Hudson Phloem | Shoreline Xylem

Abstract

This thesis zooms in microscopically to expose the moral distancing between the construction and material metamorphosis of concrete shorelines. As Calvert Vaux’s prevailing Riverside Park in New York City extended the Hudson River Valley southward, this thesis extends Hudson water ecologies inward and upward. Concrete constantly undergoes processes that consume sulfates and carbon, which leach out into surrounding soils and attached larvae. Pinpointing areas of increased compound leaching, a series of capillary gardens carve into the concrete of Riverside Park to create an emerging network of cracks and abrupt ecotones at the West Side’s doorstep. The garden network splinters the abiotic to help healthier biotic shoreline communities reemerge from beneath, creating a precedent for future shorelines to consider the microscopic before seeking concrete as an ecological solution. Furthermore, the design dismantles the distinction between park as the pleasurable picturesque, and park as an instrument that enhances emotional adaptability to rising seas.