Manufactured Sites Conference and Exhibition
Spring 1998
 |
| Conference Poster |
"Manufactured Sites, A Landscape Conference on Site Technologies
for Contemporary Practice" was held on April 3 and 4, 1998, at
Gund Hall, Harvard University. This conference brought to the
Graduate School of Design an international panel of scientists,
landscape practitioners, and industry representatives who presented
current research and case studies of progressive site technologies
and their application to environmentally disturbed sites. Critical
knowledge was introduced concerning innovative site technologies
which address these conditions alongside discussion of the emerging
landscape design possibilities arising from them.
 |
| Manufactured
Sites Conference, Gund Hall Lobby |
Speakers included:
George Hargreaves
Professor and Chair, Department of Landscape Architecture
Harvard University Graduate School of Design
Eric Carman, Senior Scientist/Hydrogeologist
ARCADIS Geraghty & Miller, Inc., Milwaukee, WI
Dr. Sue McNeil, Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering
and Engineering and Public Policy
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Dr. Dante Tedaldi, Project Manager
Bechtel National, Inc., San Diego, California
Peter Latz, Landscape Architect
Latz+Partner, Kranzberg, Germany
Michael Horne, Landscape Architect
Government Architect Design Directorate, Sydney, Australia
Daniel Winterbottom, Assistant Professor
Department of Landscape Architecture, University of Washington
Dr. Bruce Lesikar, Assistant Professor
Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas
Dr. Jean Rogers, Environmental Management Consultant
Loeb Fellow, 1997-98, Harvard Graduate School of Design
Lorna Walker, Director
Arup Environmental, Ove Arup & Partners, London,UK
Richard Owen, Associate Director
Arup Environmental, Ove Arup & Partners, London,UK
Sydney Olympics 2000: Northern Water Feature Wetlands
Kevin Conger, Associate
Hargreaves Associates, San Francisco, California
Deborah Marton, Landscape Architect
Natural Resources Group, City of New York Parks and Recreation
Dr. Lucinda Jackson, Senior Environmental Scientist
Chevron Research and Technology Company, Richmond, CA
Dr. Steve Rock, Environmental Engineer
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,
National Risk Management Research Laboratory, Cincinnati, OH
Wendi Goldsmith, Senior Bioengineer
The Bioengineering Group, Inc. Salem, MA.
William Young, Senior Scientist
Post, Buckley, Schuh & Jernigan, Inc., West Palm Beach, FL
Kirt Rieder, Associate
Hargreaves Associates, San Francisco, CA
 |
Manufactures
Site: Duisberg-North, Germany
photo credit: Latz and Partner, Landscape Architects |
Exhibition
Polluted city riverways and wetlands, derelict waterfronts, landfills, railroad yards, and abandoned industrial
processing plants, -- these are the emerging sites of contemporary practice in landscape architecture, urban design,
and site architecture. Characterized as waste, despoiled, and toxic, these landscapes are initially dependant for their
reuse on a range of site engineering and environmental reclamation technologies. These include on-site techniques of
soil and groundwater cleanup, bioengineering, the alliance of biological and engineered systems used in the remediation
of site contamination, landfill capping, wastewater management systems, and environmental monitoring.
New federal initiatives and legislation on the cleanup of these contaminated and hazardous land and
waterbodies, their critical locations within regional transportation centers and infrastructure, and the dimishing
number of "greenfield" sites available for development, all currently act to focus research, planning, and design efforts
on their potential for future development.
In the Manufactured Sites exhibition, however, the main issue to be addressed is not whether
landscapes of this type should be reclaimed, restored, or redeveloped, but, rather, the precise nature of how this is to
be carried out, and specifically, the relationship of landscape design to the site technologies used in this endeavor.
 |
Manufactured
Sites Exhibition, Gund Hall, Harvard University
upper: General Views
lower: Engineering model, Derby Pride Park, Derby, England;
Spectacle Island, Boston
photo credit: Anita Kan |
The title and material of the exhibition offers two possible interpretations. The first simply denotes the former uses
of these landscapes as "sites of manufacture", for example, as the location of chemical and oil storage facilities, town
gas production, railroad yards, heavy industrial plants or more recently, decommissioned factories and marine terminals.
Secondly, and of greater significance to planners and designers, manufactured sites is a potential framework to be
used in the future description, analysis, and development of urban landscapes. In this framework, the continuous
occupation of land and water bodies with industrial and site processes is acknowledged. The designer looks to the
current physical site conditions, however degraded, the spatial and systematic form of new technologies introduced
onto the site, and the interaction of these technologies with progressive landscape design practices in the "manufacture"
or systematic production of the future site.
Ten contemporary international and regional professional landscape reclamation and redevelopment projects are
represented here through drawings, models, and sets of site construction photographs. Some have been completed
as part of new civic infrastructure and building programs, while others, such as the site of the Olympic 2000 Games
in Australia, are still currently under design and construction. At the forefront of current national and international
scrutiny, a broad range of initial site conditions are addressed, ranging from the reuse of the A. G. Thyssen steelworks
and blast furnace plant in Germany's Ruhr region, the restoration of a contaminated marsh in the Hudson River Estuary
near Staten Island, to landfilling operations at Hillingdon, near London's Heathrow Airport, Byxbee Park, Palo Alto,
California, and Spectacle Island in Boston Harbor.
This exhibition was organized and curated by Niall G. Kirkwood, Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture,
Rebecca Krinke, Visiting Critic in Landscape Architecture, and Brooke Hodge, Director of Exhibitions, with support
from George Hargreaves, Chairman of the Department of Landscape Architecture, Harvard University Graduate
School of Design. Final assistance in preparing for the exhibition was provided by Kim Everett and James Stone of
the Graduate School of Design.
PROJECTS:
Sydney Olympics 2000, New South Wales, Australia
1996-present
Hargreaves Associates
Landscape Architecture, Urban Design & Planning, San Francisco, CA.
with Government Architectural Design Directorate, Sydney, Australia
Landscape Park, Duisburg-North, Germany
1991-present
Latz + Partner
Landscape Architects, Kranzberg, Germany
Crissy Field, San Francisco, California
1994-present
Hargreaves Associates
Landscape Architecture, Urban Design & Planning, San Francisco, CA.
Mining Reclamation, Geraldton, Ontario, Canada
1998
Martha Schwartz, Inc.
Landscape Architects, Cambridge, MA
Byxbee Landfill Park, Palo Alto, California
1988-92
Hargreaves Associates
Landscape Architecture, Urban Design & Planning, San Francisco, CA.
Spectacle Island Landfill and Erosion Control, Boston Harbor, Massachusetts
1991-present
Brown and Rowe, Inc.
Landscape Architects and Planners, Boston, MA
Saw Mill Creek Salt Marsh Reclamation, New York and New Jersey
1990
City of New York Parks and Recreation, Natural Resources Group, New York, NY.
Salford Quays, England
1985-present
Stockley Park Landfill Reclamation, Hillingdon, England
1981-present
Derby City Challenge, Pride Park, Derby, England
1992-present
Ove Arup & Partners, Consulting Engineers,
London, England
Selected Current Research Projects, 1998-2000
 |
| Site Inventory, Studies in Urban Brownfields
|
Brownfield Development and Phytoremediation
- Integrating Landscape Design in the Remediation and Reuse of Urban Open Space.
Principal Investigator:
Professor Niall G. Kirkwood, Harvard University
|
