The following project is an example of how landscape ecology principles can help inform the way a development is organized. Looking back on the analysis performed of the site earlier in the term, Tamara was able to combine many of the economic aspects of site selection, together with the ecological principles of patches and corridors. Her port will build greater landscape connectivity and increase species flow around the airport, by introducing native plant species around the western side of the port. It is through this integration that we can help mitigate negative urban effects like the urban heat island phenomena, pollution, storm water runoff, and reduced heating and cooling costs. The potential for this new form to also carry a recreational program is hightened by this approach. A destination created through the marriage of the port and recreational programs will make the industrial port condition not only the first of its kind to adhere to landscape ecological principles, but also a first class destination for residents around the city and world.
Winnipeg Intermodal Port, by Tamara Urben-Imbeault
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Olympic Sculpture Park in Seattle, by Weiss + Manfredi combines a train crossing, and interstate highway into a park setting with an on site museum and harbour front access. “Envisioned as a new model for an urban sculpture park, the project is located on a industrial site at the water’s edge. The design creates a continuous constructed landscape for art, forms an uninterrupted Z-shaped “green” platform, and descends 40 feet from the city to the water, capitalizing on views of the skyline and Elliot Bay and rising over the existing infrastructure to reconnect the urban core to the revitalized waterfront,” (Weiss + Manfredi). It is this continuous “green” platform, zig zagging in and above existing rail lines and highways that makes this project a thrilling example of what potential exists within an industrial program for a park program.
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Villa Vals in Switzerland, by SeARCH and CMA is a chateau in Switzerland built into the existing hills so as not to obstruct views from the world famous Peter Zumthal thermal baths. “The planners were pleased that the proposal did not appear ‘residential’ or impose on the adjacent baths building. The scheme was not perceived as a typical structure but rather an example of pragmatic unobtrusive development in a sensitive location,” (SeARCH). What we can learn from Villa Vals is how to successfully re-evaluate current conventions of form in architecture, and create something much more interesting.
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Torre-Pacheco Library Square in Spain, by Martín Lejarraga is a library that combines a recreational park program and a green roof which tapers directly onto the streetscape. “The possible and desirable open relationship of compatibility, optimization of spaces and services, between the new building and the surrounding ground, generates a wide disposition of different general areas of common use between both of them( library, public hall, meeting rooms, etc..) and urbanized spaces (sports courts, greenhouses, gardens, playing areas, swings, etc …) that widen the real used and enjoyed space for the entire city,” (Zas). What is to be highlighted from this project is the potential for different urban functions to be layered on top of one another, producing a richer nodal area within a city.
Architectural Precedents
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3.4 Two ports studied in detail are Kansas City Intermodal Centre and Texas 3.5 Alliance, near Dallas. Both of these inland ports are located along the
NASCO corridor, which runs along the centre of North America. As you 3.6 can see from the diagrams on the left both sites have been designed 3.7
with ample distance between each of the distribution centres; air, rail, and truck. This is a method of design which requires a lot more land than is necessary to the program.
Intermodal Port Precedents
Natural park condition
Truck Cargo
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industrial Park condition
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Train Cargo
Air Cargo
The main function of the air, train and truck zones is to sort cargo for distribution to and from retailers and manufacturers worldwide. Generally, each of these elements will each be located fairly far away from one another as seen on the previous page, which minimizes the efficiency of the flow of goods. The goal of my design is to maximize efficiency by minimizing travel time and to create as positive of an environmental impact as possible, given the industrial nature of the development. The flow of goods will move from the East to West, starting with air cargo, then moving to the train cargo centre and finally the trucking 3.8 industry. The concept diagram above shows the interaction of the landscape with the building form, while the diagram to the left shows 3.9 the and the movement of shipping containers through the site.
Re-Thinking an Inland Port
Sturgeon Road
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Office + Light Industrial Sector
Trucking Sector Train Industry Sector Aero Industry Sector
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3.10 By integrating the port architecture with the landscape, we start to help
mitigate negative urban effects like the urban heat island phenomena, pollution, storm water runoff, and reduce heating and cooling costs for the occupants of the buildings. We also create a new recreational space for the city that will make the industrial port condition a more pedestrian friendly environment. The landscape will move in, around and above the buildings in each 3.11 of the sectors, creating a sequence of pedestrian friendly experiences, while also facilitating all of the elements necessary for an inland port. The distribution related functions will be centred in and around a central looped road which will provide simple and direct routes to each sector. The inland port is designed to be built over a period of approximately 50 years, and will be directly related to airport expansion and the new runway planned to be built in 2020. Security will be the highest closer to the airport, with secure buildings as check stops on the roads that access the air cargo areas. Building heights have been designed to consider flight paths and have been limited to accommodate them.
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3.12 The port lands will occupy 5.6 square kilometres (1394.6 acres), 1 km2
(264 acres) of which will occupy existing airport property. This area will be reserved strictly for aero related industry. After the full development has been constructed, it is estimated that at one given time, 18 cargo planes, 16+ trains and over 1000 semi trucks could be in the loading areas simultaneously. 3.13 Layered above the industrial program will be a series of interconnected roof gardens which will serve to connect the roof top spaces, plazas and interior courtyards into a single circuit.
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“The Loop” East
Air Cargo Loading Dock
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3.14 Air Cargo
Located on airport land, this will be the area where cargo is transferred from plane to truck. This zone can accommodate a maximum of 18 3.15 Boeing 757-200s or 15 Airbus A300- 600s, both of which are commonly used by large international freight companies. This translates to roughly 3.16 716 metric tons (1,578,600 lbs) of cargo.
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Shipping Yard
“The Loop” East
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3.17 Train Cargo
The shipping yard will be accessible to each of the rail companies that operate in Winnipeg. It can hold up to 9,600 containers at one time 3.18 (stacked 3 high) and can accommodate 16 trains with 150 cars each. At maximum capacity, there could be up to 12,000 containers or 810,000 3.19 cubic meters (28,604,880 cubic feet) of cargo in the shipping yard.
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Sturgeon Road
“The Loop” West
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3.20 Truck Cargo
The trucking industry will be the largest area of the intermodal port, and can hold an estimated 60 new trucking businesses, each with approximately 20,000 m2 (5 acres) combined of both office space and communal truck yards. 3.21 Sturgeon Road will be re-interpreted as a cut through the landscape, lowering the truck traffic to minimize the sound pollution that will radiate 3.22 into the neighbouring office buildings.
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CentrePort Canada Way
Sturgeon Road
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3.23 Office Park
The office park will occupy the entire west side of the site, and will be combined with the trucking industry in the middle of the site. It will host a variety of businesses from industry related offices to light industrial uses. Benefits will be seen by the businesses who locate there through the lowering of operational costs for hydro electricity, and heating and 3.24 cooling due to the added thermal barrier the plants and soil will provide. Runoff water will be harvested and used in the buildings in toilets and other uses, reducing the amount of potable water needed. The landscape will come up, in and around the buildings, creating more pedestrian friendly spaces than typically seen in industrial business parks 3.25 today. This will create calming naturalized spaces between buildings, giving employees the opportunity to go for walks during breaks and provide vistas from within the buildings. This will improve employee morale, and health, ultimately resulting in increased productivity and employee satisfaction.
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CentrePort Canada Way
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Remembering the concept of the ecological master plan developed for 3.27 the site, an Aspen forest will run around the entire west side of the port.
Through the addirion of a series of patches and corridors around the port development, the regional matrix will be enriched, and will provide a missing habitat link between Little Mountain Park and Assiniboine 3.26 Forest. The first map on the left shows existing Oak Savannah forests to the south of the site in dark green and the proposed Aspen forest to the west in light green. As demonstrated in the second diagram the forest 3.28 will also accept any runoff from the port lands that is not used by the buildings, during a heavy storm.
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Roof Garden Network 3.29 The roof gardens will provide a recreational destination for the 3.30 surrounding neighbourhoods, as well as views into the port itself.
Once realized the port will become one of the first examples of the successful pairing of industrial use urban planning and architecture with landscape architecture. This single cohesive unit will benefit the developer, businessmen, employees and environment alike.
Seattle Art Museum. [Aerial photo]. Seattle Art Museum Olympic Sculpture Park. Retrieved from http://www.weissmanfredi.com/projects/seattle-art-museum-olympic-sculpture-park.php Weiss + Manfredi. [Exterior photos]. Villa Vals. Retrieved from www. villavals.ch Martin Lejarraga. [Exterior photos]. Biblioteca Torre Pacheco. Retrieved from www.lejarraga.com Google Earth. (2011) [Aerial photo]. Kansas City Intermodal Centre. Retrieved from http://www.google.com/maps?f=q&source =s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Richards-Gebaur+Air+Force+Base ,+Kansas+City,+MO,+United+States&aq=0&sll=38.836499,94.546967&sspn=0.410232,0.891953&ie=UTF8&hq=RichardsGebaur+Air+Force+Base,+Kansas+City,+MO,+United+States&hnear= Richards-Gebaur+AFB,+Kansas+City,+Missouri&ll=38.831016,-94.555 335&spn=0.024806,0.055747&t=h&z=15 Hillwood Development Company, LLC. (2010) [Development plan]. Texas Alliance Intermodal Port. Retrieved from http://www.alliancetexas.com/Portals/0/PDF_Files/Alliance_Global_Logistics_Hub_ Brochure&Insert.pdf 3.1 3.2 Google Earth. (2011) [Aerial photo]. Texas Alliance. Retrieved 3.3 from http://www.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=3.4 en&geocode=&q=Wilmer,+TX,+United+States&aq=0&sl 3.5 l=38.845758,-94.553447&sspn=0.024801,0.055747&ie=
UTF8&hq=&hnear=Wilmer,+Dallas,+Texas&ll=32.617689,3.6 96.691189&spn=0.110899,0.222988&t=h&z=13 3.7
Kansas City Intermodal Centre, http://www.cic-kc.com/logistics/
Image Credits
Weiss + Manfredi. Seattle Art Museum Olympic Sculpture Park. Retrieved from http://www.weissmanfredi.com/projects/seattle-art- museum-olympic-sculpture-park.php SeARCH. Villa Vals. Retrieved from http://www.search.nl/ Zas. Urban Spaces and Library Park in Torre Pacheco by Martin Lejarraga Architecture. Retrieved from http://www.landezine.com/ index.php/2011/01/urban-spaces-and-library-park-in-torre-pachecoby-martin-lejarraga-architecture/
Bibliography