Rachel Anderson: Portfolio

Rachel Anderson

Horticulturist & Land Designer

Expanded view of the South Shore Neighborhood Main Street split projection drawing. Dimensions and locations for road lanes, intersections and corners, parking, pedestrian zones, crosswalks, lighting, bicycle amenities, sidewalk cafes, building entrances, bus stations and stops, bump-outs, and trees are adapted from the recommendations put forth in the Chicago and Boston Complete Streets Guides.

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Contents 04 What makes a park

remarkable?

24 What makes a

neighborhood sustainable?

40 What makes a

garden grounded?

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What makes a park remarkable?

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One River One Park

The River Valley Park System Ames, Iowa The Skunk River flows along the east side of Ames and serves as a unique recreational and ecological amenity for the city. Currently, the river is lined by a conglomeration of disassociated parks which offer only limited visual and physical access to the water itself. The One River One Park proposal functions to unite these community treasures into one larger place centered on experiencing the Skunk River. At the heart of the design lies a series of five bridges which link existing trails on both sides of the river while each offering a distinct and memorable kind of interaction with the water’s edge.

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Parks Study Revelations This One River One Park proposal showcases the specialness of Skunk River–the thread that links River Valley Park’s 8 public areas. When looking at the parks of Ames, one can see that most of them are on riparian land; however, only River Valley Park and its adjacent parks provide a distinctly riverside experience.

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The Skunk River feels different than the city’s other creeks and streams because it is much wider and deeper. This proposal aims to play up these aspects to enhance the park’s recreational opportunities and differentiate it from others in town.

pedestrian bridge

paved trail

links Meadowlane Ave to trail system

2.1 miles along Skunk River

distinctive boundary

cross country trail system

Norway spruces at cemetery

groomed for skiing, jogging, and hiking

area for growth

bucolic parkland

current farm field

rolling hills with mature trees

sports fields

skunk river dam

popular for soccer, little league, and baseball

good fishing spot

riparian buffer woods mitigate flooding and prevent erosion

park shelters 3 shelters with playgrounds

“plunk-itis�

confusing roads

play areas placed without relation to each other or the park as a whole

winding loops and dead ends make park hard to navigate

poor street presence

awkward places

unenticing to 13th Street passersby

parking lot swallows bridge experience, trails seem disconnected

dead end trails stops at farm, south boundary

weak entrances lacking threshold cues

unsafe crossing fast and frequent traffic

water treatment plant city wants to limit accessibility

Assets and Barriers The River Valley Park Series is currently underutilized, despite valuable amenities like the Skunk River Trail and the Skunk River Dam. This deficit can be explained by a lack of legibility manifested in poor street presence, confusing circulation, and arbitrary placement of program elements.

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Trail Linkages

Making a Large Park At over 460 acres, the River Valley Park series has the potential to act as a signature destination for Ames. As discussed by landscape theorist Julia Czerniak in her 2007 essay, “Legibility + Resilience,” designing a large park has its own particular challenges. The One River One Park design focuses on increasing the site’s legibility and resilience to transform it from a string of parks to a cohesive system with cultural staying power.

Legibility and Resilience Legibility within a park allows users to understand the contextual, biological, organizational, and methodological logics of its design. It involves the cultivation and communication of intentions and goals, character and organization, and image and marketing. The One River One Park design reconfigures the connection, identity, and organization of the park to create maximum legibility. The design’s five bridges, in particular, accomplish this by emphasizing the experience of the Skunk River as a thread linking a network of places.

Resilience enables a park to absorb and facilitate change while still maintaining a clear design sensibility.

Creating resilience involves the design of organizational systems at various scales which facilitate ecological and social connectivity. The One River One Park design has resilience because of its treatment of the riparian ecosystem. Instead of incorporating bio-inhibiting flood control measures, the river is allowed to do what it wants. Rip rap along the banks is removed and flexible woodland and wetland ecotones can evolve over time to hold soil and repair the riverbanks.

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Water Access

Signature Boundary

Unique Place Experiences

River Views

Remarkable Entrances

Consolidated Programs

adventure ropes course skunk river trail cross country ski trails homewood municipal golf course relic riparian woodland expanded prairie reconstruction skunk river dam constructed wetland expanded floodable parkland 13th street entrance norway spruce stand sports field complex ames municipal cemetery 6th street trail connection cross country ski trails

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Indiana Jones Adventure Bridge This bridge provides a critical connection between the west and east sides of the Skunk River at the north end of the park system. The steep wooded bluffs provide the opportunity for an experience akin to flying through treetops.

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The midsection of the park system at the river is a flat, sandy floodplain. Floods leave behind debris of branches and stones which are interesting to see but hard to navigate. The Hovering Bridge provides access to the riverside sandbars while allowing users to interface with the floodplain’s rough surfaces.

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Four new bridges...

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Stair Bridge The grand, bowing Stair Bridge peaks up above the trees and can be viewed from afar by trail users and motorists on the street. In this way, it serves as a wayfinding landmark and as a signature element which beckons people to the Skunk River.

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Overdam Bridge E

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The dam in the southern half of the park is necessary for flood control along the Skunk River, but its dynamism and intensity also make it an attractive experience for people. The Overdam Bridge allows users to interact with the dam in an intimate way by getting close to the churning water.

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four distinct experiences.

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Overdam Bridge This design puts users close to the power and excitement of the moving water and gives them places to sit, look, and fish. Low railings and see-through surfaces add to this effect. Willows replace rip rap on the riverbanks to stabilize the soil and provide habitat, while offering spatial enclosure.

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Indiana Jones Adventure Bridge This design was inspired by the Swinging Bridge in Columbus Junction, built in 1922 (pictured left).

Users are placed high above the water to feel the sway of the breeze and hear the creak of their footsteps. The tension of this experience is meant to provide users a safe thrill. The bridge links the trails on both sides of the river to the northernmost park and proposed ropes course, which would continue the theme.

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Stair Bridge The steep banks of the river (pictured left) are mitigated here and replaced with gradual slopes held in place by wetland vegetation. With a more accessible edge, children and students can interact with and study this aquatic ecosystem. Contrastingly, the Stair Bridge takes users up into the treetops. Its design, inspired by the West 8 Python Bridge in Amsterdam (pictured right), aims to give the feeling of walking on air.

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Hovering Bridge This bridge is extremely low to the water so that users may dangle their feet and throw skipping stones. In a flood situation, it draws up and out of the way of large logs. A boardwalk of the same driftwood-inspired material connects the bridge to the trail.

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Trail Enhancements The Skunk River Trail is the park’s most valuable recreational asset, and the One River One Park design aims to maximize its usefulness and experiential qualities.

Augmentations include trail resurfacing with stamped concrete and trailside amenities like benches, solar lighting, and signage which mimic the materiality of the existing Lloyd S. Kurtz Bridge.

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New Entrances Street entrance designs with views of the river (above) and signature signage (below) increase the park’s legibility and appeal.

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What makes a neighborhood sustainable?

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Expanded view of the South Shore Neighborhood plan. A hierarchical grid street network; tightly-spaced shade trees (25 feet on-center); short blocks (300 feet on-center); compact streetscapes; and building-occupied street frontage with backside parking courts increase walkability and activate the street, thus keeping its amenities accessible to South Chicago’s largely transit-dependent population.

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Lakeside

South Shore Neighborhood Chicago, Illinois The Lakeside Master Plan is a proposal for the redevelopment of six hundred acres of post-industrial property along Chicago’s southeastern lakefront. Formerly the U.S. Steel South Works Mill, this landscape produced the framework for Chicago’s skyline before operations closed in 1995. Its reclamation stands as a powerful opportunity to reconnect South Chicagoans with Lake Michigan while providing the city with a new international destination. This design explores how a new network of sustainable neighborhoods and parks can strengthen the existing urban fabric and restore the land’s ecological worth.

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Rainbow Beach Park

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Lakeside links to Chicago’s transportation infrastructure: the Skyway, Metra, Lakeshore Drive, Calumet River and Lake Michigan.

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Above: These mammoth 25-foot-high concrete ore walls once stored ore arriving from cargo ships via the North Slip.

The Old Mill, Now Lakeside The area has remained largely undeveloped since Southworks steel mill closed, except for Lakeshore Drive that connects the site to Chicago’s waterfront park system. Defunct ore walls and the downtown skyline stand as landmarks thanks to the landscape’s subtle topography and its protrusion into Lake Michigan.

The site at Lakeshore Drive.

Ore walls at the North Slip.

Several social centers and outdoor interactions between residents gave the impression of a culturally vibrant community.

Community Studies

South Chicago is walkable with small front yards and mature shade trees.

79th, 83rd, 87th, and Commercial Avenue (pictured) are hubs of local business.

Lakeside and the area to the south have historically been important industry hubs, adjacent to a major international shipping port. Steelworkers lived just inland in dense blocks of narrow, three-story houses.

Most current residents are heavily dependent on public transit and many households do not have a vehicle.

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Left: Two proposed high-density neighborhood areas, circled, complement four existing transit-oriented developments (TODs) and tap into the major transportation infrastructure. Lower-density land uses are reserved for areas near Lake Michigan, the city edge, with parks and preserves protecting the shoreline.

Bottom: North-facing section of Main Street. Building heights increase as Lakeshore Drive is approached from the West. Michigan Park emulates Chicago’s Grant Park by acting as the commercial hub’s front yard while serving as a public green space.

A Sustainable Master Plan This design utilizes sustainable neighborhood and transit-oriented development models to house a comprehensive, graduated array of densities and land use types stitched together by a hierarchical road system.

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Left: South Shore neighborhood plan. Regional mixed-use lands line Lakeshore Drive to serve a regional population while Main Street contains local mixed-use lands to serve neighborhood residents.

Parks stand as buffers between the two types.

High-Density Living The South Shore neighborhood acts as a model Lakeside community. At its heart is Main Street, a dense four-block strip of parks, civic buildings, and high-rise apartments with groundfloor storefronts. Through an inviting and vibrant streetscape, the design will encourage use by pedestrians, cyclists, and motorists alike and ultimately foster economic growth and community interaction.

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Top Left: The benefits of city trees span economic, environmental and social dimension Top Right: Improper city tree space design and management create conditions for unhealthy, stunted trees.

Bottom: Detail of tree system with permeable paving and silva cell grid that provides enough water to South Shore’s trees.

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Rainwater infiltrates through permeable paving into silva cell soil where it is uptaken by tree roots.

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Sustaining an Urban Canopy Growing trees on a city street comes with many challenges. Commonly, these involve soil/plant/water relationships. This proposal’s dense network of trees and biologically active soil, sustained by a structural cell grid beneath permeable paving, is designed to slow water down and soak it up where it falls. Along with re-

ducing runoff, the community of plants and microbes will work to filter soil, water, and air by intercepting and metabolizing pollutants before they can reach the lake. The plan includes a diverse population of native and adapted tree species to increase its resiliency and add habitat value for indigenous insects and birds.

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Neighborhood Main Street Parkway Boulevard Neighborhood Connector Neighborhood Residential

Complete Streets for the Grid The hierarchical street network of the Lakeside and South Shore plans utilizes Chicago’s existing grid, making it easy and efficient for residents, commuters, and visitors to navigate. Moreover, five distinct street types complement their associated land uses to create a variety of experiences. Complete streets principles activate the landscape by encouraging several modes

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of transportation, including pedestrian and vehicular as well as cycling and public transit. The Main Street plan utilizes complete streets principles to activate the landscape and foster economic growth and community interaction. This dynamic streetscape hinges upon maximum tree coverage to mitigate stormwater and enhance the pedestrian and motorist experience.

Neighborhood Main Street Main Street is distinguished from other street types by its elaborate lighting, tree furniture, and paving treatments. Eight distinct species of the majestic oak also give specialness and coherency to this important streetscape while maintaining biodiversity.

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Neighborhood Residential The Neighborhood Residential street type is designed to service local traffic. It encourages interaction between neighbors, who can socialize comfortably under the protection of their front porches and a diverse array of shade trees.

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Neighborhood Connector The Neighborhood Connector street type acts as a thoroughfare between neighborhoods, accommodating continuous walking, bicycling, and public transit routes.

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Boulevard The Boulevard street type embodies Lakeshore Drive in Lakeside’s major commercial sector. Higher levels of non-local traffic are accommodated by a wider vehicle realm, with large medians and furniture zones buffering it from pedestrian users.

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Parkway Lakeshore Drive takes the form of a Parkway street type where it abuts Michigan Park. Here, bicyclists and pedestrians are separated from the roadway and safe from high vehicle speeds. A silva cell network prevents foot traffic from compacting tree root zones.

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What makes a garden grounded?

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Expanded view of the Bell Road Park plan.

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Bell Road Park & Trail

Boone, Iowa This project embodies the transformation of a vacant lot into a landmark public space for downtown Boone, Iowa. The goal of this urban park is to feature the 54-piece Neal Goeppinger bell collection in a way that puts Boone on the map and delights tourists and residents.

There’s nowhere in the world like the Bell Road, a 49-mile paved trail along the Des Moines River Valley. Bells from the Goeppinger collection mark each mile and, free to sound, call travelers onward.

The community of Boone welcomes guests to the trail’s heart, Bell Road Park. Here, visitors may start their journey or rest along the way amongst the dappled shade of hickories.

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A Pocket Park for a Main Street The site is a vacant lot on the corner of Story Street and 8th Street in Downtown Boone. The city is interested in converting it to park space after a 3-story building was destroyed by fire in 2009.

Current Neal Goeppinger bell collection installation.

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Mr. Neal Goeppinger, a local resident, came to the city with a proposal to gift his life’s collection of historic bells, including specimens from schoolhouses and civic buildings from around the nation. It is the task of this design to utilize these bells in a way which brings people to town as a destination.

Far Left: Downtown project site.

Left: The Bell Road follows the scenic attractions already in place along the Des Moines River Valley.

Right: Stone stairs built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in Ledges State Park, one of several places of interest in the region.

Like No Other Trail Boone residents and representatives expressed the desire for their community to become a regional destination with help from the redesign of the 8th and Story lot. The Bell Road concept is an answer to this need. This 49-mile bicycle and pedestrian trail would connect Boone to the city of Des Moines and link scenic places along the Des Moines River Valley.

Its unique feature--a series of towering, interactive bell arches positioned every mile--would make it an international attraction while stimulating the local economy and enhancing the character of the region.

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Plants

bitternut hickory

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American hornbeam

black chokeberry

palm sedge

These species evoke the cool shade of the Des Moines River Valley woodland that characterizes the Bell Road trail.

Project site at 8th and Story Streets of Boone’s historic core.

Above: Aerial photograph of Bell Road Park model. Left: Detail of the arch featuring Goeppinger’s bells in the park and along the Bell Road.

Bell Road Park This design cultivates a sense of place through unique sensory landmarks like the proposed Bell Road Arch and map etched into the ground at the park entrance.

Regionally native plants remind visitors of what they might see along the trail.

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West-Facing Section-Elevation

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