ARCH-4980.1 | Ted Ngai, Lecturer

TIDAL CITYSCAPE

MARY ROSE BASILE

The technological systems that allowed for the growth of cities are responsible for many of their ecological and social problems today. Environmental changes initiated by the growth of modern cities now serve as a threat, especially to cities on the coast. Miami is particularly susceptible to threats from a rising sea level; it is only 20 miles west of the gulfstream which carries major storms along the east coast. Miami’s dense urban environment sprawls along the water, rather than inland exposing a greater portion of the built environment and residents of Miami to the effects of flood. The naturally absorptive landscape that was biologically adapted to deal with flooding and tidal conditions was replaced by hundreds of square miles of hardscape which facilitated the pollution of Miami’s natural water resources such as the Miami River and Biscayne Bay.

The rapid growth of the city of Miami has some serious social implications. Like many cities in the United States, Miami was designed according to a Euclidean, or use-based, zoning system. Euclidean zoning and the construction of major freeways that cut through the urban fabric separate the coastal land and the residential areas where a majority of Miami’s population lives. Miami is currently in the process of transitioning from Euclidean zoning to form-based zoning that would define the urban fabric by its physical characteristics rather than its usage.

The rezoning of Miami creates an opportunity to consider how rezoning the city to deal with remediation and flood can also begin to reconnect the disparate parts of the city to the coast. My proposal consists of a network of public spaces that integrate the urban fabric, the coast, and the bay. These green zones and flood zones that extend inland from the waterfront sites help to connect the non-coastal areas to the waterfront, while the landscape that protrudes into the bay serves as a buffer zone that protects the city from storm events, absorbs toxins and pollution before they can reach the bay, and provides a place where residents can access the tourist and commercial-dominated shore.