Michael Schaefer Friedman - Portfolio

Michael Schaefer Friedman Master of Landscape Architecture

University of Virginia 2024

Portfolio

About

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I employ my background in teaching, gardening, and literature to tell the stories of overlooked landscapes while using design research methods to envision vibrant, socially and ecologically rich futures.

Coursework Shifting Footprints 3 Coastal Resilience in Baltimore Embedded Meadows 7 Honoring Culture in Apalachicola Bridgescape: The Green Thread Mending the Urban Fabric

Contact Michael Schaefer Friedman mds6519@gmail.com 757 - 646 - 2157

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The Surface of Discontinuity 12 The Hidden Sublime of Indiana Dunes Desert Sponge 15 Future Visions of the Salton Sea

Research Duck Creek Barrier Islands 17 Regenerative Wetlands in Green Bay

Shifting Footprints Foundation Studio IV - Brian Davis, William Shivers | Collaboration with Maggie Campbell Along the western bank of the Patapsco River, just outside the port of Baltimore, a white sandy beach once stretched for miles. Tidal wetlands dappled this wooded peninsula until industrialization drastically changed the landscape’s trajectory.

This project aims to mediate a forgotten past with a future threatened by sea level rise. To create new wetlands and fortify the shoreline, gabions filled with locally quarried stone and oyster shells take the form of unfinished houses. By minimizing wave action and accumulating sediment, these forms will expand critical habitat while protecting existing wetlands and infrastructure. Their placement and design is informed by a neighborhood that was erased as large scale industrial plants, including coal fired power, moved in.

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Utilizing the geomorphology table, the modeled design was tested against simulated wave action in various iterations. These simple geometries resulted in an expanded beach zone and sediment accumulation in areas favorable for wetland habitat creation, as well as demonstrating potential storage of dredge materials .

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Deep Section of Cox Creek Dredge Material Containment Facility. This early study informed site selection, ecological agents, and established a precedent for interfacing large-scale infrastructure with natural systems.

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Embedded Meadows Foundation Studio III C.L. Bohannon, Michael Leugering, and Rebecca Hinch In Apalachicola, Florida, the town’s slow pace of life, vibrant culture, and rich history come alive through the sun-soaked patina that adorns the materials of the vernacular landscape. Drawing inspiration from nearby river meanders, fishing patterns, and a longing to concretize collective memories, this design is informed by firsthand community engagement.

The plan allows for a flexible, seasonally adapted space for both quiet reflection as well as celebration. Sited in an underutilized lot behind a senior center that had previously been a school, the meadow gradually covers and uncovers community memories etched in stone pavers.

Rather than a static design, community members can participate in the perpetual redesigning of the meadow by altering mowing patterns.

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Trucking and shipping pathways flowing in and around Apalachicola, Florida reveal why the region has earned the nickname, “The Forgotten Coast.” Fishing patterns discovered here eventually informed the meandering design of the site plan. On the prior page, a deeper dive into competing port cities underscores the role of sediment deposition. A focus on the cultural and material significance of fishing and oyster farming further enrich our understanding.

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Material motifs link the physical textures of space to cultural and personal memories shared by community members.

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The site plan overlays variable mowing patterns, while the ideogram and seasonal motifs suggest program and atmosphere. The parametric paver design responds to different seasonal mowing regimens to build complexity over time while maintaining meadow health.

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Bridgescape: The Green Thread EcoTech II Chloe Hawkins Exploring the hidden elements of the constructed environment, this project involved reenvisioning several overlooked urban streetscapes. Initial studies looked at spaces on UVA grounds where stormwater, pedestrians, cyclists, and cars might integrate more seamlessly while expanding the urban canopy.

The second half of the project approached 2nd Street SE in downtown Charlottesville as a crucial connecting artery between neighborhoods and businesses. In order to improve the root health of the numerous heritage white oaks lining the road, I devised a system of raised boardwalks and bioswales to limit soil compaction and store flood waters while buffering the street with native plants.

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The Surface of Discontinuity Advanced Research Studio: Indiana Dunes National Park Erin Putalik The sandy shoreline of Lake Michigan is punctuated with power infrastructures and heavy industry. Pristine beaches and clear blue water are bracketed by monolithic and unsightly structures.

These are not the sublime national park views embedded in the American imagination, but a melding of technological marvel, natural wonder, and hidden toxicities. By reframing this complex landscape through a theoretical lens informed by the work of David Nye, Edmund Burke, Jennifer Peeples, and others, a new interpretation of the sublime landscape begins to emerge.

This research project journeys deep into the region’s geology to unearth generational environmental injustice and a hidden history of disappearing dunes. Ultimately, a plan emerges to reclaim misappropriated industrial land while accentuating features that inspire awe, while poetry provides an inroad to our understanding of place.

Coal fired power plants and ash ponds punctuate the shoreline of Lake Michigan.

Focusing on the 20 mile stretch from Marquette Beach to Michigan City reveals how these structures interrupt and reconfigure both the native ecology and how we interact with these spaces.

Industry looms large, yet the areas most threatened by contamination often remain invisible. A thorough examination of the history of resource exploitaion in the region may help prevent future degradation and environmental health awareness for all inhabitants.

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Northern Indiana Public Service Company was deemed partially responsible for the dumping of coal combustion by-products in a landfill four miles west in the town of Pines, Indiana. In May, 2002, the EPA found the groundwater to be contaminated with high levels of Boron and Molybdenum among other residuals from coal ash.

Pines remains a superfund site, and though residents no longer drink well water, I sought out to investigate how this contamination might reach nearby aquifers and even Lake Michigan. A deep dive into dune geology and hydrology resulted in the above drawing. On the right, oblique aerials of the coast contrast against dune poetry, highlighting shifting connotations of sand through history.

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Michigan City’s port was once surrounded by dunes, as seen below in an 1869 aerial rendering and 1876 coastal chart. Where the NIPSCO coal plant now stands, a particularly tall dune nicknamed the Hoosier Slide once prevailed. After sand mining completely leveled the dune, the coal plant took its place and expanded its footprint with slag and industrial fill.

These schematic designs aim to reconcile the lost dunes without fully erasing the city’s industrial identity.

Some structures would be reinterpreted as grids and lines of planted trees such as cottonwood, while dunes would be reconstructed with sand dredged from the inlet. These dunes would then naturally feed sand in front of Mt. Baldy, which perpetually erodes.

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Desert Sponge Advanced Research Studio: Speculative Urban Landscapes for the Salton Sea Ila Berman and Clayton Strange Newly deemed “Lithium Valley,” the Salton Sea is a hydrologic dead-end. The dwindling of the Colorado River, alongside agricultural pollution from Imperial Valley, have destined the sea a lost cause. Yet while many focus on the perceived desolation of this landscape, there still exists a fragile abundance. By reimagining the water cycle and partnering with emerging lithium and geothermal businesses, a new model of ecological infrastructure can emerge that filters vital water, renews habitat, and bolsters California’s energy grid.

Desert Sponge reconceives pumped energy storage and combines it with natural infrastructure. Lithium, extracted from geothermal brine at the southern end of the Salton Sea, is coupled with geothermal energy production.

By pumping water from the sea into a network of cisterns in the surrounding mountains, the risk of energy overgeneration is minimized. The stored water thus serves as a hydroelectric battery, while a portion of water will be released into contsructed wetlands for desalination and decontamination before reentry to the sea and surrounding habitats.

The unique geology and geothermal brine circulation of the Salton Trough Rift Zone.

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To spongify the desert, porous and fractal forms found in nature such as organic sponges, dry cracked earth, and leaf venation served as inspiration. Grasshopper and Rhino 3D were employed to create voronoi patterns that were adaptable in scale and depth. These patterns were then overlaid upon existing stream networks terminating in the salton sea. A catalog of components was then created that would enmesh to form a complete distribution and filtration system.

After water is pumped to the mountains, cisterns will store 50% of unprocessed water for energy regeneration while releasing 50% into desalination pools. These domed tanks will utilize evaporation and gravitational settling to remove salt as well as other mineral and organic contaminants. From there, water is released into shallow constructed wetlands. These wetlands hold water in the landscape, allowing the support and expansion of native vegetation. Water slowly seeps between the wetlands, as well as into the managed stream corridors, which connect water flow throughout the system. Water that seeps into the ground is not lost but further cleaned, ending up back in the Salton Sea or hydrating newly planted parklands. Meanwhile, housing and research centers provide residence for stewards and researchers of this new landscape typology, as well as allies in the growing renewable energy industry.

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Duck Creek Barrier Islands Natural Infrastructure Lab Brian Davis Just outside of Green Bay, Wisconsin, a long neglected creek empties into a vast wetland complex. However, invasive species, fluctuating lake levels, pollution, and ice shear have diminished these freshwater marshes for over a century. To expand, protect, and reinvigorate this landscape, barrier islands made from local dredge material were proposed.

Though much of the design was already in place, I made a key proposal for the barrier islands to overlap. This strategy followed iterative flow studies that aim to guide sediment accumulation northward while creating zones of protection on both windward and leeward sides. This proposal was adopted by the USACE Detroit District and Wisconsin DNR. After further wave and flow modeling, the project continues to move forward.

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“I’ve had the chance to review your team’s reconfiguration proposal and I support it...

I’d like to move forward with this type of configuration for our tech memo and the modeling.”

-Samantha Belcik, USACE Project Manager The schematic flow studies below led to the proposed changes in barrier island placement as seen on the concept drawing at right. Allowing the islands to overlap creates zones that are protected from wind and wave action on all sides, fortifying vegetation and combatting erosion.

Further, the overlap will direct sediment accumulation to the north where a robust marsh existed as seen in archival maps and aerial imagery.

At bottom, serial sections at ten year intervals demonstrate the progression of barrier island vegetation, the effect of fluctuating lake levels, and the development of distinct ecologocial zones.

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This rendering depicts the islands twenty years after installation at mean water level. Expanding habitat for piping plover and other migratory birds while still allowing recreational access channels to the bay is crucial to the design.

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