Masters of Landscape Architecture Thesis 2016_Zeek Magallanes

GRADUATE PROGRAM LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE + URBANISM 2015 - 2016 Professor Aja Bulla-Richards

Zeek Magallanes ADAPTIVE URBAN TAPESTRY

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to express a special appreciation and thanks to my advisor Aja Bulla-Richards for all of her hard work and patience in helping me through my design research. Thank you for all of your challenging comments, suggestions, and recommendations; and for encouraging my research in interesting and meaningful ways. I would also like to thank my studio cohorts for their support in finishing our final design studio together: Amanda, Chen, Chris, Jaja, Lulin, Marilyn, Niaz, Olive, Tianyi, and Yongdan; thank you all!

A special thanks to Alicia, my wife. Words cannot express how grateful I am for your support throughout all of the late nights, and frustration.

I would like to thank all of the professionals who meet with us in Fresno last Fall, especially Sophia Pagoulatos from Fresno’s Long Range Planning Department and Karana Hattersley-Drayton, Fresno Historic Preservation for answering follow-up emails. I’d like to specifically thank USC instructors Travis Longcore, and Robert Perry for sharing their insight and feedback during studio hours. I’d also like to thank the critics who took time out of their lives to support our work as emerging professionals and attended our midterm review; Brad McKee from Landscape Architecture Magazine; Hadley Arnold from the Arid Lands Institute; Mike Tramutola from Rios Clementi Hale Studios; Rae Vassar from Rios Clementi Hale Studios; Sarah Cowles from Ohio State University; and Shaunt Yemejian from Paul Halajian Architects, your feedback and suggestions have helped to enhance my design in significant ways.

Lastly, thank you to my Thesis readers Kelly Shannon, USC Director of Master of Landscape Architecture and Urbanism; Mike Tramutola from Rios Clementi Hale; and Esther Margulies, USC Assistant Director of Master of Landscape Architecture + Urbanism; your feedback helped to strengthen the representation of my proposal and has encouraged me to pursue this topic during my career.

INTRODUCTION "RETHINKING CALIFORNIA'S URBANIZING AGRARIAN LANDSCAPE" DESIGN RESEARCH STUDIO

The following thesis was developed within a year-long design research studio at the USC Landscape Architecture + Urbanism program. The initial phase, during the Fall of 2015 under the instruction of professors Aja Bulla-Richards and Kelly Shannon, was organized in the form of seminar and studio activities operating in parallel in order to enhance critical thinking and the production of creative design solutions. The course began with a collective effort to analyze and comprehend contemporary challenges in the San Joaquin Valley, focusing on pressing issues such as drought, climate change, subsidence, pollution, health hazards, economic setbacks, social and environmental injustice, and urban decay. Two parallel studios each led by one professor examined the role of landscape architecture in addressing urgent issues in this contested territory. Each studio produced a unique vision for the future of Fresno County in the form of a collective design proposal. Individually, students identified the topics and sites that sparked their interest for further investigation, formulating a series of research questions that established a framework for analysis. This process culminated in the choice of a the thesis topic to be further developed in the second semester.

The learning objectives of the studio and seminar included developing essential skills for the landscape architecture design, such as: critical thinking and analysis, verbal and visual expression, investigative abilities, design questioning and strategizing. The methodology of work included reading materials, analysis of historical and contemporary maps, as well as other representative imagery, archival material research, selective data collection, fieldwork investigations, mapping and modeling activities. Through multiple exercises along the semester, the course developed students' abilities for creating narratives, focusing on the synthetic visualization of information, projective cartography, interpretive collages, scenario building, and the development of landscape design strategies across multiple scales. As a final product, students created a total of three booklets that encompass the amplitude of such work. In conclusion, the design studio and seminar provided research fundamentals that established a framework for and guided the focus of theses investigations.

Part I focuses on the Fall 2015 semester, where research is directed initially toward an understanding of Fresno County as a whole system. The later portion of Part I identifies the location for a design intervention and proposes a new urban typology to respond to these larger concerns within the context of a network of other student proposals.

Part II focuses on the Spring 2016 semester. This part of the book delves into an investigation of the larger theoretical and ontological possibilities presented by Landscape Architecture in addressing urban development in an era of climate change. Building upon the previous semesters site inventory, analysis, and design proposal a new thesis question is posed and an answer is offered in the form of an enlarged design proposal.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART I: FALL 2015................................................................................................... P.7

CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES................................................................................ P.9

INTERPRETIVE COLLAGE/MAPPING................................................................................ P.23

FIELDWORK....................................................................................................... P.33

COUNTY-WIDE VISION............................................................................................ P.43

DESIGN RESEARCH PROPOSAL..................................................................................... P.51

PART II: SPRING 2016.............................................................................................. P.70

THESIS STATEMENT............................................................................................... P.73

DESIGN PROPOSAL BRIEF........................................................................................

P.74

METHODS.......................................................................................................... P.77

SITE ANALYSIS: MAPPINGS.................................................................. P.78

SITE ANALYSIS: FIELDWORK................................................................. P.84

SITE ANALYSIS: COLLAGE................................................................... P.86

SITE ANALYSIS: HISTORY................................................................... P.88 PRECEDENT STUDIES.........................................................................

P.92

APPROACHES...................................................................................................... P.107

STRATEGIC VISION............................................................................................... P.113

ITERATIVE DESIGN............................................................................................... P.123

DESIGN PROPOSAL................................................................................................ P.131

DESIGN PROPOSAL BRIEF................................................................... P.134 LOCATION..................................................................................

P.136 CONCEPT...................................................................................

P.138 LANDSCAPE FRAMEWORK....................................................................

P.140

SITE SPECIFIC MAPPINGS.................................................................. P.142 DESCRIPTIVE SECTIONS.....................................................................

P.146

DETAIL: VILLAGE CORE..................................................................... P.152

CONCLUSION: THESIS POSITION ESSAY...........................................................................

P.157 BIBLIOGRAPHY................................................................................................................

P.162

THESIS DESIGN STUDIO FALL 2015

‘Rethinking the San Joaquin Valley: st 21 century Agri-Urbanism, Focus on Fresno County’

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CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

Sheet No. 3, South-central Portion, Irrigation Map of The San Joaquin Valley, California.

California State Engineering Department, 1886

David Rumsey Historical Map Collection

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GEOMORPHOLOGY Fresno County is part of the San Joaquin Valley, which started out as an inland sea that was surrounded by the coastal ranges and the Sierra Nevada. Over time the sea was filled in by sediment runoff which created a relatively flat basin rich with alluvial soil.

Source GEOMORPHOLOGY TOP: Topographical and Irrigation Map of the Great Central Valley of California.1887. California State Engineering Department Inland sea and mountain range erosion.

BOTTOM: Sheet No. 3, South-central Portion, Irrigation Map of The San Joaquin Valley, California. 1886.California State Engineering Department

Beginning as an inland sea, deposition from the coastal and Sierra mountain range volcanic cover filled in the basin with rich alluvial sediment.

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INDUSTRIAL AGRICULTURE Due to the rich alluvial soil, Fresno is an ideal location for agricultural production. With the advent of industrial farming post WWII the area has undergone drastic environmental changes and is experiencing the adverse effects of such artificially intensive production.

NDUSTRIAL AGRICULTURE Source Fresno County is the personal #1 agricultural Kelly Shannon, photographyproducer in the U.S.

While industrialization post 1945 (WWII) has lead to the agricultural prominence of the County, it has lead to serious issues such as mono-culture, synthetic

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DROUGHT AND SUBSIDENCE Such high productivity has led Fresno County to become the #1 agricultural producer in the nation. To keep up with the demand established by industrial agriculture during our current and historic drought, agribusinesses and farmers have had to dig deeper and deeper wells.

Groundwater pumping has lowered water levels 200ft in some places since 1960 and land subsidence is currently sinking at a rate of approximately 1 ft. /yr. Subsidence also strongly impacts infrastructure, costing millions of dollars in damages every year.

Source LEFT: Krieger, Lisa M. “California Drought: San Joaquin Valley Sinking as Farmers Race to Tap Aquifer.” San Jose Mercury News. N.p., 29 Mar. 2014. Web. 02 Dec. 2015.

RIGHT: http://gallery.usgs.gov/images/09_15_2010/b2Vi84Kxx6_09_15_2010/large/SUBSIDENCE_INDUCED_BY_UNDERGROUND_EXTRACTION_clr_fig1.jpg

OUGHT AND SUBSIDENCE

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HEALTH RISKS Numerous health risks face citizens in Fresno from air quality, to water contamination, to Valley Fever, a disease caused by inhaling the microscopic spores a soil-dwelling fungus. The County’s topographic features restrict movement throughout the basin, encouraging concentration of pollutants.

There are over 800+ known toxins affecting Fresno County. The most prevalent natural threat is Valley Fever, a disease caused by inhaling the microscopic spores of Coccidioides immitis, a soil-dwelling fungus found in Bakersfield.

Source Http://www.newyorker.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/140120_r24515-1200.jpg

H IMPACTS unty’s topographic features restrict movement throughout the basin, encouraging concentration of pollutants.

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POLITICAL LANDSCAPE The strong interdependence between agriculture and water has also led to political arguments over water rights and state funding for water infrastructure. Water and food security spark intense debate and local political action. Major issues include citizen rights to water access over private/Gov. bodies, funding for the creation of dams before High Speed Rail, and State funding for local water storage projects.

Source TOP: familiesprotectingthevalley.com BOTTOM:damtrain.com

POLITICAL LANDSCAPE

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NATURAL RESOURCE MINING Mining contributes to air particulate matter pollution, habitat loss, species loss, soil loss, erosion, and water pollution, and sedimentation.

Mining products include sand and gravel, fossil fuels such as oil, coal, and natural gas, metals and other minerals, such as asbestos, high-grade clay, granite, gypsum, and limestone.

Source Wang,Ucilia. “A Road Trip to the Land Where Oil and Solar Meet.� Gigaom Research. Science and Energy, 1 May. 2012. Web. 02 Dec. 2015.

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ECONOMIC DISPARITY While agriculture is highly productive and profitable, it is also highly mechanized and only seasonally hires labor. Fresno County produces more than $5.6 billion in agricultural products, the jobless rate was 16 percent with one in four people below the poverty line in 2011. Thus generational poverty and food insecurity are major issues. Poverty leads to reduced educational and vocational opportunities, lack of home ownership, lack of discretionary income, inadequate food and clothing, lack of medical insurance, and lack of transportation.

Source

ECONOMIC DISPARITY Matt Black, matttblack.com While Fresno County produces more than $5.6 billion in agricultural products, the jobless rate was 16 percent with one in four people below the poverty line 2011.

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SOCIAL JUSTICE Unequal access to economic, political, and social rights exasperate other challenges in Fresno County. Major issues include poverty by race, criminalization of homelessness, law enforcement accountability, disability rights, profiling: race, religion, gender, gender identity and/or sexual orientation, climate change as violation of human rights.

Source Matt Black, matttblack.com

SOCIAL JUSTICE Unequal access to economic, political, and social rights exasperate other challenges in Fresno County.

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EXPANDING URBANISM While many low income residents struggle for wages, land developers have converted large amounts of agricultural land into urban sprawl. Such low density development has had critical socio-economic and environmental repercussions.

City expansion beyond established boundaries are common in a political and economic environment that rewards sprawl with cheap subsidies and quick permits. Sprawl, verses infill, contributes to more pollution through more vehicular use, loss of agricultural land, loss of natural habitat, racial and economic disparity, and increased residential water use; all contributing factors to climate change.

EXPANDING URBANISM Source CityVartabedian, expansion beyond boundaries are common in aRecord political and economic environment that rewards sprawl with cheap subsidies and quick permits.

Ralph. “Criticsestablished Fear Bullet Train Will Expand Urban Sprawl�. Times Online Edition.

1 March 2015.

Web 2 Dec 2015

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CLIMATE CHANGE Climate change is particularly severe on agriculturally productive areas such as Fresno County.

Climate change will have the greatest impact on society as we shift to hotter, drier, and longer summers, declines in snowpack, increases in wildfires, erosion and sediment deposition, and declines in water quality and quantity.

Lower groundwater recharge rates, loss of some native species and functioning ecosystems, less productive range for cattle, increase in invasive species, stress to water and flood infrastructure.

CLIMATE CHANGE Source Climate change is particularly severe on agriculturally productive areas such Fresno “Waldbrände in Kalifornien: Flammen breiten sich aus”, Speigel Online.14 Aug 2015.

Web as 2 Dec 2015 County.

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INTERPRETIVE COLLAGE/MAPPING

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DOMINANCE IN CHANGE, CHANGE IN DOMINANCE The valley floor has undergone drastic change since European settlement and agriculture began. Open water and grasslands, riparian and other floodplain habitats, alkali desert scrub, and wetlands once represented 98.9% of the land-cover Since 1850, large portions of the valley floor have been converted. Conversion of the valley floor’s natural lands and lakes was active in the late 1800’s AS STATE Government built dams along the major rivers (Merced, San Joaquin, Kings, Kaweah, Tule and Kern rivers) as a response to requests from valley residents.

Thus, any attempt to address and mitigate the aforementioned issues in Fresno must begin with a thorough mapping of the entire valley floor and foothill lands to identify remnant patches of native vegetation, Document the extent of riparian zones, and extent of urbanization. Only then, will a change in land dominance patterns lead to a more responsible land management strategy.

Source Collage: Zeek Magallanes Facts: Thorne, JH, Roth, NE, Boynton, RM and Woodard, RM (2014) ‘Biodiversity’ Chapter 5 in The San Joaquin Valley Greenprint State of the Valley Report, Fresno: Fresno Council of Governments, pp. 31-‐‐40.

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PREVALENCE OF DEEP AQUIFER WELLS AT THE INTERSECTION OF CROPLANDS AND ORCHARDS Orchard and Vineyards consume copious amounts of water, requiring deep well systems over ancient aquifers. This loads localized subsidence and topographic shifts in elevation. Clay compaction reduces aquifer regeneration capacity, while groundwater availability due to capillary draw from depleting aquifers.

The prevalence of deep aquifer well pumping for orchard and vineyard agriculture stands in contrast to crop and pasture lands [plan].

Well depth is interpreted through color tone, with darker tones representing deeper wells. Deep well location overwhelmingly occurs on orchard land, yet shows a preference for orchard/crop interfaces.

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Crop/pasture land Orchard/vineyard

Wells by depth 500-1500ft 1500-3000ft 1500-3000ft

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60

120

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HABITAT FLORALAREAS AND FAUNAL ADAPTATION TO HUMAN AND CLIMATE CHANGE

An interconnected network of significant habitats allows California’s diverse floral and faunal communities to adapt to human land use and climate change. Habitat areas that meet needs for breeding, feeding, rearing, and shelter, whether natural or semi-natural, must be large enough and connected enough for all species that might use them.

Habitat Zones Wilderness

Bird Areas

Connectivity Areas

Riparian Communitites

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0.5

3

4 mi

Source: 1. https://www.wildlife.ca.gov/Conservation/Planning/Connectivity 2. Audubon California’s Important Bird Areas (IBA), http://app.databasin. org/app/pages/datasetPage.jsp?id=23d4d4dd0ab240f9a1c1167865cf4d64 3. Geographical Information Center (GIC) for the California Department of Water Resources 4. Bureau of Land Management, National Conservation Lands

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SIGNIFICANT SOIL POTENTIAL CONDITIONS SOIL RECHARGE POINTS TO STRATEGIC FARMLAND

As consensus builds regarding the relationship between living, deep soils and carbon sequestration, the need to concentrate farming in strategic locations and returning less ideal lands back to polycultural farming practices becomes imperative. This not only helps address climate change, but also subsidence, and groundwater recharge.

Soil Orders unclassififed Alfisols Andisols

Aridisols Entisols Histosols

Inceptisols Mollisols Ultisols

Vertisols

Groundwater rechargable

Potential Subsidence (outline) high low medium to high medium to low

0

0.5

3

4 mi

Source: 1. McCoy, Michael. “A new method is used to evaluate the strategic value of Fresno County farmland.� CALIFORNIA AGRICULTURE 64, no. 3.

2. Natural Resources Conservation Service Soils 3. UNAVCO. http://pbo.unavco.org

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PRECIPITATED FAHRENHEIT CHANGE CHALLENGES THE VALLEY CLIMATE CHANGE

Climate change is largely driven by increases in global temperatures, which itself depends largely on how much and how quickly heat-trapping emissions accumulate in the atmosphere. The most pressing of these concerns locally are precipitation changes and warm season temperatures.

Change in Fahrenheit (%)

Precipitation Change -61 to -35 % -34 to -25 % -24 to -15 %

-14 to -5 % -4 to 35 %

13.1-14.4 11.4-13 9.7-11.3

April 1 snow water equivalent 30-45 inches 15-30 inches 0-15 inches

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0.5

3

4 mi

Source: Koopman, M. E., R. S. Nauman, and J. L. Leonard. “Future climate conditions in Fresno County and surrounding counties. The National Center for Conservation Science and Policy.� (2010).

Global climate change and California: Potential implications for ecosystems, health, and the economy. Electric Power Research Institute, 2003.

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1.5m root zone saturation zone water table H

Prime: physical and chemical features for long-term AG production

Strategic: Most likely to remain economically viable for high value commercial AG with the highest soil productivity, access to affordable water, favorable microclimate, and limited environmental and urban pressures.

H

groundwater zone Variables: Salinization: Soil absorption Water is drawn up from Root zone degradation saturated zone to root zone Application rate dissolved salts in water Groundwater recharge age remain after evaporation, accumulating in soil.

Br

Soil Valuation: soil quality water availability proximity to sewer/urban services

2-30m

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TYPICAL SECTION PROFILE OF AN URBAN AGRICULTURE INTERFACE The above section shows the soil value classifications used by major agricultural institutions, as well as the way in which land use management practices affect groundwater quality.

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FIELDWORK

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FIELDWORK:

INVENTORY MAPPINGS

As part of a team of four individuals, I visited all of the incorporated cities in the county of Fresno. Each individual contributed by taking on a specific role, such as photographer, sketcher, mapper, and diagrammer. My role was to diagram the dominant functional areas/systems for each city. The following are diagrams produced after having drove and walked through these cities over the course of two days.

The major findings from this research was that for the most part cities in Fresno County share the same general building stock, street layout and context. Building stock is generally recent single family homes from the 1960’s onward. Street layout is north/south, with a main corridor that moves along a set of rail lines. These rail lines, which typically were found in the middle of each city, suggest that most if not all of these cites began as rail depots in the past. Each city, regardless of size is surrounded by commercial agricultural land. Sprawl can be found most prominently near the city of Fresno and Clovis.

Lastly, unique histories and or design opportunities could be found in most, but not all cities, providing a varied base from which to chose an area to focus a design project. Major opportunities included, urban/river interface, urban/agriculture interface, urban decay, urban development, riparian corridors, groundwater recharge, food security/access, walk-ability, bike-ability, community engagement, parks and recreation areas, and central business district development.

FIREBAUGH

FOWLER

HURON

KERMAN

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KINGSBURG

MENDOTA

ORANGE COVE

PARLIER

REEDLEY

SAN JOAQUIN

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SANGER

SELMA

S.E. QUADRANT

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CLOVIS FRESNO

COALINGA

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FIELDWORK:

FIELD SKETCHES

In addition to mapping the dominant functional areas for each city, I also drew sections to help me understand the vertical morphology of the County.

The following are a sample of those sections.

The major findings from this research was that the County is relatively flat with few major disruptions in topography. Obviously, this is one of the major reasons Fresno County is an ideal location for agricultural production and should not be seen as a negative attribute.

The most visible change was around rivers and on the periphery of the County as one moved close to the footlhills. Such topography provides two options; either disrupt such a planar condition with mounds, berms, structures, or planting variation, or enhance, and emphasize this condition as a marker of place, a sort of historical register of its past as an inland sea and major agricultural center of production.

Firebaugh

Kerman

Huron

Fowler

The section of the San Joaquin River flowing through Firebaugh appeared healthy and accessible to residents. Fish in the river and a tire swing could be seen from the bridge above. However, a sense of city center was lacking.

Huron appeared to be a community dominated by apartment complexes, public parks, and undermaintained ranch style single family homes. Numerous opportunities for in-fill allow for economic, cultural, and environmental improvements to the city.

A small city, just over 3 sq. miles, displays a unique central streetscape. Near the administrative center a large green-island park sits between the flow of traffic. As one moves along Madera Ave. the median gets smaller, as do the trees. Many residential areas were in need of public services.

The center of the city is dominated by an industrial strip of packaging plants bounded by two highways. The city has a number of public amenities, such as senior centers, parks, and ADA accommodations, however this industrial spine divides the community.

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Kingsburg

Mendota

Orange Cove

Parlier

Reedley

San Joaquin

Kingsburg is a relatively affluent city that enjoys a well maintained street scape of mature urban street trees. A prominent passenger rail line is marked by a train station modeled after the city’s Swedish past. Such architecture can be found throughout the city.

The section of the San Joaquin River flowing through Firebaugh appeared healthy and accessible to residents. Fish in the river and a tire swing could be seen from the bridge above. However, a sense of city center was lacking.

A bike trail occupies an old canal or rail line location and runs through all of downtown. Drought tolerant plant material, deep mulch, cranite stones, bike lane, young trees. A small portion of the Kings river is accessible to the residents of Reedley.

County sponsored, low income housing near public amenities are abundant here, as well as empty spaces in the center of town. However, the streetscape is dominated by single story housing, small neat trees, and drought tolerant plants.

A small city, just over 3 sq. miles, displays a unique central streetscape. Near the administrative center a large green-island park sits between the flow of traffic. As one moves along Madera Ave. the median gets smaller, as do the trees. Many residential areas were in need of public services.

Wide empty street, no street trees, older homes, and lots of electrical lines. Typical ranch style homes are in disrepair, paved sidewalks are missing in some places, and empty lots can be found on most blocks.

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Fresno

Clovis

Fresno

Coalinga

Sanger

Selma

Blackstone Ave forms the major North-South corridor and expresses an interesting undulation of space. Toward the downtown area the street is dominated by commercial establishments, wide streets, and few street trees.

As on nears the city boundary, the streets get narrower, a green median with large sycamores and oaks appear, and pine trees make up the street canopy. Bike trails appear and access to a naturalized landscape for recreation opens up.

Distributaries of the Kings river take the form of dry canals used as an inter-city trail system. Mixed size single family homes, large front yards, and varied vegetation characterize Sanger. The downtown “main street” is lifeless and needs revitalization.

Clovis is characterized by a collection of newer sub-developments that are well-maintained with large yards and “California friendly” plant material. A number of water retention ponds and walking trails dot the landscape.

The presence of a number of native plants indicate that this creek flows seasonally or has a high water table. Large Cottonwoods and willows indicate the potential to revitalize this creek or support its seasonal flow. Surrounding neighborhoods seem to be lower income housing.

Open space is wasted on alleyways, many of which are obsolete. The number of alleys present the opportunity to create an interconnected system of trails, wetlands, or urban forests. Expansion of the city occurred along the rail where, today, many industrial buildings can be found.

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COUNTY-WIDE VISION

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Carbon Cartel Office Vision As our world continues to undergo environmental, climatic, and population shifts our future becomes ever more uncertain, full of risk, and rife with ethical dilemmas. Fresno County’s vibrant agricultural economy, its historic river system, habitat corridors, and life-systems have been severely impacted by this uncertainty.

We seek to challenge current notions of canals, rivers, agricultural practices, and urban conditions by re-configuring, re-designing, and re-imagining Fresno County through the use of Urban Metabolism and Regenerative Agricultural strategies to ultimately create a Carbon Sequestration Laboratory.

Projections for the Central Valley indicate that the average annual temperature will rise 5 to 6°F during this century and double in duration, while a significant rise in the number, intensity, and length of heat waves will be experienced. There will also be a tendency towards drier conditions overall of about 15 to 35% by 2100, increasing the oscillation of dry years with warm years and raising the risk of drought significantly, leading to earlier snowmelt runoff, changing stream flows, and fluctuating water temperatures.

These pressures act in concert with trends in population growth, urban expansion, and decreasing agricultural acreage to burden water availability, quality, and aquatic life. The EPA reports that “Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the primary greenhouse gas emitted through human activities.”

Fresno County’s numerous man-made and natural watercourses dominate the landscape between the Sierra Nevadas and the Coastal Range. From the time of the Native Americans to today’s ranchers, growers, and agribusinesses, the County has undergone one of the most extensive alterations of land surface attributed to humankind. Agricultural production had a total gross production value of $ 7,039,861,000 in 2014. Due to this incredible amount of industrial agriculture production, of which nearly 50% is high water use fruits and nuts, land subsidence is estimated at one foot per year threatening major infrastructure such as canals, roadways, and rail lines.

As a metabolic system, Fresno County produces a number of hazards, such as ground water pollution, reduced air quality, soil degradation, habitat loss, and reduced available surface water.

These conditions make Fresno County the perfect location for mitigation of such pressing global, regional, and local impacts.

The Carbon Cartel Design Office intends to achieve its vision through the creation of an experimental environment that allows for the introduction of innovative Landscape Architecture proposals.

We will investigate two unique strategies: Urban Metabolism and Regenerative Agriculture, each with its own set of tactical approaches.

The term urban metabolism, has been described as “the study of material and energy flows arising from urban socioeconomic activities and regional and global biochemical processes”, and was first introduced in 1965 by Abel Wolman, in the Scientific American article The Metabolism of Cities. Such an approach provides an effective strategy for addressing carbon sequestration in the County by enabling the design of systematic energy flow movement through a cyclical urban/agricultural loop. In addition, we expect to uncover and address some of the current limitations of the approach at the regional and local scale.

The term regenerative agriculture refers to tendencies towards closed nutrient loops, greater diversity in the biological community, fewer annuals and more perennials, and greater reliance on internal rather than external resources. Recently it has taken on a more focused message of soil building as key to carbon sequestration, reducing human exposure to toxic chemicals, reducing negative impact on insects and other animal species, improving water and air quality, and supporting the microbial diversity.

Regenerative agriculture is a shortened form of the term regenerative organic agriculture, coined by Robert Rodale, son of American organic pioneer J.I. Rodale of the Rodale Institute.

By reducing our use of greenhouse gas emissions, incorporating renewable energy and sequestering carbon, we are able to achieve a net reduction of greenhouse emissions globally by 2050, this is the equivalent of taking twenty-five million cars off the road. If all global cropland were managed with a regenerative model, we could potentially sequestrate about 40%, or 21 GtCO2 annually. Through the use of this strategy we intend to maximize carbon sequestration by the design of innovative and creative agroecological systems.

Therefore, we ask how can Urban Metabolism and Regenerative Agricultural strategies provoke current notions concerning canals, rivers, agricultural practices, and urban conditions in order to lead to the re-configuring, re-design, and re-imagining of Fresno County as a Carbon Sequestration Laboratory?

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REFERENCES: Http://climate.calcommons.org/article/central-valley-change Http://www3.epa.gov/climate change/emissions/gases/co2.html Galloway, Devin, and Francis S. Riley. “San Joaquin Valley, California.” Land subsidence in the United States: US Geological Survey Circular 1182 (1999): 23-34.

2014 Fresno County Annual Crop & Livestock Report; Fresno County Department of Agriculture.

State of the Valley Report; San Joaquin Valley Greenprint.

UrbanMetabolism.org, available at: http://www.urbanmetabolism.org/.

Niza, S., Rosado, L. and Ferrão, P. (2009), Urban Metabolism. Journal of Industrial Ecology, 13: 384–405. doi: 10.1111/j.1530-9290.2009.00130.x Http://rodaleinstitute.org/assets/WhitePaper.pdf White, Courtney. Terra Cognita. June 16, 2015. Http://www.resilience.org/stories/2015-06-16/terra-cognita Http://rodaleinstitute.org/assets/WhitePaper.pdf

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REGENERATIVE POTENTIAL

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Soil has the greatest potential to absorb and store carbon emissions. Particularly organic rich soil has the highest potential. This soil type also has the ability to store, and then percolate both irrigation water and natural rainfall in order to recharge under ground aquifers. Areas with such soil should receive highest priority and protection through design.

Historic Landcover c.1885 grassland saltbush wetlands valley oak

Recharge Areas riparian Potential Co2 Sink Area Co2 sink

Canal Network canals abandoned canal abandoned pipeline

Organic Farm Types Small certified regenerative

Prime Strategic Farmland P.S. Farmland

Source: 1. NRCS soil data 2. 2000 US Census TIGER/Line Data http://app.databasin.org/app/pages/datasetPage.jsp?id=72ac0a39884a499e876d92946465205e 3. Schmidt, E., J. Thorne, Patrick Huber, Nathaniel Roth, Edward Thompson, and Michael McCoy. “A new method is used to evaluate the strategic value of Fresno County farmland.� California agriculture 64, no. 3 (2010): 129-134.

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NETWORK OF STRUCTURAL PROCESSES The County’s ecology is made up of more than just its floral and faunal capital, but also its transportation networks, and water infrastructure. These structural elements help to drive and guide processes of activity, such as agricultural production, urban development, and ground water recharge.

Riparian Areas Riparian Wilderness Areas Forests

Transportation Network primary roads rail I-5 HSR

Water Network Ca. aquaduct rivers lakes

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Source: 1. NRCS soil data 2. ESRI

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AQUIFER/SOIL RELATIONSHIPS

0

In those areas with the fastest draining soil types, aquifer thickness is densest. This map illustrates the fact that despite specific sub-classifications of soil scattered across the county, the underground aquifer system begins to expand under a large area, thus increasing the opportunity for recharge at different rates across the Fresno territory.

Soil Classes alfisols andisols aridsols entisols histosols

inceptisols millisols ultisols vertisols

Aquifer Thickness 2,500 ft 1,500 ft 500 ft

Water Network rivers

10

20

40 mi

Source: 1. NRCS soil data 2. ESRI 3. Stephanie Trump, The Aquifer of the San Joaquin Valley . http:// academic.emporia.edu/schulmem/hydro/TERM%20PROJECTS/2008/ Trump/mineral%20resources%20of%20Kansas.html

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Office Vision:

In response to these numerous urgent issues the carbon cartel design studio, believes that by framing our vision for Fresno County within the lens of climate change resiliency, we can touch upon and address most if not all of the preceding challenges while establishing a larger resilient landscape framework for the future.

We will address climate change primarily through carbon sequestration, and in particular, through making use of regenerative farming. Regenerative farming refers to a focused approach to building soil health as a means of mitigating climate change and can include a variety of tactics. We also utilize the idea of Urban Metabolism to address the inputs and outputs of cities. By cycling these inputs and outputs through landscape systems we can reduce Fresno County’s contribution to climate change.

Design Laboratories:

Thus, we propose to establish a set of Design Laboratories across the County which will individually address a number of the issues we discussed. We are using the concept of a Design Laboratory to indicate that these are places where ideas can be tested, lessons learned, and discoveries expanded.

Canal Network:

Early in the history of the County when surface water was sufficient to irrigate agricultural lands, a complex system of canals served the region. Today, however, due to water use restrictions and aquifer pumping, a number of canals are being underutilized. (Change slide) Therefore, we propose to situate our Design Laboratories along a selected network of canals. The canals in this network move through key areas of cities, are near ecologically significant corridors, or are strategically positioned to serve a particular design proposal. While not all proposals make direct use of a local canal, the network itself become a support framework for the expansion of these Design Laboratories in the future.

Population Growth:

As the County of Fresno continues to experience population growth, it is important that we encourage densification of the existing urban realm to preserve important agricultural and ecological lands. We have looked at a number of other cities with a tendency towards urban agriculture and economic diversification to determine a level of density that can be achieved in Fresno County. We propose that about 35-40 people per hectare can create a rich urban experience, encourage economic activity, and achieve significant ecological preservation. Our research indicates that the current area occupied by cities is more than sufficient to support projected growth up to the year 2085. After which point we propose an organic expansion strategy that moves along existing infrastructure or near our canal network to preserve agriculturally and ecologically significant lands.

HSR:

Lastly, we understand the impacts that the High Speed Rail will bring to the area and have, therefore, proposed a route that conserves significant agricultural and ecological land areas while making use of existing infrastructure, encouraging eco-tourism, and an awareness of what the cities in Fresno County have to offer.

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DESIGN RESEARCH PROPOSAL

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Adaptive urban tapestry Weaving together productive landscapes, human settlement, And ecological corridors

Urban morphologies which are structured around systemic landscape frameworks provide the only means for human settlement to adapt to fluctuating social, economic, and ecological conditions in a world affected by climate change. Consumptive capitalistic culture, primarily in developing nations, has lead to excessive carbon overload which has critically impacted the built and natural environment. This is complicated by the land use zoning approach that sees the spheres of urban development, agriculture, and ecology as discrete elements of civilization.

In truth these spheres are more like interwoven fields of activity that influence and respond to shifts and changes in the total system. With over 2 million lineal feet of urban and agricultural edge in Fresno County, California, opportunities for fusing, splicing, and revealing these interwoven conceptual territories are numerous. Such dire global conditions and open opportunities challenge us to design and implement drastically different models of behavior, values, settlement patterns, and production methods.

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My thesis project focuses on a section of Sanger, Ca, a city within Fresno County, where the city boundary, conventional agricultural lands, and a diminished riparian corridor are present, yet remain separate.

Fresno County’s numerous social and ecological issues are complicated by the morphology of modernist American urban design. Specifically, land use zoning, which places each element of the city ecology in its own compartment as if it were a cog in a machine, separates the city from functioning as the organic entity it is.

Therefore, I argue against land use zoning by proposing a design laboratory that weaves together a composite urban mosaic that overlays, intertwines, and hybridizes urbanism, regenerative agriculture, and ecological corridors to achieve significant carbon sequestration, increased social capital, and a productive landscape in Sanger, Ca.

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Site history

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Hydrology

Public space

Circulation

Urban area

Site inventory When we look at the city’s urban inventory as an ecology of networks and processes, we can see that the area is well connected to the city. This, of course is due to the city’s small size of only 5.5 sq. miles, However, the city continues to grow and a large portion of the site has been cleared for future development.

Composite city

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Existing urban transect: The transect right illustrates conditions and might encounter Sanger.

section to the the various soil typologies one within the city of

The following transect cuts through the entire width of the city, from West to East.

Three distinct urban morphologies typify Sanger: Residential, Industrial, Riparian.

Because of Sanger’s proximity to the Kings River, it is not currently undergoing, nor has it ever undergone land subsidence.

Current aquifer stores have been estimated by Sanger’s Public Works Department to be “... capable of producing 14,458 acre-feet per year (AFY), from eight wells, with an average depth of 235 feet. The current demand is, however, only 5,364 AFY.” Therefore, Sanger’s current and potential water supply is sufficient to meet the needs of the city well into the future.

Additionally, groundwater flows in a general south-west direction. The depth to groundwater in Sanger varies from 0 feet, near the river bottom, to approximately 43 feet.

source: 2005 Urban Water Management Plan, Sanger Public Works Department.

soil and city

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Design Area

source: open source data via ArcGIS online

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Design proposal:

seasonality

Closer plant spacing to make up for slower growth

Crop: primarily carbon and calorie crops

Flowing canal fed by precipitation and greywater

Strategy: crop rotation and inter-planting

Harvest: citrus and stone fruits

Strategy: continual harvest to encourage new growth

Crop: primarily vegetable crops Canal as part of Living Machine system

Strategy: companion planting creates a mini eco-system with beneficial interrelationships

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Aug

Sept

Oct

Nov

Dec

Jan

FALL / WINTER

Planting Program start seedlings prick seedlings transplant seedlings harvest

Deciduous trees shed leaves

Harvest: nuts Strategy: trim orchard to maintain dwarf size

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

SPRING / SUMMER

July

Planting Program start seedlings prick seedlings transplant seedlings harvest

Nitrogen

natural insect predators increase

March: ~65* F: Significant Nitrogen release occurs June-August: ~91-95* F: Nitrogen release decreases -strategy: apply heavy compost

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Design proposal: Exploded Axon

Orchard corridors

Woodland corridors

Landscape framework

Adaptive urban tapestry

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Design focus area

Urban homesteads

Circulation

Regenerative agriculture

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Design proposal:

succession

Community Center

Regenerative Urban Agriculture

strategy: farmers markets Canal Terraces circulation and garden plots

restaurant vegetables, and garden crops

perennial greywater|more riparian species yr|2050

strategy: build revenue

strategy: revenue events

straw wattling seasonal percolation|few riparian species yr|2020 strategy: rebuild the soil

compost, carbon, organic matter, fodder, & cover crops

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Orchard Corridor

Mixed Use Housing medium density: 30DU/acre

fruit and nut

Woodland Corridor

woodland garden 5-30 yrs shade tolerant herbs and flowers|shade tolerant woodland herbs

temporary shrubland 0-5 yrs

chop and drop species nurse plant species

deep rooted nitrogen fixing species

0

32

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Design proposal:

Future vision

strategy: community hub

healthy riparian corridor, seasonal scouring yr|2100

strategy: feed community

calorie, grain, protein source, vegetable, and oil crops

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CO2

mature forest corridor 30+yrs Photosyhthesis

food forest: nuts and fruit

Cellulose & Carbohydrates

roots secrete FEEDS Mycorrhizal Fungi SECRETES Glomalin excess Glomalin= stable organic carbon in soil carbohydrates

clear understory covered with natural leaf litter mulch

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ECOLOGICAL CORRIDORS: The ecological corridors will evolve over time from a Temporary Shrubland, composed of nurse plant species, chop and drop species, deep rooted nitrogen fixing species, and an evolving orchard along its edges, through a Woodland Garden, composed of shade tolerant herbs and flowers, to finally a mature Climax Forest, where a clear understory is maintained with natural leaf litter and a productive orchard gradient exists along its edges.

Active carbon sequestration will take place as the soil profile continues to enrich itself over time and recreational activities, such as hiking and biking will also be accommodated.

REGENERATIVE AGRICULTURE: Regenerative Agricultural areas will evolve through three strategies: 1. Rebuild the Soil: during this phase compost, carbon, fodder, and cover crops will make up the bulk of production.

2. Build revenue: during this phase, profitable products such as restaurant vegetables and marketable garden crops will dominate.

3. Feed the Community: Finally, after both soil and a reliable market network have been established, food production will focus on calorie, grain, protein, vegetable, and oil crops.

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SHARED PUBLIC SPACE: As experience and memory create a palimpsest of meaning for this place, the shared public realm also evolves over time.

First, public space will be used to generate revenue through the hosting of local and regional events.

Secondly, during the development of the agricultural market network, shared space will be used to support farmer’s markets.

Lastly, the shared public space will become an active community hub where any number of activities that support social connection will take place.

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Design proposal:

Adaptive Urban Tapestry

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FINAL DESIGN RESEARCH SPRING 2016

Adaptive Urban Tapestry:

Integrating urban development, agriculture, and ecological corridors

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Thesis statement The use of an interwoven Landscape Infrastructure in urban design, composed of a networked urban forest ecosystem which responds to and reveals underlying hydrological processes while also connecting cultural and ecological nodal points sets the foundation for the realization of an Adaptive Urban Tapestry.

Modernist land use zoning restricts the possibilities of an integrated and sustainable urban fabric through compartmentalization and disregard of ecological processes. Modernist city building has caused a lack of social cohesion, economic vibrancy, and ecological health through the use of urban sprawl, single-use zoning, and car-centric urbanism.

Such conditions have become our urban inheritance and challenges us as students, designers, and responsible citizens to imagine and experiment with alternative propositions in a world affected by climate change, increased population density, and resource scarcity.

An Adaptive Urban Tapestry re-envisions the built environment in a way that brings us closer to the natural carrying capacity of the land; densifying the urban core, embedding local sustenance activities in everyday life, and connecting and supporting ecology in and through the city.

Landscape Architecture is inherently equipped to mediate the process of staging a dynamic, multi-functional, ecologically responsible, and aesthetically pleasing urban field condition. This is because Landscape Architects conceive of the human designed environment as an overlay of social-ecological processes engaged in a networked system of dynamic and reciprocal relationships. Landscape Architects propose designs that engage multiple scales, conditions, and stakeholders in order to frame a support structure where each element influences the creation of performance, meaning, form, and structure in the landscape.

The objective of my design research is to attempt to answer the question:

How can Landscape Architecture reconfigure the built environment in a way that not only challenges current notions of land use, but establishes a resilient urban framework by which we might integrate URBANISM, AGRICULTURE, and ECOLOGY in such a way that encourages social cohesion, ecological health, and food security so that the city becomes an adaptive and resilient environment in the face of global climate change.

Only by weaving these three elements together can we hope to achieve a socially vibrant and ecologically sustainable urban condition in a world affected by climate change; in other words, an Adaptive Urban Tapestry

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Design Proposal:

adaptive urban tapestry

In response to my theoretical question, I propose an urban design model that spans a little over a mile and half from the unincorporated agricultural areas west of the city’s boundary toward the central business district. Sanger’s 2025 General plan makes clear the city’s intention: “The people of Sanger envision their community as a small, selfsufficient, and characteristically distinct community separated from surrounding jurisdictions by agricultural land preserved in perpetuity. Sanger does want to be a bedroom community to one of the larger surrounding jurisdictions. Growth will be slow, deliberate, and contained. Sprawl will be prevented, and the economy will be healthy.”

As I will show, my design proposal achieves all of these goals through the integration of existing and new urban development, urban and commercial agriculture, and forest corridors that are both habitat areas and productive.

The following pages will take you through my design process by illustrating my METHODS, APPROACHES, STRATEGIC VISION, DESIGN INVESTIGATIONS, and finally descriptive sections of my DESIGN PROPOSAL.

B

C

A

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Homestead Buffer

A

In the eastern most area we encounter the Homestead Buffer. Here the urban-rural boundary is extended into a gradient where urban homesteads suggest a limit to urban expansion and a new peri-urban typology.

Neighborhood Armature

B

As we move closer to the core, a new neighborhood typology emerges as we retrofit the existing street grid. Alleyways and backyards are re-envisioned as common space where interlinked productive landscapes become embedded in a sustainable and resilient urban morphology of community engagement.

Village Core

C

Finally, we reach the urban core which is characterized by market agriculture, outdoor spaces for leisure and commercial activity, urban habitat, and circulation routes for non-vehicular traffic.

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METHODS

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Site Analysis: Mappings Groundwater Quality above average average poor Recharge areas rechargable Riparian Communities riparian Canals Streets

Wells

Drinking Water Quality above average average poor

CalEnviroScreen 2.0 Score 32 - 43 27 - 32 23 - 27 11 - 14 Recharge areas rechargable Riparian Communities riparian

Groundwater Quality above average average

Analysis of the following soil and water quality mapping indicates that Sanger is composed primarily of above average groundwater quality with few to very few particulate contaminants. This may be due to its proximity to the Kings river riparian system which constantly feeds the underground water flow across the city in a north-western direction.

In terms of design, this suggests the need to ensure a continued protection of groundwater stores through the use of an integrated tree habitat canopy which will serve to slow and sink storm water, absorb and cleanse dry weather runoff, and reduce evaporation of both natural and irrigated sources.

poor Particulate Matter high

canals

low Potential Natural Habitat high medium riparian Recharge areas

streets Wells

The area most in need of thoughtful planning and design can be seen as the area near the northeastern boundary where unincorporated agriculture now exists.

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According to the National Research Council’s Committee on Geography, “The key to spatial thinking is a constructive amalgam of three elements: concepts of space, tools of representation, and processes of reasoning. By understanding the meanings of space, we can use its properties (e.g., dimensionality, continuity, proximity, separation) as a vehicle for structuring problems, finding answers, and expressing and communicating solutions. By expressing relationships within spatial structures (e.g., maps, multidimensional scaling models, computerassisted design [CAD] renderings), we can perceive, remember, and analyze the static and, via transformations, the dynamic properties of objects and the relationships between objects.”

Thus, the following are interpretive mappings which help me to understand the underlying spatial relationships that affect the City of Sanger as a whole and might serve as reference points from which to engage in a design proposal. source: Downs, Roger, and Anthony DeSouza. “Learning to think spatially: GIS as a support system in the K-12 curriculum.” Committee on the Support for the Thinking Spatially, National Research Council, Publisher: The National Academies Press, URL: http://books. nap. edu/catalog. php (2006).

1923, USGS topography map

1947, USGS topography map

1965, USGS topography map

1981, USGS topography map

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GEOGRAPHY

Topography Persistent Flow Accumulation

Canals

Flow Accumulation

Tributary Accumulation Channel

Aspect Watersheds

City Boundary

Flat North

% Slope 0 - 0.3

N.E. East

S.E. South

0.4 - 1

5-8

2-4

9 - 10%

S.W. West

N.W North

Slope

Lowest

Base Image

Highest

Digital Elevation Model

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DEMOGRAPHICS

358 people ride bikes or walk to work on a fairly regular basis

automobile, alone automobile, carpool public transit Transportation

average family income is $40,890/year

less than 10k 200k Income Distribution

average home value is $137.000

owned rented

Home Ownership

16.9% unemployment

employed unemployed

Employment

no school HS/GED

B.A. some college

professional degree Education

Total = 24,681 Density: 5,196/sq. mi.

Hispanic: 83.4% Black: 1.3% Native Am: 0.3%

White: 13.8% Asian: 1.2% other: 1.1%

Population

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URBANIZATION Today Sanger retains its decades old boundary and seeks to establish an agricultural buffer to protect its small town feel and unique identity.

Anticipated population growth is purring new developement, however, in order to be successful Sanger must realize new and innovate urbanization strategies.

Contemporary

By 1977, some of the Oak woodland began to resurface. However, urban growth expanded exponentially as migrant workers focked to the productive fields near Sanger.

However, the waste management system was reaching capacity and Sanger was forced to stop all building until it could be expanded and repaired.

1977

As late as 1945, the Oak woodland that once blanketed the area remained but a memory to only the most aged residents.

1945

By 1912 most of the Oak woodland was cleared by logging companies, a consequence of Sanger Junction’s role as the base of operations and shipping for many logging companies harvesting the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Fruit production was the common agricultural practice at this time with many Italian, Mexican, and Japanese immigrants participating as workers or land owners.

1912

Prior to the founding of “Sanger Junction” in 1886 by the Southern Pacific Rail Company, Sanger was a fertile land of Oak Woodland.

The area was occupied by the Yokut Indians until small pox decimated the population in the 1820’s. By the 1850’s cattle ranching was dominant in the area.

However, by 1874 farming assumed territorial control.

1885

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LANDSCAPE FRAMEWORK: REGIONAL CONNECTIVITY

ple eo p nd ,a s d ee Fowler Switch s , s Canal l a im n ,a er t a

Lonetree Channel

Centerville Kingsburg Canal

flo w

of w

Kings River Riparian Ecology

air

w

flo

wa

te r

i n fi lt ratio

n

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Site Analysis: City Boundary

Area of Interest

Fieldwork Photos

The mapping below illustrates the path of travel I took while conducting fieldwork within the City of Sanger. Each dot represents an area of major interest. It may have been a school, a church, an empty lot, or perhaps an infiltration basin.

Many of the photos on the facing page where taken at these areas of interest and help to paint a picture of the urban condition in Sanger.

Major Street

Agricultural Lands

Path of Travel

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Sanger’s history as a once thriving rail depot is evidenced by the now mostly silent and underutilized rail line that divides the city. As can be seen in the photo to the right industrial packing houses still occupy much of the real estate near the rail lines, however, as can be seen to the left, new commercial developments are being for civic activity.

Sanger’s close connection with agricultural production can be seen across the city. Here we see a rose garden styled after a flood irrigated orchard. The level to which an agriculturally based consciousness permeates Sanger gives it a unique distinction, one which can play a role in lending credibility to any design proposal.

The urban core of the City is characterized by urban decay. Buildings from the 1940’s stand in dis-use and alleyways serve more to eradicate any sense of a welcoming center than invite civic participation. When taken in total, alleyways such as this provide much needed space for the implementation of an integrated pedestrian and ecological corridor.

There are technically three canals that cross through Sanger’s boundaries, one to the North, and two to the East. Typically dry throughout much of the year they serve as corridor trails and recreational spaces. Here we see ATV tracks in the dry canal bottom. These canals present a wonderful opportunity to expand upon an already existing community asset.

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Site analysis: Collage Collage provides a means to engage in a uniquely interpretive and poetic site analysis where site, condition, or territory is seen in new and unforeseen ways.

Here collage serves to reveal existing conditions, site challenges and opportunities, underlying geological processes, cultural currents, as well as to suggest a new morphology for urban living IMPRESSIONS Sanger lacks an immediate impression upon the mind as one passes through.

The historic train depot, relocated near the administrative center out of its original context fails to draw interest from both visitors and residents alike.

IMPRESSIONS, TOO Sanger’s industrial packing past echoes throughout the city as large warehouses loom along the rail line. Shipping containers and large streets to accommodate trucking routes gobble up precious public space. Infiltration basins and canals silently present themselves as un-tapped possibilities for new types of spaces for civic engagement in the practice of Landscape Architecture.

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META ECOTONE The notion that the urban realm is distinct from the agricultural landscape is called into question as the urban-rural dichotomy diminishes, revealing the permeability of these conceptual territories.

NEUTRALIZATION CULTIVATION Tactical strategies that use closed cycle systemic strategies help mitigate pollutants in both urban and agricultural areas and has the potential to buffer human health, build soil, and make visible natural processes.

ADAPTIVE URBANISM Ecological approaches to urbanism establish a framework for viewing the urban/rural/agricultural setting as a cohesive landscape of structural processes that shape land, vegetation, and human settlement patterns. Conceiving of the urban/rural boundary as a designed ecotone helps to suggest ways in which one might mitigate the effects of water scarcity, water quality, and habitat loss as well as effectively sequester carbon.

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Site analysis: While Sanger shares many of the challenges found in Fresno county (see pages 12-21), it also has a rich and interesting history.

Founded in 1887, Sanger began as a railroad depot along the Southern Pacific Railroad line that ran between Fresno and Porterville as the home of the Kings River Lumber Company. The company employed a third of Sanger’s residents and was the biggest lumberyard in California. Among the cargo that passed through this depot was grain, citrus and lumber brought down from the mountains by Sanger’s booming lumber operation. In fact, Sanger was the terminus of The Kings River Flume, the longest flume in the world, which ran 62 miles from the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range to the rail head in Sanger.

history 1889

1889

davidrumsey.com

davidrumsey.com

1890’s

1916

Sanger is located in Fresno County, in California’s Central Valley. Six miles west of Sanger is the city of Fresno, the valley’s largest city and the State’s sixth largest community. The Sierra Nevada is located to the east. Sanger is known as the “Christmas Tree City” because of its historic association with an annual celebration at the General Grant Tree. Highway 180, approximately two miles north of Sanger, runs eastwest between Interstate 5, Highway 99, and Sequoia and Kings National Parks.

The Kings River is a major natural feature located approximately one mile east of the City. Sanger is approximately 4.5 square miles in size and its population was 18,931 in 2000 (2000 US Census).

The agricultural industry eventually replaced the lumber industry beginning in the late 1920’s as Sanger was established as a food processing hub.

Currently, the city’s economy is based primarily on agriculture supported by retail and industrial development. Sanger’s downtown needs revitalization in order to once again become a place for the community to shop, gather, and socialize. Many residents work out of town in the nearby Fresno metropolitan area, but prefer to live in Sanger’s small town atmosphere with relatively affordable housing. source: 2025 Sanger General plan

IMages of America: Sanger

IMages of America: Sanger

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Historic Sanger The history of Sanger’s economy and culture evolved from Dry Farming and Cattle Ranching, to Lumber and Timber. This was eventually replaced with Irrigated Farming and Fruit Production. Fruit Packing sustained the city well into the 1970’s. After this time and until today, Sanger’s economic base remains agriculturally based with many residents working in other industries outside of the city.

native sanger: Native Yokuts processing valley and foothill acorns.

native sanger: With the arrival of white settlers, Yokuts lived in dwellings as shown here.

native sanger: Yokut basketry was used for gathering, storing, and cooking. Tight basket weaves could hold water.

native sanger: From their earliest years, Yokut girls learned basket weaving from their mothers.

Dry Farming era sanger: Teams of horses harvest 5,000 acres of grain. (1890)

Dry Farming era sanger: A steam engine thresher was run by an engineer for local farmers.

(1890’s)

Dry Farming era sanger: Stock raising was time consuming, and in the 1880’s ranchers shifted to dry farming.

Dry Farming era sanger: Early pioneers raised grain that could be grown on rainfall alone.

Dry Farming era sanger: Grain was harvested and processed in the fields, then hauled to Sanger and stored.

Lumber era sanger: The Kings River Lumber company builta V-shaped flume, which required much less water to run.

Lumber era sanger: Rough terrain and lack of roads in the early years made extraction difficult.

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Lumber era sanger: Sanger was selected because it offered 65 acres of land and all of the right-of-ways for a rail line.

Lumber era sanger: Initially, full-sized sections where sent by rail car to the mill. As can be seen, this was labor intensive.

Lumber era sanger: In order to split such large pieces of redwood, holes would be filled with black powder and exploded.

Lumber era sanger: Chutes and rail cars where disassembled and re-assembled in the mountains to carry wood.

Lumber era sanger: Flume houses where built along the original 54-mile stretch to house workers who cleared log jams.

Lumber era sanger: The extreme size of redwoods equated to massive profits for both lumber barons and workers.

Packing era sanger: In this cutting shed, women are cutting peaches on the right. (1904)

Packing era sanger: It is September and farmers are bringing in dried fruit to a storage shed. (1913)

Packing era sanger: Employees of the Freidman Co. Notice the number of women workers. (1913)

Packing era sanger: Grapes and tree fruit were staples in Sanger’s packing industry. (1920’s)

Packing era sanger: Packing was delicate work and women were given key positions such as “Floor Lady”

Packing era sanger: All Images from Images of America: Sanger, 2013

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Precedent Study Middlesbrough Urban Farming Project Location: Middlesbrough, UK Date: 2005-2007 (on-going) Designers: Katrin Bohn & Andre Viljoen, Bohn & Viljoen Architects Spatial Organization: CPUL + Community garden, school garden, house garden, windowsill Food Production Type: Open-filed, Container, and Domestic

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The Middlesbrough Project was part of a larger program in the North East of England known as Dott07 (Designs of the time 2007).

Dott07 involved a year of community projects, events, and exhibitions exploring what life in a sustainable region could be like. The Dott07 was, itself, part of an on-going national initiative lead by the Design Council.

Drawing by Katrin Bohn & Andre Viljoen

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The Middlesbrough Urban Growing Project is an annual community program for growing food in public spaces which will be used in a yearly ‘town meal that includes residents and visitors.

The project intends to bring awareness to issues such as food miles, food security, and local community. It promotes experimentation with productive, multifunctional green spaces with the hope that Middlesbrough will become a self-sustaining town.

Seasonality is a key component to the program – propagation in the spring, growth in the summer, and harvest in the autumn – followed by the town meal in September.

Through the engagement of schools and community groups the community owns and participates in an intergenerational endeavor.

Text; UK Government Web Archive (http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20110118095356/http://www.cabe.org.uk/ case-studies/middlesbrough-growing/background) Diagram: Reproduced after Bohn & Viljoen diagram in (Seardo, Bianca Maria. “Second nature urban agriculture. Designing productive cities, edited by André Viljoen and Katrin Bohn, London, Routledge–Taylor & Francis Group, 2014, pp 184-185.)

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1

Architects Katrin Bohn & Andre Viljoen where asked to produce an “Opportunities Map” that would combine the project’s strategic vision and the actual location of food growing sites.

4

2

The process began by first mapping the location of existing land allotments, the equivalent of a “community garden”.

3

A design charrette mapped the important systems in the city and generated the framework for their strategy.

5

The Town Harvest: The goal of the project is the Town Harvest .

In September, the final harvest takes place and growers came together for a “town meal“ in the town’s main square.

Small Growing Sites: growing containers and sites in different sizes encourage participation at all levels.

6

Medium Growing Sites: allow a more dedicated group to access larger spaces within their neighborhood.

The first event in 2007 was attended by over 6000 people. The event was organized by the Middlesbrough Council and the Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, and curated by artist Bob and Roberta Smith.

7 It was called “The Really Super Market”.

2500 people who participated in the project as growers came to the event and were fed by the harvest.

Large Growing Sites: experiment with new crops and strategies.

Marketable produce, and more community engagement

Maps redrawn by author

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Lessons Middlesbrough Urban Farming Project Architects Andrew Viljoen and Katrin Bohn took special care to map the locations that participants wanted to grow food as part of the project. This was then executed by the project team and helped ensure project success.

The initial concept was based on the ‘design of a process’ that could address local sustainable development and public health concerns, and due to its success has been mimicked by local partners.

The project provides a different approach to green infrastructure.

‘Project-led’ rather than ‘strategyled’, where project refers to community engaged activity and strategy refers to top-down approaches.

Increased multi-functionality through land-use diversification such as grow-zones, involving communities in green space management, creating new food coops, and allotment sites.

The project has used mass public participation to give local people a better understanding of their use of the local environment.

Over 1000 people grew food as part of the project. Local government has considered a new strategy that will support ‘pocket allotments’ across town, rather

than concentrated single sites on the periphery.

Organizations in town are collaborating on opening a social enterprise restaurant whose produce would be supplied by the town’s new ‘urban farmers’.

Successful implementation of urban food production is a collaborative endeavor. It requires participation from local government, external organizations, and local residents.

All parties should be involved in the decision making process. A “program” can be just as powerful as a built intervention if it engages enough people

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The CPUL City concept “The concept of CPUL City provides a strategic and associative framework for the theoretical and practical exploration of productive landscapes within contemporary urban design. It describes the vision for a sustainable urban future based on the planned physical and societal introduction of continuous productive urban landscape (CPUL) into existing or emerging cities.

Drawing by Katrin Bohn & Andre Viljoen

Continuous Productive Urban Landscape (CPUL) is a design concept advocating the coherent introduction of interlinked productive landscapes into cities as an essential element of sustainable urban infrastructure.

Central to the CPUL concept is the creation of multi- functional open urban space networks that complement and support the built environment Key features of CPUL space include urban agriculture, outdoor spaces for people (leisure and commercial), natural habitats, ecological corridors and circulation routes for non-vehicular traffic. Its network connects existing open urban spaces, maintaining and, in some cases, modifying their current uses.

Within the CPUL concept, urban agriculture refers in the main to fruit and vegetable production, as this provides the highest yields per square metre urban ground. Typical urban agriculture practice range from small-scale food gardening to highyield, space-efficient market gardening.”

---Katrin Bohn and André Viljoen

Text: Bohn, Katrin, and André Viljoen. “The edible city: Envisioning the continuous productive urban landscape (CPUL).” FIELD 4, no. 1 (2011): 149-161.

Image: University of Kent, http://www.kent.ac.uk/architecture/research/centers/ create/open-lectures/andreviljoen.html Drawing by Katrin Bohn & Andre Viljoen

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Precedent Study Philadelphia Green Infrastructure Plan Location: Philadelphia, PA Date Designed: 2011 Construction Completed: On-going Cost: $1.2B net present value over 25 years Size: City-wide, 135 Sq. mi Landscape Architect: Mark Focht, FASLA, Consultants: Streets Department, Mayor’s Office of Sustainability, Philadelphia Parks & Recreation, Planning Commission, Office of Housing, etc.

Http://www.phillywatersheds.org/doc/GCCW _ AmendedJune2011 _ LOWRES-web.pdf

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Rain Garden Rain barrel

Stormwater inlet Porous paving Stormwater bumpout

Stormwater tree

stormwater planter

stormwater tree trench

Rain Garden

Green City, Clean Waters is Philadelphia’s plan to reduce storm water pollution entering their Combined Sewer System through the use of green infrastructure.

Green City, Clean Waters represents a major shift in the way cities think about and deal with storm water, recreating living landscapes that once slowed, filtered, and consumed rainfall. By adding green to streets, sidewalks, roofs, schools, parks, parking lots, etc, Philadelphia will have reduced the storm water pollution entering their waterways by a 85 percent. By employing green infrastructure instead of traditional infrastructure like pipes and storage basins Philadelphia will save an estimated $5.6 billion.

The plan could absorb 1.5 billion pounds of carbon dioxide annually, equal to removing 3,400 cars off the road, avoid 20 deaths due to asthma, avoid 250 missed work or school days, prevent 250 deaths due to excessive heat island effect, increase property values by $390 million over 45 years, as well as create 250 local green jobs.

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SITE INVENTORY

Large-scale Storage Tunnels

at completion

Decentrtalized Water Treatment

at completion

Gren Infrastructure

immediate

Green Infrastrucure w/ Targeted Traditional Infrastructure

immediate incremental

Wet Weather

Outfall to creeks and rivers

Dry Weather

Downspout

Dry Weather

ccru al

at completion

Road way Stormdrain

Wet Weather

fits A

Complete Sewer Seperation

Types of Infrastructure in Philadelphia

Combined Sewer (60%)

Ben e

Maintain and upgrade the infrastructure network Advance City-wide Sustainability Programs Improve public health / quality of life Greening our neighborhoods Transform river and stream corridors Restoring our waterfronts Improving our outdoor recreation spaces Preserve and restore aquatic habitat Maximize return on every dollar spent

BENEFIT MATRIX

Affo rda ble Sca labl e Mee ts S ewe r Ov Mee erflo ts W wP ater olic s ies hed Cre Plan ates ning Job s Goa Enh ls anc es R e c reat Imp ion rove sQ uali Red ty o f Lif uce e s Ex c e s Res sive tore Hea s Ec t osy Imp s t e ms rove s Ai r Qu Offs ality ets Clim a t eC Pub han lic S ge upp ort

DESIGN PROGRAM

Seperate Sewer (40%)

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CONCEPTUAL APPROACH

The “Greened Acre”

WHAT IS A “GREENED ACRE”?

Rationale for the Green Infrastructure Approach One impervious acre receives one million gallons of rainfall each year.

A Greened Acre is described as an acre of impervious cover reconfigured to utilize green storm water infrastructure to manage the first inch of storm water runoff from that acre.

1 Acre Green Stormwater Infrastructure Greened Acres

The volume of storm water managed by One Greened Acre is equivalent to 1 inch of storm water from 1 acre of impervious drainage area, or 27,158 gallons of storm water.

A Greened Acre will prevent 80–90% of runoff pollution from occurring.

GA = IC * Wd Green Acre = Impervious Cover x Water Depth

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Herron Playground

Green Public Open Space Water Inlet Drainage Area Entry Walk

pervious safety surface

Earp Street reforest with native trees

Drainage Swale

Sloped Lawn Gabion Wall

native & adapted grasses

rain garden

2nd Street

Rain Garden Performance Stage

bioswale

pervious court surface

Reed Street

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New Kensington High School vegetated filter strip porous parking rain water cisterns rain gardens

geothermal well field

green roofs

rec center

improved sports field

stormwater tree trenches

rain gardens

stormwater tree trenches

pervious driveway

Rain Garden Park

Master Street

park expansion

town homes West Seybert Street

infiltration basin

North Smedley Street

underg ro detenti und on fac ility

Kensington Creative & Performing Arts High School

Ingersoll Commons

North 16th Street

Plans redrawn by author and images taken from green city clean waters, http://www.phillywatersheds.org/doc/GCCW _ AmendedJune2011 _ LOWRES-web.pdf

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http://www.phillywatersheds.org/sites/default/files2/Green_four_pannel_citywide.jpg

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Accomplishments 742 Storm water Tree Trenches 195 Storm water Planters 49 Storm water Bump-outs 179 Rain Gardens 6 Storm water Basins 268 Infiltration/Storage Trenches 63 Porous Paving Projects 48 Swales 2 Storm water Wetlands 33 Downspout Planters 25 Other Projects

Lessons Learned Unlike a massive underground tunnel system that would tear up neighborhoods for years during construction, green infrastructure can quickly provide quality benefits. Green City, Clean Waters improvements allow Philadelphia to enjoy better water quality and environmental and social benefits immediately.

The 25-year plan is a cost-saving program that lets Philadelphia Water minimize rate increases and keep water affordable for all.

Green City, Clean Waters is creating environmental, social, and economic benefits that neighborhoods would otherwise miss out on. Green infrastructure projects are increasing property values, beautifying neighborhoods, fighting extreme summer heat, creating natural habitats, enhancing public space and schools and even making neighborhoods safer.

Green City, Clean Waters is fueling a green jobs economy in Philadelphia, creating high-value new jobs for residents and attracting smart workers and firms to the city. Project crosses traditional boundaries and envisions a new relationship between the City, its government, water, the environment and its citizens. Inter-related initiatives will help realize Philadelphia’s ambitious green vision. The co-benefits of the green Infrastructure--human health, aesthetics, ecological restoration, economic growth and a more vibrant City--are significant and make a real impact.

Through the use of controlled change through a slow evolution and by re-thinking how systems work and evaluating their purpose and value, Philadelphia can begin to integrate modifications in the design of capital facilities to meet multiple goals.

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APPROACHES

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Theoretical approach Settlement in the United States since the 1930’s has been driven largely by the “land use zoning” perspective which holds urbanization, agriculture, and ecology as separate areas of consumption, production, and leisure. Land use zoning seeks to “‘regulate, restrict and determine the areas within which agriculture, forestry and recreation may be conducted’” (Akimoto, p.467).

With its scientific approach to land use classification comes the delineation of distinct zones, within which a singular activity take places.

“A history of disassociation of biodiversity, ecosystems, and urban development alongside a belief in technological solutions gave rise to a logic of urban planning that made it possible to imagine that the governance of urban life could be separated from the provision of food, water and other ecosystem services on which all human life depends” (Elmqvist et. al, 2013, p.2) Such outdated discrete zoning practices prevent a more resilient urban fabric from emerging which has the “potential of significantly reducing resource demands through building and neighborhood design” (Beatley, 2000, p. 290) by acknowledging connections between the places people live, the land that provides sustenance, and a natural urban ecology.

Citation: Elmqvist, Thomas, Michail Fragkias, Julie Goodness, Burak Güneralp, Peter J. Marcotullio, Robert I. McDonald, Susan Parnell et al., eds. Urbanization, biodiversity and ecosystem services: challenges and opportunities: a global assessment. Springer, 2013.

Beatley, Timothy. Green urbanism: Learning from European cities. Island Press, 2012.

Design Approach

Process is defined as “a continuous action, operation, or series of changes taking place in a definite manner” by dictionary.com.

According to researchers Milburn and Brown, who studied the incorporation of research into the landscape architectural design process (2003), a review of relevant literature revealed five discrete models by which research is integrated into landscape architecture: concept–test; analysis–synthesis; experiential; complex intellectual activity; and associationist.

I am choosing to align myself with the “complex intellectual activity model”. This model is defined by its focus on the interaction between the components of the design problem and the relationship between research and design. Research is applied to the design problem, which determines the approach and deconstructs the design into analytical components. The elements are analyzed as both discrete components, and as part of a series of structural relationships which are then reorganized through re-framing of the problem, precedent lessons, and trial and error until an appropriate solution is attained. Parts of a complex relationship between components. This process intends to lead one to a more complete understanding of the issues inherent in the design problem, which leads to an integrated solution which synthesizes the designer’s understanding and available research data.

Milburn, Lee-Anne S., and Robert D. Brown. “The relationship between research and design in landscape architecture.” Landscape and urban planning 64, no. 1 (2003): 47-66.

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Methodological approach

Methodology is defined as “a set or system of methods, principles, and rules for regulating a given discipline, as in the arts or sciences� by dictionary.com. The design methods I intend to use are: Photography (site visit, materials, spaces), Gestural diagramming/collaging (visioning), Site suitability analysis (GIS), Sketch (site specific/design proposal) (temporal, spatial), Written word (theoretical position/argumentation), Design Drawing (Scaled plan, section-elevation), Scaled models (clay, wood, textiles), Perspective (3D rendered/PS) The design principles/rules I intend to follow are: Observation: Use protracted and thoughtful observation versus prolonged and thoughtless action.

Connect: Place the elements of my design in ways that create and support useful relationships and time/energy-saving connections.

Catch and Store: Identify, intercept, collect, and hold useful energy flows in order to make every cycle an opportunity for a productive yield.

Multi-functionality: Place each element in the design to perform multiple functions to create a stable whole in space and time.

Multi-Elementality: Each function should be supported by multiple elements which use varied approaches and create a level of system redundancy.

Minimalism: Make the least change for the greatest effect by identifying and intervening at the best leverage points within a design, site, or system.

Be Intense: Develop small scale intensive systems that are reliable and can be repeated with variations.

Optimize the Edge: Increase diversity and avoid waste by identifying and increasing or decreasing edge conditions.

Collaborate with Succession: Design for change. Mature ecosystems are more productive than young ones.

Work with Biology: Use biological and renewable resources wherever possible. Design these to interact with other design elements and functions.

Hemenway, Toby. Gaia’s garden: a guide to home-scale permaculture. Chelsea Green Publishing, 2009.

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TACTICIANS OF THE ANTHROPOCENE

THE INCREASING IMPORTANCE OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE IN URBANIZATION

Theorists

Landscape Architectural theory draws its influence from many varied sources. From Greek and Roman Classical writings to planning, ecology, sociology, and geography, to name a few.

Foundational concepts of Landscape Architecture include: cities are part of the natural world and are thus habitats; cities are dynamic and interconnected ecosystems; every city has a deep and enduring context which must be taken into account; urban design is a tool of human adaptation, expression, and survival.

Hippocrates

The defining challenge of our time is to design healthy, habitable, living spaces for a growing urban population in an ecologically strained world. Landscape Architecture recognizes and systemically incorporates ecological and human spatial patterns, resource flows, and species movement into our built environment by dissolving the binary distinction between landscape and urbanism. Through strategically replacing buildings with landscape infrastructure as the organizing principle in cities , Landscape Architecture positions itself as the mediator in the process of staging a dynamic, multi-functional, ecologically responsible, and aesthetically pleasing urban field condition.

Vitruvius

METHODOLOGY More Than Design, Leadership

While Urban Planners and Architects endorse new land-use codes and seek to restructure the city through hybridity, many are deficient in the ecological, spatio-geographic, and landscape infrastructural understanding found among Landscape Architects

Dissolve Landscape/Urbanism Binary

Landscape Architects argue that cities are part of the natural world and seek to demonstrate how cities can be designed with nature

Future scenarios

Changes in global environmental conditions challenge Landscape Architects to respond with resilient and innovative strategies Climate Change Assumptions:

Landscape Infrastructure

Landscape Architecture replaces architecture with landscape as the fundamental organizing principle in cities.

Landscape ecosystem services

Landscape Architecture designs the energy and material flows from the city core through the suburbs to the urban region to provide multiple benefits to humans, animals, and the environment.

Deep structure or enduring context

Landscape Architecture understands landscapes are in perennial flux, responding to natural and human processes. The forms we see on the surface are a natural and cultural palimpsest of meaning and memory

Increases in temperature

2-6°F

By Mid-Century 4-11°F

By Late-Century Declines in Precipitation

6-32% Long Term

Declines in Snow pack

80% Potential Loss

Increased Wildfires

2-4x More Fires

Earlier Snow-melt Higher peak runoff Declines in Groundwater Declines in recharge Declines in stream flow Declines in water availability Declines in Native Animals Declines in Plants Increases in Invasive Species Declines in Air Quality

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Leon Battista Alberti

George Perkins Marsh

Stan Allen

Jane Jacobs

“…these field combinations…promise…a thickening and intensification of experience at specified moments within the extended field of the city” --Allen

Timothy Beatley Elizabeth Meyer

Ian McHarg Ann Whiston Spirn

Fredrick Law Olmsted

Joan I. Nassauer

Thesis Position

Moshen Mohstafavi

Lewis Mumford Patrick Geddes

James Corner

Kevin Lynch

Charles Waldheim

“once a more organic understanding is achieved of the complex interrelations of the city and its region, the urban and the rural aspects of environment...a new sense of form will spread through both Architecture and city design” --Mumford

From its origins, landscape urbanism aspires to build an understanding of urbanism in which the ecological forces and flows that support urbanism are considered as part of the city as opposed to external to it --Waldheim

Design process

Landscape Architects have a number of design process models at their disposal for addressing complex urban opportunities

Complex Intellectual Activity Model:

Acquisition and assessment of knowledge

Structural relationships are then reorganized through re-framing of the problem, precedent lessons, and trial and error until an appropriate solution is attained. This process intends to lead one to a more complete understanding of the issues inherent in the design problem, which leads to an integrated solution synthesizing the designer’s understanding and available research data

Design opportunity is deconstructed into discrete elements

Relationships between elements are examined.

Opportunities are re-framed

Design elements are synthesized into a coherent whole

This model is defined by its focus on the interaction between the components of the design and the relationship between research and design. Research is applied to the design problem, which determines the approach and deconstructs the design into analytical components. The elements are analyzed as both discrete components, and as part of a series of structural relationships

Design is built.

Perspective, axon, section, 3-D render, physical/computer model

Results are evaluated and aggregated for future use

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113

STRATEGIC VISION

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Strategic vision Collaboration: Chris, Niaz, Talitta, Zeek

Globally, about 54 percent of the world’s population resides in urban areas and by 2050, 66 percent of the world’s population is projected to be urban. As California continues to urbanize, sustainable development challenges will increasingly concentrate in cities with a higher ration of lower to middle income residents and where the pace of urbanization is fastest. According to UC Berkeley’s 2002 projections for California[1], By the year 2050, Fresno County’s population will reach approximately 1,700,000, distributed in more than 81,000 ha of urban footprint. By 2100, the number will reach as high as 2.5 million people with almost 50% increase in urbanization. This significant growth is strongly stimulated by the construction of the High Speed Rail, a system that will link San Francisco to Los Angeles by the year 2029, deeply transforming connectivity and socioeconomic conditions in cities of the Central Valley. Thus, we propose two strategic changes which will address redevelopment of current urban conditions and set forth a plan for future growth.

First, UC Berkeley’s projected growth in Fresno County situates most urban expansion on prime strategic farmland and over high-potential groundwater recharge zones. In response to this projection, our office proposes an alternative which preserves agricultural character and enhances ecological health. This entails restricting development in territories of high recharge potential, such as the southwestern portion of Fresno City, as well as prescribing new regenerative agricultural practices on existing farms.

By inhibiting urban sprawl and shifting to a regenerative agricultural model, existing farmlands can contribute to climate change mitigation and aquifer recharge. To allow for increasing densification needs, we propose to shift controlled growth towards the northeast portion in order to promote a more resilient and ecologically feasible solution.

Secondly, the High-Speed Rail is a key element for sustainable development in the region. As an example, it will provide the equivalent removal of 31,000 vehicles off the road in the first year of operation, amongst other improvements.[2] However, the enterprise also brings major transformations, such as cutting through sensitive riparian ecologies and passing through recharge areas, which need to be reconsidered to avoid severe environmental impacts.

We propose to alternatively situate the HSR line above Freeway 99 and to relocate the Hanford terminal to Tulare.

These strategies will make use of existing built corridors and infrastructure while providing protection for recharge zones, farmlands, and riparian areas. Furthermore, by implementing an elevated HSR line we can enhance the economic viability of cities along the rail line by increasing the visibility of such cities along the rail trajectory.

Such large-scale growth strategies also need to be supported by more localized interventions which address growing socio-ecological challenges. Our research has identified four specific challenges facing Fresno County today and its future which can be mitigated through the practice of Landscape Architecture. These are urban decay, food insecurity, nature deficit disorder, and increasing wildfire susceptibility.

Firstly, “Nature as Right” responds to health quality issues affecting children as a consequence of lack of access to nature, by establishing a recreational and regenerative urban forestry network.

Secondly, “Food for Thought” establishes a system of food hubs which aim to combat food insecurity by addressing discrepancies in food production, access to fresh food, and equitable distribution.

Thirdly, the “Adaptive Urban Tapestry” offers a more resilient approach to urban design by proposing the integration of mixed-use urban development, regenerative urban agriculture, and ecological corridors as a mean to challenge existing land use zoning practices and create a more robust social and ecological city.

Finally, “Pyrodiversity in the Urban Landscape” proposes solutions to wildfire management and urbanization in the wildland-urban interface through the use of hybrid landscape buffers.

These proposals interlock as a multi-pronged and targeted approach to the most pressing issues raised

by Fresno’s impending urban growth and point toward a holistic landscape strategy for growing cities.

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

Citation Landis, J.D., and M. R., 2002. How We Will Grow: Baseline Projections of California’s Urban Footprint through the Year 2100. Project Completion Report, Berkeley: University of California, Institute of Urban and Regional Development, Department of City and Regional Planning.

California High Speed Rail Authority, in California High Speed Rail Big Picture, available at: http://www.hsr.ca.gov/docs/newsroom/fact%20sheets/Big_Picture_FINAL_060515.pdf



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Projected urban growth 2050 By 2050 a clear linear development pattern will emerge along the expected route of the High Speed Rail. Such land is currently classified as prime agricultural soil, and development in this area will displace hundreds of acres of productive landscape.

Source: U.C. Berkeley, 2002.

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Projected urban growth 2100 By 2100, growth will be concentrated in the most fertile areas of Fresno, severely reducing its ability to infiltrate and recharge the aquifer system.

Source: U.C. Berkeley, 2002.

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Proposed High Speed rail adjustment We propose to situate the HSR line above Freeway 99 and to relocate the Hanford terminal to Tulare, making use of existing built corridors and infrastructure while providing protection for recharge zones, farmlands, and riparian areas.

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Proposed urban growth We propose to preserve agricultural lands and enhance ecological health by restricting development in territories of high recharge potential, such as the southwestern portion of Fresno City, as well as prescribing new regenerative agricultural practices on existing farms. Growth is instead shifted toward the north-east

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RESILIENCY BY DESIGN As urbanization brings with it the possibility to generate immediate challenges such as nature deficit disorder, food insecurity, urban decay and wild land fire susceptibility, foresight through design becomes ever more imperative in preventing these and establishing a more resilient urban fabric with the elasticity to respond to shifting global climate changes, shifts in economic relationships, and flowing socio-cultural trends.

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ITERATIVE DESIGN

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Conceptual iterations Iterative design is a methodology of rapidly prototyping an idea through the act of creating. Specifically, for Landscape Architecture it means to begin to draft, sketch, and/or physically or digitally model aspects of a project in order to assess the strengths and weaknesses of one’s proposal early on.

UX Designer Anders Ramsay, in his article titled Three Reasons to Start Designing Iteratively , says “until you have actually built what you are designing, you are not going to be able to fully understand it” and “Instead of specifying the entire application before building it, one fully designs and builds one part of the application, and then uses that and previously completed units as a basis for future design and production.”

Additionally, Design Consultant Brian Ling in his article Design Should Be An Iterative Process Not A Linear One says of iterative design “The important thing here is to not keep going (ie in a Linear process), but to reflect this new information back to the design brief, and question if you need to start the whole Design process from scratch. Sometimes having to start from scratch is the most painful but right decision to make to ensure you can deliver the right design solution.”

Thus the following images illustrate my iterative design process as I attempted to find a physical spatial organization that might help to fully integrate urban development, agriculture, and ecological corridors to create a more robust and resilient urban fabric in an age of increasing climate change.

Four major revisions where made and investigated at the site level before a larger city-wide framework was conceived. It was important for me to understand what the design would be like at the human scale before implementing a framework to support it.

Sources: Ramsay, Anders. Three Reasons to Start Designing Iteratively. andersramsay.com, 2009 Ling, Brian. Design Should Be An Iterative Process Not A Linear One. designsojourn.com, 2009

Bridge the division This iteration sought to create a unique structure which melded together both Landscape and Architecture around a central feature of Sanger, the Southern Pacific Rail Line. A new on-structure park would span and weave its way into the core of the city where existing buildings would be retrofitted into multi story, mixed-use structures and the park would become a new terrace front yard for residents living on the second story and above.

Commercial activity would take place on the ground floor. Agriculture and tree corridors would move seamlessly from park to terrace.

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“Main Street”

Alleyways

Re-purpose the existing

Infiltration Basins

This iteration was an immediate response to my first extended site visit to Sanger. There where so many challenges that stood out to me, wasteful alley space, a depressive commercial “main street”, unused infiltration basins, and a lifeless city core. I sought to embed activity, production, and density through retrofitting existing buildings and spaces in the central business district. Such design interventions could become prototypes for similar spaces across the city.

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gr ee nb e

Grocery

lt a re a

Mixed-income Housing

Community Center

Agriculture

Existing residential

Commercial Retail

ds Orchar

Agriculture

Prome nade

Open Park Space Sunken Amphitheater

Parking Structure

Magnetic core I knew that I wanted to create a strong sense of community and place centered around the central business district and so I took inspiration from Ebenezer Howard’s Garden Cities of To-Morrow (London, 1902). The core was imagined as a self-contained community center surrounded by a dense greenbelt, containing mixed-income housing, agriculture, park space, event space, and commercial retail. However, such an approach was abandoned since it took the city as a Tabula Rasa as opposed to a layered accumulation of cultural values, existing building stock, and habitat.

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Weave the Interstitial The “magnetic core� idea seemed too similar to a large shopping mall or gated community and so I wondered what could be achieved if I simply created an interconnect network of underutilized open spaces, such as alleyways, empty lots, and parking areas. I was surprised to discover the amount of acreage available through the simple act of re-purposing already designated areas. Such a design begins to literally weave together the city by providing a nearly continuous string of green corridor with pockets of parks, event spaces, agricultural plots, and habitat areas along its length.

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Interstitial Appropriation

Paper and Wood, 11”x17”

This model expresses my desire to make use of “wasted” space in the city. Major areas are currently zoned as through-streets for trash pick up and back of house activities, single level parking, or commercial business.

Many lots and parcels in Sanger can be found bare or home to closed buildings or storage areas.

By using habitat corridors and nodal points of urban agriculture, these spaces can be reclaimed as vibrant social and economic pulses in the life of the city. Such a network of spaces thus become an armature for movement of goods, services, and activities, redefining and restructuring what it means to be a resident in the City of Sanger.

Radiating Stream of Connectivity

Paper and Wood, 11”x17”

This model explores the possibility of creating a single node of concentrated activity which would then radiate out into the city carrying with it the impetus of meaning and engagement. Such meaning and engagement would verify the importance of an integrated urban fabric where lives are lived, food is produced, and nature is embraced.

In this way the city would become a sufficient village of resiliency in a world affected by climate change.

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Adaptive Urban Tapestry

Paper, String, and Ink 11�x17�

This model fully illustrates my design intention to extend the riparian tree corridor into the city as agricultural production overlaps and intersects the established urban fabric. The city become a mosaic of residential, productive, and ecological activity poised to respond to future challenges.

This mosaic or tapestry is structured by an ecological landscape framework which pays homage to the terrain and its hydrological condition.

It was the development of this model as part of the iterative design process that led directly into the next phase of design, the landscape framework.

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131

DESIGN PROPOSAL

132

Design proposal:

Adaptive urban tapestry

Integrating urban development, agriculture, and ecological corridors

133

existing condition

134

Existing

Adaptive urban tapestry Sanger is home to a scattered ecological patch network, a rich socio-cultural history, and an expanding urban fabric.

Landscape Architecture has the ability to connect all of these elements through the use of a landscape framework which might serve as a guide for future development.

Briefly, I identified the location of cultural assets, as well as underlying hydrological flows, then overlaid these systems.

I established a city wide landscape framework that encodes information regarding the natural flow of water over and though the terrain, and in this way connects residents to natural processes. I extended the ecological corridor from Kings river distributaries through the urban fabric, encouraging and enhancing species diversity, ecological health, and carbon sequestration. Lastly, urban food security and community resiliency was strengthened by embedding agricultural production in the everyday experience of Sanger’s residents.

The agency of this landscape framework proposal connects that which already exists, amplifies that which is underutilized, and enhances that which is neglected, serving as both a critique and solution to compartmentalized urban design.

My design research helps to exemplify Landscape Architecture’s ability to incorporate ecological and human spatial patterns, resource flows, and species movement into our built environment through the use of an ADAPTIVE URBAN TAPESTRY

Existing Land use

Proposed Land use

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Urban Development

115 new multi-family residences New

225 retro-fitted single family parcels Mixed-Use R

etrofit

687,000 square feet of horizontal and vertical mixed-use building space

Reside

ntia

fit l Retro

Agricultural Production

Integrated greywater re-use, street tree run-off infiltration basins, pedestrian only streets, plazas, parks, and iconic street furnishings.

66 acres of dwarf fruit trees: up to 65 tonnes per year by year 8 @ 800 trees per acre 16 acres of urban agriculture: Complete diets for 174,000 people using the Grow Biontensive method and a primarily starch based diet, compared to 46 people using conventional farming techniques and eating habits.

67-88% reduction in water use per unit of production, 50% reduction in purchased fertilizer, 94% reduction in energy use per unit of production, 100% increase in soil fertility, 100% income per unit of production.

Ecological Corridors

2,487 new trees: 119,376 pounds of carbon dioxide absorbed per year 2,487 tons of CO2 sequestered by age 40.

30% reduction in building cooling costs.

2% reduction of stormwater run-off for every 5% increase in total canopy

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Location

36°42’29’N 119°33’21’W

City of Sanger, Ca Founded: 1888 Incorporated: 1911 Total Area: 5.524 sq mi (14.307 km2) Elevation: 371 ft (113 m) Population:

24,810

Density:

4,400/sq mi (1,700/km2)

Sanger, Ca is small city in Fresno County, which itself lies within the San Joaquin Valley in California. As with so much of California, the city emerged as a consequence of the Southern Pacific Railroad.

The Southern Pacific tracks that ran from Fresno to Porterville enjoyed many depots along its route, however, what made sanger unique was its proximity to the Sierra Nevada mountain range during a time of intense logging enterprise.

As early pioneers settled the city and the surrounding land left vacant by the decimation of native Yokuts by disease, Sanger rose to prominence as a shipping hub for grain and other agricultural goods, ranching products, lumber, and entertainment (the city had 13 saloons by 1890) The history of sanger can be quickly summarized as having moved from ranching, lumber milling, to fruit packinghouses, and finally to agriculture. Today residents work in the service or agricultural labor industry (primarily warehouse) within the city limits or in other major industries in the larger Fresno metropolitan area.

Scott Haugland, ken marcantonio, and hal shaw, sanger, images of america, (charleston, south carolina: arcadia, 2013)

137 City of Fresno

Sanger is located to the south east of the city of Fresno. Only 16miles away, it can be reached in about 20mins by vehicle or 1.5 hrs by bike. Many residents in sanger work in Fresno in various industries.

Due to its close proximity to the kings river hydrological system, sanger enjoys a relatively clean and abundant water table.

All of the city’s water needs can be met with existing wells beyond the year 2100.

While three canals cross its borders and the kings river is within walking distance, residents do not have a close connection with either the river itself, nor the regions underlying hydrological processes.

For an in-depth inventory/analysis of Sanger see pages 76-85.

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Concept

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Landscape framework

Functions and Operations It is my intention to propose a design that performs a series of functions and operations that reflect my understanding of a resilient system.

My proposal extends and expands the ecological corridor from the Kings River into the city, connects and compresses residential neighborhoods, and condenses the urban core so that it has the capacity to absorb more people, activity, and events.

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Landscape framework The use of an interwoven Landscape Infrastructure in urban design, composed of a networked urban forest ecosystem which responds to and reveals underlying hydrological processes while also connecting cultural and ecological nodal points, challenges modernist land use zoning practices sets the foundation for the realization of an Adaptive Urban Tapestry.

Hydro

Tributary

Flow

Accumulation Channel

Aspect Landscape Architects conceive of the human designed environment as an overlay of social-ecological processes engaged in a networked system of dynamic and reciprocal relationships. Landscape Architects propose designs that engage multiple scales, conditions, and stakeholders in order to frame a support structure where each element influences the creation of performance, meaning, form, and structure in the landscape.

Thus, I intend to propose a landscape architectural urban design model in Sanger, Ca. Which weaves together mixed-use development, urban agriculture, and ecological corridors into a landscape infrastructure which will organize future urban development, provide critical ecosystem services, and connect the urban population to the land which sustains it.

Slope

My investigation revealed an interesting, yet hidden hydrological flow beneath the surface of the city. Given the city’s close proximity to the kings river and the unique benefits afforded by such proximity, i chose to focus on this as a suggestive formation for the city-wide landscape framework

N.W

S.W.

S.E.

West N.E.

South

East % Slope 0 0.4 2 5 9 -

dem

0.3 - 1 4 8 10%

elevation Lowest Highest

Determination of a city wide, regionally connected landscape framework begins with understanding the deep structure of the territory.

Using gis, layers of the landscape are peeled away to reveal its unique composition; and then stacked to visualize the relationship between elements.

Flat North

Watershed

Topography

North

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I began by mapping the cultural assets existing in the city, such a parks, churches, schools, and the central business district.

I also mapped the flow of subsurface hydrology, which I though would be relevant given Sanger’s proximity to the Kings River.

It was the overlay of these two systems that informed my landscape infrastructure.

I first isolated the dominant lines of force where these two systems intersected.

I then absorbed the parcels that crossed these lines.

Next, I expanded those parcels beyond the city boundary to create an urban rural buffer.

I then expanded those parcels to the blocks which included them to create a more robust network.

Next, I isolated a specific corridor from which to choose the sites for my proposal.

Finally, here we see my design area, which spans a little over a mile and a half; from the unincorporated agricultural area east of the city toward the central business district.

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Site Specific Mappings A closer mapping of my chosen design area revels that the eastern portion, which is currently unincorporated, is dominated by valuable agricultural land. Any development in this area should be limited and multi-functional to take advantage of such land. Well draining soil that has a low runoff potential and high absorption rate suggests the need to maximize porous surfaces to minimize irrigation and help recharge ground water levels.

Additionally, such soil is ideal for most plant types and broadens the plant palette available. As the median age is about 31 yrs and the majority of households are married couples, areas for outdoor gathering and event spaces are key to satisfy the needs of young families. A sizable population of immigrants, who are most likely those who are renting in the area, need opportunities for mixed-income housing and opportunities for employment. Since most of the population in Sanger has remained in the city over the last decade, public amenities need to be increased in order to elevate the standard of living and support an ever growing urban density.

Thus, these mappings provide the beginning of a site specific design program which will be satisfied through my design proposal.

parcels

north

Agriculture class

soil type: all

Distribution of land parcels across design area

The currently unincorporated area to the east is rich in arable land.

A number of Entisol soil sub-categories can be found. All are well draining sandy loam.

They differ in their ratio of loam to sand.

soil type: homestead

soil type: neighborhood

soil type: village

The homestead area is dominated by Ramona Sandy Loam, a well drained, low runoff alluvial soil.

The neighborhood area is a mix of Hanford and Greenfield Sandy Loam, both well drained, low runoff alluvial soil.

The central business district area is composed mostly of Greenfield Sandy Loam.

143 less than highschool

under 18 yrs

18-34 yrs 35-64 yrs

native born

high school some college

foreign born

bachelor’s

65 and over master’s

age

place of birth

education

each dot represents a value of 5

each dot represents a value of 1

each dot represents a value of 5

The average age in my design area is about 31 yrs old.

Foreign born residents are concentrated in the unincorporated area to the east.

The majority of the population has a high school degree or less in this area.

agriculture

transportation, warehouse, utilities

construction

information

manufacturing

professional

wholesale trade

education

retail trade

public administration

employment 1

employment 2

married couple

male, no wife female, no husband non family

household type

each dot represents a value of 1

each dot represents a value of 1

each dot represents a value of 2

The highest employment type in this area is wholesale, retail, and warehouse.

The highest employment type in this area is wholesale, retail, and warehouse.

Married and non family households dominate. less than 10 mins

same house 1 yr ago

moved within same county

owner

90 min +

moved different county same state moved from different state

renter

moved from abroad

time in residence

10-19 mins

10-59 mins 30-40 mins

home ownership

travel time to work

each dot represents a value of 1

each dot represents a value of 1

each dot represents a value of 1

Most people have resided in Sanger for a number of years, with some moving from other cities in Fresno County in the last year.

There is a nearly even mix of owners and renters, this is due to median home prices of $150k, which is relatively affordable.

The majority of residents work within 20mins from home, possibly in Sanger or Fresno.

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Site Specific Mappings Village core 6th 7th 8th

str

str

ee

str

ee

t

t

ee

Concentrate Landscape Framework using empty lots, green spaces, and Sanger Park.

Sanger Park Sanger Water Tower

Chamber of Commerce Sanger Depot Museum Police Department Fire Department Planning Department

~ 0.2

5 mi

t

Embed Regenerative Agriculture into landscape framework

“Main Street”

Main Street revitalization from O st to Academy Ave

Fresno County Library U.S Post Office

empty lot

yw

ay

empty lot

le

O

ay yw le Al empty lot

Al

et

re St

Establish unique gateways Establish pedestrian corridors

empty lot

Regenerative Agriculture is a prime candidate for the revitalization of underutilized spaces, such as alleyways.

Sanger’s 7th st should become the center of commercial and residential activity through a retro-fitting of existing building stock to cupport both a horizontal and vertical mix of activities and enterprises.

The are will thus need identifiable and unique gateways that announce Sanger’s history, context, and pride to both visitors and residents

n

Ac

Pa c

ad

ifi

c

em

y

Ra

ilr

Av e

oa

d

empty lot

Site Analysis indicates the need to revitalize empty lot space and enhance the pedestrian experience through the provision of ample green space, promenades, and plazas.

Un

io

N

Neighborhood Armature Site analysis indicates that single family neighborhoods, as exemplified by this design area, has numerous opportunities to engage residents through a restructuring of existing public/private domains. Specifically, current alleyway space for six blocks equals over the size of a football field.

Also, backyards are fairly large, at almost 2/3rds of the housing parcel. Perhaps this space has the potential to meld into a new common area for block residents to engage in social and leisure activities.

Empty lots can become new microneighborhood parks and in this way increase the amount of open space per capita exponentially.

Non-thoroughfare roads can support a thickened pedestrian space and deep stormwater infiltration tree basins along the parkway strips.

unity comm tors c conne

small sidewalks needs expansion

sun

large backyards can be used?

empty lots

hfare

ma

roug in thou

potential pedestrian street

d utilize under space ay alleyw are feet ! squ ll field ~49k a b t o o to a f equal

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Homestead Area unincorported area

soil saturation

almond orchards

fallow fields

full sun

current city lmond orchards a boundary

canals (mostly dry) lev

single family residential area

grape orchard

el c

homes

alm

ond

ha

ng

orc

ds har

e lev

el

ch

an

ge

alluvial grassland oak and riparian tree species

The homestead area presents the opportunity to help the city meet its need for expansion, while at the same time establishing a limiting buffer zone to prevent further sprawl. Since according to Sanger’s 2025 General Plan the city wants to maintain surrounding areas as productive agricultural land in perpetuity, a smooth transition should be made from urban development to agricultural production.

The presence of two canals provides the opportunity to integrate storm water/dry runoff and greywater capture. Additionally, canal water can be used to irrigate the new landscape. The abundance of almond orchards suggests the need for a relocation of such high water use trees, perhaps closer to the canals. BY creating areas of soft-bottom infiltration, a lens of water saturation will flow along the change in topography to gravity feed down-slope planting.

Any development in this area should be maximized with a dense housing stock, a productive landscape of both tree and vegetable production, and an abundance of riparian or oak habitat.

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Descriptive sections:

Homestead Buffer

In the eastern most area we encounter the Homestead Buffer.

Here the urban-rural boundary is extended into a gradient where urban homesteads suggest a limit to urban expansion and a new peri-urban typology.

Existing

Proposed

Extend Riparian corridor, non-vehicular pathways, access to nature

Expand

Agricultural yield, self-sufficiency, carbon sequestration

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3 1. Parking:

1

The entire homestead community is vehicle-less, Cars park in a community garage, where the bottom floor acts as the village market.

2

2. Integrated Land Management: Functions are stacked in integrated land management: for example habitat forests are mixed with edible forests, grazing lands, and foraging areas.

3. Ecological Corridor: The Kings River riparian corridor moves along sub-surface water flow-lines towards the urban core.

1. Homestead Living: Larger homes are occupied as homesteads where residents engage in farming, tending, and/or managing the surrounding territory.

1

2. Urban Forestry:

3

Fruit trees replace ornamental street trees and management becomes a new city department or community organization.

2

3. Productive Landscape: Agriculture is intensified and concentrated on calorie-rich and biomass dense crops that require large tracts of land.

1. Aquaponic Agriculture: Constructed wetlands and ponds absorb, cleanse, and collect runoff and greywater and also double as aquaponic production centers

2

2. Micro-climate Specific:

3 1

Plant selection and location is dependent on microclimate conditions: for example, water intensive tree species, such as nuts, are concentrated near bodies of water 3. Multi-use Infrastructure: Hydrological, habitat, and circulation infrastructures become routes for movement and recreation

148

Descriptive sections:

Neighborhood Armature

As we move closer to the core, a new neighborhood typology emerges where interlinked productive landscapes become embedded in a sustainable and resilient urban morphology of community engagement.

Existing

Proposed

Compress

Connect

Productive space, public/private realm, habitat

People, communities, territory

149

1. Social Cohesion: Social bonds are strengthened, new social contracts are initiated, and a deepened sense of interdependence is achieved as the community engages in the shared landscape.

2. Varied Crop Rotation:

2

Crops which require regular care are grown and cycled throughout the interlinked neighborhood system.

1

1. Food Security: Children learn to engage the landscape through natural seasonality, while adults reconnect to a level of self-sufficient resiliency.

2

2. Regional Connectivity:

1

The ecological corridor continues above the established landscape framework, connecting residents the kings river territory.

1. Residential Retro-fit:

2

Residential plots are re-envisioned so that private backyard space is given over to a new commons that spans the block 2. Connected Community:

1

Alleyways are converted into highly productive landscapes engaging both private and communal space

150

Descriptive sections:

Village Core

Finally, we reach the urban core which is characterized by market agriculture, outdoor spaces for leisure and commercial activity, urban habitat, and circulation routes for nonvehicular traffic.

Existing

Proposed

Condense

Absorb

People, activities, spatial typologies

Community, plants, animals, processes

151

1. Quality of Life: Children and adults have increased access to open space near the village core, encouraging social gathering and community engagement.

2 1

2. Hydrological Awareness: The ecological corridor becomes an urban forest of street trees, continuing to connect residents to underlying hydrological landscape processes.

3

3. Functional Aesthetics: Design elements serve multiple functions while taking on fun configurations to provide interest and performance; such as buffering noise pollution.

1. Ecological Awareness: Plant selection echoes local native species, encouraging an awareness of historic vegetation types.

1

2. Urban Identity: A sense of urban identity is facilitated through the use of unique outdoor seating, fixtures, signage, and materials.

2

1. Mixed-Use Retrofit:

1

Existing building stock is re-purposed to support commercial business on the ground floor and mixed income housing above.

2

3

2. Productive Landscape: Urban agriculture is part of the everyday experience by being predominantly placed in the urban core. Market produce is grown for local establishments.

3. Spatial Variety: Varied spatial organizations provide both enclosed private spaces and open public areas for both reflection and large scale social events

H3 L3f H4 L3e

L3c

(H3)

CIP CONCRETE PLANTERS

L3f

(H4)

CIP CONCRETE BENCHES

L3e

(H5)

SCORED CONCRETE

(H6)

CIP CONCRETE GARDEN PLANTER

L3g

(H7)

PERMEABLE PAVERS

L3g

H2 L3b

H3 L3c

L3a

H8 L3h

USC

PERMEABLE PAVERS

L3d

(H5)

CIP CONCRETE BENCHES

L3e

(H6)

CIP CONCRETE PLANTERS

L3f

(H7)

CIP CONCRETE GARDEN PLANTER

L3g

(H8)

COMPACTED DG INFILTRATION BASE

L3h

N

File No.

H7 L3g

H5 L3e

Zeek Magallanes

L3c

(H4)

scale: 1/8" = 1'

Z. Magallanes 04/25/16

STAIR SEATING

Checked

AMPITHEATER STAIR SEATING

L3b

(H3)

Materials, Assemblies, Locations

(H2)

H3 L3c

Designed

L3h

Drawn Approved

COMPACTED DG INFILTRATION BASE

GREY BRICK‐SOLDIER ROW

FINAL PROJECT MODE

Sheet

H6 L3f

L2 o

USC

H3 L3c

Approved

H1 L3a

H3 L3c

scale: 1/16" = 1' 0

5' 10'

20'

N

Description

(H1)

L3a

(H2)

REVISIONS

page

detail

SCORED CONCRETE

REVISIONS

(H) HARDSCAPE

(H) HARDSCAPE

(H1)

Date

key

H4 L3d

Date

key

H1 L3a

MATERIALS PLAN

H2 L3c

H1 L3h

H7 L3d

H6 L3g

H5 L3a

Spatial Organization, Scale

section

Description

Detail: Village Core

SITE SECTION/ELEVATION

152

File No.

40'

FINAL PROJECT MODEL_2.

Sheet

L1 of

Village Core Planting

top of root ball shall be flush with finish grade add 4" layer of shredded wood bark mulch to whole bed. no more than 1" above crown of root ball

Prior to mulching, lightly tamp soil around the root ball in 6" lifts to brace tree Pour water around the root ball to settle the soil

Trunk caliper shall meet ANSI Z60 current edition for root ball size.

shrub spacing shall be equal to 80% mature width

top of root ball shall be flush with finish grade

4" high x 8" wide round ‐ topped soil berm above root ball surface shall be constructed around the root ball. Berm shall begin at root ball periphery.

shrub placement shall approximate triangular shape

finish grade

Prior to mulching, lightly tamp soil around the root ball in 6" lifts to brace tree Pour water around the root ball to settle the soil

4" layer of mulch.

No more than 1" of mulch on top of root ball

PLANTING DETAILS

153

ground cover spacing shall equal 1/2 estimated mature width

all areas not under a shrub or groundcover canopy shall receive 4" mulch layer DETAIL (a): Trees for CIP concrete raised planters

DETAIL (B): Shrubs for CIP concrete raised planters

DETAIL (c): shrub spacing for CIP concrete raised planters

SCALE: 5'=1"

SCALE: 1.5'=1"

SCALE: 5'=1"

REVISIONS

Village Core Hardscape

File N

FINAL PR

She

6" CIP concrete slab

6" CIP concrete slab

#4 rebar cage ‐12" O.C.

6" CIP concrete slab

6" thick CIP concrete stair 3' tread, 6" rise, 2° slope

1/4" expansion joint precast concrete paver ‐ 1.5' x 3'

1/4" mortared joint 3" crushed gravel base ‐ 3/4" crushed

3" gravel base ‐ 3/4" crushed gravel

3" sand base

brick unit ‐ 6" x 12" ‐ soldier row

90% compacted native soil subgrade

3" crushed gravel sub base‐3/4" 1/8" sand filled joint uncompacted soil base

90% compacted native soil

3" sand base

top of amphitheater ‐ 1' rise

DETAIL (a): SCORED CONCRETE

DETAIL (b): GREY BRICK‐SOLDIER ROW

DETAIL (c): STAIR SEATING

DETAIL (d): PERMEABLE PAVERS

SCALE: 2'=1"

SCALE: 0.5'=1"

SCALE: 10'=1"

SCALE: 3'=1"

CIP concrete planter wall height varies: 3', 4', 5' 6" thick #4 rebar cage ‐ 3" from face 12" O.C. crossings

3" gravel base 3/4" crushed gravel 1/8" expansion joint

CIP concrete planter wall ‐ 6" thick, 3' high

3" compacted DG layer

#4 rebar cage ‐ 3" from face of wall, 12" O.C. crossings

6" crushed gravel base

planting soil, 3" from top of wall 3" gravel base ‐ 3/4" crushed permeable pavers sand base uncompacted native soil

3" gravel base ‐ 3/4" crushed

7.0

uncompacted soil base

DETAIL (e): CIP CONCRETE BENCHES

DETAIL (f): CIP CONCRETE PLANTERS

DETAIL (g): CIP CONCRETE GARDEN PLANTER

DETAIL (h): COMPACTED DG INFILTRATION BASE

SCALE: 5'=1"

SCALE: 3'=1"

SCALE: 5'=1"

SCALE: 3'=1"

REVISIONS

raised planter wall CIP concrete seat 2' depth. 18" rise

Fil

FINA

S

154

155

Perspective of Village Core showing urban agriculture, urban forest, amphitheater, seating, and mixed use housing in the background.

156

157

CONCLUSION: THESIS POSITION

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Adaptive Urban Tapestry: Weaving together productive landscapes, human settlement, and ecological corridors

Urban morphologies which are structured around systemic landscape frameworks provide the only means for human settlement to adapt to fluctuating social, economic, and ecological conditions in a world affected by climate change. Consumptive capitalistic culture, primarily in developing nations, has lead to excessive carbon overload which has critically impacted the built and natural environment. This is complicated by the land use zoning approach that sees the spheres of urban development, agriculture, and ecology as discrete elements of civilization.

In truth these spheres are more like interwoven fields of activity that influence and respond to shifts and changes in the total system. With over 2 million lineal feet of urban and agricultural edge in Fresno County, California, opportunities for fusing, splicing, and revealing these interwoven conceptual territories are numerous. Such dire global conditions and open opportunities challenge us to design and implement drastically different models of behavior, values, settlement patterns, and production methods.

Therefore, my thesis project focuses on a section of Sanger, Ca, a city within Fresno County, where the city boundary, conventional agricultural lands, and a diminished riparian corridor are present, yet remain separate. My proposed intervention weaves together a composite urban mosaic that overlays, intertwines, and hybridizes urbanism, regenerative agriculture, and ecological corridors to achieve significant carbon sequestration, increased community engagement, and a productive landscape in Sanger, Ca. Consumptive Culture and Atmospheric Carbon Overload With the advent of fossil fuel consumption in the 18th century, western society has committed itself to a means of energy production that carries a heavy burden. According to author Janette Webb from the University of Edinburgh, UK, modern capitalism is inherently biased toward an increasingly expansive consumption of coal, oil, and gas.

Such behavior has lead to critical and unprecedented levels of greenhouse gas emissions that have transformed landscapes through the degradation of ecosystems, the acidification of oceans, and ultimately the extinction of plant and animal species. What is clear is that “consumer capitalism, with its recurring crises, its externalizing of costs, and its dependence on increasingly specialized technological solutions, is inherently

unsustainable.” (Webb, 2012, p.110)

As such, landscape based approaches have the ability to propose resilient solutions to future conditions which if left unmitigated may lead to socio-technical infrastructure loss, lack of shelter, food insecurity, and water shortages.

Regenerative Urban Agriculture

Regenerative agriculture is an organic farming practice that seeks primarily to build a healthy soil profile for its multiple benefits to plant, human, and environmental health. Such a system utilizes closed nutrient loops, greater diversity in the biological community, fewer annuals and more perennials, and greater reliance on internal rather than external resources (Rodale Institute). Researcher R. Lal informs us that it wasn’t until the 1940s and 1950s that CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion exceeded land use conversion and soil cultivation. As of 2009, 15% of annual CO2 emissions came from land use conversion and 14% from agricultural activities, which equaled about 1.69 Gigatonnes (Gt)/yr and 1.32 Gt/yr, respectively.

“The atmospheric C pool is now estimated at 800 Gt and increasing at the rate of 3.5 Gt/yr” (Lal, 2009, 91). So while the majority of emissions today come from fossil fuel combustion, farming practices still significantly contribute to the problem and can be successfully addressed through design. Lal defines carbon sequestration as the “transfer of atmospheric CO2 into other long-lived pools so that it is not re-emitted into the atmosphere” (p.91) While there are many means of sequestering carbon, terrestrial sequestration through soils and vegetation are of interest here as it involves the natural process of photosynthesis. Photosynthates not used for biomass are turned into stable humic substances known as soil organic carbon (SOC)(p.93).

Lal sites colleagues Pacala and Socolaw, as estimating terrestrial ecosystem sequestration potential at about 3 Gt/yr through the restoration of degraded/desertified soils, and adoption of regenerative management practices(94).

In addition to terrestrial sequestration, aquatic systems also have the potential to store carbon. “Restoration of wetlands, management of riparian zones, restoration of damaged coastal wetlands and inland swamps can increase total ecosystem C pool...” However “there is little quantitative data on the net rate of C sequestration in aquatic ecosystems” (p.95). Finally, such strategies can also have direct economic benefit as land managers can “trade” such carbon offsets as a commodity, known as carbon farming.

Historic Land Use Zoning: Compartmentalization

Modern settlement in the United States since the 1930’s has been driven largely by the “land use zoning” perspective which holds urbanization, agriculture, and ecology as separate areas of consumption, production, and leisure.

Sadly, such a perspective overshadowed the progressive city planning movement of civil engineers, architects, landscape architects, and lawyers which had emerged in the U.S. by 1910.

This progressive movement, lead by Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., held that the term “‘city planning’, stood for ‘a growing appreciation of a city’s organic unity, of the interdependence of its diverse elements’” (Akimoto, 2009, p.458). Land use zoning, in contrast, sought to “‘regulate, restrict and determine the areas within which agriculture, forestry and recreation may be conducted’” (Akimoto, p.467). With its scientific approach to land use classification came the delineation of distinct zones, within which a singular activity would take place. The wild and agricultural landscape, and by the 1950’s the city itself, thus became a conglomeration of distinct mechanical parts.

“A history of disassociation of biodiversity, ecosystems, and urban development alongside a belief in technological solutions gave rise to a logic of urban planning that made it possible to imagine that the governance of urban life could be separated from the provision of food, water and other ecosystem services on which all human life depends” Elmqvist et. al, 2013,

Such outdated discrete zoning practices prevent a more resilient urban fabric from emerging which has the “potential of significantly reducing resource demands through building and neighborhood design” (Beatley, 2000, p. 290) by acknowledging connections between the places people live, the land that provides sustenance, and a natural urban ecology.

Systems Theory and Landscape Architecture Thinking in systems provides the means by which the interconnected nature of the “cultural landscape”, that is to say the urban, agricultural, and ecological context of human activity, can be understood and designed. Author Donella H. Meadows points out that there exists a relationship between the structure and function of a system, that complex systems by virtue of their configuration and relationships produce their own pattern of behavior over time, and that

159

“ As our world continues to change rapidly and become more complex, systems thinking will help us manage, adapt, and see the wide range of choices we have before us” (Meadows, 2008, p.2).

As such, “balancing feedback loops” that allow the system to self-correct under different conditions and impacts, “information flows” that reveal the behavior of the system and force accountability, and “self-organization” or the power to add, change or evolve the system structure become important lessons for Landscape Architects.

Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services

The value of biodiversity recognizes that urban settlement and consumption patterns impact distant ecosystems as much as nearby ecosystems through their ecological footprint, waste, emissions, and outsourcing of infrastructural services. Landscape systems themselves have the potential to handle such metabolisms as an “ecosystem service”. The by-product of which become beneficial inputs such as clean air, safe drinking water, and protection from climate change.

Elmqvist, et al. Note additional services such as, temperature regulation, groundwater recharge, and cultural services including aesthetics and recreation” (Elmqvist et. al, 2013, p. vi). Despite the sparse attention to ecosystems in urban scholarship Elmqvist et al. Note that urban green and blue spaces have historically produced agricultural produce, fish, game, water, and fuel and even in today’s world still contribute about “15–20 % of the world’s food” (p.21). A recognition of the value and deep historic context for urban biodiversity and ecosystem services is imperative to any proposed solution to current human settlement patterns.

Ecological Urbanism as Framework for Design Ecologically-centric and responsive design has recently undergone a populist resurgence of acceptance in the fields of Landscape Architecture, Architecture, and Urban Design. Specifically, author Anne Whiston Spirn has used the term Ecological Urbanism to describe this growing trend.

Ecological Urbanism, she says “weds the theory and practice of city design and planning, as a means of adaptation, with the insights of ecology...And other environmental disciplines, such as climatology, hydrology, geography, psychology, history, and art…” and that “the works of its practitioners may be radically different in appearance even though based on the same principles” (Spirn, 2014, p.1).

The paradigm is founded upon the idea that cities are: part of the natural world, are habitats, are ecosystems, are connected and dynamic, have a deep and enduring context, and that urban design is a critical means of adaptation. Such an approach seeks to address major challenges like climate change, economic viability, food security, and access to water through comprehensive responses, implemented incrementally through diverse approaches that fit local conditions and allow lessons learned to be applied to future scenarios.

Bibliography Akimoto, Fukuo. “The Birth of ‘Land Use Planning’ in American Urban Planning.” Planning Perspectives 24, no. 4 (2009): 457–83. doi:10.1080/02665430903145705.

The Adaptive Urban Tapestry as Solution My design research utilizes the preceding conceptual understanding of human settlement to investigate urban spatial configurations which challenge discrete zoning practices by weaving together the three most important systems in the cultural landscape, namely human habitation, regenerative agriculture, and ecological corridors.

Through the mapping and interpretation of existing regional landscape systems, diagramming of local site conditions, process models, sectional design exploration, successional landscape strategies, and narrative infrastructures I intend to reveal a design proposal embedded in time and place, which may also serve as a model for future landscape interventions.

Such new design schemes will work passively and actively toward sequestering carbon in the soil and biomass, encouraging residents to engage with one another in the landscape through recreation and stewardship, and provide productive agricultural food security.

Thus, urban development will become an adaptive urban tapestry ready to respond to shifting social, economic, and ecological conditions in a world affected by climate change.

Beatley, Timothy. Green Urbanism: Learning from European Cities. Washington, DC: Island Press, 2000.

Elmqvist, Thomas, Michail Fragkias, Julie Goodness, Güneralp Burak, Peter Marcotullio, Robert Ian McDonald, Sue Parnell, et al. Urbanization, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services: Challenges and Opportunities: a Global Assessment, n.d.

Lal, R. “Sequestering Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide.” Critical Reviews In Plant Sciences 28, no. 3 (March 2009): 90–96. doi:10.1080/07352680902782711.

Meadows, Donella H., and Diana Wright. Thinking In Systems: a Primer. White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Pub., 2008.

Regenerative Organic Agriculture and Climate Change: a down-to-Earth Solution to Global Warming, n.d.

Spirn, Anne Whiston. “Ecological Urbanism: A Framework For the Design of Resilient Cities (2014).” The Ecological Design And Planning Reader, 2014, 557–71. doi:10.5822/978-161091-491-8_50.

Webb, J. “Climate Change And Society: The Chimera of Behavior Change Technologies.” Sociology 46, no. 1 (October 2012): 109–25. doi:10.1177/0038038511419196.

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Bibliography Part i

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2014 Fresno County Annual Crop & Livestock Report; Fresno County Department of Agriculture.

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Image, Kelly Shannon, fieldwork photo, 2015

image, damtrain.com

image, familiesprotectingthevalley.com

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