chris reed, miho mazareeuw, gary hilderbrand

Spring 2012 your park at gansevoort peninsula, new york, ny

michael van valkenburgh, rosetta elkin

Fall 2011 Killian court at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, cambridge, MA

shane coen

Portfolio of Work

Spring 2010 kenndey Community Park, fall river, ma

anita berrizbeitia, holly clarke

Fall 2010 camp weymouth, south weymouth naval airbase, south weymouth, ma

pierre belanger, NIALL KIRKWOOD Lauren McClure

Oystercity

OYSTERCITY willets point, QUEENS, NY

Oysercity

| The Willets Point studio seeks to challenge the notion of the traditional Western City that is planned to be permanent and rigid. It focuses on the development of urban form as driven by ecology and environmental dynamics to create a landscape-based urbanism that will respond and adapt to environmental, economic, and social changes over time. Oystercity is a proposal for a resilient urban neighborhood with flexible mixed use zoning. Crassostrea virginica, the Atlantic Oyster, is the keystone species of Oystercity. The oyster filters waterborne pollutants and its collective architecture creates habitat for myriad species. The water quality in Flushing Bay will improve over time with the remediation of current contamination, the enforcement of environmental regulations on the existing automotive repair industry, and the water filtration provided by the oysters. Eventually, the oysters planted in Oystercity can function economically as an aquaculture industry, as well as create recreational water-related activities while providing an interactive and educational experience for the community. NYC is currently poised to loose 20% of its industrial space since 2002, including the current automotive industry in Willets Point. Therefore, the aim of Oystercity is to incorporate industry in the form of oyster aquaculture, thus creating a symbiotic relationship between the health of the bay, the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s recreational opportunities, culture, and livelihood.

Oystercity

oysterculture industry

large commercial business/office

residential vegetated buffer/basin/park

brackish water

fresh water

tidal interface

Productivity | The oyster became functionally extinct in the Hudson Raritan estuary in 1970 due to overharvesting in the earlier part of the century and massive amounts of pollution. Since the implementation of the Clean Water Act of 1972, the water quality in the estuary has dramatically improved. A 2009 study deemed Flushing Bay suitable for the development of oyster habitat. Lauren McClure

Oystercity

Filtratation | The oysters are grown on longline systems which increases water flow to help reduce disease. The oysters and the bioswales on the site filter water to improve the health of the ecosystem over time.

adjustable longline unit

oyster habitat

canal dimension storm surgedimension 100 yr. canal

: ver tical & horizont

average high tide storm

surge

2008

mean tide average high tide

average low tide mean tide

oyster depth average low tide

longline system oyster depth minimum longline

system

vegetated basin vege tated Basin side slope 3:1 side slope

sandy soiltrapezoidal floccula

3:1 cross

section

fa cili tates

tion to remove sediments

gravel drainage layer sandy soil gr avel drainage

la yer

impermeable lining impermeable lining

drainage drainage pipe pipe 30m lenght for each hectare of runoff 30m length

for

each hec tare of runoff

ecosystem health

Oystercity

canal dimensions

Dredging | The canal is engineered so that its height reaches the current high point on the site. The water depths required to create ideal oyster growing conditions were considered in the depth of the canal. The canal facilitates a mean tide at 4.5m, which necessitates the dredging of the estuary on the northern shore of Oystercity to a depth of 4.5m, coincidentally the same depth of the current shipping channel that runs through Flushing Bay. The dredge and soil from the excavation is treated in situ and used to cap polluted soil while raising the inhabited portions of the site above the 100 yr floodplain. current

100

yr flood

toxic soup in estuary

= canal diagram

remediation

regraded site

100

yr flood

active petroleum contamination

dispose polluted waters previously contaminated land air polluters

hazardous waste permit

Lauren McClure

block typologies | high-low densities

Oystercity

business /commercial

canal

rain garden bike path office/commercial

rain garden office/commercial

bike path

office

museum

longline system

residential /commercial

commercial residential public space bike path commercial/ industrial

commercial

residential community swimming dock

community oyster gardening residential

housing

oyster gardening

Oystercity

Canals | The narrow canal on the western portion of the site contains one longline system and a community hatchery that is for community oyster gardening. Its proximity to the 7 Train, Citi Field, and Flushing Corona Park ensure maximum accessibility.

Harvest | The site has the potential to produce 62 K bushels of oysters per year, which is 12% of NYCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s annual demand.This is also a 213% increase in the total annual production of NY state. Economically this has the potential to support about 200 part time farmers.

Lauren McClure

Oystercity

Integration | The community canals, while farmed, are activated with recreational program and pedestrian pathways. Bioswales line the sidewalks and filter stormwater from rooftops, streets and sidewalks before it is released into the canals.

Community | At the community park, changing tide levels create different conditions for diverse recreational opportunities. 10

Buffer | The expanded marsh at the riverâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s edge acts as a buffer for the city during large storm events. The promenade continues from the northern edge of the site, through the marsh, and becomes a pedestrian bridge that connects to downtown Flushing.

Oystercity

Exploration | At the northern edge of the site, clean water allows for a beach platform and diving opportunities to see the constructed reef habitat. Lauren McClure

Oystercity

Oystercity LEFT: Working underwater, clients are impressed when the lights dim and the keystone of the city becomes visble.

BELOW: Children helping to deploy juvenile oysters during low tide at the northern edge of the site where the bathymetry is re-graded to create small, shallow flats between the mouths of the canals.

Lauren McClure

Your Park

Your Park gansevoort peninsula, new york, ny

Your Park

| The city of Manhattan is a frenetic space full of forced stimulation and superficial engagement. As a counterpoint, Your Park creates a loosely programmed active landscape that allows people of all ages to let their guards down and loose themselves in the mental space of play. Recognizing that play is an undefinable concept that is experienced and interpreted differently by every individual, the sentiments of spontaneity, freedom, and engagement are encouraged through the design and materiality of Your Park. Taking advantage of the tidal flux and views of the Hudson River and the city, multiple opportunities are created for users to foster acute awareness of their surroundings, which in turn encourages interpersonal relationships and phenomenological engagement with the site and the city.

Your Park

Lauren McClure

as hi ng

4T h

h 4T h

Un io n

eA me r ic a

xin

g to

d is

b il

ion

31 St 30 Th

1/4 mi radius

tte

Public Park

ic h

H o u s to n Of

Sports Court

11 T

Playground

16 34

n w ic h H uds on

G re e

Your Park

41 40

The city of New York City Department of Parks and Recreation has been promoting active recreation in support of its goal of a healthy citizenry and positive social and moral conduct since the Recreation movement came to the United States in the late 19th century. The most recent movement as part of PlaNYC, announced in 2007 is to create a park within a ten minute walking distance of every resident. This necessitates looking at revamping old playyards and incorporating post-industrail sites, like the Gansevoort Peninsula, into Parks Department jurisdiction. Your Park is a counterpoint to the cookie cutter playgrounds with draconian regulations, the traffic pyramid hangouts, the asphalt ball-yards, and the fenced off turfed parks of Manhattan. It challenges the playground rules posted by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation and creates a space where everyone is encouraged to participate.

Welcome to Your Park

Your Park

This area is intended for use by Homo sapiens sapiens age 115 and under.

For everyone’s safety and enjoyment: • This area is intended for use by all creatures. • Adults are allowed when they are

accompanied and/or unaccompanied by a child. • Enjoyment is required.

• Some surfaces may become hot, cold, or

slippery. Please use heightened awareness and keen sensory perception. • There are restrooms and lockers located at the

en-trance to the park. Showers are located in park.

Permitted: • Food and drinks

• Amplified sound

• Bare feet

• Interacting with physial enviornment with care

• Dogs and other pets

• Throwing rubbish in trash/recycling containers

• Bicycles, roller skates, scooters, and skateboards

This park never closes. Your Park Lauren McClure

Your Park

Form | The form of the park is drawn from the idea of the vernacular form of the city/pier relationship and the anthropogenic shifting of the shoreline over time. The promenade/ pier relationship is mirrored on the site, with the former 13th Avenue (a vestige of the westernmost expansion of Manhattan) becoming the promenade. The concrete piers extend from the walkway at different lengths and depths to facilitate the programming of water play, sand bars, ecological zones, and art installation spaces. This geometry subtly forces the viewerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s gaze back to the city. As the diurnal tides fluctuate, different programs are revealed or made accessible engaging the userâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s perception and drawing them into the processes occurring on the periphery of Manhattan. More lengthy processes are revealed over time, with sand bars eroding and accreting and ecological areas morphing with the seasons.

site model

Your Park

GRAVEL

CONCRETE 3’

6’

10’

18’

>20’

40’ x 80’

surface

radiant heat

edge

seating

GRASS

edge lawn

RUBBER

WOOD 3’

6’

10’

18’

surface

seating

edge

SAND

VEGETATION

tree

surface

WATER

edge

sea

planter

Lauren McClure

Your Park

Fun | No matter what the tide or season, there is always something fun and engaging to do at Your Park.

Your Park

FISH HABITAT

1” = 6’

Lauren McClure

Your Park

sound

populous tremuloides grove Lauren McClure

Your Park

splash

|tidal

swimming pool Lauren McClure

KILLIAN

KILLAIN COURT Killian court at MIT, cambridge, MA

Killian Court

| The historical entrance to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has become marginalized over time along with the institution’s expansion. Pedestrian circulation, access, programming and the visual connection to the city of Boston and the Charles River have been compromised. In this project, access to Killian Court is enhanced for all users by creating activity along an active central core and connecting MIT’s busy Building 10 to the Charles River waterfront promenade. The courtyard program is respectful of the internal programming of the Maclaurian buildings with quieter seating areas along the courtyard’s periphery. The currently underused site is activated with plentiful seating, dynamic circulation, and outdoor areas for recreation and studying.

KILLIAN

Connection | View looking down the eastern alee toward the Charles River. The repetition of the trees and shrubs provide a rhythm while walking the length of the site before the view opens up to downtown Boston.

Lauren McClure

KILLIAN

Circulation | The formal circulation is moved away from the edge of the buildings to run through the existing tree allees in order to provide more privacy for internal programming, create an intermediate scale for movement among such massive buildings and open space and to take advantage of the existing line of movement and view through the site. One pathway terminates in a ramp down to sidewalk grade, while the other transforms into a pedestrian bridge over Memorial Drive.

Ceremony | The large paved areas serve as extended thresholds along the linear core to encourage movement into and through the site. They also provide infrastructure for the annual commencement ceremony. The diagonal pathways provide a counterpoint for the symmetry inherent in the building and the rest of the plan. A 12â&#x20AC;&#x2122; border of crushed granite is laid around the edge of the building to serve as an open formal frame for the historic architecture.

KILLIAN

Lauren McClure

KILLIAN

Seating | Three bench designs in bronze concrete and polyethylene are used in different lengths and configurations throughout the site.

translucent white polyethylene with interactive LED lighting

bronze

concrete

bronze

KILLIAN

Studying | The Eastern courtyard is planted with honey locust trees at 16’ on center. The grid creates more traditional allees and the trees airy high branching structure keeps the groundplane open and doesn’t compete with the buildings. There is ample seating that is broken down into smaller areas by planters filled with sedge. The courtyards are paved with accessible crushed granite, creating a formal monochromatic groundplane that doesn’t dictate circulation, allowing for open ended movement amid the desire lines created by the multiple building entrances. Lauren McClure

KILLIAN

KILLIAN Flexibility | The central lawn that is currently sunken is enhanced with a seat wall the runs along its edge. This creates many opportunities for active recreation with built in seating, as well as sun bathing in the summer and ice skating in the winter.

Lauren McClure

KILLIAN 3’ 6” 3’6”

4’ 4’

11’ 11’

Referential | The retaining wall along Memorial Drive is designed in concrete with a perforated bronze railing with aperture sizes increasing and decreasing every 11â&#x20AC;&#x2122;, mimicking the columns of the architecture.

KILLIAN

Lighting | The site is activated at night by providing light for activity and safety. The trees are uplit along the allee and lit from above in the courtyard to emphasize shadows on the crushed granite. The benches incorporate lighting as well. The central axis is extended from the light of the large dome through the center of the site across the river with LED lights of different sizes creating a gradient effect, while a thin line of LEDâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s is illuminated along the allee that leads across the river. Lighting Plan

Lauren McClure

KILLIAN

Accessibility | The bronze fence atop the retaining wall along Memorial Drive rises up under the pedestrian bridge doubling as a screen for the structural support of the bridge as well as the railing for the bridge until it transitions to glass.

KILLIAN

Lauren McClure

KILLIAN Shade Tolerant Planting Pallette

Ginkgo biloba Ginkgo

Gleditsia triacanthos Honey Locust

Ulmus americana American Elm

Quercus palustris Pin Oak

Carex morrowii ‘ Silver Sceptre’ Japanese Sedge

Hydrangea quercifolia ‘Spikes Dwarf’ Hydrangea quercifolia ‘Spikes Dwarf’ Oak Leaf Hydrangea Oak Leaf Hydrangea

Carex morrowii expallida Variegated Japanese Sedge

Taxus baccata Taxus baccata Yew Yew

Carex pensylvanica Oak Sedge

Dryopteris erythrosors ‘ Brilliance’

Poa pratensis Kentucky Bluegrass

Arctostaphylos uva-ursi Bearberry Bearberry

Dryopteris erythrosors ‘Brilliance’ Brilliance Autumn Fern

Brilliance Autumn Fern

Arctostaphylos uva-ursi

KILLIAN

Overlook | The bridge terminates in a view towards Boston.

Lauren McClure

Kennedy Park

FALL RIVER kennedy Park, fall river, ma

Kennedy Park

Kennedy Park | This second semester studio site is a historical Olmsted Park whose users demographic has changed drastically over time. Fall River currently suffers from high rates of obesity and diabetes and also lacks adequate outdoor recreational areas. This design intends to maximize the potential of the urban playground to provide people of all ages and fitness levels the opportunity to recreate outdoors and improve their health and quality of life.

Lauren McClure

Kennedy Park

plan diagram: active program energy diagram

Gradient | The programmatic and formal elements function on a gradient from East to West: from rectilinear forms containing highly programmed sports, to playgrounds and a running track whose geometries are chamfered, and finally to a trail system that becomes sinuous and less programmed until it eventually meets the waters edge.

Kennedy Park

Topography | In order to achieve the necessary grade for the sports courts and fields, sunken gardens are created with raised walkways between the fields that accommodate seating on their berms. The grading of the walkways down the steepest slope of the park create an accessible meandering walk, as well as a steeper 14% grade for exercising.

Lauren McClure

Kennedy Park

Energy | These sections illustrate the topographic strategy. Section A is taken through the tennis courts, main walkway, and the youth baseball field, where parents are seen watching their kids play on the walkway berm. Section B reveals the entropy of adjacencies created by the sports courts. Section C shows how the playgrounds are nested in the ground to allow for the flat running track nearby. Section D is taken through the steep walking trail and the meandering trail.

Kennedy Park

Lauren McClure

WEYMOUTH

WEYMOUTH south weymouth naval airbase, south weymouth, ma

Camp Weymouth

| This studio project proposes the reuse of the 1,500 acre South Weymouth Naval Air Station as Camp Weymouth: a minimum security pre-release state prison facility. It includes public access, seeing prison residents as the primary rehabilitators of the site itself. With 1 of 100 people incarcerated in the US, prison facilities are grossly overcrowded. With national rates of recidivism at 60%, several states have taken to opening pre-release programs at minimum security facilities. That concept is expanded to integrate the prisoners into the community through their work in the reconstruction and continued maintenance of a conservation park. The critical need for successional habitat in the state of MA was identified. In order to keep open fields from succeeding to forest, active management, which is often costly and labor intensive, is required. The site, which already has large cleared areas due to the naval aviation activity, is a rare opportunity to develop a large scale successional habitat reserve. By coupling the use of the conservation land with a prison facility, inmates are given the opportunity to learn new skills working as land managers, while several endangered and threatened animals, and the public, will gain back a valuable swath of open space. The site features nine miles of public trails that traverse high points, constructed with fill from runway removal, that provide views across the flat site. The constructed topography also guides storm water into the enhanced riverine system that runs along the Western edge of the site. The project is phased over a 30 year time period. This was a group studio project in collaboration with Alexis Delvecchio and Anne Clark Baker.

WEYMOUTH

Lauren McClure

WEYMOUTH

Expansion | MA prisons experience 144% overcrowding. The state recidivism rate is 40%. Prison typologies were studied through time and revealed to be expanding to decentralized, camp like structures This typology is expanded to include synergistic operations and public access.

WEYMOUTH

Lauren McClure

WEYMOUTH

Symbiosis | 66% of animals on the MA list of endangered and threatened species rely on either successional habitat or wetlands. This correlates to the continuing disappearance of grassland and wetland habitats throughout the state. The project favors the enhancement and management of these ecosystems.

WEYMOUTH

Lauren McClure

WEYMOUTH

Management | The vegetative strategy on site necessitates active management by the inmates. The fields are mowed and burned cyclically in different areas on an annual schedule so that there are always three grass heights at the beginning of bird nesting season.

WEYMOUTH

Lauren McClure

WEYMOUTH

Diffusion | The streambed is daylit and recontoured in specific areas to expose groundwater in order to enhance the existing wetlands. The new system receives runoff from the camp roads and treated wastewater from the facility. An enhanced flood plane is graded for flood mitigation.

WEYMOUTH

Lauren McClure

WEYMOUTH

Runway Scarification | By introducing cracks into the concrete runway, emergent vegetation is able to quickly colonize the area. It will soon be filled with species such as Little Bluestem and Indian Grass which will provide viable habitat for nesting birds.

Hay Bales | The runway removal allows for planted grasses to be mown in rotated sections to provide three patches of disparate heights during avian breeding season. The cut grass is collected as bales of hay which are stored in an old hanger on-site for disaster relief.

WEYMOUTH

Lauren McClure

WEYMOUTH

Management | The biological boundary is divided into 10 x 10 hectare plots to enable a more detailed and accurate management log. 25m x 1m linear transects are permanently established in different geometries based on vegetation type. The mowing, burning, and shrubland maintenance patterns are also indicated on the plan.

Diffusion | The idea of diffusion is used to conceptually model stormwater management on the site. Berms collect and funnel water through a channel that then disperses into smaller channels, in a braided estuarine network. This system allows for the land to change over time as differing inputs of water continually alter the topography.

Composite

-0.3m

-1.5m

average

+0.5m

+1m

Anticipated Average Water Line

Directional Surface Runoff

WEYMOUTH

Flash Flood

Lauren McClure

PROFESSIONAL

Bedford Avenue

| The concept and schematic design of the interior courtyard of a large apartment building in Brooklyn, NY. The idea was to maintain privacy for the patio units framing the courtyard while creating visual appeal from balconies and rooftop. Produced with staff at Nancy Owens Studio LLC.

A SECTION / ELEVATION (looking WEST)

3/16” = 1’-0”

B SECTION

PROFESSIONAL DOOR

PRIVATE TERRACES

DOOR

PRIVATE TERRACES

PLANTER “H”

PLANTER “G”

PLANTER “D” PERGOLA

PERGOLA

SEATING OPEN

OPEN

PLANTER “E”

PIAZZA

TERRACE

PLANTER “C”

PERGOLA

SEATING

PLANTER “F” PLANTER “A”

PLANTER “B”

PRIVATE TERRACES PRIVATE TERRACES

COLONNADE (TYP.)

PRIVATE TERRACES

DOOR DOOR

NORTH 11

101 BEDFORD SCHEMATIC COURTYARD

3/32” = 1’-0”

Sheet 1 of 3 December 7th, 2012

Lauren McClure

Lauren Moffett McClure MLA lmcclure@post.harvard.edu