Colleen Sloan Portfolio | 2021 I
CONTENTS Landscapes of Scale largest
Page Harvard GSD, Core III: Dredgescape Harvard GSD, Core II: The Next Layer: Peeling Away Franklin Park’s Palimpsest Harvard GSD, Core I: Cut + Fill Harvard GSD Core I: City Hall as Urban Corridor Harvard GSD, Core I: Ashes to ashes
smallest
Washington University in St. Louis: Fold + Tuck
III-VIII IX-XII XIII-XV XVI-XVII XVIII-XIX XX
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DREDGESCAPE: FORMS OF BORROWED MATTER Harvard Graduate School of Design, Core III, 2020 New Bedford Harbor, Massachusetts has become a center for material exchange where seafood derived from outside the harbor is processed and exported to consumers, while its toxic sediment, laden with PCBs, is dredged and exported for burial in a landfill outside of Detroit, Michigan.
Logan Airport
MB Disposal Site
PCB Disposal Site Detroit, MI New Bedford, MA JFK Airport
fishing catch locations seafood exports PCB dredge exports
III 320 km
B
2.5 years
2 years
Possible future islands
B 1.5 years
A 1 year 0.5 years
195 m
The sites of intervention in both Detroit (A), and New Bedford (B) are situated within a much larger context and network of dredging, transportation routes and PCB disposal facilities across the United States.
One of 3 sites of intervention, New Bedford outer harbor, includes an archipelago of spoil islands, reimagining the lifecycle of dredge waste.
2080 sea level
A
community nursery
processed sediment exits
Phased timeline Phase 3
Phase 0: Prepare the ground Phase 1: 1 year Oats + Field Peas
Phase 2
Phase 2: 2-3 years Sorghum-Sudangrass + AM Fungi Phase 3: 4+ years American Beech and Sugar Maple
Phase 3 Phase 3 Phase 1
Phase 0
In Detroit, Michigan, the landfill that houses a significant portion of contaminated dredge from New Bedford, reintroduces, once ubiquitous to the area, Maple and Beech trees in a phased capping and planting scheme.
raw sediment enters
Lastly, the logistics site of New Bedford inner harbor includes the processing of dredged material that is used as fill for the archipelago and a nursery for the planting of the islands.
IV
The logistics site and nursery echo the layering of sediment within the archipelago, percieved in parallel to each other making connections to the distant islands.
V
The process of dredge burial is intensive and repetitive at the landfill in Detroit, MI. Contaminated sediment is spread and capped each day to avoid prolonged exposure of toxins to the air. The planting scheme registers this layering, while fostering new cycles of production through the planting of Beech and Maple trees from the seedlings of forests across Michigan.
B
The future working landscape of Detroit includes productive utilization of locally dredged material, until the capping and planting process takes place. In expanding this process to other landfills in the area, this will contribute to the area’s goal of reducing heat vulnerability while also adding to its open space.
Site Palette
Avena fatua
Pisum sativum
Sorghum x AM fungi drummondii
Acer saccharum
Fagus grandifolia
A + Detroit, MI
PCB Disposal Site B
A 6 kmVI
Primary dredging channel
Non-commercial barges can navigate between islands
2060
2080
2100
2040
Natural deposition occurs on the New Bedford facing side
The spoil islands envelop the harbor. The constructed sides of the islands that face New Bedford are planted according to coastal slope zones, and are imagined to shift over time as sea level rise meets each height in the coming years.
VII
This drawing collapses time and space to show the relationships between sites. The lifecycles of material in both New Bedford and Detroit are reimagined to create new possibilities for the future working landscape of dredge.
VIII
THE NEXT LAYER: PEELING AWAY FRANKLIN PARK’S PALIMPSEST Harvard Graduate School of Design, Core II, 2020 Franklin Park is a palimpsest of disruptions, layers, and ground changes varying in timescales and impact. For this project, the understanding of the site’s history was used to develop a system of peeling away the layers of history to reorganize previous forms or uses of the site. In doing so, preexisting towers re-emerged, past ecological functions were brought back, and the ways that humans engaged with the park were reimagined.
IX
My team, Jess Love, Xue Bai and myself, created this Score in Phase 1 of the project to understand the social and material changes of the site over time. Each loop represents a major disruption to the site, primarily of a constructed nature, but also including a couple of instances of major weather events. Each loop includes the material changes whereas material within the loop is subtractive and the material outside the loop is additive.
Running above the timeline are corresponding sections describing the interventions and disruptions occuring in time below.
Behind the timeline, we included atmospheric and population data to understand the larger anthropogenic changes occuring in relation to historic and material changes.
Social histories are listed along the bottom making connections to the disruptions, such as the rise of automobiles and the expansion of the roadway within the park.
X
A
C The site of Olmsted’s old Bear Dens and an old tower utilizes the highs and lows to make connections across the site, both physical and visual.
The Main Entrance at right, takes into account both physical characteristics and social uses of the old Refectory, reinventing this historic site to be suited for new uses.
B
The site of Scarboro Pond, registers its history of excavation through the path connecting hgih points whose slope corresponds to the intensity of the excavation carried out.
This collage plan of the park is meant to peel away the layers of time. The bottom layer of the initial survey of 1890 is visible in some locations where alterations have not been made, while other interventions such as Olmsted’s plan, the stadium, and golf course are layered on top.
A
B
High points
Physical Connections Visual Connections
C
XI
By using the rich history of the many layers of Franklin Park as a starting point, the next layer of Franklin Park can be one that borrows some elements from the past, while leaving others behind, and reorganizes them to create spaces from the ground up that will meet the needs of the future and today.
XII
CUT + FILL Harvard Graduate School of Design, Core I, 2019 Boston is a city of cut and fill, with more than 5,000 acres of its land being man-made. As a way of echoing the natural processes of erosion and deposition in the Charles River, as well as speaking to a larger narrative of cut and fill history, I used a system of cut and fill events along the river’s edge to connect people to the water in new and and unexpected ways.
XIII
Phase I
Filling
Cutting
Nyssa sylvatica
III II
Betula papyrifera
I
Quercus rubra Pinus strobus
Phase II
Additional incisions Wetlands propagating
Transect I
Adapting circulation to cuts + fills
Transect II
Transect III
Phase III
Expansion of wetland edges River becomes swimmable
The process of cutting and filling is carried out in phases, and catalyzed by the incisions on the land that become pathways, piers and walls.
The end result is a landscape that evolves through man-made and natural processes. Yellow vegetation contrasts with the existing grey canopy to highlight where topographical changes have been made.
XIV
The spaces shown allow for and depict quiet relaxation at the river’s edge among wetlands, multiseasonal uses of the park, and a pier enclosing a sunken courtyard extending out onto the water’s surface.
Sections across the site depict the cut and fill process as well as spatial qualities.
existing grade cut fill
existing grade
cut
existing grade cut fill
Nyssa sylvatica
Betula papyrifera
Quercus rubra fill
Pinus strobus
XV
CITY HALL AS URBAN CORRIDOR Harvard Graduate School of Design, Core I, 2019 For this project, I was tasked with regrading Boston City Hall and thus reimagining the way in which people occupy the plaza for special events as well as the day-to-day. My grading plan sweeps the occupant from the north to the south end of the plaza. The contours pinch together, opposite the end of the ADA accessible route, forming stairs that fade into grasses and more intimate spots to convene. Vegetation reinforces the plan with Little Blue Stem grasses and young Honeylocusts along the steeper slopes and larger Honeylocusts along the primary circulation route.
Study models for grading and vegetation experimentation
XVI
Tree planted into slope
Grasses Structural soil beneath planting
Sitting step among grassy strips
Concrete Stairs
Concrete hardscaping Concrete Supports
Concrete Brick Pavers
Gravel
Compacted soil
XVII
ASHES TO ASHES Harvard Graduate School of Design, Core I, 2019 For this project, I was tasked with designing a courtyard that incorporates the material ash, and the month July. My design is about the relationship between people, vegetation and fire and how a process of controlled burns can change a landscape over time. The design is a microcosm of a much larger process, as depicted below, and discussion about the force of nature and the ways in which we attempt to control it to shape the regrowth of the land.
Year 0
Year 1
Point of no return
Year 2
Year 5
Year 10
Year 20
Year 40
Year 75
Year 100
Year 101
Peak Destruction cycle begins again
Decay
Fire cycle Woody species begin to grow and die making room for new growth
H2O Soil
Biomass
Plant Litter
Nutrient cycling Charred trees decompose
ash
H2O + CaCO3
Nutrient from ash diminish over time
XVIII
Time
Site Pre-Fire
Site Post-Fire
Site Post-Fire Phase 2
Site Post-Fire Current State
Site Future Projection
Pioneering Species
Tree Canopy
H2O CaCO3
Lichen
Christmas Fern
Vibernum
Pin Cherry
CaCO3 H2O Ash
CaCO3 H2O
CaCO3 Usage over time shapes the landscape
Topography
Walls and Circulation
Directionality of Run-off
The process begins with a controlled burn of a grid of planted trees. Topography is altered through cut, fill and walls to shape the regrowth of the site over time. As natural processes and intentional plantings take place, one can begin to imagine what the site may look like in future projections. The crosses in plan represent the pine trees, post-burn, where nutrient run off collects in the low points creating fertile zones of new growth in white.
XIX
FOLD + TUCK Washington University in St. Louis, Architecture Discovery Course, 2013
Above: In the first phase of this project, I created a set of rules to abide by based on the origin of a line and where it intersects on the page. This criteria became the basis for the phases that followed. Below: My initial rules were translated into a plan, taking into account new parameters for intersection knowing that this would become a landscape of specified dimensions.
Lastly, the plan was translated into a landscape comprised of balsa wood.The lines that comprise both the folly structure and landscape tuck under and into themselves blurring the lines between landscape and structure.
XX
Thank you
FOLD + TUCK Washington University in St. Louis, Architecture Discovery Course, 2013
This project was part of an Architecture Discovery Program that was carried out in a series of modules. I created a set of rules to abide by for the initial drawing, seen here, which would become the basis for the rest of the project’s design.
The previous rules were translated onto a plan that would inform the design of a 3-dimensional cube, where line weights determine the cuts, folds and tucks.
XXII XX
This model was created to explore the impact of lighting on the site. Due to the site’s enclosure within a building’s courtyard, the image below illustrates the effect of lighting that comes from within the building through the large glass windows.
The plan below illustrates the use of walls intended to act as fireblocks from the controlled burn in the center. The crosses represent the pine trees, post-burn, where nutrient run off collects in the low points creating fertile zones of new growth in white.
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