ALLSTON with Andrea Soto Morfin LAND-SCAPE LAND-FORM URBAN-FORM GSD Landscape Architecture Core Studio 3 Instructor: Assoc. Prof. Chris Reed, Assoc. Prof. Bradley Cantrell
Instead of considering the site as tabula rasa, our proposal engages the site with existing patterns of use in the surrounding neighborhoods. Being the missing node in Olmsted’s green network of Charles river banks, the site has a critical potential. It also brings the hydrological landscape features from the past and links these with a canal to the future. Referring to the spatial and physical qualities of the site, one of the most important tasks in our project, was to create a strong relationship with the Charles River, bringing and extending the river into the site. We also decided to create an urban strategy of districting the site into a mixed program of Residential, Institutional, Research and Cultural uses. The ground level of the buildings serve as social spaces that engage the public use. The buildings also work as bridges that connects both sides and create interstitial spaces between them to determine gathering spaces for the users. Allston Landscape
The proposal is programming social activities that are shaped by the change on time depending on seasonal and environmental changes such as tidal fluctuation that occur in the river, and storm water level during the raining season. Through a revision of historical maps from 1848 to 1965 we were able to understand the changes the place has suffered in the last years and it became important for us to relate this area to the network of parks that Charles Elliot and Olmsted planned as public reservations upon the banks of Charles River.
Diagrams and site plan
outer green areas
residential
permeable soil
buffer zone
research
berm
marshes
bioswales
canal
industrial
institutional
Our proposal somehow resembles the condition of the land that we observed in the historical maps, creating marshland areas. We believe that the idea of parks as “pastoral landscapes” can be adapted in a different manner when the place is located in a complex city area. We wanted to explore the possibility of creating an urban park where landscape, architecture and the urban fabric are part of the same system interacting with each other, as a contemporary way to understand landscape as urbanism.
compacted soil
berms
cultural
river berm
soil types
vegetation system
districts
hydrological system
+5.00
Low tide Inundation level
+8.00
Medium tide Inundation level
+1.00
High tide Inundation level rm
t tree
Cam
se +6.00 den ear ar
et A
Stre
rian
est
Ped e
Buff
+8.00
nse
nse
+4.00
tion
eta
veg
Concrete beach
+1.25
.50
+2.00
Wetlands +1.00
Institutional District
n
atio
et veg
Research District
Buffe
+1.00
Berm
0.00
+0.50
e
anc
Entr
- de
a r are
Buff
- de
rea
er a
eS
Residential District
+4
+4.00
g brid
Research District
Be
et B
Stre
River
Canal
tion
eta
veg
Industrial District
Pedestrian Bridge
+4.50
+3.50 Berm
Highway 90
Buffer area
- dense veg
etation
Plaza
tunel
Train Sta
tion
Platform
s
Railway
+4.50
Institutional District
Cultural District +10.00 Buffe
r area-
dense
Highw
ay 90
vegetat
ion
tunel
Berm
+2.00
So
ldie
Hig
rs
hw
Ra
ilw
ay
ay
90
Fie
ld
Pa
rk