Martin, Travers W.. Getting around: a tool-kit for activating contaminated, idle and transitioning landscapes. Retrieved from https://doi.org/doi:10.7282/t3-0ych-7w91
DescriptionA great deal of contaminated, idle or transitioning landscapes lie in the once densely-industrial urban waterfront periphery and as such will require a degree of remediation, as classical forms of manufacturing have showed little reverence for environmental externalities. Because the Tri-State Area is host to some of the most exaggerated real estate driven environmental practices present in the country today, the region may serve as a potential role model for sustainable development within a changing economic terrain. The perceived and real dangers of contaminated, post industrial or environmentally sensitive landscapes prioritize land owner liability mitigation practices resulting in the deployment of fences and other physical barriers that may remain in a neighborhood for generations. In the wake of declining manufacturing since the Second World War, the once active industrial periphery along Passaic’s waterfront, like many East Coast cities, has been left idle and polluted by virtue of the regional economy that has shifted away from manufacturing. In response, two trends have emerged that re-assign value to such forgotten landscapes; brownfield incentive programs that heavily favor real estate development, and increasing popular community gardens. Both trends offer limited potential. While the use of federally and state funded grants aimed at reincorporating contaminated sites have greatly catalyzed redevelopment, such programs are not designed in a way that is legible to the majority of citizens or users who lack the education, experience and capital to abide by strict guidelines and physically remediate land at a large scale. This project simplifies the complex framework of post-industrial redevelopment, expands neighborhood land-tenure options and legitimizes local needs on a more appropriate time scale wigh a tool-kit of pre-fabricated site fixtures designed to safely activate space during the interim period between the recognition of contamination and a site’s complete redevelopment.