Architecture Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2743
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Item Living with Water: Re-Imagining Urban Hydrologies in Washington, DC(2023) Kaku, Upasana; Williams, Brittany; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Across the world, human development has drastically changed the nature of our landscapes and the hydrology of the places we inhabit. Hundreds of waterways were buried, canalized, or piped as part of sewer systems. While natural water systems were being contained or erased from our landscapes, a vast network of aqueducts, canals, reservoirs, and sewage tunnels was constructed. This massive system runs under our feet, where it is out of sight and out of mind, and the architecture and urban design of our cities allows us to imagine that the water we drink and the waste that flush down our pipes is completely independent of our waterways. These choices have had costs. Ecosystems were devastated, manipulation of the landscape has led to increased flooding, and communities have been deprived of the benefits of access to local waterways – reduced urban heat island effects, a place to cool off on hot days, and mental health benefits. Climate change is stressing all aspects of our hydrological systems: creating risks of supply disruptions and shortages and resulting in more frequent floods. Using as a test case Hickey Run, a partially piped and highly polluted waterway in Washington, DC, this thesis will propose a way to make visible and reconnect separated parts of water infrastructure - natural waterways, water supply, and wastewater systems - re-conceptualizing them as parts of a single, dynamic ecosystem. It will explore how tools of architecture, urban design, and landscape infrastructure can be used to develop alternative futures for the built environment, in which waterways can be woven into dense urban fabric, instead of being buried, in order to support ecological restoration and more resilient urban communities.Item WATERFRONT REGENERATION: Mediating Boundaries of Abandonment Along the Hudson River(2015) Palmadesso, Allison Rose; Lamprakos, Michele; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The edge between city + water has become a divide. This thesis addresses this edge that has been thickened by abandoned industry and challenges the way we design for our changing waterfronts through a design approach relying on specificity of place. The design proposal shows how the water/city divide can become a connective threshold, how industrial landscapes can be reclaimed, and how this place-specific investigation can be an example to learn from through Westchester County’s Hudson River Waterfront, the City of Yonkers, and the abandoned Glenwood Power Plant. This method has resulted with the integration of building into landscape so that it acts as part of a new infrastructure which cleans water, supports urban agriculture, and provides recreational and training opportunities for the surrounding community. Flows have been re-purposed to knit connections in all axes, and begin to heal water’s edge.