Sophia Trinidad Landscape Architecture Portfolio

SOPHIA TRINIDAD LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE PORTFOLIO

SOPHIA TRINIDAD

Sophia Trinidad is a graduate of Rutgers University’s Landscape Architecture program and has a minor in Women and Gender Studies. She is currently employed as a Survey Technician at Stockton & Associates. She is most interested in exploring the intersections of design and social justice, with a heavy concentration in community involvement. She is a skilled hand and computer drafter and her other passions include writing, wood carving, and drawing the littlest moments of life.

CONTACT Sophia Trinidad 12 Roop Avenue Leonardo, NJ 07737 (723) 284-9866 sophiatrinidad4@gmail.com www.linkedin.com/in/sophia-trinidad

CONTENTS 1. WYCKOFF GARDENS 2. WHITE CITY AMUSEMENT PARK 3. DALS LÃ…NGED PARK PROJECT 4. MIDDLESEX GREENWAY 5. INSTITUTE FOR FOOD, NUTRITION, AND HEALTH

01

WYCKOFF GARDENS

COMMUNITY VALUES MAP Below illustrates the spatialization of residents’ comments collected from PlanGowanus.com. Areas are blocked off into 8 catergories, as shown in legend below.

These catergories correlate to what residents feel is most important in that area. Preferences and concerns in this public vision, as well as quotes from the residents, are also included.

“Thomas Greene Park is a rare oasis of trees and greenscape in the study footprint. I hope accessible park and open space increases with the rezoning and remediation of the canal” Residents desire more open space, and want the existing open space to be maintained

“Footbridge over the canal at certain streets - for pedestrians only”

Wycoff Gardens

Thomas Green Park, along with other open spaces, are key to the Gowanus residents

Safety is a big issue in this area; more pedestrian paths and street clean ups needed This area is very residential, so safety is something these residents focus on

Gowanus, New York

Lowlands

This project was completed for an undergraduate 3rd year studio. Graphics were completed by Devin Fields, Wes Masco, Jacob Choi, and myself.

Five groups of four students were tasked with creating community driven solutions for the fast-developing community of Gowanus, New York. Our group’s proposal aimed to connect NYCHA residents from Wyckoff Gardens to the proposed public amenities near the Gowanus Canal. To begin this process, our group visualized community values collected from plangowanus.com, shown in map left. These values became the main focus of the entirety of the project.

For the design process, we developed 6 block topologies to create context-sensitive building outlines. These typologies were then placed in dialogue with residents’ values, proposed connections, uses, and locations to arrive at community specific designs along the canal. This process was formulated so that it could evolve, be edited, and be revisited, as the community and environment faces a myriad of risks and opportunities in the coming years.

“The Carroll Street Bridge is one of my favorite things to paint and it also affords a nice view of the Union Street Bridge” Residents feel that historic/cultural buildings and spaces are disappearing Residents want existing historic/cultural sites to be protected, and old sites to be revived

“There should be trees / other plantings in these medians on 4th Avenue” Residents feel that the street trees, medians, and other forms of green infrastructure are lacking

Public Place

“No parking signs in this block are routinely ignored by city workers who leave vehicles parked illegally for days , making this street extremely narrow for all of the busy daily traffic it sees”

Site Boundaries Mixed-Use Space

Infrastructure problems like lack of trashcans, road/sidewalk quality, and street tree maintenance are apparent Infrastructure maintenance is a small step that goes a long way for the Gowanus residents

Cultural/Historic Landscape Social, Economic, Environmental Resiliency Pedestrian Safety Infrastructure

“This is not a dilapidated block that needs redevelopment, it is literally what makes Gowanus the neighborhood that it is”

Green Infrastructure

Residents feel that artist spaces and mixed use zoning is depleating, so people are moving away

Remidiation/ Contamination

To Gowanus residents, the diversity of zoning is equal to the vast diversity of the people

Public Open Space

Our group also placed high priority in addressing the existing proposals, zoning changes, and environmental concerns in Gowanus.

Residents understand that green infrastructure is not only attractive, but helps the environment as well

Afforable Housing

Research and map rendering by Devin Fields and Sophia Trinidad

DESIGN PROCESS

SITE Wyckoff Community First Floor Building West

Canal Front

COFFEE

BAR

Wyckoff Building East

Parkguide

Con Ed Lot

239 Nevins St

270 Nevins St

CSO Tank Park

495 Sackett St

RESTAURANT

MASTERPLAN ACTIVE FIRST FLOOR

VALUES

from Gowanus Framework, Open Houses & Wyckoff Community Principles

COFFEE

BAR

RESTAURANT

PARK GUIDE

woman/minority owned businesses access to water increased public space active ground floor uses cultural spaces

access to water increased open space improve pedestrian experience

relocated public pool access to water woman/minority owned businesses pedestrian safety

job training community learning center affordable housing active ground floor uses

mutliple landings for access to water land adjacent to canal to be public urban ecosystem on edge of canal

land adjacent to canal to be public all new construction under six stories connections west

small business incubator outdoor amenities affordable commercial amenities new buildings shorter than existing towers

small business incubator outdoor amenities affordable commercial amenities new buildings shorter than existing towers

dog walk area improved landscaping playground access creative stormwater management

outdoor amenities increased parking improved landscape affordable/ resident needed commercial amenities

early education facility community legal services cultural center improved quality of life for children

picnic and BBQ areas playground access dog walk area improved seating areas

affordable commercial amenities

GOWANUS FRAMEWORK

Community First Floor

women/minority owned businesses access to water increased public space Parkguide active ground floor uses

WYCKOFF GARDENS

SITE TYPOLOGIES

CANAL FRONT

WYCKOFF GARDENS

FOUNDATION in section

munity First Floor

affordable & market rate residential units

affordable & market rate residential units

active first floor

active first floor

Parkguide

affordable & market rate residential units

commercial/ business

open space

affordable & market rate residential units

active third floor active second floor

active first floor

active first floor

active second floor open space

active first floor

NEVINS ST POOL

CONNECTIONS

RESTAURANT

in plan

PARK FRONT HEADHOUSE PARK

TYPOLOGIES

LIBRARY AT DEGRAW

in plan

Parkfront

Corner Plaza

CORNER PLAZA

Parkfront

active first floor

Corner Plaza

active first Innerspaces floor

Innerspaces park front

park front

corner plaza

corner plaza park guide innerspace

active first floor

canal front

active first floor

canal front

GOWANUS WANTS AND NEEDS

from GOWANUS FRAMEWORK and WYCKOFF GARDENS COMMUNITY PRINCIPLES park guide

park guide

PRODUCT Inner Plaza

Corner Plaza

INNERSPACE Corner Plaza

ont

Innerspaces

Inner Plaza

Corner Plaza

Corner Plaza

Innerspaces

Innerspaces

SMALL BUSINESS INCUBATOR

EARLY EDUCATION FACILITY

DOG WALK AREA

WOMEN AND MINORITY OWNED BUSINESSES

RELOCATED PUBLIC POOL

JOB TRAINING

ACCESS TO CANAL

Masterplan and icons completed by group

Innerspaces

WYCKOFF WEST

PICNIC AND BBQ AREAS

WYCKOFF EAST

LANDFORM PARK

NEVINS STREET POOL

LIBRARY AT DEGRAW

HEADHOUSE PARK

CANAL FRONT SHOPS

Process Diagram by Wes Masco and Sophia Trinidad

PERSPECTIVE • NEVINS STREET POOL

This design aimed to create strong visual and spatial connections along this proposed corridor, and to encourage movement towards the Canal and towards new amenities. A centerpiece of the design is a new library and learning space that becomes a North Canal hub to address social and economic goals from the 2018 Draft Framework, “Gowanus: A Framework for a Sustainable, Inclusive, and Mixeduse Neighborhood”. These goals include: improving job access for NYCHA residents and developing training and educational models for the community.

NEVINS STREET POOL

SUGGESTED TERRACE PROGRAMS

after-work coffee planting beds and bar top

0 0

20

40

5

10

family bbq bartop with grill and planting beds

book club meetings private corner with bench seating

basketball viewing bartop and amphitheater seating

children’s birthday party playground, tables, and parental supervision area

20

80

BACK TERRACE

NYCHA RESIDENTS WANTS AND NEEDS

from THE WYCKOFF GARDENS COMMUNITY PRINCIPLES

To mitigate the effects of new, market-rate development in this NYCHA lot, this design centers its focus on the current residents’ specific wants and needs. It focuses on smaller scale interventions instead of the masterplanning route that requires big investments and commitments. The scale and intentionality of this intervention provides short-term quality of life improvements for current Wyckoff Gardens residents.

Terraces at the rear of the existing southeast Wyckoff building are designed to allude to stoops, an important architectural element in surrounding Brooklyn. These terraces differentiate the ground plane and create spaces for specific activities.

PICNIC AND BBQ AREAS

LAUNDROMAT

IMPROVED GARDENING AREAS

AFFORDABLE GROCERY STORE

IMPROVED PLAYGROUND

BARBER SHOP

COMMERCIAL STRIP/ GARDEN PLOTS

MATERIALS

HAMMOCK GROVE

butler street

WYCKOFF GARDENS

Gowanus Canal Bulkhead Inventory Survey: Marine Consulting concrete block timber crib steel sheet pile

Commercial lots are to be retrofitted onto existing Wyckoff Buildings to activate the inner spaces of the block.

These properties will include the desired commercial spaces cited in The Wyckoff Gardens Community Principles. These business, like a barber shop and affordable grocery store, provide residents with invaluable resources right below their apartment units.

nevins street

public pool

223 nevins street

PHIA TRINIDAD

SOCIAL FACADE

A

Rendering by Sophia Trinidad

hammock grove second floor terrace

LIBRARY AT DEGRAW ST visual studio

audio studio

gallery space

kitchen

supply room

one way traffic

street vendor

social facade

rest room

multi-use building

Provides the residents of gowanus with access to literature, computers, printers, commmunity spaces, and job training.

A place for residents to relax in the plaza outside the library. The orange poles reflect the structural beams of the library and repeat a sense of verticality.

public pool

COMMERCIAL CORRIDOR

FLOOR 6

WES MASCO Visable

from the lecture hall within the library, the ampitheatre serves as an outside “stoop” for the residents to use for relaxing, learning, or programmed entertainment.

AMPITHEATRE

CANOE DOCKS

A’

A

Floodable docks are provided for gowanus canoers to make their way to the plaza.

CANOE DOCKS

PEDESTRIAN BRIDGE

An easy way for all residents to cross the canal, focusing on the wants of connectivity by the current residents

COMMERCIAL CORRIDOR

GOWANUS CANAL

A 5-story building with two stories of locallyowned commercial making it a social hub.

0

15’

30’

60’

LOCALLYOWNED SHOPS

ECOBUFFER

CANAL

FLOOR 5 Library

FLOOR 4

Housing Communal Space

FLOOR 3

Private Balconies Rentable Artist Space

FLOOR 2

Walls

FLOOR 1

Elevator

120’

VEGETABLE GARDEN

COMMERCIAL BUILDING

FLOOR 7

AMPITHEATRE

LIBRARY

A

FLOOR 8

HAMMOCK GROVE

HAMMOCK GROVE

shower

Rendering by Wes Masco

ROOF

LIBRARY

PEDESTRIAN BRIDGE

rest room

PLAZA

HAMMOCK GROVE

LECTURE HALL

RESIDENTIAL ROOMS

A’

LIBRARY 0 8’ 16’ 32’

64’

Rendering by Devin Fields

PARK GUIDE TYPOLOGIES

A

DESIGN BY: DEVIN FIELDS

GOWANUS, BROOKLYN NY

conference space

At Wyckoff Gardens, high priority was placed in creating outdoor spaces that residents felt like they had ownership of, and to create room for community centers, grocery stores, and play areas, as requested by residents.

Rendering by Sophia Trinidad

02

REIMAGINING WHITE CITY AMUSEMENT PARK Trenton, NJ This project was completed for a senior year studio.

All graphics are my own unless noted otherwise.

White City Amusement Park inhabited the land of the Abbott Marshlands between the years of 1907 and 1928. Considered as one of the many amusement park offspring that popped up around the country after the 1873 Chicago Worlds Fair, the park held historical importance but was also rooted in classism and racism.

Today, the site is defined by its rich marshland habitat and its steep bluff that continues to erode.

This studio tackled how design reckons with the past, present, and future. Our interventions uncovered and critiqued the past, respected the habitats of the present, and prepared for the changes of the future.

This project started with a deep analysis of the site and its history through photographs, site visits, collages, and research.

Windows into the past and future These graphics were completed during the site analysis phase, uncovering the environmental and cultural history of the site. Myself and team members met with ecologists and naturalists to discuss what species would have existed and do exist now.

Before White City, the Lenni Lenape inhabited this site. Their habitat was teeming with life. Today, the area is still species rich but is defined by new characters, such as powerlines and trash washed upon the shore.

For my final design iteration, I imagined a space that celebrated the past and confronted the realities of the future. I imagined an amusement park built on top of the bluff, and then how this park would respond to undeniable natural processes.

100 years in the future, as the bluff erodes more into Spring Lake, some amusement park rides remain high in the air on concrete footings, like figureheads for a past life.

Below the rubble, natural wildlife grows in the unreachable wilderness, and both past and present processes hang in vertical alignment.

These final deliverables illustrate the grading plan for the site. For this project, the grading was equally as important as the proposed elements, as the disintegration of the bluff created a stage for the visualization of the site’s history.

03

DALS LÅNGED PARK PROJECT

Dals Långed, Sweden This design build studio took place in Dals Långed, Sweden, and was led by the University of Washington’s Daniel Winterbottom. Students were tasked with designing an outdoor park that responded to the needs of the community’s three distinct but intertwined populations: the long-time Swedes, Syrian immigrants, and students of Stenebyskolan. Countless community meetings were held in the design phase to assure that this intervention would be a thoughtful addition to this town. In a two month period, students designed and built a sauna, outdoor kitchen, connecting patio, and overlook deck.

Included are images, construction documents, and model explorations from the entirety of the project.

I am personally responsible for creating the deck construction documents, model, and contributing to the construction of the entire park.

Norway

Sweden

Community Involvement Community meetings and design charrettes were an integral process of this design build. Meetings would be held bi-weekly to gauge community’s wants, expectations, and to involve them in the design/build process. This project would have not been possible without their input and assistance.

Construction documents, model explorations, and the final, constructed overlook deck.

Sauna and kitchen view from the canal

Outer view of kitchen

Details inside the sauna

Patio to adjoin kitchen and sauna

04

MIDDLESEX GREENWAY

Metuchen, New Jersey This project was the product of an Internship under the Rutgers Department of Landscape Architecture, in collaboration with NJASLA, the Middlesex Greenway Coalition, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services.

Design and graphics were completed by Brandon Younie and myself.

The goal of this project was to design an extension to the existing 3.5 mile Middlesex Greenway in Metuchen, New Jersey. Existing conditions included adjacent wetlands, The Dismal Swamp, parallel railroad tracks, and 1.5 miles of paved walking and biking surface.

These were all considered moving into the design phase.

This project involved coordinating conversations between the many parties involved with the extension of the Greenway. Meetings with leaders from each of the parties were held and facilitated at Rutgers as environmental, historical, and culturally sensitive designs were discussed and explored.

Before proposing interventions, we researched and visualized the historical and ecological importance of the sites surrounding the Middlesex Greenway.

The Dismal Swamp

Suggested next steps for the extension included implementing phasing plans, educational areas along the Greenway, creating shared community parking programs, negotiating rail-banking with Conrail, and applying for recognition of the Dismal Swamp as a Urban Wildlife Refuge.

2001- EWA buys the Triple C Ranch, which becomes the epicenter of recreation in the Dismal Swamp

1989- Edison Wetlands Association gets involved with the site after its continued contamination by adjacent industries

In the early 1900s the site acted as a Russian Exile Settlement

1700- Site is used as a vineyard and then as agricultural land again in the 1900s

Middlesex Greenway Phasing

Middlesex Greenway Masterplan

St. Joseph’s School

3

The Dismal Swamp

The Dismal Swamp Preserve

1

Rest Area Becomes Outdoor Classroom

2

Common Area Features Kayak Launch and Picnic Tables

3

Public Space to Be Used By Middlesex Greenway Users As Well as St Joseph’s Students

2

Surrounding Buildings

Greenway Connections

Open Space

Existing Greenway

Forested Area

Middlesex Greenway Signage

Potential for Shared Parking

Existing

Water Ways/ Ponds

1

Rail Lines

¯

Post-Industrial Landscape

0

0.25

0.5

1

1.5

2 Miles

Source: Esri, DigitalGlobe, GeoEye, Earthstar Geographics, CNES/Airbus DS, USDA, USGS, AeroGRID, IGN, and the GIS User Community

Trails Railroad Bridge

Middlesex Greenway Signage

1’=200’

Proposed

Existing

Urban Wildlife Refuges

Application to the Site

as recognized by U.S Fish and Wildlife Services

The adjacent map shows the population of the surrounding 25 miles from the Middlesex Greenway. The site far surpasses the population requirement for the Urban Wildlife Refuge designation.

What are Urban Wildlife Refuges?

The U.S Fish and Wildlife Services introduced the Urban Wildlife Refuge Program to reach audiences in urban areas that either are unaware of U.S Fish and Wildlife Services or are not visiting sponsored parks and green space. In order to qualify to be designated a Urban Wildlife Refuge, greenspaces must incorporate community-centered wildlife conservation and must be situated no more than 25 miles away from populations of 250,000 or more.

Shared Parking Program Signage

Middlesex Greenway Signage Proposed

Trailhead Park Field

Outdoor Classroom Area

Existing

Legend Population 418 - 14756 14757 - 36184 36185 - 69781 69782 - 124969 124970 - 277140

Shared Parking Program Signage

Community-Driven Wildlife Conservation

There Are Currenly 14 Recognized Urban Wildlife Refuges: Proposed

Don Edwards San Fransico Bay National Wildlife Refuge, California Bound Brook

San Diego National Wildlife Refuge Complex, California

Greenway Trails

Rail Line

Rocky Mountian Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge, Colorado Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Utah Shared Parking Program Signage

John Heinz at Tinicum National Wildlife Refuge, Pennsylvania Patuxent Research Refuge, Maryland Bayou Sauvage National Wildlife Refuge, Lousiana Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge, Florida Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge, Minnesota Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge, Michigan Valle de Oro National Wildlife Refuge, New Mexico South Texas National Wildlife Refuge Complex, Texas Tualatin River and Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuges, Oregon Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge, Washington

The proposed Rest Area at Trailhead Park will act as an outdoor classroom: a place for classes to come together at the beginning and end of their trips through the Greenway and to the Dismal Swamp. Educational programming for community members not in school will also take place in this area.

Increased access points throughout the Middlesex Greenway will encourage the surrounding community to learn about and appreciate the ecology of the Dismal Swamp.

Bike Path

Pedestrian Path

Rest Area

05

INSTITUTE FOR FOOD, NUTRITION, AND HEALTH New Brunswick, NJ This project is the result of a sophomore year design studio.

All graphics are my own and are hand drafted, ink on vellum.

We were tasked with designing a landscape to pair with Rutgers newest building, The Institute for Food, Nutrition and Health. The health of both the students and the surrounding environment were top priority in this design, as the three main focal points include a herb garden to supply fresh herbs to the cafe inside, a hillside meadow that supports native fauna, and a relaxation garden for students.