Meghan Spigle Harvard Graduate School of Design 2011 Yale School of Architecture 2009 University of Virginia 2006
Dynamic Urban Waterfront WILLETS POINT, QUEENS, NY LANDSCAPE URBANISM In 2010, Willets Point is a mixed-use residential enclave that integrates the Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Citi stadium, and commercial activity in order to create new linkages between the neighborhoods of Flushing and Corona. The use of the canal edge changes over time as water levels rise and subsequent changes in vegetation patterns occur. Systems of parks, tree-lined streets, biofiltration swales, and wetland marshes comprise the vegetation of Willets Point. Change in marsh grass distribution indexes rising tides and water salinity fluctuations. In 2100, Willets Point is an older residential neighborhood, distinguished by its engagement with the waterfront where boating and recreation occur. Diagrams show the formal and programmatic components of the Willets Point site. Diagrams show the Willets Point site in relation to the urban context. Rising tides change the canal edge and vegetation cover over time. Sea level rises three feet over the next 50 years and six feet over the next 100 years, changing the perceptual experience of the canal edges.
Meghan Spigle Spring 2010 Academic Work Shauna Gilles-Smith Landscape Urbanism Studio
WILLETS POINT IN 2100
URBAN DESIGN COMPONENTS
Plan
Section F
WILLETS POINT IN 2010
TRANSFORMATIVE SPATIAL EFFECTS OF SEA LEVEL RISE
Section A
TRANSFORMATION OF VEGETATION OVER TIME DUE TO GROUNDWATER SALINITY FLUCTUATIONS
Section D
VEGETATION PALETTE
Section C
VIEW OF CANAL EDGE DURING LOW TIDE
Veteran Re-Training Ground SOUTH WEYMOUTH NAVAL AIR STATION, MA
FLEXIBLE TRAINING FIELD With over 350,000 service members decommissioned from the United States military each year, 38,000 of which return from war with high risk of unemployment and subsequent homelessness. At the same time, the nation is trying to relieve itself from oil dependency (a major cause of overseas conflict). The single largest institutional consumer of energy in the US, the Department of Defense, is attempting to decrease its energy consumption by installing wind turbines and solar panels on its own military lands. Organizations, such as Veterans Green Jobs, based in Colorado have formed to address the dual concerns of retraining war veterans and reinforcing the green job sector. With cause established, monetary aid is available; $600 million dollars are allocated to Green Energy Job Training in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The SOWEY site, located outside of the Boston metropolitan region, offers a viable location for a veteran green job retraining field and a potential program prototype for other BRAC sites. To provide a variety of training options for veterans at SOWEY as well as to create closed cycles of CO2 creation and by-product production and consumption, multiple green energy systems are utilized. Solar panels, wind turbines, switchgrass fields, poplar forests, and algae beds are installed and maintained by the veteran population living and working on-site. A single roadway constructed of fill material from the existing 220,000 cubic meters of tarmac will provide a platform for bundling infrastructural components (CO2, water, and electrical conduits) that will enable the flexible expansion and contraction of re-training fields. Flexibility in planning is necessary to accommodate both unknown future energy demands and veteran populations. With current estimates, it is predicted that 500 veterans could be retrained each year on the SOWEY site, producing 190,000 gallons of ethanol and 92,000 MWH of electricity each year. Optimistically, the site could over time, alleviate the current problem of veteran homelessness due to unemployment while at the same time, establishing a workforce of individuals trained in a growing job sector.
Meghan Spigle Fall 2009 Academic Work Team project with Chanwoo Kim and Ben Winters -diagrams and perspectives by Meghan Spigle Christian Werthmann Core Landscape Architecture Studio
SOWEY SITE CONSIDERATIONS
220,000 CUBIC METERS OF EXISTING TARMAC
CONTAMINATED SOILS AND GROUNDWATER
ECOLOGICAL NETWORKS
PROTECTED AREAS
30M BUFFER FROM STREAM
HABITAT: EASTERN BOX TURTLE UPLAND SANDPIPER
CRITICAL DIMENSIONS AND SPECIFICATIONS OF ENERGY COMPONENTS
EXPANSION OF LAND USE TYPES
RENEWABLE ELECTRICITY GENERATION
WIND TURBINES AND PHOTOVOLTAICS veterans trained in installation, maintainance, and repair
ELECTRICAL SUBSTATION veterans trained in electrical operations
BIOMASS ENERGY GENERATION AND CO2 RECYCLING
ENERGY SOLD TO THE GRID
ATMOSPHERIC CO2
POPLAR AND WILLOW FIELDS FOR CULTIVATING BIOMASS veterans trained in propigation, maintainance, and harvest
SWITCHGRASS FIELDS FOR CULTIVATING BIOMASS veterans trained in cultivation and harvest
CO2 uptaken by switchgrass blades and rhizomes
ETHANOL SALE veterans distribute ethanol to the public at on site gas station
d bundle poplar and willow
ETHANOL STORAGE
ETHANOL BIOREFINERY veterans trained in plant operations
BIOGASIFICATION PLANT veterans trained in plant operations
CO2 PIPEPED TO ALGAE increases algae biomass yield
ALGAE POND FOR CULTIVATING BIOMASS veterans trained in construction, maintainance, cultivation, and harvest
SITE PLAN AT 2020
PHASING OF FIXED ELEMENTS PHASE I
PHASE II
cut fill
PHASE III
biocorridor II cut fill
daylight French stream biocorridor I
fill cut biocorridor III
surface wetland (bench)
wetland treatment swales
SITE PROGRAM
LAND USE TYPES AND WIDTHS
30M
30M
60M
60M
120M
SECTION OF FILL ROAD AND BIKE PATH
15M 10M
UTILITY ROAD
BIKE PATH AND PUBLIC ACCESS
BIOCORRIDOR I
POPLAR PLANTATION
WIND TURBINES AND SWITCHGRASS FIELDS
Sustainable Urban Housing EAST DOWNTOWN HOUSTON, TX
GREEN URBANISM The site, EaDo (East of Downtown), is cut off from the downtown area by an array of infrastructures. Circumscribed by highways to the south and west and railways to the north and east, EaDo is isolated from its surroundings but yet, is located minutes away from downtown. New connections are to be made both within the urban fabric of EaDo as well as to its surroundings. At the urban scale, bike trails and light rail can connect this isolated area both to downtown and to the University of Houston while fostering alternative means of transportation. At a smaller scale, connections between blocks and new green spaces create a sense of place and identity for residents. Urban landscape infrastructures are utilized both functionally and programmatically to create social and ecosystemic networks that manage water absorption, aquifer recharge, create recreational spaces, and promote sustainable transportation. Smaller scale landscape interventions infiltrate the existing housing fabric, connecting new housing to old housing through systems of parks, gardens, and recreational pathways. Courtyards at the center of new housing blocks create new community spaces for live/ work and commercial activity to occur, thus stimulating activity and cultivating an identity for EaDo as a live/work district. As a part of this new identity, materiality is implemented metaphorically, reminding residents of the necessary destruction that is required for housing construction. A thin, operable, wood sunscreen covers the southern facade of the housing blocks to shade the units from excessive sunlight and radiant heat. Wood used to construct the screens is harvested from pine plantations along the periphery of the district, visible to the inhabitants from the park and transit networks.
Meghan Spigle Spring 2009 Academic Work Keith Krumwiede and Kate John-Alder Architecture and Landscape Sustainability Studio
NEW DISTRICT PLAN
LANDSCAPE SYSTEMS AT THE DISTRICT SCALE
North
DESIGN OF THE HOUSING BLOCK Units/Block: 44 Average SF/Unit: 1,990
HOUSING COMPONENTS
Retail and Live/Work Spaces
58 Units/Acre
Pathways Through the Block
75% Open Space/Unit
Private Outdoor Space
studio
studio
ACTIVITY WITHIN THE CENTRAL COURTYARD
studio
studio
studio
live/work
live/work
live/work
A
live/work
live/work
studio live/work
retail
retail
studio
live/work
studio
studio
retail
live/work
retail
GROUND FLOOR PLAN OF HOUSING BLOCK North
SECTION A
INTEGRATION OF NEW AND EXISTING HOUSING WITH GREEN NETWORKS HOUSING CONNECTION TO THE DISTRICT NETWORK
BIKE PATH AND DISTRICT PARK
MATERIAL AND METAPHOR: FROM TREE TO SHADE SCREEN
HARVEST OF THE PINE PLANTATION FOR NEW CONSTRUCTION
IT Cattle Campus NEW DELHI, INDIA
LAYERING LANDSCAPES The Delhi Cattle Campus and Gosadan incorporate three principles from Indian architecture and culture: The preservation of water, the incorporation of outdoor spaces into indoor spaces, and the reliance on the sacred Indian cow for sustenance. Situated in a strip of land between the national highway that connects Delhi to Faridabad and a freight railroad, the campus reaches beyond its boundaries to create a new public landscape. The public landscape, on the upper level of the campus, provides space for ad hoc retail vendors to set up shop along a path planted with scented vegetation that connects new, high-end retail development to informal markets and residential communities on the other side of the railroad tracks. This upper landscape, shielding the lower landscape and IT area from the harsh Indian sun and deadly summer winds, contains the Gosadan or cattle preserve, where cattle are brought away from the intensely trafficked Dehli streets, and cared for beneath a shaded grove of trees. Dung from these cattle is collected, processed into methane by anaerobic biodigesters, converted to electricity, and used to power the IT center on the lower landscape. Along with the IT center, on the lower level, are the Grasslands. The Grasslands, open to the IT staff for recreation, are used to produce fodder for cattle on the upper landscape. Here native Dehli grasses and fruit bearing trees are grown, fertilized by by-products of biodigestion and nourished by collected rainwater. Thus, a symbiotic agricultural process takes shape, wherein energy and resources are continuously reallocated to zones within the landscape.
Meghan Spigle Fall 2008 Academic Work Team project with Rebecca Beyer and Dexter Ciprian -landscape plan, section, and model by Meghan Spigle Diana Balmori and Joel Sanders Landscape and Architecture Interface Studio
CONTEXT AND RAILROAD CROSSING
FOUR PROGRAMMATIC ZONES The Delhi IT Cattle Campus is comprised of four zones that serve ecological and social purposes. The Gosadan and Retail zones are located on the upper level of the campus, while the Grassland and IT zones are on the lower level.
GOSADAN: The Gosadan zone is a preserve for Delhi cattle that are brought
RETAIL: The Retail zone is open to public access and forms a public path across
GRASSLAND: The Grassland zone, on the lower level of the campus, is used
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: The IT zone, on the lower level of the campus, is beneath the Gosadan and Retail zones and is the space where the IT staff work.
to the campus and out of the city streets where they cause traffic congestion. The Gosadan landscape is covered in shade trees, in accordance with the agricultural practice of silvipasture.
for agricultural cultivation of pasture grasses that are used to feed the cattle of the Gosadan.
the upper level of the site. Retail space is available in indoor formal retail space as well as outdoor informal spaces.
LANDSCAPE PLAN
GROUND FLOOR PLAN SHOWING IT AREAS A
B
THE IT ZONE DURING MONSOON
SECTION B SHOWING THE OUTDOOR PUBLIC THEATER
THE RETAIL AND GOSADAN ZONES
Villa d’Este TIVOLI, ITALY
NATURE AND LINE The Villa d’Este, situated on a dramatic hillside in Tivoli, is organized by a major axis that runs perpendicular to the hill (north to south). Cross axes bisect this major axis at various points along the hillside, connecting the town of Tivoli and the headwaters of the Anio River to the east, to the views of the Villa Adriana to the west. These cross axes create terraces and paths that extend the spatial experience of the garden along the compressed site of the hill. Each cross axis presents a unique experience through the integral design of water features, architectural and vegetative elements, and views beyond the extent of the villa. A series of seven cross-axial perspective views, drawn as one progresses along the north/south slope of the hill, illustrate the unique and distinct design of each terrace; from the grotto and trees at the base of the hillside to the fountains within the subterranean hallway of the villa. The series of drawings, created in pen, explore variation in line type and quality in order to represent vegetation and water.
Meghan Spigle Summer 2008 Academic Work Hand Drawings Rome Seminar
THE WATER ORGAN
THE TIVOLI TOWN GATE
THE GARDEN PORTICO
THE HERCULES GROTTO
Gowanus Canal BROOKLYN, NY
STITCHING AND BRIDGING The Gowanus Canal, known for its toxicity and foul smell, was historically used for freight shipping while the land surrounding the canal was used for manufacture and storage of gas. Currently, the city’s Combined Sewage Overflow system pours raw sewage into the canal when heavy rainfall occurs. Yet despite its toxicity and location within the 100-year flood plane, the area around the canal is now under extensive real estate pressure as residential areas begin to encroach. Currently zoned for light industry, the area around the canal will soon witness change. An urban analysis of the site reveals latent variables that can be used to successfully stitch together the two residential areas on either side of the canal: vacant and low-use lots, existing commercial avenues, and a network of pedestrian paths and green spaces. Just at the bend in the canal, is an area of publicly owned land, that can be used to initiate an urban intervention that would set a precedent for housing development and the remediation of toxic soil and land. This initial intervention at Public Place, would be the first of a series of ‘stepping stones’ that cross over the canal and thus bridge one side to the other. Operating at the scale of the detail, the Bioswale Bridge Barge, is a small scale intervention that is designed to decrease toxic Combined Sewage Overflow effluent from entering the Gowanus Canal while also serving the larger urban goal of stitching the two sides of the canal together.
Meghan Spigle Spring 2008 Academic Work Team project with Reuben Herzl and Philip Drew -site strategy, section, and barge detail by Meghan Spigle Andrea Kahn Urban Design Studio
BIOSWALE BARGE FLOATING IN THE GOWANUS CANAL
URBAN ANALYSIS
PRESSURE: Residential pressure from Carroll Gardens and Park Slope encroach upon the Gowanus Canal which has increased speculation in real estate prices
FLOOD LINE: The area currently under speculation is also within the 100-Year flood line
TOXICITY: A history of manufacture and storage of gas has left toxic elements that have leached into the soils. Additionally, raw sewage coming from the Combined Sewage Overflow system toxifies the canal waters
PEDESTRIAN PATHS: Pedestrian paths and greens paces will create a network to guide people into the proposed site
COMMERCIAL AVENUE: A new commercial avenue that brings in existing commercial activity will activate the site
URBAN STRATEGY
STITCHING LOTS: Low-use and vacant lots are targeted for development in order to bridge across the canal and stitch together the two neighborhoods
PLAN OF BRIDGING INTERVENTION
SITE STRATEGY
CAPPING CITY BLOCKS: A strategy to safely contain toxic soils and create buildable ground
RESIDENTIAL TOWERS: Positioned on capped blocks, these allow residential pressures to infiltrate
COMMERCIAL AREAS: Feed the pedestrian paths with activity and bring in existing commercial business
GREEN SPACES: These service the residential towers and commercial areas
SECTION OF INITIAL INTERVENTION AT PUBLIC PLACE
Displayed Soil and Water Remediation
Public Walkway Revitalized Vegetation Soil Cap
Toxic Soil
Housing
Scented Flowers
Office
Outdoor Retail
Retail
Public Walkway
BIOSWALE BRIDGE BARGE The bioswale barge and dock areas are planted with Reed Canarygrass and Cattails that clean the 300 million gallons of raw sewage that flow into the Gowanus Canal each year through the Combined Sewage Overflow system. 250,000 square feet of bioswales are needed to treat the sewage that enters the Gowanus. The barges and docks are located at streets that currently dead end at the canal. Thus, the bridge barges connect residential neighborhoods on either side of the canal, stitching them together and creating public green space.
THE BARGE AND DOCK SECTION OF THE BIOSWALE BRIDGE BARGE
Toxic Water
Toxic Soil
Kunsthalle NEW HAVEN, CT
GARDEN AND GALLERY The New Haven Kunsthalle is conceived as an art and media center, which would serve both the Yale and New Haven community. The given the wide array of art media to be displayed and interacted with in the museum, the Kunsthalle is designed to address the curatorial needs of conditions with and without light. Art and media requiring visual projection or media interaction are located on the ground level. The ground level is spatially defined by a series of steps and ramps which negotiate level changes through what is otherwise a fluid and connected space beneath a large green roof surface. The green roof, a sequence of ramped surfaces, offer exhibition space for art pieces that are better suited for outdoor display. A portion of the green roof which slopes down to the ground floor, adjacent to the lobby entry, is accessible and open to the public and provides an informal outdoor meeting space for larger groups. Artwork requiring display in natural light is accommodated in the ‘light box’ gallery which appears to float over the constructed landscape of the green roof. Natural daylight is brought into the gallery space by a light tray ceiling system that captures southern light and reflects it into the gallery spaces. The light trays are situated so that they articulate the structural elements within the space.
Meghan Spigle Fall 2007 Academic Work Peter de Bretteville Architecture Studio
MODEL SHOWING CONSTRUCTED GREEN ROOF AND GALLERY
CHAPEL STREET AND PASSAGE TO THE KUNSTHALLE
NORTH EAST ELEVATION AS SEEN FROM CHAPEL STREET
KUNSTHALLE AND ADJACENT YALE ARTS BUILDINGS
KUNSTHALLE IN URBAN CONTEXT
DIAGRAM OF NEW HAVEN GREEN SPACE
SITE PLAN SHOWING PASSAGE TO CHAPEL STREET
VIEW TO THE PUBLIC GREEN ROOF
GROUND FLOOR PLAN
VIEW OF THE GROUND FLOOR GALLERY
SECOND FLOOR PLAN
GALLERY SECTION WITH NATURAL LIGHT STUDIES
THIRD FLOOR PLAN
Slagscape NEW HAVEN, CT
CONSTRUCTIVE WASTE Union Station is a nexus for collection and distribution of people in and out of the city of New Haven. As people are processed through the station, they leave waste behind. Union Station alone handles over 4,500 cubic feet of rubbish each week. Three times a week, this waste is shipped off-site via petroleum fueled vehicles to an incinerator in Bridgeport, CT, some 20 miles away. The incineration method of waste management in the county of New Haven and the use of transport are unnecessary and are contributing factors to its low air quality rating, placing it in the top 10% of counties with the worst/dirtiest air quality. Plasma gasification is a relatively new method of waste management that densely consolidates waste matter into by-products of vitreous slag and energy filled gas. If this process were to be used to treat the waste from the city of New Haven on the site of Union Station, a new system could emerge; whereupon waste from the city could be used to generate a new landscape that provides new ecologies for humans and wildlife. The Slagscape uses city waste as a programmatic fuel for reinventing the site adjacent to Union Station. Vitreous slag by-products are used as building blocks to make new connections on site and to remediate the site by creating new natural and constructed environments. The Slagscape self-multiplies in order to continuously grow eastward, toward New Haven Harbor, overtaking existing hazardous waste producing meat packing factories. This new swath of natural territory would then link the shoreline of the harbor to the nexus of Union Station via a new and healthy ecological environment. The new ecology would provide a home and breeding ground to summer dwelling grassland songbirds native to the Northeastern US, whose habitats are now dwindling due to urban development and farmland reforestation. Visitors and city residents could then participate in this dynamic landscape by observing bird life in the summer and occupying heat pockets produced by the plasma gasification process during wintertime.
Meghan Spigle Fall 2006 Academic Work Ben Pell Studio
TEXTURE AND PATTERN OF THE SLAGSCAPE
The project is motivated by an attempt to create new habitat for native grassland birds in New Haven. This map shows the relative size and location of existing habitat areas, also called Important Bird Sites.
SECTION A
PROGRAMMATIC PATHS
SLAGSCAPE PLAN
Union Station after 20 years
Pigeons and Gulls are becoming more prevalent as urbanization occurs and the natural landscape is destroyed. These birds scavenge food waste produced by people and industry.
Union Station after 40 years
A Union Station after 60 years
Meadowlarks, Sparrows, and Bobolinks are grassland birds native to the Northeastern United States. They are loosing their natural habitat due to urbanization and reforestation of farmland.
SLAG ASSEMBLY One Slag component equals two weeks of processed waste produced by the entire city of New Haven and can be assembled according to programmatic conditions.
BIRDWATCHING AREA