Gowanus Canal
Yale School of ArchitectureCritic: Miriam Peterson
2020
Independent Work
This
proposal for the Gowanus Canal finds potential in integrating multi-family
housing and infrastructure development to advance climate mitigation on
city-owned land. Where many proposals for preventing flooding along canals
contract and ‘armor’ the waterway, this proposal expands and connects the canal
into adjacent streets, regaining the absorptive and filtering capacities of the
historic marsh on the site. The figure of the original canal is inscribed by durable
live-work apartments above.
Here, the residents and the wetland are reciprocal stewards of one other. Contemporary residential development along the Gowanus presents the canal as a picturesque amenity, even though the canal is Superfund site plagued by chronic combined sewage outflow. This proposal allows the canal to testify to the city’s historical and ongoing metabolic processes. Contrasting the dominant mode of development, this housing project foregrounds the inextricable link between urban dwellers and urbanized land to foreground their mutual dependency.
Here, the residents and the wetland are reciprocal stewards of one other. Contemporary residential development along the Gowanus presents the canal as a picturesque amenity, even though the canal is Superfund site plagued by chronic combined sewage outflow. This proposal allows the canal to testify to the city’s historical and ongoing metabolic processes. Contrasting the dominant mode of development, this housing project foregrounds the inextricable link between urban dwellers and urbanized land to foreground their mutual dependency.
