LIFT
A Very Special Thanks Goes Out To The Following For Your Support, Guidance, Friendship, and Faith In This Journey: John Koepke David Pitt Joseph Favour Rebecca Krinke Matthew Tucker Brad Agee Laura Musacchio Jonathan Blaseg Kristine Miller Craig Wilson Vince deBritto Egle Vanagaite Ozayr Saloojee
Stefano Ascari Michael Richardson Stephanie Erwin Michael Schiebe Amber Hill Erin Garnaas-Holmes Montana Harinsuit Steven Foss Kevin Belair Solange Guillame Emily Osthus David Kowen Ryan Ruttger Elissa Brown Stephen Himmerich
Kristan Ward Robert Kessler Judith Kessler Jonathan Kessler Kermath Ward Mary Beth Ward Annie Maggie & Ginger
Minneapolis-St.Paul International Airport
Lift is the component of force that is perpindicular to the direction of
oncoming flow in a fluid.
It is a cutting force; a force which enacts change. And it contrasts the parallel force, known as drag. If the fluid is air, its called aerodynamics If the fluid is water, hydrodynamics. But could the fluid be a system? Policy? State of mind? Could drag be the status quo? The “Good Enough�. And the force, Lift; Could it be a landscape?
A Project by Matthew Kessler
The Lift Landscape Lift is the very essence of the aviation industry, a force without which flight would be impossible. Without Lift there is no take-off, no landing, no “free to move about the cabin”. There’d still be peanuts but not in individual packs. This Lift this force comes at a price. The aviation industry is the #2 worldwide consumer of fossil fuels, a resource which is rapidly depleting. In response to evolving ethics towards sustainable solutions across the globe, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has begun issuing grants to individual airports to research place specific solutions to move the industry towards a more manageable carbon footprint.
In November of 2013 The MinneapolisSt Paul International Airport (MSP) under the governing body of the Metropolitan Airports Commission received just such a grant for $750,000, to begin their own site specific sustainability solutions study. It is under this pretext the concept of Lift is proposed.
Project
Conversation Over the past two decades the airport landscape has begun to be reclaimed by landscape architects around the world. In response to growing concerns regarding sustainable practices and lessening large-scale carbon footprints, attention is increasingly being paid to the airline industry as both a major current perpetrator of resource consumption and future opportunity for sustainable practices. Major projects are being undertaken in airports across the globe which aim to resolve some of the massive energy and fossil fuel requirements aviation demands. Despite this recent activity, the current scope of work is focused primarily on ‘easy energy’ systems like solar arrays and the construction of more efficient LEED certified terminal buildings or waiting
for defunct airport landscapes to be redesigned as parks. This leaves the larger landscape unresolved despite being a massive area deserving the same attention towards productivity and efficiency as is being paid to the structures. Airports represent a uniquely inhuman construction, a cultural landscape experienced in a state of removal. The charge of this project is to reconnect the airport landscape with its greater context of ecological systems, develop a more self-sufficient supply of energy, and redefine the human experience while seeking to improve the general safety of aviation operations.
Terms Approaching this topic demands an understanding of current FAA regulations for airport runway design to begin to set the rules for viable design alternatives. These rules can then be cross-referenced with the emerging body of research regarding unrealized alternative energy potential of airports and research regarding new landcover typologies which may be more beneficial at reducing hazardous wildlife. By proposing a program of renewable energy production in and around the airport facilities an understanding of both current airport landscape maintenance as well as common production methods and capacities of biomass facilities will need to be developed. This will allow for a secondary set of rules to be created to guide renewable energy placement
and realistic harvesting regimes and production circuits to be developed. Biomass for ethanol may not be the only option for alternative energy production. Solar arrays have already been established at the new Denver International and Indianapolis International Airports and could very easily be integrated into the program for Minneapolis-St. Paul. Finally, an understanding of avian ecology and habitat requirements for both hazardous and non-hazardous wildlife must be reached to siphon out habitat types which are incongruent with airport safety.
Discourse
Energy. Ecology. Safety. An emerging body of research by Animal- Plant Health Inspection Servce [APHIS-USDA] and the FAA has begun to challenge FAA standards regarding landcover practices on airfields and their draw for hazardous wildlife. These same researchers are also considering the unrealized potential for alternative energy production on the idle interstitial runway spaces of airports.
equivalent to the state of Rhode Island.
Airport landscapes have historically treated their runways and land holdings as single function swaths of tarmac and turf. They are designed to minimize the draw of wildlife hazardous to aircraft and as such require constant maintenance to keep thousands of acres of ground cover well mown. Current research estimates the amount of idle maintained land across US airports alone to equal roughly a size
With the global depletion of fossil fuel supplies, interest on biomassbased renewable energy has increased owing to a growing national desire for a self-dependent energy supply. National mandates have set targets for biofuel consumption which are under scrutiny for their effects on other land-dependent systems like agriculture and habitat.
The Aviation Industry also remains one of the world’s largest and fastest fossil fuel consumers using over 5,000,000 barrels of jet fuel per day in 2010. Perhaps these under-utilized lands could be used to produce some of the energy required to maintain this system within the estimated 15,000 airports in the United States alone.
The Metropolitan Airport Commission [MAC] which operates MSP admits that current sustainable practices on the airport grounds are largely ‘greenwashing’ tactics, things which would have been done regardless of public opinion and marketed as ‘green’ to improve the image of the operation. The commission recently applied for and received a $750,000 federal grant to develop a more integrated and forward thinking investigation towards sustainable and resilient practices to develop a framework for future projects. In this spirit this project proposes to investigate how these different bodies of research regarding avian and ecosystem ecology, renewable energy production, and phytoremediation can integrate and respond to create safer airports for humans and animals alike. MSP will act as a pilot
project to utilize the 47,000,000 square feet of idle land to begin to alleviate the massive footprint of the aviation industry in the Twin Cities.
Rationale
M is s
is s
ip
pi
Minneapolis
Minneapolis
Ri
ve r St Paul
St. Paul Mendota Heights Richfield
MSP
Bloomington
Eden Prairie
Minnesota River
MSP Regional Context
MSP Municipal Context
MSP Aerial View
Port The airport ranks 15th in North America for passenger traffic and is the 12th busiest in the US with over 32 million travelers annually and shares borders with 6 unique municipal entities although it maintains autonomous quasigovernmental status under the MAC. It is also a joint military and civilian airport as home to the National Guard Air Force base. MSP is uniquely located at the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers, perched atop a bluff adjacent to the lands of the Minnesota National River and Recreation Area National Park, in the Great Mississippi Flyway. As such the likelihood of catastrophic interactions between aircraft
and avian hazards are exaggerated and safety of airline passengers is of direct concern. Consequently the airport boundaries are also adjacent to the Fort Snelling Historic site and grounds as well as the Fort Snelling National Cemetary, the second largest military cemetary after Arlington, VA. Following construction of an additional runway in 2005, the airport is now completely surrounded by highways on all sides making any further construction either prohibitively expensive or will require a massive engineering project.
Why MSP
[1940s]
[1930s]
[1920s]
Originally the Twin City Motor Speedway, the larger oval infield created an easy target for racers and spectators coming in by bi-plane for the day.
Removal of the oval race track for the establishment of an airfield. MAC created to settle dispute between Minneapolis & St. Paul for control of the airport.
World War II anti-espionage measures.
[2000s]
[1950s]
[1970s]
History Jet Age begins, expansion for larger jet carriers in post-war aviation boom requires substantially longer runways.
Encroachment upon Fort Snelling Historic Site and construction of Terminal 1 site
Encroachment into Richfield to complete final runway. Hiawatha Light Rail Line runs underground through Terminals 1 & 2.
What & Who In the interest of public safety, stringent design guidelines have been developed regarding land uses on and around the airport landscape. These are outlined in the FAA Circular for Airport Design which recommends standards for storm drains, runway alignments, and Runway Protection Zones. For instance, FAR Part 139 requires that land adjacent to runways and taxiways be able to support aircraft that may depart a paved surface, and the ground must also support unimpeded travel of fire rescue vehicles, e.g., adjacent ground must be firm and void of depressions and water.
Different aircraft have specific needs regarding ground clearance from engines and resilience to exhaust thrust. Notably the lowest clearance under-wing turbines
belong to the Boeing 737 at 19.5 inches. In the event this aircraft is required to leave the runway surface, adjacent vegetation must not be long enough to be taken into the engine. The FAA maintains blanket policy of 10,000’ before ‘wildlife attractants’ may be built. In practice this rarely manifests itself as literally as they would like, and at MSP the south buffer is almost non-existent. This is by no means an exhaustive representation of the rules at play.Those documents are full texts of themselves Maintenance operations come with their own unique criteria to be met. All mowing and ground care must be done at night following the days’ final departures and arrivals. As they are tasked with keeping air traffic moving smoothly, maintenance
Rule Makers fleet vehicles must be able to move as freely as possible including de-icers, snow plows, and fire/rescue vehicles. A standard passenger jet costs on average $75 a minute to keep airborne past scheduled landing time. At MSP, having up to 40 in-bound aircraft is not uncommon in the winter when snow events are frequent. If ground maintenance is unable to clear the runways for landing the costs skyrocket. $75 x 40 = $3000 per minute.
FAA MAC ACI FBI TSA MPCA EPA DNR MNDOT US Fish & Wildlife Met Council National Park Service US Army US Navy Minnesota National Guard FedEx / UPS
Rules
40% of all North American Migratory Birds
Highway In The Sky MSP lies roughly within 1 mile of the Mississippi River and is therefore directly in the migration path for 40% of migratory birds who rely on the river for navigation across North America. This is a major conflict of interest and represents the largest draw of potentially hazardous avian wildlife through MSP. Intense continual efforts are in effect at MSP to deter hazardous wildlife from settling on airport grounds. These efforts are in large part due to the open expanses of turf grass and populations increase markedly following regular maintenance like mowing as countless invertebrates become exposed and are a vital food source for migratory bird species, namely geese and rock pigeons. When left unmainted however these tall grasses become habitat for flocks of starlings
which are one of the most common species to be struck at MSP. Current deterent techniques include lighting early morning explosives devices such as fireworks, firing paintballs into flocks on the ground, monitored selective hunts when necessary and good old fashioned “shoo-ing� by means of flailing arms and shouting obscenities. New research is currently underway exploring different land covers which are designed to better deter the most hazardous of species, rather than the typical shotgun approach of using turf to deter as many species as possible.
Flyway
$628 Million in Annual Losses Nationally
Wildlife Strikes Reported
Year
Safety First The FAA reports over 97.5% of wildlife collisions involve birds, most often in direct conflict with take-off and landing maneuvers which occur within approximately 10 miles of airport property although the most damaging strikes primarily occur within the final 2 miles of descent. The International Civil Aviation Organization [ICAO] is a United Nations specialized agency which enforces a set of mandatory operation standard which eliminates or prevents the establishment of any site in the vicinity of the airport which might serve as an attraction to birds and thereby present a danger to aviation. Analysis of strike data by Washburn indicates habitat management near airports plays a significant role in the frequency of wildlife strikes across the country. Therefore a wildlife-based
perspective to airport planning rather than a traditional airline perspective could increase safety for aviation and avian species alike. DeVault and others challenge the idea of all birds species being targeted and encourage a more specialized land use methodology which develops habitats unattractive to those most dangerous wildlife types. Still, bird strikes account for nearly 220 deaths in the last 25 years and is a real a present danger to the safe daily operations of the aviation industry.
Wildlife Strikes
FAA Identified Hazardous Wildlife Species Group
Damage
Major Damage
Species of Primary Concern at MSP Effect on Flight
Composite Ranking Relative Hazard Score
Deer
1
1
1
1
100
Vultures
2
2
2
2
54
Geese
3
3
6
3
55
Cormorant
4
5
3
4
54
Cranes
7
6
4
5
47
Eagles
8
9
7
6
41
Ducks
5
8
10
7
39
Osprey
8
4
8
8
39
Turkeys
9
7
11
9
33
Herons
11
14
9
10
27
Hawks
10
12
12
11
25
Gulls
12
11
13
12
24
Rock Pigeon
13
10
14
13
23
Owls
14
13
20
14
23
Larks
16
15
15
15
17
Brows
15
16
16
16
16
Coyotes
18
19
5
17
14
Mourning Dove
17
17
17
18
14
Shorebirds
19
21
18
19
10
Blackbirds
20
22
19
20
10
American Kestrel
21
18
21
21
9
Meadowlarks
22
20
22
22
7
Swallows
24
23
24
23
4
Sparrows
25
24
23
24
4
Nighthawks
23
25
25
25
1
[wildlife strikes]
Fleet Vehicle Biodiesel Candidates
Towards Self-Sufficiency In 2005 the Renewable Fuel Standard [RFS] was first established with the goal to mandate 7.5 billion gallons of biofuel to be used for the US transportation fuel supply by 2012. This mandate has been increased over time to 36 billion gallons by 2022. A prominent component of the critique of biomass of fuel production involves the increase in land clearing, loss of wildlife habitat, and change-over of former food crop land. Thus the true ‘carbon neutrality’ of biofuel production becomes suspect given the inherent lifecycle costs associated with land conversion DeVault [2012] et al. propose therefore that ideal locations for alternative energy production would contain large expanses of idle land, harbor relatively little wildlife, be mostly unsuitable for conservation
initiatives, and not compete with human food production. Airports then offer one of the few land holdings where reductions in wildlife abundance and habitat quality are necessary and socially acceptable, and where regulations discourage traditional commodity production. To date, only a single small test plot of 3 acres of biomass production has taken place on airport property in the US at the Detroit International Airport through the Michigan State University Extension Office.
Biomass
Cellulosic Ethanol Productivity
Regional Biomass Recommendation Hybrid Poplars
Switchgrass Reed Canary Grass
Willows Hybrid Poplars Silver Maple Black Locust
Hybrid Poplars Eucalyptus
Eucalyptus
Miscanthus Switchgrass Hybrid Poplars Silver Maple Reed Canary Grass Black Locust Sorghum
Switchgrass Poplar Tropical Grass Sycamore Sweetgum Sorghum Black Locust Miscanthus
980 Acres x 500 Gallons = 480,000 Gallons / 1800 Miles= 272 Vehicles
The Fuel Basket Then: Through a series of baseline calculations regarding idle maintained turf of the MnDOT seed mix found at MSP, the following baseline statistics and assumptions have been determined: - MSP currently maintains 47,000,000 square feet (980 acres) of ‘maintained’ lands. Starting with the assumption that an average of 6 tons of biomass per acre can be harvested annually, [On the high side of average nationally] consider that 6 tons of biomass typically distills to 250 gallons of lignocellulosic ethanol.
980 x 500 = 240,000 gallons of lignocellulosic ethanol per year.
The average automobile uses around 600 gallons of fuel annually and triple that for the average airport fleet vehicle.
240,000 / 1800 = 136 vehicles
able to be powered per year. That number takes the needs of airport fleet vehicles off the global oil grid.
Biomass
Fescue
Alfalfa
Sunflower
Towards Zero Impacts Minnesota’s harsh winter climate demands heavy consistent use of airplane de-icing chemicals for nearly half the year. Current FAA regulations mandate the use of aircraft de-icing fluids [ADF’s] but require only a 60% recapture rate of these chemicals. These are typically glycol mixtures sprayed by large hoses from lift trucks on specified de-icing platforms near each runway at a rate of around 1,000 gallons per aircraft. Much of the current debate regarding these ADF’s comes from the tolytriazole, an anti-corrosion chemical which can degrade soil and plant cell remediation capabilities of PG and cause aquatic toxicity. MSP in particular utilizes Propylene Glycol Types I and IV, two of the most
common mixtures available. These ADF mixtures vary but are typically comprised of 20-30% propylene glycol [PG], 0.05-0.2% tolytriazole, 1-2% surfactants and viscosity enhancers, 1-2% additives, 65-80% water.
Phytoremediation
Current research shows a number of plants are able to biodegrade glycol mixtures at a regular pace without negative affects on plant growth. These include certain fescues [Festuca ssp.] cattails [Typha ssp.] sunflowers [Helianthus ssp.] and alfalfas [Medicago ssp.].
The Lift Landscape The site now becomes a question of leverage. Specifically, how to leverage this capital investment to increase its visibility. Given MAC’s current greenwashing habit, this project should be adapted as the ultimate PR piece, a shining example of MAC and the FAA’s commitment to long-term sustainability and to the communitites who suffer in the wake of their noise and pollution.
It should become a place to reveal the spectacle of air travel and provide an educational experience to the communities of diverse user groups of the city. It should become a crucible of sustainable science through testing and engineering and re-define the relationship of human and airport, a relationship which has historically become more and more exclusive, more and more rapid, more and more uncomfortable. It should Lift the airport landscape in spite of the single-use status quo and propel itself towards a new future. With this in mind, the Lift facility is designed as a series of spaces in the spirit of these ambitions. It is a revelatory landscape of science and spectacle.
System
LIFT Testing Facility Mother Lake Cattails Airfield Harvest Zones Non/Minimal Harvest
Highway System To provide ethanol, Lift proposes the utilization of interstitial plantable land of MSP to be re-sown with a new seed mix designed to promote multi-functionality in three ways. First by maximizing biomass productivity at a yield of approximately 5 tons per acre. Second by managing airport pollution through remediation of typical airfield pollutants such as poly-propyleneglycol solutions, and third to design away as the USDA research has suggested from the beloved open grasslands of the rock pigeon, canada goose, and meadowlark.
MSP Acreages Highway Right of Ways 1037 Acre @ 100,500 Gal/Yr = 43% Total Acreage
Anterior Airfield Space 980 Acres @ 95,000 Gal/Yr
= 40% Total Acreage
Mother Lake Cattails 124 Acres @ 21,000 Gal/Yr
= 5% Total Acreage
Lift Testing Facility 270 Acres @ 30,000 Gal/Yr
= 11% Total Acreage
MSP Harvest Zones
Current Low Maintenance Seed Mix Low Maintenance / Grasses
3%
Agrostis alba
3%
Panicum virgatum
14%
Bromus inermis
3%
Phleum pratense
21%
Lolium perenne
14%
Poa compressa
6%
Medicago sativa
29%
Poa pratensis
Proposed Productive Seed Mix Biomass / Nitrogen / Glycol
10%
10%
10%
10%
v Festuca ssp.
Helianthus ssp.
Trifolium pratense
Medicago sativa
Propylene Glycol Remediants
Nitrogen Fixers 60%
Panicum virgatum
Typha latifolia
Populus ssp.
Biomass Producers Alternative Feedstocks
I-35W 390 Acres 100’
100’
Hwy 62 130 Acres Highway System This interior airport land however is not enough acreage to provide the biomass required to produce the quartermillion gallons necessary to reach fuel independence. As such, to complete the first tier of this project Lift proposes a partnership with MnDOT to utilize highway rights of way in the adjacent road system to supplement the biomass by utilizing the same proposed seed mix, which at its core is an altered version of the currently utilized ‘MnDOT 250’ mix. This partnership would allow miles of highway infrastructure to be transferred from MnDOT’s standard maintenance regime of mowing and heavy chemical suppressant use into a thicker, denser, more aesthetically and ecologically beneficial maintenance schedule designed to be harvested by the idle MAC mowing equipment by day which primarily mows at night due to safety.
40’
40’
40’
I-494 170 Acres 100’
100’
Hwy 77 85 Acres 50’
40’
50’
Hwy 110 70 Acres 50’
40’’
50’
MnDOT Harvest Zones
Mall of America 57 Restaurants
Grease System In order to provide bio-diesel Lift proposes to utilize the waste cooking oil from the 92 restaurants in MSP’s Terminal 1, Terminal 2, and nearby Mall of America. Collection systems are already in place by a third party who produces biofuels for private sale. This is merely a modification of a system already in place to move towards fuel independence by processing these materials on site to produce 256,000 gallons annually. This volume is great enough to provide fuel for 180 MSP fleet vehicles.
Grease Based Diesel System Terminal 1
27 Restaurants
Terminal 2 8 Restaurants
The Lift Landscape The site now becomes a question of leverage. Specifically, how to leverage this capital investment to increase its visibility. MAC currently self-identifies most of the items on its Airport Sustainabiity projects list as being “greenwashing,” - that is - things they did or would have done regardless, which were compiled retroactively onto a list and labelled ‘sustainable. This site then should be adapted as the ultimate PR piece, a shining example of MAC and the FAA’s commitment to long-term sustainability and to the communitites who suffer in the wake of their noise and pollution.
It should become a place to reveal the spectacle of air travel and provide an educational experience so the communities of diverse user groups of the city. It should become a crucible of sustainable science through testing and engineering, and re-define the relationship of human and airport, a relationship which has historically become more and more exclusive, more and more rapid, more and more uncomfortable. It should Lift the airport landscape in spite of the single-use status quo and propel itself towards a new future. With this in mind, the Lift facility is designed as a series of spaces in the spirit of these ambitions. It is a revelatory landscape of science and spectacle.
Design
The Site With Tier 1 producing cellulosic ethanol and Tier 2 producing biodiesel in place conceptually, land was needed for the facilities to be sited on an airport which ranks among the most spatially dense in the country. Through overlay analysis an interesting site emerged in the northwest corner of the MSP property where approximately 250 acres of land owned by MAC and the City of Minneapolis lies primarily dormant. Current uses include the ecologically suppressed Mother Lake, the Now Boarding Dog Kennel, FAA and MAC Corporate Offices, and the MAC maintenance facility where most of the vehicles are currently stored and fueled.
The site also features infrastructure on an epic scale and a remnant of the Wenonah neighborhood which has slowly been carved away over time as the airport footprint has grown. With an average home value of just under $90K and lying in the 70dB average noise level zone the homes are old and aging rapidly. Devoid of logical re-investment their values are plumetting, and the Lift proposal assumes their eventual removal by the City of Minneapolis.
Structure On-Site 62 Total Buildings Site Footprint 297 Acres
Vehicle Access Visual Access
Mother Lake Watershed 380 Acres Major Adjacent Arteries MSP Footprint 3400 Acres Mississippi River Lake Nokomis
Snelling Lake Mother Lake
Minnesota River
Taft Lake
Stormwater Ponds
Water Bodies Lake Nokomis Park
Runway Safety Zones
Fort Snelling Golf Course Bossen Field Park
Veteran’s Memorial Park
Flight Paths 8 Unique Routes
National Cemetary
Taft Park
Decibel Level Zones
Base Composite
Approach Over Mother Lake
Approach Over Highway 62
Mother Lake
MAC Corporate Facility
Wenonah
Empty Field
Security Fence
Bossen Field Park 28th Avenue
Highway 62
MAC DVOR Transmitter
Community Garden
MSP Security Fence Wenonah Neighborhood
Secure MAC Property
Now Boarding FAA Regional Office Mother Lake
MAC Corporate Office MAC Maintenance Office
Unofficial Airport Dog Park
1
0
2
4
3 8
6
7
9 10
14
11
12
15
13
16
21 18 23
19
20
22 24
17
5
Design Elements 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
Alpha Ampli-shelter Tetragon Entry Green Visitor Parking Annex Vortex Stormwater Retention Stormwater Matrix Now Boarding Pet Facility Apex New Trees Prairie Matrix FAA Regional Office Tangent Lowland Forest Asterix MAC Corporate Office Cattail Matrix Knowledge Deck Steam Matrix Biodiesel Facility Axis Vertex Ethanol Facility
Annex
Alpha
Vortex
Tetragon
Matrix
Asterix
Axis
Delta
Vertex
Apex Tangent
Delta
Annex
Annex A
Annex Viewing Theater Section 0’
5’
A - A’ 10’
A’
A user might begin at the beginning, at the entry. Either by car exiting off Highway 62 or down 28th avenue into the ANNEX - a parking area designed around a raised gazing theater to witness the take-off and landing of flights from Runway 12L. The theater provides just 12 seats in sets of 3 in an attempt to create and maintain a rare intimacy with the aircraft, re-enacting the global act of plane watching on the angled gazing couches.
A
Parking Lot Driveway
Lighting Bollard
Aluminum Gazing Frame Glass Gazing Panel 135o Aluminum Gazing Couch 5’ Gazing Raised Platform
12’ Chain Link Security Fence
A’
5’ Raised Gazing Theater
o
135 Reclined Gazing Couch
Glass Inset Gazing Theater
12’ Security Fence
Airfield Biofuel Planting
Alpha
Alpha
Alpha Entry Plaza Section 0’
10’
B - B’ 20’
B’
B
The ALPHA entry is a space designed as though modern infrastructure were a treated with the sacred formality of an ancient temple in order to re-frame our visual understanding of these pieces of equipment as users enter from the neighborhood above, or Bossen Field Park during the fevered excitement of little league action on a Saturday morning.
B
Overflow Lawn
Framed Infrastructure
DVOR
70’ Diameter Emitting Surface
3’ Diameter Support Column 15’ Diameter Central Column
Overly Dramatic Base Lighting
B’
Gathering Lawn
Street Entry
Tetragon
Tetragon C’
C
C
Tetragon Dog Park Section 0’
20’
C - C’ 40’
The central promenade axis leads into the Tetragon dog park, a new version of a previously unfenced and unregulated use at the south end of the site, wrapping around and through these re-framed infrastructural elements of the DVOR, basically a large aircraft scaled GPS transponder unit with its two associated booster antenna. The form of the fence and tree plantings create a forced perspective, narrowing as they near the DVOR increasing the perceived scale of the structure as the central path is processed through a sea of frolicking pups.
Smalldog Area
Ampli-Shelter
40
2” Aluminum Bar
” ’-0
3/8” Inset Safety Glass
12’-8” Clearance
9’-9” Radius Wood Platform 18” Concrete Footing 25’
-0”
C’
Booster Tower
Play Area
Frolicking Pup
DVOR
Security Fence
Vortex
D’
D
Vortex
Vortex Drain Bridge Section 0’
20’
D - D’ 40’
The entry splits into two directions, parallel experiential runways in the spirit of the footprint of MSP originating from similar circumstance but diverting into diverse tangent arcs like flight paths. The lower tangent moves first through the VORTEX bridge, an experimental wetland retention pond which captures the storm runoff from the hardscape of the corportate facilities before it enters the the Minneapolis sewer system. Designed for up to 150,000 cu/ft of water, the bridge bursts forth with aquatic effulgence during rain events to showcase and signify the act of its capture.
D
Now Boarding
Infiltration Prairie
Matrix Paths
3’-6” Handrail Wood Plank Gangway Steel Support Structure 6” Embedded Drain Pipes 1” Exterior Drizzle Pipes
D’
Storage Pond
Drizzle Pipes
Vortex Bridge
Matrix
E’
E
Matrix
Matrix Planting Section 0’
5’
E - E’ 10’
This water is then utilized in one of the test pods of the MATRIX, the large biomass testing facility which runs down the central spine of the site, edged by existing parking areas on the east and the existing ridgeline on the west. This matrix will evolve over time as needs and science dictate, but has been initally set up for algaes, mixed prairire grasses, bamboo species, switchgrass, and cattails in conjunction with mother Lake.
E
18” Seating Edge
Secondary Traipseway
First Date
Mixed Prairie Testing Plots
Pond Fed Drip Irrigation Experimental Planting Medium Rubberized Planting Bed Liner Filter Mesh Heated Steam Pipes Exterior Path Lights Aluminum Raised Planting Bed Overflow Drain Adjacent Walkway
E’
Primary Traipseway
Algae Stormwater Tests
Apex
F
F’
Apex
Apex Sky Bridge Section 0’
As one sinks below grade towards the cattails of Mother Lake, the second tangent arc stretches above. 22’ over the lower tangent arc and stretching almost 2000’ from end to end the APEX is a raised curving arc with an accessible stepped theater to separate the movers from the shakers. It is an epic place of theater for viewing the incoming aircraft from runway 12R and 17 over the shallow murky and now relatively bird-free waters of Mother Lake.
F
Tangent Walkway
20’
F - F’ 40’
Lower Platform
3’6” Safety Railing 12’ Wide Upper Walkway .3%
.3%
Apex Peak 18” Step Down / 3 6” Risers 10’ Wide Lower Gazing Platform 22’ Support Beam 3’-6” Safety Railing 6’ Wide Lower Gangway
Cattails
Apex Peak
Landscape Students
Mother Lake
F’
Tangent
G’
G
Tangent
Tangent Cattail Walkway Section 0’ 20’
G - G’ 40’
The lower tangent arc leads deeper out into the marsh below, and as it narrows, provides provisions to step off the path to gather, wait, watch, think, chat, rest, or catch grasshoppers as they move through the marsh. It is a smaller more intimate place for the experience of aircraft and one another.
G
Apex Peak
Waning Moon
Runway 12R
6’ Wide Lower Gangway
3’6” Safety Railing
10’ Wide Raised Gazing Platform 6” Step
G’
Tangent Curve
Lower Platform
Runway 17
Asterix
H
H’
H
Asterix
Asterix Celestial Storage Tanks Section 0’ 20’
H - H’ 40’
The lower tangent returns to shore into the matrix at the ASTERIX, a chemical and fuel storage tank yard designed to re-imagine the airport’s role in the atmosphere. Despite being a landscape and infrastructure primarily concerned with the sky, the lights required for safe airfield operations create such dense light pollution that the stars are no longer visible in the night sky. Thus the tanks are given a floating exterior skin which is perforated with the patterns of constellations and back lit to provide a space a place for learning about the celestial vaccuum in a a landscape devoted to the sky.
H
Biodiesel Facility
Storage Tanks
Floating Exterior Aluminum Skin Drilled Constellation Patterns
Internal Light Source Standard Storage Tank
Educational Experience
H’
Amateur Astrologists
Seating Edge
Celestial Diagrams
Axis
Axis
I
I’
Axis
Axis Education Theater Section 0’ 10’
I - I’ 20’
The asterix tanks are adjacent to the sited production facilities and the large dueling theaters of the AXIS. The space between the diesel and ethanol facilities each of which feature large viewing windows as the centrum to a small amphitheater both similar in evoking the invisible shapes of the airport landscape and different in their physical shapes much like the internal functions of their related structures. These spaces are meant to expose the process of fuel production and create accessible science and inate learning opportunities. Both buildings are designed conceptually to be more than a white box, but rather to be inviting and functional, and where appropriate, open to the public.
I
Biodiesel Facility
Glass Hallway
Diesel Theater
Community College Chemists
Cellulosic Theater
The building shapes are reminiscent of these same invisible airport geometries, from outward radiating radar circles to the runway hashes forming repeating V’s. The shapes are gestural, more as a question of what the structures could be if not the white box. But perhaps the tanks could appear as beakers and the building provide a puncture for their experience, in this case in the form of a large glass hallway which seperates the material storage, early processing, and production processing uses.
I’
Ethanol Facility
Chemical Beakers
Walkway Egress
Various Machinery Production Floor Sky Gazing Portal Production Gazing Portal
Floating Mesh Skin Garage Entry
North Elevation
I’
South Elevation
Material Storage/Receiving Room Vegetation Processing Room Internal Glass Walkway Processing Gazing Portal Production Room
Chemical Storage Tanks Production Gazing Portal
East Elevation
West Elevation
Production Facility Elevations 40’ 1”=20’ 0’
80’
Vertex
Vertex J
J’
Vertex Test Plot Section 0’ 40’
A central path leads out from the axis back through the descending matrix of steam-heated bamboo planters to test future viability of biomass plants given the impending realities of climate change through a stop off-gathering point called the Knowledge Deck down to the final theater, the VERTEX. Located as close as permitted to the edge of the runway 12R and shaped by the invisible forces of its associated runway safety area the viewing platform is nestled in a series of test matrix plots for cattails only a few hundred feet below the belly of incoming and outgoing aircraft. This is a spectacle earned through the long traverse and circulates back through the network to the entry.
J
Viewing Deck
J - J’ 80’
Cattail Testplots
Cattail Planting Plot
Cattail Planting Plot Mesh Walkway
Gazing Theater
Flush Wetland Edge
J’
DVOR Disc
Apex Curve
Steamvent Testplots
Knowledge Deck
The Lift Landscape The Lift project proposes not only a system of production to move the airline industry forward towards fuel independence, but a landscape which leverages the investment in science and spectacle, re-inventing the very nature of the modern airport landscape as a place for the future, a space for knowledge, and a theater for people. It is a place to lift the eyes and conscience, raise the functionality of our infrastructure and develop a new relationship with a lost landscape.
Finale
DeVault, Travis L., Michael J. Begier, Jerrold L. Belant, Bradley F. Blackwell, Richard A. Dolbeer, James A. Martin, Thomas W. Seamans, and Brian E. Washburn. 2013. Re-Thinking Airport Land-cover Paradigms: Agriculture, Grass, and Wildlife Hazards. Berryman Institute Journal 7(1):10-15 DeVault Travis L., Jerrold L. Belant, Bradley F. Blackwell, James A. Martin, Jason A. Schmidt, Wes L. Burger Jr, and James W Patterson Jr. 2012 . Airports Offer Unrealized Potential for Alternative Energy Production. Environmental Management 49:517–522 Schmidt, Jason A., Brian E. Washburn, Travis L. DeVault, and Thomas W. Seamans. 2013. Do Native Warm-season Grasslands Near Airports Increase Bird Strike Hazards? American Midland Naturalist Journal 170:144-157
Feedstock Transportation Alternatives, Logistics, Equipment Configurations, and Modeling. Biofuels, Bioprod. Bioref. 6:351-362 Fargione, Joseph E., Thomas R.Cooper, David J. Flaspohler, Jason Hill, Clarence Lehman, Tim McCoy, Scott McLeod, Erik J. Nelson, Karen S. Oberhauser and David Tilman. 2009. Bioenergy and Wildlife: Threats and Opportunities for Grassland Conservation. Bioscience Magazine 59:767-777 Roth, Amber M., David W. Sample, Christine A. Ribic, Laura Paine, Daniel J. Undersander, and Gerald A. Bartlet. 2005. Grassland Bird Response to Harvesting Switchgrass as a Biomass Energy Crop. Biomass and Bioenergy 28(14):490-498
Walker Arron, and Andrew Rowlings. 2013. Sustainable Energy Options for the Future Airport Metropolis. Special Paper Prepared for the Airport Metropolis Research Project
McLaughlin, S.B., and M.E. Walsh. 1998 . Evaluating Environmental Consequences of Producing Herbaceous Crops for Bioenergy. Biomass and Bioenergy 14(4):317324
Martin James A., Jerrold L. Belant, Travis L. DeVault, Bradley F. Blackwell, Loren W. Burger Jr, Samuel K. Riffel and Guiming Wang. 2011. Wildlife Risk to Aviation: A Multi-Scale Issue Requires A Multi-Scale Solution. Human-Wildlife Interactions 5(2):198-203
Robertson Bruce A., Patrick J. Doran, Elizabeth R. Loomis, J. Roy Robertson and Douglas W. Schemske. 2011. Avian Use of Perennial Biomass Feedstocks as Post-Breeding and Migratory Stopover Habitat. Public Library of Science 6(3):1-9
Braathen Nils A., Phillipe Crist, Ruth Delzeit, Christian Hood, Timothy Searchinger, Anselm Eisentraut and Ron Steenblik. 2012. Green Growth and the Future of Aviation. Special Paper Prepared for the 27th Round Table on Sustainable Development
Bakker Kristel K. and Kenneth F. Higgins. 2009. Planted Grasslands and Native Sod Prairie: Equivalent Habitat for Grassland Birds? Western North American Naturalist 69(2):235-242
Wang Zidong D., Edward T. Yu, James A. Larson and Burton C. English. 2013. Greenhouse Gas Emission of an Economically Optimized Switchgrass Supply Chain for Biofuel Production. Selected Paper Prepared For Presentation at the Southern Agricultural Economics Association Annual Meeting. Orlando, Florida. Miao, Zewei, Yogendra Shastri, Tony E. Grift, Alan C. Hansen and K.C. Ting. 2011 . Lignocellulosic Biomass
U.S. Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration. 2011 . Airside Applications for Artificial Turf. [Special Issue] Advisory Circular 1-10 Blackwell Bradley F., Travis L. DeVault, Esteban Fernandez-Juricic and Richard A. Dolbeer. 2009. Wildlife Collisions with Aircraft: A Missing Component of LandUse Planning for Airports. Landscape and Urban Planning 93:1-9
Fike John H., David J. Parrish, Dale D. Wolf, John A. Balasko, James T. Green Jr, Monroe Rasnake and John H. Reynolds. 2006. Long-term Yield Potential of Switchgrassfor-biofuel Systems. Biomass and Bioenergy 30:198-206 Washburn, Brian E. and Thomas W. Seamans. 2013. Managing Turfgrassto Reduce Wildlife Hazards at Airports. In Wildlife in Airport Environments. ed. Travis L. Devault, Bradley F. Blackwell, and Jerrold L. Belant, 79-90. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. Martin James A., Tara J. Conkling, Jerrold L. Belant, Kristin M. Biondi, Bradley F. Blackwell, Travis L. DeVault, Esteban Fernandez-Juricic, Paige M. Schmidt and Thomas W. Seamans. 2013. Wildlife Conservation and Alternative Land Uses at Airports. In Wildlife in Airport Environments.ed. Travis L. Devault, Bradley F. Blackwell, and Jerrold L. Belant, 79-90. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. Belant Jerrold L., Travis L. DeVault and Bradley F. Blackwell. 2013. Conclusions and Directions. In Wildlife in Airport Environments. ed. Travis L. Devault, Bradley F. Blackwell, and Jerrold L. Belant, 117-125. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. DeVault, Travis L., Washburn, Brian E.. 2013. Identification and Management of Wildlife Food Resources at Airports. In Wildlife in Airport Environments. ed. Travis L. Devault, Bradley F. Blackwell, and Jerrold L. Belant, 79-90. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Bibliography