SHANNON simms portfolio
Shannon Simms
717.360.6636 svsimms@gmail.com
EXPERIENCE
EDUCATION
Designer Alta Planning + Design
Master in Landscape Architecture Harvard Graduate School of Design
Boston, MA
Cambridge, MA
June 2010 - Present
2007-2010
Program Assistant Emerald Necklace Conservancy Boston, MA
Bachelor of Arts International Relations Boston University
June - September 2009
Boston, MA 2002-2006
April - December 2008
GSD Community Service Fellow Worcester Roots Worcester, MA June - August 2008
Bicycle Intern Cambridge Bicycle Program Cambridge, MA
SKILLS Adobe Creative Suite AutoCAD ArcGIS SketchUp Rhino Wordpress Hand drawing Photography Model building
Plans
Cambridge, MA
PORTFOLIO CONTENTS
June 2006 - June 2007
10 Healing Waters: Newark Riverfront Plan, NJ
16 Pit Ecologies: Recalibrating Infrastructure in Los Angeles, CA 20 Material Ecologies of Cast Iron
24 High Bridge Rehabilitation: Interpretive Media Design, NYC
sites
HARRISBURG, PA & Lowell, MA
6 Norwalk River Valley Trail Routing Study, CT
22 Cuban Urban Agriculture
June 2007 - April 2008
Policy Assistant Rails-to-Trails Conservancy
2 Charles River Basin Connectivity Study, MA
14 Bike Share Studies, Planning/Permitting
systems
Lead Safe Intern Cambridge Lead Safe Program
26 Chelsea Tidal Park, MA 28 A Harbor Island for the City, MA 30 Balloon Photography
Charles River Basin Connectivity Study project: Master
plan for 8-mile path and parkland corridor role: Lead Designer at Alta Planning + Design client: Massachusetts DOT & DCR
Plans
This study recommends improvements for walking and bicycling along the Charles River Basin, a major recreation and transportation corridor in the region. The recommendations include road diets, intersection improvements, new bicycle facilities, and path widening. My role involved working with multiple municipalities, state agencies, and advocacy groups, presenting at public meetings, and producing the majority of the writing and graphics in the final report.
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above: Summary diagram of overall Connectivity Study recommendations for the Charles River Basin. left: Context map of study area
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Charles River Basin Connectivity Study The plan includes conceptual designs for critical connections to the Basin, such as at Charlesgate and Charles Circle.
right: Proposed Charlesgate connection
Plans
between the Emerald Necklace and the Charles River Esplanade
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below: Proposed transition from bike lanes to shared lanes through Charles Circle
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Norwalk River Valley Trail Routing Study Master plan for 27-mile trail corridor role: Lead Designer at Alta Planning + Design client: NRVT Steering Committee project:
This study recommends a 27-mile greenway trail alignment between Danbury and Norwalk in southwest Connecticut. It provides an alignment and design guidelines for a trail that transitions through urban and woodland settings and is open to pedestrians, bicyclists and equestrians. As lead designer in this study, I had a key role in the field work, committee meetings, and public workshops. I provided GIS mapping and was responsible for the majority of the graphics and text in the report. The final report is a comprehensive document that will be used to implement the trail in the future.
Connecticut Danbury
Ridgefield
Redding
Wilton
Plans
Norwalk
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Woodland trail
Allen’s Meadows trail junction
Urban trail
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Norwalk River Valley Trail Routing Study The routing study included several stages of analysis and mapping: identifying opportunities and challenges, gap analysis, and evaluation of multiple potential routing options. A draft of the recommended route was presented to the public in a series of workshops before the route was finalized.
Danbury
Ridgefield
Redding
Wilton
Plans
Norwalk
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Opportunities
Evaluation of Route Options
Final Recommended Route
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Healing Waters: Newark River Waterfront Plan Academic Studio Fall 2009 instructor: Toni Griffin, City of Newark group members: Adam Wodka, Zeltia Vega Santiago, Pedro Santa Rivera project:
Plans
This studio focused on revitalizing the 4-mile, de-industrialized Newark, New Jersey, waterfront to improve the city’s image and economic status. As a group, we developed a plan from the perspective of a community development corporation, the Newark Community Riverfront Alliance (NCRA). My contribution to the group plan was development of the Public Edge Strategy, which reserves the riverfront edge for “ownership by all” Newarkers. The park system consists of six distinct parks, totaling 85 acres, that are connected along the river’s edge. The plan was developed with a sensitivity to the programming needs of Newarkers, who lack open space, recreational opportunities, and educational and community facilities.
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right: Plan showing the six components of
the Public Edge Strategy bottom right: Outdoor performance space
in the Downtown Rivefront Park
Grafton Park + Community Center
Marina Park + Environmental Education Center
Passaic Street Park
Downtown Riverfront Park
Ironbound Linear Park
Brick City Urban Farm
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Healing Waters: Newark River Waterfront Plan The southern bookend of the proposed system is a 20-acre urban farm. The site is currently the location of vacant lots, shipping container storage, public housing built in 1946, and two brownfields. This plan proposes a multiphased redevelopment of the site, which includes relocating the public housing and remediating the brownfields. Shipping containers can be adapted into large planting beds, which can be deployed immediately on available parts of the site, and moved or increased over time as more space becomes available. The parks have different appeals as destinations. Some are neighborhoodoriented, where others are landscape anomalies that will have greater draw across the city. Ephemeral events will attract people to certain parts of the park system at certain times of year. Others will be more visible and constantly accessible to Newark’s visitors downtown.
Plans
this page: The multi-phased remediation
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of the site, using shipping containers as mobile planting beds opposite page: Programming of the park
system
Phase 1: Relocation
Phase 2: Brownfield Remediation
Phase 3: Brownfield Remediation
Final Brick City Urban Farm
Neighborhood-oriented
Landscape anomalies
Ice Skating
Harvest Fest
Visiting population
Cherry Blossom 5k race
Ephemera
Theater in the Park
Weekly Market Portuguese Day Fest
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Bike Share Studies, Planning & Permitting projects:
• • • •
New York Citibike (600 stations) Boston Hubway (90 stations) Providence Bike Share Feasibility Study Albany Bike Share Feasibility Study role: Project Designer/Coordinator at Alta Planning + Design Alta Bicycle Share and Alta Planning + Design are sister companies that collaborated to launch Boston’s bike share system in 2011 and plan to launch New York City’s system in Spring 2013. I have been involved in station location planning and permitting for both systems, specifically to assist with mapping, field work, meeting with property owners and neighborhood groups, managing field crews, creating and reviewing station drawings and securing permits from the participating municipalities and state agencies.
systems
I have also worked on bike share feasibility studies for Providence, RI and Albany, NY. My work involved research on the best technological and financial models for a small city bike share system, as well as qualitative analysis of the city’s suitability for bike share. The studies also included recommendations for the extent of the system, station number and density. 14
above: SketchUp model of Hubway station for permit application in Cambridge below: Installed Hubway stations in Boston
left: Heat map showing relative bike share
demand in Albany, NY below: Recommended initial bike share
service area and station density
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Pit Ecologies: Recalibrating Infrastructure in LA project: Academic instructor:
Studio Spring 2010 Chris Reed, Stoss LU
systems
This studio focused on the infrastructural systems that allow Los Angeles to function, and on interventions to these “single-minded” systems that can allow them to interact and function for multiple purposes. This design project imagines that the system of debris and flood control can be linked with the system of aggregate mining to create a closed loop. Irwindale is a municipality where the entire land area is pits: the Santa Fe Flood Control Basin and 15 gravel mine pits. By networking the pits together, there can be a choreography of the pits’ current functions (flood control, aggregate mining) and new functions (debris disposal, aggregate recycling, habitat conservation, outdoor event space).
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ABOVE: Storm debris and flood control network in LA Count below: Typical aggregate mine
top left: Existing aerial photo of Irwindale top center: Pit networks concept diagram above: Methods of flood control in the pits with sluice gates and dike openings left: Multiple configurations for flood
control
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(a)
Pit Ecologies: Recalibrating Infrastructure in LA The function of each pit becomes dynamic: a single pit may (a) be actively filled with waste asphalt/concrete or storm debris, (b) later to be mined out by the aggregate companies. Once empty, that pit can be connected with other pits to serve as part of a flood control basin, where (c) an alluvial scrub habitat will develop. If that pit continues as flood control beyond a 5 year cycle, then (d) a riparian forest community may develop. An empty pit may be (e) programmed with concerts, fairs, festivals, etc. Lighting towers (f) used for these events can be coated in photoluminescent material so that they glow at night.
(b)
(c)
(d)
systems
(e)
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(f)
above: Possible futures for each individual pit below: View of path atop a berm, with an active mine pit on the left and alluvial scrub habitat on the right
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geography geography of of cast cast iron iron
100100
inputorigins origins input
This course examined the histories of common materials from the urban environment. I researched the processes of making cast iron tree grates and utility covers. I visited an iron ore mine in Minnesota and a foundry in Wisconsin before creating a series of diagrams of the extraction and production processes, as well as maps of the spatial impact of the material.
neenah neenah
coke coke
100100
scrap metal scrap metal neenah neenah fond du lac fond du lac
birmingham birmingham
m
ile
s
2000 2000
1000 1000
100
outputdestinations destinations output
input origins
4,5
coke
0
neenah
tonawonda
50
russia
0
i
0m
0 5,5
neenah
0
limestone les
neenah fairwater
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canada
finisheddistribution products yards finisheddistribution products yards
WISCONSIN
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silica sand
500 m iles
neenah neenah fairwater fairwater
geography of cast iron
right & below: The geography of cast iron
inputs
00
limestone limestone
0 50 0 50
Research Seminar Spring 2010 instructor: Jane Hutton project:
pig iron
WISCONSIN WISCONSIN
0 10 0 10
silica sand silica sand
0 20 0 20
material ecologies of cast iron
100
brazil
00
20
los angeles los angeles
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systems
scrap metal The Neenah Foundry, located in the eastern Wisconsin town of Neenah, is 135 years old. Its supply of silica sand and limestone come from within 30 miles of the foundry. A major scrap dealer 40 miles neenah south supplies the foundry with scrap metal. The coke that is used to power the cupola furnaces is purchased from New York and Alabama, fond du lac up to 850 miles away. Pig iron is the input of the foundry that comes from furthest away. Because steel mills in the United States have started to internalize all of the pig iron that they produce, grey iron foundries are left to import pig iron from abroad. Neenah Foundry purchases pig iron from Canada, Russia, and Brazil. Once the product is finished, it is hauled to one of 14 distribution yards across the country in Neenah Foundry trucks. From there, sales can be made and picked up at the yard. Neenah Foundry is one of 3 major municipal castings foundries in the United States. They have some small competition for their products in southern California, as some cast iron prod-
birmingham
phoenix phoenix
iron ore mining process #12
#1
stockpiles
drill holes
#13 transport
processing plant
10” round
1/3 tailings, for force
#3
#2
50’ deep
transport rock out of mine
blast!
2/3 ammonium nitrate natural iron ore: 70 - 80% iron, depleted 1960s
40’ apart
taconite: 33 - 37% iron bentonite clay
processing plant The process of producing cast iron begins at the site of the iron deposit. Most of the naturally occurring iron ore, which is 70-80% iron without processing, has been depleted in the United States. Most mines are now mining taconite, which is a rock that occurs in the same location as natural iron ore, but it contains less iron (only 33 – 37%). Taconite mining involves drilling, blasting, and removing fragments of rock. Taconite is hauled to the processing pit, which is often located in the mine pit. There it is crushed, ground, and mixed with water. Because the iron occurring in taconite is magnetic, it can be separated from other particles by running the ground rock slurry through a magnet. The remaining tailings and water are disposed of in a tailings pond. The iron is combined with bentonite clay, rolled into balls, and baked in a kiln. The result is a rock hard iron ore pellet, 66% iron, that is loaded onto a train in the mine and shipped to a steel mill.
#8
#4
1” ball mill
primary crusher 6”
#9
agglomerator, dewaters ore, add benonite clay, form green pellet ball
#5
iron ore pellets
secondary crusher 1”
#6
water
6” ball mill
tailings pond
#10
kiln (wood chip or fuel oil) 30 min on 1500 F
fine tailings wastewater
tailings: granite, silicon, abestos, gold, copper, etc.
#7
magnetic separator
#11
cooling tower to < 180 F
coarse tailings: hauled to landfill
above: Taconite mining and processing
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Cuban urban agriculture Penny White Prize Research Project collaborator: Vanessa Cheung, MLA â&#x20AC;&#x2122;10 project:
This research project focused on how urban farms are physically and socially situated within the cities of Havana and Cienfuegos in Cuba. The 1989 collapse of the Soviet Union resulted in a nation-wide food crisis in Cuba. The government responded by authorizing the use of urban vacant lots for farming. Today, the food crisis has ended, but Havana is still producing 50% of its fresh produce within the city limits. This practice has not faded from Cuban cities, but rather has become a integrated part of the local economy and the urban fabric. We visited a number of these urban farms to catalog different typologies, and we interviewed farmers, neighbors, and market vendors to understand how the local economy functions.
organoponico construction
typical raised bed: dimensions
systems
de
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mi
wi 2â&#x20AC;&#x2122;-
th pa
4
e4
ll Ca
.5 Av
. 64 Av
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High Bridge Rehabilitation
project: Final
Design for Interpretive Media and Wayfinding Signage role: Project Designer at Alta Planning + Design client: New York City Parks Department Alta developed interpretive media elements for the High Bridge, which is an Old Croton Aqueduct bridge over the Harlem River between Manhattan and the Bronx being converted into a New York City Greenway. I assisted with the conceptual design of the interpretive media and developed the final construction drawings, cost estimates and specifications for the interpretive and wayfinding signage. (1) Interpretive Overlook, (2) Interactive Station, (3)
SITES
Feature Identifier, (4) Gate with bridge cross-section design, (5) Viewing Platform, (6) Interpretive panel integrated into fence
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top left: Gatehouse elevation with panel placement top right: Wall-mounted interpretive panel design above: Typical manhole cover detail right: Cast bronze manhole cover designs
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chelsea TIDAL PARK Project: Academic
Studio Spring 2009 InstructorS: Paula Meijerink, Matthew Gordy, Alison Hirsch, Cherilyn Ruane, Paul Cote
SITES
This studio focused on an 18-acre contaminated post-industrial site on the waterfront in Chelsea, MA. My design caps the contamination on-site in a series of mounded landforms, while allowing the tidal water to permeate the interior of the park. The programming considered users of all age groups, including children. There are some playful walkways through the tidal marsh areas that fluctuate with the water, taking on a form and high and low tide.
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a harbor island for the city Academic Studio Fall 2008 instructors: Scheri Fultineer, Laura Gornowski, Kaki Martin, Robyn Reed, Paul Cote group members: Pao Chun Chen, Zenobia Meckley, Carrie Nielson, Justin Scherma, Jing Zhang project:
SITES
As a group, we developed a master plan to locate a social services program, homeless shelter, youth summer camp, and public parkland all on a small Boston Harbor island. We were required to address the boundaries of public and private space by determining the level of separation or integration between different uses. I designed a 54-acre youth summer camp that was well-integrated with the parkland on the island.
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balloon photography Independent project, presented at Somerville Open Studios 2012
project:
SITES
Inspiration for this project came from Bill Foxâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s book Aereality: On the World from Above. Equipped with a weather balloon and a camera, I did several balloon photography flights over Cambridge and Somerville, MA. The resulting collages explore two parts of this process: the balloon ascent into the sky, and the shifting of the camera rig as the wind blows the balloon. My interest is not in recreating an accurate aerial image, but in fitting the photos together to create landscapes that are somewhat fictionalized.
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CONTACT Shannon Simms 717.360.6636 svsimms@gmail.com shannonsimms.com