Jingyi "Jessy" Qiu
Design Works
Recovering
Landscape
Thickness
Rossville Waterfront
Revitalization
Type
Thesis|Revitalization
Time
Fall 2018 - Spring 2019
Location
Staten Island, NY
“The emphasis shifts (of recovering landscape) from landscape as a product of culture to landscape as an agent producing and enriching culture... The focus is upon the agency of landscape (how it works and what it does) rather than upon its simple appearance.”
- James Corner, Recovering Landscape as a Critical Cultural Practice
“Globalization”, “Internationalization”, “Gentrification”, “Utopian”, etc. are words that depict the phenomenon of progressively unified societies and a lofty pursuit of a homogenous equal living environment for all of us. Groundbreaking technology, fast new developments, and skyscraping sculpturalized buildings... Acts of looking forward are always filled with hopes. However, with the globalized communication about technology, in lots of cases, the identity of a locale is fading. Culture loss is happening around the globe. People are, in a way, more secluded from their everyday landscapes. Recovering landscape thickness can be a design theory that bridge the reciprocal communication between people - landscape and the past - future, and also provide a robust base to support the design structures.
The design is to recover the historical cultural landscape together with proposing recovery ecological remediation strategies that create opportunities and events ranging from education, economy, leisure and communication as a peaceful commemorative waterfront destination for Rossville and New York City residents and also a restored corridor for the wildlife.
Manhattan - Staten Island
A dump can be held as a mirror of our culture.
- Mira Engler, Designing America’s waste landscapes
For the publics, the current method to learn about Staten Island’s comprehensive history and evolvement is mostly by reading textual materials inside of the museum. There aren’t many designed commemorative cultural landscapes in Staten Island. Only specific sections of the history are mentioned in these designed landscapes. The Historic Richmond Town might be the best place to immerse into the contextualize history of Staten Island in 17th century. The revitalization of the Rossville waterfront could be a comprehensive experiential commemorative cultural landscape that depicts the Overture-Movement-Coda of the Staten Island’s history.
Ports and Shipyards play important roles though out Staten Island’s history. They are the founders and witnesses of Staten Island. They are crucial landscape mirrors of the evolvement of Staten Island from a Lenapes’ Natural Paradise to today’s industrialized and gentrified roaring American suburb.
Most of the historical ports are renovated into modernized industrial, transportation, recreational maritime services, where have less conspicuous historical traces. The Rossville port [waterfront] obtains the most spectacular traces of both early settlement and also post-war industrial traces, which make this place an unique contextual cultural landscape of the Borough of Staten Island and a possible New York City tourism destination.
Master Plan Version 1
