Infra-Space 1 reconciles the relationship between a city, a forgotten portion of waterfront, and a highway. It is the pilot project of a Department of Transportation initiative to revitalize areas under highway viaducts in order to improve urban connections between communities and key resources and improve the environmental footprint of the highway. The 8-acre project includes an extensive storm water management landscape, waterfront promenade, new multi-modal connections, recreation and event space, and new supporting infrastructure for art installations and performances.
The project development involved careful study and mapping of relationships between an elevated highway and the ground plane beneath to trace the flows of run-off water, the penetration of light into the under-story, the decibel levels of accessible spaces, and the ability of highway maintenance and emergency crews to access highway ramps. Each of these parameters were designed into new landscape infrastructures- dissipation basins, filtration and evaporation plantings, and paved plates for maintenance vehicles that double function as hardscape recreation surfaces- which were organized into a new public access landscape.
Across this new landscape a network of multi-modal paths is carefully routed to stitch neighborhoods together that were historically divided by the highway. These paths are activated with art installation infrastructure including sculpture anchors, electrical utilities and adaptable lighting scaffolds called ‘dinosaurs’. Finally, a winding and undulating boardwalk creates a fully accessible path across the rolling storm-water management landscape, connecting between paved maintenance/recreation plates and multi-modal transport paths and ultimately providing access and overlook to a rediscovered waterfront.
Material Used :
1. Lumenpulse – Uplighting - Lumenbeam
