Thesis Book Draft Winter 2023

WASTE STREAMS How to Bring a River Back to Life

Lydia Rosenthal | B. Arch Thesis | 2024

WASTE STREAMS How to Bring a River Back to Life

Lydia Rosenthal | 2024 Bachelor of Architecture Thesis College of Architecture and Environmental Design California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, California

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to extend my gratitude to my family and friends who have supported me, as well to all the professors and mentors during my time at Cal Poly, particularly my thesis professor Dale Clifford, who has provided invaluable guidance and insight.

“The good life of any river may depend on the perception of its music; and the preservation of some music to perceive.”

Aldo Leopold (A Sand County Almanac)

ABSTRACT Under Toronto’s city grid lie the hidden remnants of Garrison Creek – a small but vital ecosystem which was redirected into an underground sewer over a century ago. Rapid urban development, tied with exploitative colonialism and dismissive attitudes toward nature, doomed the ancient creek habitat. However, while ecologically dead, the creek’s continued role as waste management infrastructure has preserved the subterranean path of its flow and its importance to the city. This preservation, albeit limited, provides an unusual opportunity to revive the sewer-creek, and reconnect the natural landscape of the city with the modern built form. The effort to relink the built and the natural is practically beneficial, as strengthening natural ecosystems can make cities more resilient in the face of climate change. However, this thesis will also argue that Garrison Creek ought to be revived in order to reveal the history of environmental degradation to residents, and reconnect them with the cultureshaping potential of the regional waterways. Intervening with Garrison Creek is not a simple task: it sits at the complex intersection of natural ecosystem, municipal infrastructure, and historical site. But it is precisely the embrace of this complexity which offers a new path of design – one which embraces the opportunities offered by a collaborative, pragmatic, and mutual relationship between a city’s natural and built landscapes.

CONTENT 01 Land Of Water 1.1 Corn for Copper 1.2 Mnjikaning Weirs 1.3 Rivers and Roads 1.4 Ravine City

02 River to Sewer Pipeline 2.1 Double Duty 2.2 R.C. Harris Center 2.3 Buried Past

03 Reveal, Restore, Renew 3.1 The Why 3.2 The How 3.3 Demonstration Project 3.4 Paris Metro

04 Explorations 2.1 Omega Center 2.2 Hybrid Models 2.3 Chur Excavation 2.4 Digital Models

05 Proposal 5.1 __________ 5.2 _______ 5.3 ___________ 5.4 ________

06 Appendices 6.1 Literature Review 6.2 Initial Projects 6.3 Process

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LAND OF WATER

Toronto and the surrounding Great Lakes are defined by abundant bodies of water. While the economic and social significance of the Lakes has endured, local rivers and streams have suffered over the past two centuries. They have lost their ecological and social centrality, replaced by roads and paved developments.

Concern over climate resilience has prompted a new, yet still incomplete, re-evaluation of local rivers.

Washing Cars in the Humber River, 1927 (Toronto City Archives)

1.1

Corn for Copper: Trade on the Great Lakes

1.2

Case Study: Mnjikaning Fishing Weirs

1.3

Rivers and Roads: Toronto Carrying Place

1.4

Ravine City: Water as Enemy and Friend

“When we physically encounter a landscape, what we see and sense is just a snapshot in a string of historic and future transformations, all unfolding at varied cadences.”

Brett Milligan (Landscape Migration)

1.1 Corn for Copper: Trade on the Great Lakes 11,000 years ago, the Laurentide Ice Sheet scraped its retreat across North America. In its wake, it left countless channels that were deepened and carved by glacial melt. In this new, warm world, lake beds in the Midwest were filled with huge amounts of water, and even small streams cut deep ravines in the unvegetated land. The waterways of this Great Lakes region became a wellspring of life, culture, and economic activity in the following millennia.

One way in which water shaped life in the region was through migration and mass movement of Indigenous peoples. For example, the Ojibwe (an Anishnaabe people) recount a great westward migration in their history, from the mouth of the St. Lawrence River at the Atlantic Ocean through the various Great Lakes and rivers.

Chief Deborah Smith of the Brokenhead Ojibway nation recounts: “They were migrating based on a prophecy that was being told…to travel to the place where the food grows on the water, and what they meant by that was that they were to go to where the wild rice grew…”

This migration, fueled by the riches of the watery landscape, created cultural centers such as Manidoo Minising (Manitoulin Island) and Baawating (Sault Ste. Marie), and shaped the community as travellers split along the water routes and developed distinct tribes.

Not only did the waterways of the area shape migration and community, they also provided for extensive trade and agriculture.

This was true locally, as communities could reach each other relatively quickly (for both peaceful and warring purposes), but also on a broader scale. Bonnie Divine, a Serpent River Ojibwe First Nation artist and academic describes this in a 2019 Toronto lecture: “Once you were in Lake Superior, the West was open… If you could get from here, which is Toronto, across to Lake Simcoe, across this North Channel,

Ojibwe Fishing Near Ste. Sault Marie , 1901

across Sault Ste. Marie, and into the Lake Superior and go along the north shore, you could get to the Mississippi River, and once you got to the Mississippi River, you could get to the Gulf of Mexico.”

Divine describes how the development of agriculture in the Great Lakes area was prompted by the import of corn from Central America, through this trade route. Archaeologists have, for example, found residue of maize in the Mantle Site, an ancient HuronWendat. The water trade routes, in enabling this cross-continental trade, radically impacted the nature of cultural life.

Mass movement of people and goods has continued regionally over time, as massive shipping and economic enterprises (such as the St. Lawrence Seaway, a set of shipping lanes) still follow roughly the same trade routes, albeit through industrialized locks and canals. In an analogous way to the Ojibwe’s establishment of cultural centers, great port cities such as Chicago have sprung up around the Lakes and developed a distinct regional culture.

“Tkarón:To & Turtle Island: The Remarkable Indigenous Trade Networks.” YouTube, Myseum, 2 Jan. 2019, www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNt51oF5Ji4&t=1988s.

“Ojibway Migration Story: Chief Deborah Smith & Elder William Ballantyne Brokenhead Ojibway Nation.” YouTube, YouTube, 31 Mar. 2021, www.youtube.com/ watch?v=ixTSdnZC8R4.

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1.2 Case Study: Mnjikaning Fishing Weirs Ancient River Infrastructure Shaping Life ca. 2610 BCE Huron Nation Atherley, Ontario, Canada The ancient fishing weirs at Mnjikaning were built by the Huron in the narrows between Lake Oentaronk (Lake Simcoe) and Lake Couchiching. They provided consistent sustenance and connected communities. As old as the Pyramids in Egypt, they are also remarkably complex: over 500 stakes arranged to catch fish in both directions, with rock pathways facilitating repair and operation of the traps.

On their migratory travels, the Anishnabek encountered the weirs at Mnjikaning.

In 1917, one Elder from the Rama Tribe recounted: “As our people journeyed outward from the Great Falls, we discovered the Huron Nation fishing at the narrows. We spent considerable time with the Hurons learning all the techniques. We stayed long enough to gain the Huron’s trust and we were given gifts symbolizing our new relations…. [After several winters] the Anishinabek decided that we should continue to move westward seeking the place where the food grew on top of the water [wild rice].”

Underwater Remains at Mnjikaning

The explorer Samuel de Champlain also encountered these same weirs much later, in his initial journeys with the Huron. He wrote, in 1615: “...we set out from the village on the first day of September and passed along the shore of a small lake distant from the said village three leagues, where they make great catches of fish which they preserve for the winter. There is another lake immediately adjoining ... draining into the small one by a strait where the great catch of fish takes place by means of a number of weirs which almost close the strait, leaving only small openings where they set their nets into the Freshwater Sea.” Though no longer visible or in use, the remains of the Mnjikaning fishing weirs are a dedicated historical site, and reflect the integral role that waterways played in forming and sustaining communities.

LeClair, Laurie. “The Secrets of the Mnjikaning Fish Weirs.” Anishinabek News, Union of Ontario Indians, 21 May 2017, anishinabeknews.ca/2017/05/21/the-secrets-of-the-mnjikaning-fish-weirs/.

Similar Weirs in Puyallup, Washington

1.3 Rivers and Roads: Toronto Carrying Place The primacy of regional waterways such as the Great Lakes did not endure at the local scale. Smaller rivers and lakes which played similarly vital roles in cultural and ecological development suffered over time. Their degradation consisted of both physical pollution and erosion, but also of the increasing cultural disregard. This can best be observed by focusing on a particular portion of the ancient Indigenous trade path: from its beginning at the shores of Lake Ontario, through its first thirty miles of remarkably navigable portaging terrain: the Toronto Carrying Place Trail.

The Toronto Carrying Place followed the Humber River north from Lake Ontario through Lake Simcoe, up towards Georgian Bay. It was known by Indigenous travellers for generations, although it enters written record first during the travels of Étienne Brûlé, perhaps the first European to enter this area. He travelled with his Huron host community throughout the region, passing through the Toronto Carrying Place around 1615. Brûlé’s compatriot RenéRobert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, also passed through the Carrying Place in 1681 on his way to the Mississippi River, mirroring the traditional trans-continental route discussed in the previous section.

These French explorers were primarily scouting for fur trade, and recognized the advantages of learning and maintaining these water routes for their business.

Fur trade also introduced the first significant European settlements in the area. The French Fort Rouillé was the first to be established at the base of the Toronto Carrying Place in 1750. It competed directly with the neighboring villages (such as the Iroquoian Teiaiagon) at the mouth of the Humber River, as well as with other European traders. In discussing plans to build the fort, a French minister in Quebec wrote in 1715: “… This post would prevent the Missisagnis and the Amikoes from going to

La Salle at the Carrying Place trade with the Iroquois when they come back from hunting about Lake Erie. … we could in a measure prevent the coureurs-de-bois [European Traders] from trading in Lake Ontario by confiscating their goods and arresting them; the trade which they carry on being very injurious to that at Fort Frontenac. . . .”

The French fort eventually failed, and the English Fort York was later established by Lord John Graves Simcoe in 1793. This became the capital of Upper Canada, and the city of York soon spread around it, following the contentious Toronto Purchase, when the Mississauga surrendered to the British.

When visiting York, Simcoe was also led through the Toronto Carrying Place journey. He was not, however, interested in maintaining the Toronto Carrying Place, but rather in replacing it with roads. Along his path of travel, the still-used Yonge Street sprang up, carving a linear facsimile of the Carrying Place through the landscape. Towns were founded on the route, Indigenous communities were increasingly marginalized and displaced, and economic activity shifted firmly from river-based to road-based. The waterways and ecosystems themselves still survived, yet were no longer the backbone of this burgeoning industrial society.

ROBINSON, PERCY J., and C. W. JEFFERYS. Toronto During the French Regime: A History of the Toronto Region From Brule to Simcoe, 1615–1793. University of Toronto Press, 1965. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3138/j.ctvfrxk8q.

Accessed 15 Dec. 2023.

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1.4 Ravine City: Water as Enemy and Friend The Town of York quickly grew and expanded in the centuries following its founding in 1793. Its presence as a British stronghold near the newly independent American colonies made it a site of occasional contention, but it was primarily its advantageous port and arable lands that fueled its growth. In 1834, York was incorporated as the City of Toronto, and has since expanded to have over six million residents in its metropolitan area.

Much of this expansion happened in, through, and over Toronto’s rivers and ravines. Several smaller creeks were completely filled in, and larger ones such as the Don and Humber Rivers were laden with heavy industry, such as the Don Valley Brickworks. Water was used to wash cars, trees were felled to build houses. Little thought was given to the erosion and degradation of the ravine banks. It was a time of optimism and momentum.

This development came to a head when, on October 15, 1954, Hurricane Hazel swept up the eastern coast of the United States and barreled directly through Toronto. In just one day, eight inches of rain fell. Flooding was immediate and catastrophic, as the ravines could no longer handle that volume of water. 81 people were killed, and over 1900 families became homeless overnight.

Hurricane Hazel became (literally!) a watershed moment in the history of Toronto’s conservation movement. The government amended the 1946 Conservation Authorities Act to allow the city to acquire threatened land and keep it for preservation and safeguarding in the next storm event. Beginning in 1959, the Metropolitan Toronto and Regional Conservation Authority began to regulate floodplains and riverbanks more carefully, encouraging erosion prevention measures, and allowing the existing rivers to flow in a more natural state.

Flooded Ravine after Hurricane Hazel, 1954

Legally Protected Rosedale Ravine,

Today, Toronto’s ravine system is extensive and protected through regulations, encompassing 42 square miles of land in the city. While the parks do have nature conservation efforts, they are primarily recreational in nature, and are a vital greenspace for a relatively dense city. Efforts have been made to deindustrialize the large ravines, including the conversion of the Don Valley Brick Works into a park and community center.

Most recently, the Toronto Ravine Strategy was put out by the city, which highlights five goals for Toronto’s waterway relationships.

• Protect ecological health and monitor for invasive species.

• Invest in existing infrastructure and expand public lands • Connect communities to ravines through trails and storytelling • Partner with volunteers and private donors to supplement parks • Celebrate the ravines through community outreach

“City of Toronto.” Toronto Ravine Strategy, City of Toronto, www.toronto.ca/ wp-content/uploads/2017/10/9183-TorontoRavineStrategy.pdf. Accessed 16 Dec. 2023.

“Hurricane Hazel.” The Canadian Encyclopedia, 20 Aug. 2012, www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/hurricane-hazel.

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STATUS OF TORONTO’S WATERWAYS Protected River Ravines, Disappeared Rivers, and Waste Treatment Plants

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THE RIVER TO SEWER PIPELINE Toronto and the surrounding Great Lakes are defined by abundant and large bodies of water. Colonization and rapid development accompanied environmental exploitation and degraded of the waterways. Modern efforts at increasing urban resiliency have led Toronto to rethink its relationship to its rivers.

2.1

Double Duty: The Fate of Garrison Creek

2.2 Case Study: R.C. Harris Water Treatment Center 2.3 Buried Past: The Creek Reemerges

Construction of the Garrison Creek Sewer (Toronto City Archives)

“The city, however, does not tell its past, but contains it like the lines of a hand....”

Italo Calvino (Invisible Cities)

2.1 Double Duty: The Fate of Garrison Creek Hurricane Hazel prompted Toronto to begin reevaluating its relationship to the ubiquitous ravines. The rivers that gained protection have been making a slow comeback, under the guidance of devoted officials. However, there were many rivers, creeks, and ravines which were so quickly subsumed and destroyed by boundless urban expansion that they were no longer around by the time Hurricane Hazel struck. One of these is Garrison Creek.

Garrison Creek was a relatively small and short river, and while it was presumably used by Indigenous inhabitants of the region, there is no indication that it played a special role in the Toronto Carrying Place. However, its strategic location (it emptied into a protected bay) gave it importance to the English colonizers, who built Fort York at its mouth - lending it the name it still carries today.

As direct military threats subsided, however, the strategic importance of Garrison Creek diminished, and the new town of York began crowding around the ravine. Initial roads and buildings tended to follow the curve of the river, if for no other reason than that building in the ravine was an expensive proposition. The green space of the Creek was valued by institutions such as Trintiy college, and many schools and community centers were built around it (then and now!). However, pressure grew, and the city began to encroach, logging the slopes of the ravine and building bridges across it.

Residents, lacking a proper waste management infrastructure, also began dumping human refuse and household trash into the ravine, to be whisked away into the lake. While this may have worked for some time, as the population began booming, it was becoming a nuisance and a health concern.

In the early 1880s, the city convened to plan the Garrison Creek Sewer: a combined sewer system set to run underground in the same path as the creek, allowing it to still carry waste away, but in

Bridge Built over the Heavily Logged Garrison Creek Ravine, ca. 1910

a more managed and sanitary manner. The announcement of the sewer was lauded, and seen by some as long overdue. The Mayor at the time, Arthur Boswell, discussed the project: “…this is a most necessary work, not only on account of its being required to drain a large portion of the western and northern parts of the City, but also in the cause of health, for this creek is nothing more than an open sewer, and has become an absolute nuisance to those residing near it.”

Construction of the sewer, which was a whopping ten feet in diameter, lasted from 1884 to 1920. As sections of the creek were covered, much of the ravine was filled in for new developments.

Only a few pockets of the ravine remain, which are now grassy pits in a series of parks. Garrison Creek can now only be heard on quiet days, when the echoes of last night’s storm can be heard rushing below the streets. Garrison Creek is neither a true natural river nor a dead river, but a new, uniquely urban river, which is burdened still by its old watershed and by new sewage duties, all while losing the riparian habitats that now incentivize us to protect larger ravines.

“City of Toronto.” Toronto Ravine Strategy, City of Toronto, www.toronto.ca/ wp-content/uploads/2017/10/9183-TorontoRavineStrategy.pdf. Accessed 16 Dec. 2023.

“Hurricane Hazel.” The Canadian Encyclopedia, 20 Aug. 2012, www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/hurricane-hazel.

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2.2 Case Study: R.C. Harris Water Treatment Center Monumental Celebration of Water Infrastructure

Site at the Shore of Lake Ontario

1941 Gore, Nasmith & Storrie Toronto, Ontario, Canada Rowland Caldwell Harris was a pivotal figure in Toronto’s history, serving as the Public Works Commissioner from 1912 to 1945. While he is responsible for several major infrastructural projects, his championing of what remains the largest waste treatment plant in Toronto may be his enduring legacy. The RC Harris Water Treatment Center supplies 30% of Toronto’s drinking water (up to 950 million liters daily).

The Harris Center is unusual also in its embrace of celebratory and monumental architecture. Its Art Deco finishings, precious interior materials, and beautiful proportions have given it the nickname “The Palace of Purification.” It is a heralded landmark in the City, and has been designated under the Ontario Heritage Act since 1998, even appearing on Canadian postage stamps in 2011. The Harris Center has also been in the backdrop of many famous movies and TV shows, including two Guillermo del Toro films.

Treatment Facility at the Banks of Lake Ontario Main Entrance

The architectural investment in this piece of infrastructure reflects the unbridled optimism and faith in development during that period. Any environmental ramifications took a back seat to the public health improvements heralded by plants such as this one. The stylized architecture and manicured lawn also indicate the sense of purity and distinguish the project from the wild, untamed, “disgusting” natural condition that needs cleaning.

City of Toronto. “R.C. Harris Water Treatment Plant Public Advisory Committee (PAC).” City of Toronto, 30 May 2019, www.toronto.ca/services-payments/ water-environment/tap-water-in-toronto/fast-facts-about-the-citys-water-treatment-plants/r-c-harris-water-treatment-plant-public-advisory-committee-pac/.

Mok, Tanya. “The Historic R.C. Harris Water Treatment Plant Is Where Toronto Gets Its Drinking Water.” blogTO, blogTO, 4 Nov. 2023, www.blogto.com/ city/2020/02/rc-harris-water-treatment-plant-toronto/.

Grand Entrance

2.3 Buried Past: The Creek Reemerges Although Toronto had done its best to eliminate Garrison Creek from the city (diverting it to a sewer, diverting the sewer itself to an offsite centralized plant, and filling in the ravine) the Creek still expresses itself in the city form. A careful traveller will notice that certain streets still bend around what would have been the ravine, and the organization of parks closely aligns with the path of the river. Some small markers have been left as memorials of where Garrison Creek used to flow, and it is possible to follow its path through the city with some guidance and preparation.

Flooding in Toronto’s Ravine-like Topography, 2013

However, the Creek is also capable of more forceful and destructive expression. In a recent flooding event in 2013, for example, the Garrison Creek watershed was overwhelmed, and extensive flooding occured along its path. Flooding risk has increased as Toronto, like many cities around the world, experiences a marked increase in storm frequency and severity due to climate change.

What this means is that most Torontonians primarily notice the Creek when it becomes a major problem. Furthermore, the expression of the problem is typically indistinguishable from any other sewer breakdown, and the solution that immediately comes to mind is that the infrastructure needs to be “fixed” or “reinforced.”

However, in the case of Garrison Creek Sewer, its expression through flooding is a natural outcome of thousands of years of geological formation. To simply fix the sewer is a bandaid solution at best. Garrison Creek requires a new approach.

“City of Toronto.” Toronto Ravine Strategy, City of Toronto, www.toronto.ca/ wp-content/uploads/2017/10/9183-TorontoRavineStrategy.pdf. Accessed 16 Dec. 2023.

“Hurricane Hazel.” The Canadian Encyclopedia, 20 Aug. 2012, www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/hurricane-hazel.

A Memorial Marker of Garrison Creek

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RESTORE/REVEAL Toronto and the surrounding Great Lakes are defined by abundant and large bodies of water. Colonization and rapid development accompanied environmental exploitation and degraded of the waterways. Modern efforts at increasing urban resiliency have led Toronto to rethink its relationship to its rivers.

3.1

The Why: Justifications for Restoring the Creek

3.2 The How: Methods of Restoration 3.3 Case Study: Garrison Creek Demonstration Project 3.4 Case Study: Paris Metro

Modern Ravine Park in Toronto, 2018 (Leyland Cecco)

“How can anything be restored by human agency, the essence of which is to be independent of human agency?”

Robin Attfield (Rehabilitating Nature and Making Nature Habitable)

3.1 The Why: Justifications for Restoring the Creek Despite Garrison Creek’s flooding threats, it is true that its existence as a sewer is generally unobtrusive and extremely functional.

One might ask why it is necessary or justifiable to meddle with something that seems to be working fine.

Unnatural Green: Trinity Bellwoods Park along Garrison Creek

One justification is primarily practical. Ravine and riparian ecosystems, such as the many intact ones that Toronto enjoys, improve the physical quality of life of urban residents. Flowing water and ample greenery can reduce the urban heat island effect, and provide places of respite for those who may not have adequate air conditioning at home.

The physical relief provided by restored river habitats closely ties to a certain aesthetic relief. Human are biophilic - geared to enjoy and be gratified by experiencing natural habitats (or natural analogs).

While Garrison Creek’s path has many parks and green spaces, these are primarily rather unnatural lawns and sport courts. Reintroducing natural greenery along the path of Garrison Creek would enhance the biophilic experience, particularly for those who are not fortunate enough to have a garden at home.

There is also an argument to be made that, as rivers have had such an impactful role in shaping Toronto’s history, they ought to be given pride of place in the city. Having an awareness of a place’s history can give residents a greater sense of pride and care.

Revealing the river for cultural reasons could also play some role in repairing the damage done by colonialism which, as discussed earlier, is intrinsically tied to environmental damage.

This brings us to the broadest justification for working to restore Garrison Creek, which is that rivers, as ecosystems in themselves,

have the right to exist and continue. This point draws on concepts from “deep ecology,” which sees intrinsic value even in non-living natural elements, and calls for us to protect and respect them. There is not only a philosophical precedent for this justification, but also a legal one. Over the last decades, various scholars and lawyers have argued that natural entities, such as rivers and trees, ought to be given legal personhood and legal standing. Under this framework, they may sue for their rights. If Garrison Creek could sue, it would probably sue to be removed from its sewer prison!

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LOCAL

FORM BASED

3.2 The How: Methods of Restoration Even if the justifications for restoring Garrison Creek are clear and persuasive, it is not so obvious how that restoration could proceed.

Traditional river restoration strategies, as outlined to the right, are diverse and powerful, but generally applied to rivers that still exist in a semi-natural state. However, we could take the overarching framework of traditional restoration processes to apply to this rather unorthodox situation.

PROCESS BASED

TRASH NETS

RIPRAP

LARGE WOODY DEBRIS

WEIRS / CROSS VANES

FASCINE

Restoration methods may be form based or process based, or somewhere along this spectrum. Form based strategies typically rely on physical interventions, while process based strategies may be legal or regulatory.

BUFFER ZONES

CONSTRUCTED WETLANDS

REVEGETATION

STREAMBED RESURFACING

DAM REMOVAL

MINIMUM STREAM CORRIDOR WIDTH

BEAVERS

BIOREMEDIATION

DAYLIGHTING

VALLEY FLOOR RESETTING

POROUS CITY

WASTE REGULATION

Sawmill River New York State, USA

Isar River Munich, Germany

Yuba River California, USA

Elwha River Washington State, USA

All traditional resotration projects require some mix of these strategies in order to succeed. Garrison Creek would be no different. The following case studies provide some insight into how one might proceed.

RETENTION BASIN

REGIONAL

Restoration is also typically stratified along a local to regional spectrum. It is possible, for example, to work to restore a certain stretch of a river, as opposed to its entire watershed.

RAIN GARDEN

ARTIFICAL RESTORATION

NATURAL RESTORATION

METHODS OF RESTORATION Even Classic Restoration Projects Require Multi-Pronged Approach Biological

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CASE STUDY: GARRISON CREEK DEMONSTRATION PROJECT Traditional Restoration Approach 1994 Brown + Storey Architects Toronto, Ontario Canada In the 1990s, there was a renewed interest in Toronto’s lost creeks and rivers. The architecture firm Brown + Storey was comissioned by the Waterfront Regeneration Trust to submit a proposal to regenerate the Garrison Creek watershed.

Their proposal centers around a series of stormwater detention ponds and constructed wetlands in the existing parks and open spaces along the Creek’s buried route. The project does not involve daylighting the sewer/river, but rather implementing better stormwater catchment and drainage to avoid overwhelming the combined sewer system. In this sense, the project is somewhere between a river restoration, and and an artificial habitat.

The architects at Brown + Storey argues that, even though the river is not technically revealed in the proposal, it will still enhance the natural landscape and the quality of life in the city. As they say: “If one of the legacies of modern town planning is the invisible efficiency of the hygienic infrastructure, perhaps, as ecological concerns permeate the consciousness of urban dweller, it is both psychologically and physically necessary to make urban suport structures more tangible and visible.... while suppressing these systems won’t hurt anyone, it could be a huge lost opportunity to tap the latent potential of infrastructure to enhance the quality of life in the city.”

Ultimately, this project was not built, and no interventions have as yet been made or suggested since. Grassroots organizations, such as Lost Rivers Toronto, have raised awareness of Garrison Creek’s “plight,” and hold regular events and walks along its path. The parks on the Creek that hold the remnants of the ravine still experience flooding in large storms.

“Garrison Creek Study.” Architecture, Urban Design, & Civic Infrastructure Office in Toronto, Brown + Storey Architects, www.brownandstorey.com/project/garrison-creek-study/. Accessed 15 Dec. 2023.

“Lost Rivers of Toronto Map.” Lost Rivers, lostrivers.ca/disappearing.html. Accessed 15 Dec. 2023.

Plan for TrinityGrand Bellwoods Entrance Park

CASE STUDY: PARIS METRO STATIONS Urban Markers of Underground Infrastructure 1910-1913 Hector Guimard Paris, France The Paris Metro Stations were built between 1910 and 1913

by Hector Guimard, and quickly became symbols of the revolutionary new underground technology: the metro. They reflected, in their extravagant and bold art deco style, the revolutionary and modern spirit of this technology. Scattered throughout the city, they became placemarkers that alerted residents to what was going on beneath their feet, and invited them in. The designs were so successful that the remaining stations designed by Guimard are protected and visited by tourists.

Although metro stations have nothing directly to do with sewers or rivers, they suggest an alternative method for my investigation of the buried river. Rather than daylighting the entire river and upending whole neighborhoods, stations could be placed along the path of the river that connect the surface with the subterranean, and become a method of defining the city.

Station at Place de la Bastille

Infrastructural architecture, such as these metro stations, also has the ancillary benefit of being generally transparent, resilient, and approachable. They cater to diverse crowds, and at their best can unify the community.

Fiederer, Luke. “Ad Classics: Paris Métro Entrance / Hector Guimard.” ArchDaily, ArchDaily, 10 Aug. 2017, www.archdaily.com/870687/ad-classics-paris-metro-entrance-hector-guimard.

Magazine, Smithsonian. “Meet the Designer of the Fanciful Subway Entrances to the Paris Métro.” Smithsonian.Com, Smithsonian Institution, 28 Dec. 2022, www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/meet-the-designer-of-thefanciful-subway-entrances-to-the-paris-metro-180981369/.

Underground Metro Infrastructure

04

EXPLORATIONS Toronto and the surrounding Great Lakes are defined by abundant and large bodies of water. Colonization and rapid development accompanied environmental exploitation and degraded of the waterways. Modern efforts at increasing urban resiliency have led Toronto to rethink its relationship to its rivers.

4.1

Case Study: Omega Center for Sustainable Living

4.2 Found Obejcts Model 4.3 Case Study: Archaeological Shelter at Chur 4.4 Precedent Based Model

Modern Ravine Park in Toronto, 2018 (Leyland Cecco)

4.1 CASE STUDY: OMEGA CENTER FOR SUSTAINABLE LIVING Ecological Waste Management Fostering Community 2009 BNIM Rhinebeck, New York, USA This ecological wastewater treatment facility built for the Omega Institute to replace its traditional waste treatment facility. It combines an “Eco Machine” (a biological, plant and microbe based treatment strategy) with community and educational programming. The Eco Machine forms the core of this center and can process up to 52,000 gallons of wastewater per day. The Machine consists of seven steps: • Solid Settlement Tanks separate sludge from water, injecting microorganisms to decompose the solid waste.

• Two 6,000 gallon Equalization Tanks collect the liquid from the Solid Settlement Tanks and help equalize the pace of treatment over the day during water use surges. The tanks allow the machine to stay relatively small.

• In the two 5,000 gallon Anoxic Tanks, natural microorganisms digest organic compounds in the water • From the Anoxic Tanks, water flows through several Constructed Wetlands (native plantings in rubber-lined gravel beds). This feeds the plants, which in turn remove a large percentage of harmful nitrogen and odors.

• Several Aerated Lagoons hold the remaining water, which is clear but not safe to touch. There, the roots of tropical plants sustain organisms that further convert ammonia and toxins into neutral compounds.

• In the Recirculating Sand Filter, remaining pollutants are absorbed. At this point, water is suitable for disposal in rivers, or for irrigation.

• The outdoor Dispersal Fields collect the cleaned water and slowly return it to the ground aquifer.

Aerated Lagoon Room

The Omega Center offers a framework for combining practical, sustainability waste treatment strategies with inspiring and inviting spaces. The Eco Machine is also a scalable strategy that can accomodate variously sized communities.

“The Eco Machine.” Eomega, www.eomega.org/center-sustainable-living/eco-machine. Accessed 15 Dec. 2023.

“Omega Center for Sustainable Living.” BNIM, 29 Nov. 2023, www.bnim.com/project/omega-center-sustainable-living.

Transverse Section

Cathedral quality

4.2 Found Objects Model Beacon draws attention to presence of river, shelters exposed pipeline

EXH IBITS TION UCA + ED

VIEWING AREA

Structural “porch” to shelter visitors

Constructed wetland filtration renews habitat, provides food

Anaerobic + aerobic treatment tanks

WASTE WATER TREATMENT FACILITY

“EXCAVATION” CHAMBER

Ampitheater gathering for demonstrations and community meetings

This found object model draws on the sustainable waste management system that is explored in the Omega Center case study. It incorporates a Eco-Machine along the sewer pipeline, while a “beacon” space invites the community to inspect the exposed pipeline.

Working with found materials was very important in this process, as it forced me to be flexible and creative. I focused on finding transparent and translucent materials that could be layered to interesting effect, while making sure to have an expressed structure that gives a sense of scale and character to the project.

Pit form telegraphs direction of river

While this particular model has not yet been placed in context, it is envisioned as “station” that could be repeated along the Garrison Creek sewer pathway, at moments of communal intensity, such as at existing public schools or community centers.

4.3 CASE STUDY: ROMAN ARCHAEOLOGICAL SHELTER Preserving and Revealing a City’s Past PETER ZUMTHOR 1986 Chur, Switzerland The small Swiss town of Chur comissioned a young Peter Zumthor to build a protective structure around several archaeological remains from the Roman era. Zumthor chose a quiet and somber style, whose volumes exactly replicate the missing walls, allowing the lost buildings to be revived in the urban landscape.

Transverse Section

Within the building, there is a careful choreography of modern and ancient, insular and connected. Visitors walk on delicately elevated metal walkways, only touching down into the structure at particular moments. Inside, visitors feel visually enclosed and focused on the ruins, but noise from the vehicle traffic outside can still be heard, and winter breezes still pass through the slats.

With these careful and restrained choices, Zumthor created an environment of reflection that ties the past to the present.

Garrison Creek, though not nearly as old as the Roman ruins, is nevertheless an historical artifact from an earlier era in Toronto.

Exposing the sewer as an archaeological artifact could be one strategy to invite visitors and residents to reflect on this history.

Memorializing a lost ecosystem rather than a lost culture would also be an unusal and jarring approach for many visitors.

Alonso, Dane. “Inside Timeless Architecture: Peter Zumthor’s Shelter for Roman Ruins in Chur, Switzerland.” Architectural Photography Almanac, 28 Sept. 2020, apalmanac.com/architecture/inside-timeless-architecture-peter-zumthors-shelter-for-roman-ruins-in-chur-switzerland-10769.

Team, AD Editorial. “Explore Peter Zumthor’s 1986 Shelter for Roman Ruins in Quiet Solitude.”

ArchDaily, ArchDaily, 22 Nov. 2017, www.archdaily.com/884003/explore-peter-zumthors-1986-shelterfor-roman-ruins-in-quiet-solitude.

Interior Space

4.4 Precedent Based Model Upon study of the Peter Zumthor precedent, I was interested in reconfiguring my found object model with a new material and formal language. The primary components of the found object model (the waste processing center along the pipeline, the plants above, the “beacon”) all still remain, but the formal language is much more pared down and somber. I hope that this would invite some communal reflection on the nature of the Creek’s past, and fit better aesthetically in the overall fabric of the city.

05

PROPOSAL Toronto and the surrounding Great Lakes are defined by abundant and large bodies of water. Colonization and rapid development accompanied environmental exploitation and degraded of the waterways. Modern efforts at increasing urban resiliency have led Toronto to rethink its relationship to its rivers.

LABEL

06

APPENDICES Toronto and the surrounding Great Lakes are defined by abundant and large bodies of water. Colonization and rapid development accompanied environmental exploitation and degraded of the waterways. Modern efforts at increasing urban resiliency have led Toronto to rethink its relationship to its rivers.

LABEL

on its own behalf (through a “representative) - but this has been hard to enforce. It also often involves a reckoning with Indigenous worldviews, which may conflict with Western court systems.

Rivers Lost, Rivers Regained: Rethinking City-River Relations (Martin Knoll)

2.4 Buried Past: The Creek Reemerges A Sand County Almanac (Aldo Leopold) This book describes the natural setting of Leopold’s home county in Wisconsin, and culminates in his influential concept of a “land ethic,” which suggests a an ecocentric expansion of our ethical systems to our world’s non-living entities, such as rivers and mountains. Leopold does not argue that humans must stop all interference, but rather that we must consider ourselves a part of the land, and acknowledge that natural systems have a right to persist as intact and stable systems.

Rehabilitating Nature and Making Nature Habitable (Robin Attfield) This paper traces debates around restoration and preservation of nature, and discusses the question: how can something fundamentally independant of human agency be restored through human agency? The author argues that this is possible, provided that the restored ecological system function in a meaningfully similar way to the original landscape, and that doing so is a positive use of human agency. Decisions surrounding restoration must balance human and non-human needs - the human role is both to preserve and restore nature, but also to make nature habitable for ourselves and others.

Can Farming Make Space for Nature? (Sam Knight) This piece profiles the land manager/conservationist Jake Fiennes who runs a large agricultural estate in England. Fiennes argues that the conservation of nature and the expansion of production capabilities can go hand in hand. He achieves this through an approach of careful study, and the reappropriation of “edge” conditions for nature.

For example, he removed 20% of farmable land and gave it to nature: yields still went up.

Creating Legal Rights for Rivers (Erin L. O’Donnell and Julia Talbot-Jones) Here, the legal personification of rivers is explored in three case studies, to examine their efficacy. The practice of personfication has old roots, but has emerged as a strategy to combat environmental degredation.The river should seek legal redress

This book traces the relationship of the city and the river over history with a series of case studies. The author views rivers as vital economic and social forces in the city, and as a reminder that nature cannot ever be fully contained. A relevant case study is the revitilization of Chicago’s river, transforming it from an open sewer to a valued public resource, as well as the renaturalization of Munich’s Isar river, which I was able to enjoy last year during my time abroad.

Willful Waters (Vittoria di Palma and Alexandor Robinson) The Los Angeles River is essential to the natural ecosystem of the city, but has been nearly destroyed by decades of rapid development and a relentless push to control the river’s systems. This was driven by a need to provide water to residents, and by a fear of the river’s “willful” nature. More recently, the over-engineered river has been the site of nostalgic reimaginings, a “paradise lost.” Models of pure restoration conflict with more technically integrated conceptions which accept that the old river may be lost forever.

The Performative Ground: Rediscovering The Deep Section (S. Carlisle and N. Pevzner) The authors assert that designers have an obligation to consider the qualities of the earth and the underground realm when designing and when drawing. Too often, underground considerations are relegated to engineers alone and ignored by designers.

Drawing deep sections of building sites and entire landscapes can be a good tool to combat this.

Toronto’s Garrison Greek: Revitilization of a Hidden Waterway (James Brown) The history of Garrison Creek is outlined, along with an examination of contemporary proposals for revitalization and daylighting of the creek (which were not enacted).

Toronto’s Ravine Strategy (Department of Parks and the Environmental Committee) This is a government document outlining Toronto’s intentions regarding the still-intact river and ravine systems. While Garrison Creek is not included, this document provides insight into the values of Toronto surrounding river-city relations.

Site Seeing: Constructing the “Creative Survey” (Carolyn Butterworth and Sam Vardy)

The Land Where Birds are Grown (Cynthia Hooper)

Site surveys remain abstracted tools that fail to truly connect the architect to the place.

Site is understood as a vacant, distinct place where drawings replace the physical place in the architect’s mind. Although architectural is increasingly understood as public and relational, site surveys are particularly prone to failure. An alternative site survey (the creative survey) is needed. This can take many forms, but the architect should become users of the site themselves and invite open-ended, active participation. The site survey becomes a process, or a performance, rather than a stagnant drawing that is illegible to those living in the place.

In California’s Central Valley, historic wetlands have been all but eliminated by cities and agriculture. To maintain the populations of migrating birds, small networks of wetland preserves have been established. These rely heavily on engineered landscapes, with flooding and draining artificially conducted using pumps and high-tech sensors.

Although the wetland preserves are threatened by population growth and water scarcity, their preservation is essential. We can look to them as models for a synthesized biological and infrastructural system, with applications across society.

Many Norths: Spatial Practice in a Northern Territory (Lateral Office) The Canadian North is a unique, mythologized infrastructure at the intersection of climate, culture, and geography that is little understood. Far from a remote, pristine wilderness, the North has been modified and affected by spatial practices, which are defined as “the negotiation of an environment for survival or opportunity via tactical, spatially based interventions” regardless of scale or economics. The book surveys these practices through five lenses (urbanism, architecture, mobility, monitoring, and resources). The North must be understood not only environmentally, but also socially and politically.

Landscape Migration: Environmental Design in the Anthropocene (Brett Milligan) Designers must consider landscapes as migrating entities, as “patterned movement across space and time” that occurs by material, social, and ecological means. Successful design in migrating landscapes relies on embrace of dynamic change and rejection of nostalgia. The author cites many lenses to achieve this: one is ecology’s Panarchy theory, which posits that there are multiple possible states in a landscape- stasis is anathema to the environment. Climate change accelerates the rate of landscape migration, making our understanding of the phenomenon vital.

From Object to Field: Field Conditions in Architecture and Urbanism (Stan Allen) This reading looks to field conditions as a path for architecture to begin accepting the “real” in messiness and unpredictability. He defines a field condition as “any formal or spatial matrix capable of unifying diverse elements while respecting the identity of each,” entailing local rules that form a larger whole. For example, the mosque in Cordoba, Spain, draws its form from small relationships between building elements rather than an overall plan. The modifications do not destroy the integrity of the building. Field condition architecture offers a way to design truly open and free structures for a democratic society.

Ecology and Design: Parallel Genealogies (Jose Luis Mateo) This reading summarizes the history of ecology and outlines its “parallel” development through the fields of natural science, humanities, and design. The author argues that modern ecological thinking focuses on “complex adaptive systems,” where change is fundamental and necessary. The natural sciences have used ecology to argue that we should manage human actions within ecosystems, rather than managing ecosystems themselves through top-down, reductionist approaches. The humanities use ecology to question our relationship with nature itself and assert that our social principles of order and control will ultimately destroy that which we aim to protect. Design fields are interested in using ecology to develop strategies of resilience and adaptation, as well as incorporating open-endedness into designs with nature.

Makeshift: Some Reflections on Japanese Design Sensibility (Bob Sheil) This reading suggests that the West views the term “makeshift” as a pejorative one, connoting improvisation and less-than-ideal circumstances. Japan has a different conception, viewing the makeshift as fleeting yet potent. The author outlines six observations of the makeshift in Japanese culture: Haikus, Shinto temple rebuilding, the Japanese lunchbox, urban responses to fire danger, wabi-sabi art, and the architecture of motion. All of these share the idea that impermanence is valuable, and that insufficiency and improvisation are good launching-pads for creativity.

6.2 Instrument Project: Wind’s Eye This project (completed with Eloise Hides, Xander Bergey, and Morgan Miller) gives over control to natural forces. The user looks through a peephole in the airfoil structure, which spins freely in the wind. In this way, the viewer literally sees where the wind is pointing. The airfoil itself is made out of bent plywood, attached with zipties at the seams. While not directly related to my thesis, it was important in prompting me to think about the power and influence of nature and natural systems, and the way that we too often aim to control and supress nature, rather than let it be our guide.

6.3 Vellum: Moire Lantern This project explored the concept of Moire patterns, which are created when two identical patterns are overlayed and shifted. It creates an optical illusion of a “third pattern” from between the two layers. This was conceptually related to my thesis explorations, because I was interested in the idea of the natural pattern and urban pattern being overlayed and creating a new condition. The lantern is made primarily out of basswood sheets and applicator sticks that have been laminated. The base contains the wiring for the light, and japanese screen materials softens the light in the core.

6.4 Modelling Process