Publications
Designing the Reclaimed Landscape
Taylor & Francis, January 2008
200 pages, 52 black & white halftones, 16 colour illustrations, 5 black & white line drawing
The first practical yet in-depth exploration of how to reclaim the post-industrial landscape, this volume includes excellent case studies by
practitioners and policy makers from around the US, giving first rate practical
examples. The book addresses new thinking about landscape, which applies new
techniques to the task of transforming outdated and disused post-extraction
landscapes through design. In the USA alone, there are nearly 500,000 abandoned
mines in need of reclamation and this book provides the first in-depth guidance
on this real and pressing issue. Drawing on the work of the well-known Project
for Reclamation Excellence at Harvard's Graduate School of Design, this volume
outlines the latest design thinking, theory and practice for landscape
planners, landscape architects and designers and others interested in
maximizing the future potential of reclaimed land.
CONTENTS
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part One: Contextualizing Landscape Alteration through Historic, Systemic, and Biologic Perspectives
1 Valuing Alteration
(Frederick Turner)
2 Disturbance Ecology and Symbiosis in Mine-Reclamation Design
(Peter del Tredici)
3 Gold and the Gift: theory and design in a mine reclamation project
(Rod Barnett)
4 What is Mine is Mine and What is Yours is Mine: Engineering in its Natural Context
(Dorion Sagan)
5 Ecological Succession and Its Role in Landscape Reclamation
(Eric D. Schneider)
6 Interrogating a Landscape Design Agenda in the Scientifically Based Mining World
(Belinda Arbogast)
Part Two: Interdisciplinary Responses and Opportunities in Reclamation Science,Art, and Environmental Reclamation
7 Three Projects and a Few Thoughts
(T. Allan Comp)
8 The Wellington Oro Mine-Site Cleanup: Integrating the Cleanup of an Abandoned Mine Site with the Community's Vision of Land Preservation and Affordable Housing
(Victor Ketellapper)
9 Building Partnerships for Post-Mining Regeneration--Post-Mining Alliance at the Eden Project
(Caroline Digby)
10 Community based reclamation of abandoned mine lands in the Animas Watershed, Colorado
(William Simon)
11 Case Studies of Successful Reclamation and Sustainable Development at Kennecott Mining Sites
(Jon Cherry)
Part Three: Technology, Representation, and Information in Reclamation Design
12 Digital Simulation and Design: Strategies for Altered Landscapes
(Alan Berger and Case Brown)
13 Open-pit Opportunities: Pre-mine Design Strategies
(Alan Berger and Case Brown)
14 Reclaiming the Woods: Trail Strategies for the Golden Horsehoe's Historic Mining Roads
(Alan Berger and Bart Lounsbury)
15 Real-Time Coal Mining and Reclamation: OSM's Technical Innovation and Professional Services (TIPS) Program
(Billie Clark, Jr.)
Part Four: Future Directions and Programs in U.S. Reclamation Policy and Law
16 The Land Revitalization Initiative: Landscape Design and Reuse Planning in Mine Reclamation
(Edward H. Chu)
17 The Legal Landscape
(Robert W. Micsak)
Index
Drosscape: Wasting Land in Urban America
Princeton Architectural Press, April 2006
Do you really know what is under that new house you just bought? How about what lies beneath the neighborhood playground? Was that "big box" retailer down your street built over a toxic site? These are just a few of the worrisome scenarios facing us all as our cities begin to redevelop old toxic waste sites—places Alan Berger has coined "drosscapes." Drosscape: Wasting Land in Urban America is your guide to this vast, hitherto largely ignored field of waste landscapes.
Landscape architects must learn to accommodate these wastelands along with the more traditional challenges of site and construction. This will require a radical reconceptualization of thinking about landscape before potential solutions can be effectively addressed or devised. Ten cities are exam-ined both visually and analytically through the use of aerial photography and geospatially derived maps, charts, and graphs.
Lured by tax incentives and the benefits of inadequate public awareness, corporate America is rapidly developing these toxic sites. It is our right to know about these danger zones underneath our communities and our duty to stay vigilant. Drosscape makes clear it is also a design challenge of the most pressing order.
CONTENTS
Preface
Acknowledgments
Part One: Landscape, Urbanization, and Waste
The Changing Nature of Urban Land
The Obsolescence of Sprawl
Chapter One: Discourses for Landscape and Urbanization
The Horizontal City and the In-Between
A Liminal Landscape
Enclaves, Off Worlds, Ladders
Terrain Vague, Exaptation, Vacant, Abandoned
From In-Between to Freedom and Waste
Coda: Urban Landscape is a Natural Thing to Waste
Chapter Two: The Production of Waste Landscape
Deindustrialization: Waste Landscape through Attrition
Post-Fordism: Waste Landscape Through Accumulation
Flexibility
Agglomeration and Regionalism
Local and Regional Agglomerations
Technological Innovation and Location: Waste Landscape and Space
Flows
Contamination, Ugliness, and Blight: Revaluing Waste Landscapes
Federal Activity
Denver: America's Superfund City
Brownfields
Funding
Ugliness, Blight, and Tax Increment Financing
Part Two: Representing the Relationships between Waste Landscape and Urbanization
Chapter Three: Ten Urbanized Regions
Atlanta
Boston-Lowell/Providence
Charlotte/Raleigh-Durham
Chicago
Cleveland/Akron
Dallas/Fort Worth
Denver/Front Range
Houston
Los Angeles
Phoenix
Chapter Four: Waste Landscapes
Waste Landscapes of Dwelling (LODs)
Waste Landscapes of Transition (LOTs)
Waste Landscapes of Infrastructure (LINs)
Waste Landscapes of Obsolescence (LOOs)
Waste Landscapes of Exchange (LEXs)
Waste Landscapes of Contamination (LOCOs)
Part Three: The Drosscape Manifesto
Chapter Five: Drosscape Explained
Drosscape Defined
Drosscape Proposed
Postscript: Vastlands Visited by Lars Lerup
Appendix One: Contemporary Names for the Urbanization of Landscape
Appendix Two: Notes on Graphics: Data Uses, Sources, and Methods
Dispersal Graph Comparison
Spindel Chart Comparison
Figure and Caption Sources
Index
Waste Landscapes of Infrastructure (LINs)
Waste Landscapes of Obsolescence (LOOs)
Waste Landscapes of Exchange (LEXs)
Waste Landscapes of Contamination (LOCOs)
Part Three: The Drosscape Manifesto
Chapter Five: Drosscape Explained
Drosscape Defined
Drosscape Proposed
Postscript: Vastlands Visited by Lars Lerup
Appendix One: Contemporary Names for the Urbanization of Landscape
Appendix Two: Notes on Graphics: Data Uses, Sources, and Methods
Dispersal Graph Comparison
Spindel Chart Comparison
Figure and Caption Sources
Index
Waste Landscapes of Exchange (LEXs)
Waste Landscapes of Contamination (LOCOs)
Part Three: The Drosscape Manifesto
Chapter Five: Drosscape Explained
Drosscape Defined
Drosscape Proposed
Postscript: Vastlands Visited by Lars Lerup
Appendix One: Contemporary Names for the Urbanization of Landscape
Appendix Two: Notes on Graphics: Data Uses, Sources, and Methods
Dispersal Graph Comparison
Spindel Chart Comparison
Figure and Caption Sources
Index
Part Three: The Drosscape Manifesto
Chapter Five: Drosscape Explained
Drosscape Defined
Drosscape Proposed
Postscript: Vastlands Visited by Lars Lerup
Appendix One: Contemporary Names for the Urbanization of Landscape
Appendix Two: Notes on Graphics: Data Uses, Sources, and Methods
Dispersal Graph Comparison
Spindel Chart Comparison
Figure and Caption Sources
Index
Reclaiming the American West
2002, Princeton Architectural Press
Winner of the 2003 Environmental Design Research Association (ERDA)/Places Award for Place Research.
There are over 200,000 abandoned mines covering hundreds of thousands
of acres in the western United States. Seen from the air, they
create surreal, haunting, yet somehow beautiful landscapes of
mind-boggling scale. But these scarred landscapes are only temporary:
by law, mining companies are required to reclaim them, and the
process of renewal exposes many physical, philosophical, technological,
environmental, political, regulatory, and ethical issues. Using
aerial photography, maps, designs, charts, and analyses, Alan Berger
provides a colorful and insightful overview of the possibilities-and
dangers-of converting these altered landscapes. Reclaiming the American
West covers the historical background and policy, as well as representational,
technical, and design challenges presented by working with these
enormous toxic sites, many of which have been converted into landscapes
of extraordinary beauty. In addition, the book gives us an unprecedented
vantage point above the sublime landscapes.
CONTENTS
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Post-Technological Landscape
Part 1: Practicing Reclamation
Chapter 1: The Altered Western Landscape
A Brief Modern History of Western Landscape Alteration
Western Landscape Alterations Through Accumulation
Western Landscape Alterations Through Dispersal
Other Significant Western Landscape Alterations: Cattle, Water, and Forests
Mining, Energy, and the Federal Western Landscape
The New West: A Need for New Landscapes
Chapter 2: Reclaiming Defined
Reclamation Beginnings
To Reclaim
Reclaiming Distinctions
Reclaiming Policy
Reclaiming Coal Mines
Adjusting Approximate Original Contour
Reclaiming Hardrock Mines
Bonding
Technological Thinking
Reclaiming Abandoned Coal Mines
Reclaiming Abandoned Hardrock Mines
Chapter 3: Representing Reclamation
Cartographies and Reclaiming
Mappings and Reclaiming
Images and Reclaiming
Part 2: Theorizing Reclamation
Chapter 4: Reclaiming Aesthetics
Chapter 5: Reclaiming Space
Spatial Imaging
Air/Ground
Chapter 6: Reclaiming Nature
Chapter 7: Reclaiming Time
Sequences
Afterword: Revaluing Landscape
Appendix: Operational Profiles by State
Arizona
Colorado
Idaho
Montana
Nevada
New Mexico
Utah
Wyoming
Figure Credits
Nansha Coastal City: Landscape and Urbanism in the Pearl River Delta
Alan Berger and Margaret Crawford, eds., Harvard University Graduate School of Design, 2006
The Pearl River Delta in southern China is a notorious demonstration
of the urban effects of rapid economic development. On the river's
east bank, the Special Economic Zones of Shenzhen and Donghuan
have produced a dense and chaotic urban landscape. On bulldozed
land, factories, high-rise housing, and hotels crowd together
along massive freeways. With the recent expansion of Guangzhou's
urban boundaries, the river's west bank is slated for even more
intensive development. The single barrier to this intensive urbanization
is Nansha, located on the southernmost tip of the provence. Owned
by the Fok Ying Tung Foundation, Nansha's twenty-two square kilometers
lie at the geographic heart of the Pearl River Delta (PRD). The
Fok Foundation is developing Nansha as an experimental city—an
alternative to the frenzied development taking place in the rest
of the region. Conceived as a laboratory for exploring new ideas
about Chinese urbanization, Nansha has been under construction
since 1990 and currently contains a wildly diverse collection
of buildings and landscapes. Traditional Suzhou and French baroque
gardens surround sleek glass high-rises. A temple to the goddess
of the fishermen abuts a modern information technology business
park. Abandoned sand and gravel quarries are scattered throughout
Nansha. A Very popular, and highly exclusive golf club lies adjacent
to forested terrain and existing villages. A hyper-contemporary
museum and luxurious five-star hotel attract visitors from Hong
Kong and Guangzhou, who arrive via new ferry services, bridges,
and roadway connections.
Unsure of its future direction, the Fok Foundation has asked us to evaluate its earlier experiments and chart a course for the next stages of development. This challenge was posed to thirteen students from the Graduate School of Design (GSD) at Harvard University. The students came from three professional-degree departments within the GSD: Landscape Architecture, Architecture, and Urban Planning and Design. Over fifteen weeks, the design studio conducted research on urbanization and landscape change in the PRD, and within the Nansha site. The goad was to produce multiple scenarios for Nansha's future, including strategic development plans, transportation, landscape and open-space infrastructures, and designs for housing and other buildings.