ARCH-4980.6 | Chris Perry, Assistant Professor

TIDALSCAPES

ALEXANDER ROHR

Research for the project began with case studies of three different architectural projects from the 1960’s/late Post-War era. The common thread between each case was a new approach to the architectural process that resulted in a new formal realization, having elements of both art and architecture but not being able to be explicitly defined as one or the other. When presented to the public, these oddities expanded what people considered possible in art and architecture, pushing peoples’ creative perceptions of what space could be; if it needed to be a definable thing at all.

For site research, the Hudson River was chosen and its growth and eventual decay were examined. During the Industrial Revolution, transportation evolved but industry remained tied to the river: trains could transport goods quickly between large cities but it wasn’t practical to lay rails out to every small town, so industries remained caught between the river and the rails. The completion of the NYS Thruway changed this entirely – the Thruway enabled trucks to move large quantities of goods quickly and directly across New York State. With the ability to receive goods virtually anywhere, industries were no longer dependent on the river – the bankside industries vacated elsewhere and the towns dropped in population.  Today, the banks present an open and waiting design opportunity to bring life back to the banks of the Hudson. The prime sites for beginning revitalization are the bridges – still populated and in the public eye, but not designed to be areas to enjoy as of yet.

One particular bridge is beginning this transformation: The Walkway over the Hudson. Initially a freight train bridge. The aim of this thesis is to transform the Walkway from a means of connection into a place of its own. To accomplish this, there will be a water-level park space established at each of the four main piers, accessible by lift. The spaces, or Tidalscapes, are a set of slowly morphing platforms that lay in a similar shade of ambiguity as the architectural folly – somewhere between purposeful and purposeless, open to the user’s interpretation. The results of this would hopefully be to re-establish the Walkway in the public’s eye as a central location of its own, and also to encourage further interest in the Hudson banks as a design opportunity.