Lift: A Landscape Architecture Capstone
Mar 18, 2016
Final Submission for the MLA program at the University of Minnesota 2014 - Matthew Kessler. Pretty pictures are in the back half.
Welcome message from author
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Transcript
L I F T
A Very Special Thanks Goes Out To The Following For Your Support, Guidance, Friendship, and Faith In This Journey:
John KoepkeDavid PittJoseph FavourRebecca KrinkeMatthew TuckerBrad AgeeLaura MusacchioJonathan BlasegKristine MillerCraig WilsonVince deBrittoEgle VanagaiteOzayr Saloojee
Stefano AscariMichael RichardsonStephanie ErwinMichael SchiebeAmber HillErin Garnaas-HolmesMontana HarinsuitSteven FossKevin BelairSolange GuillameEmily OsthusDavid KowenRyan RuttgerElissa BrownStephen Himmerich
Kristan WardRobert KesslerJudith KesslerJonathan KesslerKermath WardMary Beth WardAnnieMaggie & Ginger
Minneapolis-St.Paul International Airport
A Project by Matthew Kessler
Lift is the component of force that is perpindicular to the direction of oncoming flow in a fluid.
It is a cutting force; a force which enacts change. And it contrasts the parallel force, known as drag.
If the fluid is air, its called aerodynamicsIf the fluid is water, hydrodynamics.
But could the fluid be a system? Policy? State of mind?Could drag be the status quo? The “Good Enough”.
And the force, Lift; Could it be a landscape?
Project
Lift is the very essence of the aviation industry, a force without which flight would be impossible. Without Lift there is no take-off, no landing, no “free to move about the cabin’. There’d still be peanuts but not in individual packs.
This LIFT this force comes at a price. The aviation industry is the #2 worldwide consumer of fossil fuels, a resource which is rapidly depleting. In response to evolving ethics towards sustainable solutions across the globe, the FAA has begun issuing grants to individual airports to research place specific solutions to move the industry towards a more manageable carbon footprint.
In November of 2013 The Minneapolis- St Paul International Airport under the governing body of the Metropolitan Airports Commission received just such a grant for $750,000, to begin their own site specific sustainability solutions study.
It is under this pretext the concept of Lift is proposed.
The Lift Landscape
Over the past two decades the airport landscape has begun to be reclaimed by landscape architects around the world. In response to growing concerns regarding sustainable practices and lessening large-scale carbon footprints, attention is increasingly being paid to the airline industry as both a major current perpetrator of resource consumption and future opportunity for sustainable practices. Major projects are being undertaken in airports across the globe which aim to resolve some of the massive energy and fossil fuel requirements aviation demands.
Despite this recent activity, the current scope of work is focused primarily on ‘easy energy’ systems like solar arrays and the construction of more efficient LEED certified terminals or defunct airport
landscapes redesigned as parks. This leaves the larger landscape unresolved despite being a massive area deserving the same attention towards productivity and efficiency as is being paid to the buildings.
Airports represent a uniquely inhuman construction, a cultural landscape experienced in a state of removal. The charge of this project is to reconnect the airport landscape with its greater context of ecological systems, develop a more self-sufficient supply of energy, and redefine the human experience while seeking to improve the general safety of aviation operations.
Conversation
Discourse
Approaching this topic demands an understanding of current FAA regulations for airport runway design to begin to set the rules for viable design alternatives. These rules can then be cross-referenced with the emerging body of research regarding unrealized alternative energy potential of airports and research regarding new landcover typologies which may be more beneficial at reducing hazardous wildlife.
By proposing a program of renewable energy production in and around the airport facilities an understanding of both current airport landscape maintenance and daily operations as well as common production methods and capacities of biomass facilities will need to be developed. This will allow for a secondary set of rules to be created to guide
renewable energy placement and realistic harvesting regimes and production circuits to be developed.
Biomass for ethanol may not be the only option for alternative energy production. Solar arrays have already been established at the new Denver International and Indianapolis International Airports and could very easily be integrated into the program for Minneapolis-St. Paul.
Finally, an understanding of avian ecology and habitat requirements for both hazardous and non-hazardous wildlife must be reached to siphon out habitat types which are incongruent with airport safety.
Terms
An emerging body of research by Animal- Plant Health Inspection Servce [APHIS-USDA] and the Federal Aviation Administration [FAA] has begun to challenge standard FAA standards regarding landcover practices at airports and their draw for hazardous wildlife. These same researchers have also begun to consider the unrealized potential for alternative energy production on the idle interstitial runway spaces of airports.
Airport landscapes have historically treated their runways and land holdings as single function swaths of tarmac and turf. They are designed to minimize the draw of wildlife hazardous to aircraft and as such require constant maintenance to keep thousands of acres of ground cover well mown. Current research estimates the amount of idle maintained land across
US airports alone to equal roughly a size equivalent to the state of Rhode Island.
The Aviation Industry also remains one of the world’s largest and fastest fossil fuel consumers using over 5,000,000 barrels of jet fuel per day in 2010. At the same time, it is estimated that the 15,000 airports in the United States alone contain an area of idle land larger than the state of Rhode Island. Perhaps these under-used lands could be used to produce some of the energy required to maintain this system.
With the global depletion of fossil fuel supplies, interest on biomass-based renewable energy has increased owing to a growing national desire for a self-dependent energy supply. National mandates have set targets for biofuel
Energy. Ecology. Safety.
Rationale
consumption which are under scrutiny for their effects on other land-dependent systems like agriculture and habitat.
The Metropolitan Airport Commission [MAC] which operates MSP admits that current sustainable practices on the airport grounds are largely ‘greenwashing’ tactics, things which would have been done regardless of public opinion marketed as ‘green’ to improve the image of the operation. The commission recently applied for and received a $700,000 federal grant to develop a more integrated and forward thinking investigation towards sustainable and resilient practices to develop a framework for future projects.
In this spirit this project proposes to investigate how these different bodies of research regarding avian and ecosystem
ecology, renewable energy production, and phytoremediation can integrate and respond to create safer airports for humans and animals alike. The Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport will act as a pilot project to utilize the 47,000,000 square feet of idle land to begin to alleviate the massive footprint of the aviation industry in the Twin Cities.
Minneapolis St Paul
Eden Prairie
Minnesota River
Mississippi River
Richfield MSPMendota Heights
Bloomington
MSP Municipal ContextMSP Regional Context
Minneapolis St. Paul
MSP Aerial View
Why MSP
Port
The airport ranks 15th in North America for passenger traffic and is the 12th busiest in the US with over 32 million travelers annually and shares borders with 6 unique city entities although it maintains autonomous quasi-governmental status under the Metropolitan Airports Commission. [MAC] It is also a joint military and civilian airport as home to the National Guard Air Force base.
MSP is uniquely located at the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers, perched atop a bluff adjacent to the lands of the Minnesota National River and Recreation Area National Park, in the Great Mississippi Flyway. As such the likelihood of catastrophic interactions between aircraft
and avian hazards are exaggerated and safety of airline passengers is of direct concern.
Consequently the airport boundaries are also adjacent to the Fort Snelling Historic site and grounds as well as the Fort Snelling National Cemetary, the second largest military cemetary after Arlington, VA. Following construction of an additional runway in 2005, the airport is now completely surrounded by highways on all sides making any further construction either prohibitively expensive or will require a massive engineering project.
[193
0s]
[194
0s]
Originally the Twin City Motor Speedway, the larger oval infield created an easy target for racers and spectators coming in by bi-plane for the day.
World War II anti-espionage measures.
Removal of the oval race track for the establishment of an airfield. MAC created to settle dispute between Minneapolis & St. Paul for control of the airport.
[192
0s]
[197
0s]
[200
0s]
History
Jet Age begins, expansion for larger jet carriers in post-war aviation boom requires substantially longer runways.
Encroachment upon Fort Snelling Historic Site and construction of Terminal 1 site
Encroachment into Richfield to complete final runway. Hiawatha Light Rail Line runs underground through Terminals 1 & 2.
[195
0s]
In the interest of public safety stringent design guidelines have been developed regarding land uses on and around the airport landscape. These are outlined in the FAA Airport Design Circular for Airport Design which recommends standards for storm drains, runway alignments, and Runway Protection Zones. For instance, FAR Part 139 requires that land adjacent to runways and taxiways be able to support aircraft that may depart a paved surface, and the ground must also support unimpeded travel of fire rescue vehicles, e.g., adjacent ground must be firm and void of depressions and water.
Different aircraft have specific needs regarding ground clearance from engines and resilience to exhaust thrust. Notably
the lowest clearance under-wing turbines belong to the Boeing 737 at 19.5 inches. In the event this aircraft is required to leave the runway surface, adjacent vegetation must not be long enough to be taken into the engine.
The FAA maintains blanket policy of 10,000’ before ‘wildlife attractants’ may be built. In practice this rarely manifests itself as literally as they would like, and at MSP the south buffer is almost non-existent.
This is by no means an exhaustive representation of the rules at play.Those documents are full texts of themselves
Maintenance operations come with their own unique criteria to be met. All mowing and ground care must be done at night following the days’ final departures and arrivals. As they are tasked with keeping
What & Who
Rules
air traffic moving smoothly, maintenance fleet vehicles must be able to move as freely as possible including de-icers, snow plows, and fire/rescue vehicles.
A standard passenger jet costs on average $75 a minute to keep airborne past scheduled landing time. At MSP, having up to 40 in-bound aircraft is not uncommon in the winter when snow events are frequent. If ground maintenance is unable to clear the runways for landing the costs skyrocket.
$75 x 40 = $3000 per minute.
FAAMACACIFBITSAMPCAEPADNRMNDOTUS Fish & WildlifeMet CouncilNational Park ServiceUS ArmyUS NavyMinnesota National GuardFedEx / UPS
Rule MakersDelays
40% of all North American Migratory Birds
Flyway
MSP lies roughly within 1 mile of the Mississippi River and is therefore directly in the migration path for 40% of migratory birds who rely on the river for navigation across North America. This is a major conflict of interest and represents the largest draw of potentially hazardous avian wildlife through MSP.
Intense continual efforts are in effect at MSP to deter hazardous wildlife from settling on airport grounds. These efforts are in large part due to the open expanses of turf grass and populations increase markedly following regular maintenance like mowing as countless invertebrates become exposed and are a vital food source for migratory bird species, namely geese and rock pigeons. When left unmainted however these tall grasses become habitat for flocks of starlings
which are one of the most common species to be struck at MSP.
Current deterent techniques include lighting early morning explosives devices such as fireworks, firing paintballs into flocks on the ground, monitored selective hunts when necessary and good old fashioned “shoo-ing” by means of flailing arms and shouting obscenities. New research is currently underway exploring different land covers which are designed to better deter the most hazardous of species, rather than the typical shotgun approach of using turf to deter as many species as possible.
Highway In The Sky
$628 Million in Annual Losses Nationally
Wildlife Strikes
The FAA reports over 97.5% of wildlife collisions involve birds, most often in direct conflict with take-off and landing maneuvers which occur within approximately 10 miles of airport property although the most damaging strikes primarily occur within the final 2 miles of descent. The International Civil Aviation Organization [ICAO] is a United Nations specialized agency which enforces a set of mandatory operation standard which eliminates or prevents the establishment of any site in the vicinity of the airport which might serve as an attraction to birds and thereby present a danger to aviation.
Analysis of strike data by Washburn indicates habitat management near airports plays a significant role in the frequency of wildlife strikes across the country. Therefore a wildlife-based
perspective to airport planning rather than a traditional airline perspective could increase safety for aviation and avian species alike.
DeVault and others challenge the idea of all birds species being targeted and encourage a more specialized land use methodology which develops habitats unattractive to those most dangerous wildlife types.
Still, bird strikes account for nearly 220 deaths in the last 25 years and is a real a present danger to the safe daily operations of the aviation industry.
Safety First
$628 Million in Annual Losses Nationally
Wildlife Strikes Reported
Year
[wildlife strikes]
Species of Primary Concern at MSP
Deer
Vultures
Geese
Cormorant
Cranes
Eagles
Ducks
Osprey
Turkeys
Herons
Hawks
Gulls
Rock Pigeon
Owls
Larks
Brows
Coyotes
Mourning Dove
Shorebirds
Blackbirds
American Kestrel
Meadowlarks
Swallows
Sparrows
Nighthawks
Species Group Damage Major Damage Effect on Flight Composite Ranking Relative Hazard Score
1
2
3
4
7
8
5
8
9
11
10
12
13
14
16
15
18
17
19
20
21
22
24
25
23
1
2
3
5
6
9
8
4
7
14
12
11
10
13
15
16
19
17
21
22
18
20
23
24
25
1
2
6
3
4
7
10
8
11
9
12
13
14
20
15
16
5
17
18
19
21
22
24
23
25
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
100
54
55
54
47
41
39
39
33
27
25
24
23
23
17
16
14
14
10
10
9
7
4
4
1
FAA Identified Hazardous Wildlife
Fleet Vehicle Biodiesel Candidates
Biomass
In 2005 the Renewable Fuel Standard [RFS] was first established with the goal to mandate 7.5 billion gallons of biofuel to be used for the US transportation fuel supply by 2012. This mandate has been increased over time to 36 billion gallons by 2022. A prominent component of the critique of biomass of fuel production involves the increase in land clearing, loss of wildlife habitat, and change-over of former food crop land. Thus the true ‘carbon neutrality’ of biofuel production becomes suspect given the inherent lifecycle costs associated with land conversion
DeVault [2012] et al. propose therefore that ideal locations for alternative energy production would contain large expanses of idle land, harbor relatively little wildlive, be mostly unsuitable for conservation
initiatives, and not compete with human food production. Airports then offer one of the few land holdings where reductions in wilfelife abundance and habitat quality are necessary and socially acceptable, and where regulations discourage traditional commodity production.
To date, only a small test plot of 3 acres of biomass production has taken place on airport property in the US at the Detroit International Airport through the Michigan State University Extension Office.
Towards Self-Sufficiency
Fleet Vehicle Biodiesel Candidates
Cellulosic Ethanol Productivity
Regional Biomass Recommendation
MiscanthusSwitchgrassHybrid PoplarsSilver MapleReed Canary GrassBlack LocustSorghum
Hybrid PoplarsEucalyptus
Eucalyptus
Hybrid Poplars SwitchgrassReed Canary Grass
WillowsHybrid PoplarsSilver MapleBlack Locust
SwitchgrassPoplarTropical GrassSycamoreSweetgumSorghumBlack LocustMiscanthus
BiomassThrough a brief series of baseline
calculations regarding idle maintained turf and MNDOT seed mix land found at MSP, I’ve determined the following baseline statistics and assumptions:
- MSP currently maintains 47,000,000 square feet (980 acres) of ‘maintained’ lands.
Start with the assumption that an average of 6 tons of biomass per acre can be harvested annually,
[On the high side of average nationally] And figure 6 tons of biomass typically distills to 500 gallons of lignocellulosic ethanol.
Then:
980 x 500 = 480,000 gallons of lignocellulosic ethanol per year.
The average automobile uses around 600 gallons of fuel annually. Let’s figure we probably at least triple that for the average airport fleet vehicle.
480000 / 1800 = 272 vehicles able to be powered per year. That number takes the needs of airport fleet vehicles off the global oil grid.
The Fuel Basket
980 Acres x 500 Gallons = 480,000 Gallons / 1800 Miles= 272 Vehicles
Fescue Alfalfa Sunflower
Phytoremediation
Minnesota’s harsh winter climate demands heavy consistent use of airplane de-icing chemicals for nearly half the year. Current FAA regulations mandate the use of aircraft de-icing fluids [ADF’s] but require only a 60% recapture rate of these chemicals. These are typically glycol mixtures sprayed by large hoses from lift trucks on specified de-icing platforms near each runway at a rate of around 1,000 gallons per aircraft.
Much of the current debate regarding these ADF’s comes from the tolytriazole, an anti-corrosion chemical which can degrade soil and plant cell remediation capabilities of PG and cause aquatic toxicity.
MSP in particular utilizes Propylene Glycol Types I and IV, two of the most
common mixtures available.
These ADF mixtures vary but are typically comprised of
20-30% propylene glycol [PG], 0.05-0.2% tolytriazole, 1-2% surfactants and viscosity
enhancers, 1-2% additives, 65-80% water.
Current research shows a number of plants are able to biodegrade glycol mixtures at a regular pace without negative affects on plant growth. These include certain fescues [Festuca ssp.] cattails [Typha ssp.] sunflowers [Helianthus ssp.] and alfalfas [Medicago ssp.].
Towards Zero Impacts
System
The site now becomes a question of leverage. Specifically, how to leverage this capital investment to increase its visibility. MAC currently self-identifies most of the items on its Airport Sustainabiity projects list as being “greenwashing,” - that is - things they did or would have done regardless, which were compiled retroactively onto a list and labelled ‘sustainable. This site then should be adapted as the ultimate PR piece, a shining example of MAC and the FAA’s commitment to long-term sustainability and to the communitites who suffer in the wake of their noise and pollution.
It should become a place to reveal the spectacle of air travel and provide an educational experience so the communities of diverse user groups of the city. It should become a crucible of sustainable science through testing and engineering, and re-define the relationship of human and airport, a relationship which has historically become more and more exclusive, more and more rapid, more and more uncomfortable. It should Lift the airport landscape in spite of the single-use status quo and propel itself towards a new future.
With this in mind, the Lift facility is designed as a series of spaces in the spirit of these ambitions. It is a revelatory landscape of science and spectacle.
The Lift Landscape
MSP Acreages
Highway Right of Ways1037 Acre @ 100,500 Gal/Yr
= 43% Total Acreage
Anterior Airfield Space980 Acres @ 95,000 Gal/Yr
= 40% Total Acreage
Mother Lake Cattails124 Acres @ 21,000 Gal/Yr
= 5% Total Acreage
Lift Testing Facility270 Acres @ 30,000 Gal/Yr
= 11% Total Acreage
Mother Lake Cattails
Non/Minimal Harvest
LIFT Testing Facility
Airfield Harvest Zones
To provide ethanol, Lift proposes the utilization of interstitial plantable land of MSP to be re-sown with a new seed mix designed to promote multi-functionality in three ways. First by maximizing biomass productivity at a yield of approximately 5 tons per acre. Second by managing airport pollution through remediation of typical airfield pollutants such as poly-propylene-glycol solutions typically used to de-ice aircraft, and third to design away, as the USDA research has suggested, from the beloved open grasslands of the rock pigeon, canada goose, and meadowlark.
Highway System
MSP Harvest Zones
14%
Bromus inermis
3%
Agrostis alba
21%
Lolium perenne
6%
Medicago sativa
Panicum virgatum
3%
Phleum pratense
3%
Poa compressa
14%
Current Low Maintenance Seed Mix
Poa pratensis
29%
Low Maintenance / Grasses
v
60%
Panicum virgatum Typha latifolia Populus ssp.
Proposed Productive Seed Mix
Alternative Feedstocks
Biomass / Nitrogen / Glycol
Propylene Glycol RemediantsNitrogen Fixers
Biomass Producers
10%
Helianthus ssp.
10%
Festuca ssp.
10%
Medicago sativa
10%
Trifolium pratense
v
50’
50’
100’
40’
100’
50’40’’
50’40’
100’
40’40’
100’
Hwy 62130 Acres
Hwy 7785 Acres
Hwy 11070 Acres
I-494170 Acres
I-35W390 Acres
This interior airport land however is not enough acreage to provide the biomass required to produce the quarter-million gallons necessary to reach fuel independence. as such to complete the first tier of this project, Lift proposes a partnership with MNDOT to utilize highway rights of way in the adjacent road system to supplement the biomass by utilizing the same proposed seed mix, which at its core is an altered version of the currently utilized ‘MNDOT 250’ mix. This partnership would allow miles of highway infrastructure to be transferred from MNDOT’s standard maintenance regime of mowing and heavy chemical suppressant use into a thicker, denser, more aesthetically and ecologically beneficial maintenance schedule designed to be harvested by the idle MAC mowing equipment by day which primarily mows at night due to safety.
Highway System
MnDOT Harvest Zones
Mall of America57 Restaurants
In order to provide the second fuel type, Lift proposes to utilize the waste cooking oil from the 92 restaurants in MSP’s Terminal 1, Terminal 2, and nearby Mall of America. Collection systems are already in place by a third party who produces biofuels for private sale. This is merely a modification of a system already in place to move towards fuel independence by processing these materials on site.
Grease System
Terminal 127 Restaurants
Terminal 28 Restaurants
Grease Based Diesel System
Design
The site now becomes a question of leverage. Specifically, how to leverage this capital investment to increase its visibility. MAC currently self-identifies most of the items on its Airport Sustainabiity projects list as being “greenwashing,” - that is - things they did or would have done regardless, which were compiled retroactively onto a list and labelled ‘sustainable. This site then should be adapted as the ultimate PR piece, a shining example of MAC and the FAA’s commitment to long-term sustainability and to the communitites who suffer in the wake of their noise and pollution.
It should become a place to reveal the spectacle of air travel and provide an educational experience so the communities of diverse user groups of the city. It should become a crucible of sustainable science through testing and engineering, and re-define the relationship of human and airport, a relationship which has historically become more and more exclusive, more and more rapid, more and more uncomfortable. It should Lift the airport landscape in spite of the single-use status quo and propel itself towards a new future.
With this in mind, the Lift facility is designed as a series of spaces in the spirit of these ambitions. It is a revelatory landscape of science and spectacle.
The Lift Landscape
With Tiers 1 and 2 in place conceptually, land was needed for the facilities to be sited on an airport which ranks among the most spatially dense in the country. Through overlay analysis, an interesting site emerged in the northwest corner of the MSP property where approximately 250 acres of land owned by MAC and the City of Minneapolis lies primarily dormant. Current uses include the Now Boarding Dog Kennel, FAA and MAC Corporate Offices, and the MAC maintenance facility where most of the vehicles are currently stored and fueled.
The Site
The site also features infrastructure on an epic scale and a remnant of the Wenonah neighborhood which has slowly been carved away over time as the airport footprint has grown. With an average home value of just under $90K and lying in the 70dB average noise level zone the homes are old and aging rapidly. Devoid of logical re-investment their values are plumetting, and the Lift proposal assumes their eventual removal by the city.
Mississippi River
Lake Nokomis
Mother Lake
National Cemetary
Fort Snelling Golf Course
Bossen Field Park
Taft Park
Veteran’s Memorial Park
Lake Nokomis Park
Taft Lake
Snelling Lake
Minnesota River
Stormwater Ponds
Site Footprint297 Acres
Water Bodies
Structure On-Site62 Total Buildings
MSP Footprint3400 Acres
Mother Lake Watershed380 Acres
Base Composite
Flight Paths8 Unique Routes
Major Adjacent Arteries
Runway Safety Zones
Decibel Level Zones
Vehicle AccessVisual Access
Approach Over Mother Lake
Approach Over Highway 62
Mother Lake Wenonah
MAC Corporate Facility
Empty Field Security Fence
MAC DVOR Transmitter
Community Garden
28th Avenue
MSP Security Fence
Secure MAC Property
Now Boarding
Wenonah Neighborhood
Bossen Field Park
Highway 62
FAA Regional Office
Mother Lake
MAC Corporate Office MAC Maintenance
Office
Unofficial Airport Dog Park
01 2
34
5
68
9
10 11 1213
14 15 16 17
18 19 2021
22
2423
7
0 Alpha1 Amplishelter2 Tetragon3 Entry Green4 Visitor Parking5 Annex6 Vortex7 Stormwater Retention8 Stormwater Matrix9 Now Boarding Pet Facility10 Apex11 New Trees12 Prairie Matrix13 FAA Regional Office14 Tangent15 Lowland Forest16 Asterix17 MAC Corporate Office18 Cattail Matrix19 Knowledge Deck 20 Steam Matrix21 Biodiesel Facility22 Axis23 Vertex24 Ethanol Facility
5
Design Elements
Alpha
Annex
Tetragon
Vortex
Matrix
Asterix
Delta
ApexTangent
AsterixAxis
Vertex
Vignet tes
Delta
Annex
A A’
A
Lighting Bollard
Parking Lot Driveway
5’0’ 10’Annex Viewing Theater Section A - A’
5’ Raised Gazing Theater
A user might begin at the beginning, at the entry, either by car off Highway 62 or down 28th avenue into the ANNEX - a parking area designed around a raised gazing theater to witness the take-off and landing of flights from Runway 12L. The theater provides just 12 seats in sets of 3 in an attempt to create and maintain a rare intimacy with the aircraft, re-enacting the global act of plane watching on the angled gazing couches.
Annex
Airfield Biofuel Planting
5’ Raised Gazing Theater
135 ReclinedGazing Couch
o Glass InsetGazing Theater
12’ Security Fence
A’
Aluminum Gazing Frame
Glass Gazing Panel
135 Aluminum Gazing Couch
5’ Gazing Raised Platform
12’ Chain Link Security Fence
o
Alpha
B’
B
DVORFramed
InfrastructureOverflow
Lawn
Alpha Entry Plaza Section B - B’10’0’ 20’
The ALPHA entry is a space designed as though modern infrastructure were a treated almost like an ancient temple in order to re-frame our visual understanding of these pieces of equipment as users enter from the neighborhood above, or Bossen Field Park on a little league saturday morning.
Alpha
B
DVORStreet Entry
Gathering Lawn
70’ Diameter Emitting Surface
3’ Diameter Support Column
15’ Diameter Central Column
Overly Dramatic Base Lighting
B’
Tetragon
Smalldog Area Ampli-Shelter
The central promenade axis leads into the Tetragon dog park, a new version of a previously unfenced and unregulated use at the south end of the site, wrapping around and through these re-framed infrastructural elements of the DVOR, basically a large aircraft scaled GPS transponder unit with its two associated booster antenna. The form of the fence and tree plantings create a forced perspective, narrowing as they near the DVOR increasing the perceived scale of the structure as the central path is processed.
TetragonCC’
20’0’ 40’Tetragon Dog Park Section C - C’
C
2” Aluminum Bar
3/8” Inset Safety Glass
Wood Platform
18” Concrete Footing
12’-8” Clearance
9’-9” Radius
40’-0”
25’-0”
Booster Tower
Play Area
Security Fence
DVORC’
Vortex
Now Boarding Infiltration Prairie
D
D’ 20’0’ 40’Vortex Drain Bridge Section D - D’
The entry splits into two directions, parallel experiential runways in the spirit of the footprint of MSP originating from similar circumstance but diverting into diverse tangent arcs like flight paths. The lower tangent moves first through the VORTEX bridge, an experimental wetland retention pond which captures the storm runoff from the hardscape of the corportate facilities before it enters the the Minneapolis sewer system. Designed for up to 150,000 cu/ft of water, the bridge bursts forth with aquatic effulgence during rain events to showcase and signify the act of its capture.
Vortex
D
3’-6” Handrail
Wood Plank Gangway
Steel Support Structure
6” Embedded Drain Pipes
1” Exterior Drizzle Pipes
Storage Pond
Vortex
D’
Matrix
Secondary Traipseway
18” Seating Edge
Mixed Prairie Testing Plots
E
E’ Matrix Planting Section E - E’5’0’ 10’
This water is then utilized in one of the test pods of the MATRIX, the large biomass testing facility which runs down the central spine of the site, edged by existing parking areas on the east and the existing ridgeline on the west. This matrix will evolve over time as needs and science dictate, but has been initally set up for algaes, mixed prairire grasses, bamboo species, switchgrass, and cattails in conjunction with mother Lake.
Matrix
E
Pond Fed Drip Irrigation
Experimental Planting Medium
Rubberized Planting Bed Liner
Filter Mesh
Heated Steam Pipes
Exterior Path Lights
Adjacent Walkway
Aluminum Raised Planting Bed
Overflow Drain
Primary Traipseway
Algae Stormwater Tests
E’
Apex
TangentWalkway
Lower Platform
F
F’
Apex Sky Bridge Section F - F’20’0’ 40’
As one sinks below grade towards the cattails of Mother Lake, the second tangent arc stretches above. 22’ over the lower tangent arc and stretching almost 2000’ from end to end the APEX is a raised curving arc with an accessible stepped theater to separate the movers from the shakers. It is an epic place of theater for viewing the incoming aircraft from runway 12R and 17 over the shallow murky and now bird-free waters of Mother Lake.
Apex
F
3’6” Safety Railing
12’ Wide Upper Walkway
Apex Peak
18” Step Down / 3 6” Risers
10’ Wide Lower Gazing Platform
22’ Support Beam
3’-6” Safety Railing
6’ Wide Lower Gangway
3% 3%
Apex Peak
Mother Lake
F’
Tangent
Apex Peak
Runway 12R
GG’
Tangent Cattail Walkway Section G - G’20’0’ 40’
The lower tangent arc leads deeper out into the marsh below, and as it narrows, provides provisions to step off the path to gather, wait, watch, think, chat, rest, or catch grasshoppers as they move through the marsh. It is a smaller more intimate place for the experience of aircraft and one another.
Tangent
G
3’6” Safety Railing
6” Step
10’ Wide Raised Gazing Platform
6’ Wide Lower Gangway
Tangent Curve
Lower Platform
Runway 17
G’
Asterix
H
BiodieselFacility
Storage Tanks
H
H’
Asterix Celestial Storage Tanks Section H - H’20’0’ 40’
The lower tangent returns to shore into the matrix at the ASTERIX, a chemical and fuel storage tank yard designed to re-imagine the airport’s role in the atmosphere. Despite being a landscape and infrastructure primarily concerned with the sky, the lights required for safe airfield operations create such dense light pollution that the stars are no longer visible in the night sky. Thus the tanks are given a floating exterior skin which is perforated with the patterns of constellations and back lit to provide a space a place for learning about the celestial vaccuum in a a landscape devoted to the sky.
Asterix
H
Floating Exterior Aluminum Skin
Drilled Constellation Patterns
Internal Light Source
Standard Storage Tank
Educational Experience
Celestial Diagrams
H’
Axis
Axis
Biodiesel Facility
Diesel Theater
Cellulosic Theater
I
I’
Axis Education Theater Section I - I’10’0’ 20’
The asterix tanks are adjacent to the sited production facilities and the large dueling theaters of the AXIS. The space between the diesel and ethanol facilities each of which feature large viewing windows as the centrum to a small amphitheater both similar in evoking the invisible shapes of the airport landscape and different in their physical shapes much like the internal functions of their related structures. These spaces are meant to expose the process of fuel production and create accessible science and inate learning opportunities. Both buildings are designed conceptually to be more than a white box, but rather to be inviting and functional, and where appropriate, open to the public.
Axis
I
EthanolFacility
Chemical Tanks Walkway Egress
The building shapes are reminiscent of these same invisible airport geometries, from outward radiating radar circles to the runway hashes forming repeating V’s. The shapes are gestural, more as a question of what the structures could be, if not the white box. But perhaps the tanks could appear as beakers, and the building provide a puncture for their experience, in this case in the form of a large glass hallway which seperates the material storage, early processing, and production processing uses.
I’
I’
North Elevation South Elevation
Production Gazing Portal
Sky Gazing Portal
Production Floor
Various Machinery
Garage Entry
Floating Mesh Skin
Material Storage/Receiving Room
Vegetation Processing Room
Internal Glass Walkway
Processing Gazing Portal
Production Room
Production Gazing Portal
Chemical Storage Tanks
East Elevation West Elevation
1”=20’
Production Facility Elevations40’0’ 80’
Vertex
Cattail Testplots
Viewing Deck
J J’
Vertex Test Plot Section J - J’40’0’ 80’
A central path leads out from the axis back through the descending matrix of steam-heated bamboo planters to test future viability of biomass plants given the impending realities of climate change through a stop off-gathering point called the Knowledge Deck down to the final theater, the VERTEX. Located as close as permitted to the edge of the runway 12R and shaped by the invisible forces of its associated runway safety area the viewing platform is nestled in a series of test matrix plots for cattails only a few hundred feet below the belly of incoming and outgoing aircraft. This is a spectacle earned through the long traverse and circulates back through the network to the entry.
Vertex
J
Cattail Planting Plot
Cattail Planting Plot
Mesh Walkway
Gazing Theater
Flush Wetland Edge
DVORKnowledge Deck
Apex Curve
Steamvent Testplots
J’
Finale
The LIFT project proposes not only a system of production to move the airline industry forward towards fuel independence, but a landscape which leverages the investment in science and spectacle, re-inventing the very nature of the modern airport landscape as a place for the future, a space for knowledge, and a theater for people.
It is a place to lift the eyes and conscience, raise the functionality of our infrastructure and develop a new relationship with a lost landscape.
The Lift Landscape
DeVault, Travis L., Michael J. Begier, Jerrold L. Belant, Bradley F. Blackwell, Richard A. Dolbeer, James A. Martin, Thomas W. Seamans, and Brian E. Washburn. 2013. Re-Thinking Airport Land-cover Paradigms: Agriculture, Grass, and Wildlife Hazards. Berryman Institute Journal 7(1):10-15
DeVault Travis L., Jerrold L. Belant, Bradley F. Blackwell, James A. Martin, Jason A. Schmidt, Wes L. Burger Jr, and James W Patterson Jr. 2012 . Airports Offer Unrealized Potential for Alternative Energy Production. Environmental Management 49:517–522
Schmidt, Jason A., Brian E. Washburn, Travis L. DeVault, and Thomas W. Seamans. 2013. Do Native Warm-season Grasslands Near Airports Increase Bird Strike Hazards? American Midland Naturalist Journal 170:144-157
Walker Arron, and Andrew Rowlings. 2013. Sustainable Energy Options for the Future Airport Metropolis. Special Paper Prepared for the Airport Metropolis Research Project
Martin James A., Jerrold L. Belant, Travis L. DeVault, Bradley F. Blackwell, Loren W. Burger Jr, Samuel K. Riffel and Guiming Wang. 2011. Wildlife Risk to Aviation: A Multi-Scale Issue Requires A Multi-Scale Solution. Human-Wildlife Interactions 5(2):198-203
Braathen Nils A., Phillipe Crist, Ruth Delzeit, Christian Hood, Timothy Searchinger, Anselm Eisentraut and Ron Steenblik. 2012. Green Growth and the Future of Aviation. Special Paper Prepared for the 27th Round Table on Sustainable Development
Wang Zidong D., Edward T. Yu, James A. Larson and Burton C. English. 2013. Greenhouse Gas Emission of an Economically Optimized Switchgrass Supply Chain for Biofuel Production. Selected Paper Prepared For Presentation at the Southern Agricultural Economics Association Annual Meeting. Orlando, Florida.
Miao, Zewei, Yogendra Shastri, Tony E. Grift, Alan C. Hansen and K.C. Ting. 2011 . Lignocellulosic Biomass
Feedstock Transportation Alternatives, Logistics, Equipment Configurations, and Modeling. Biofuels, Bioprod. Bioref. 6:351-362
Fargione, Joseph E., Thomas R.Cooper, David J. Flaspohler, Jason Hill, Clarence Lehman, Tim McCoy, Scott McLeod, Erik J. Nelson, Karen S. Oberhauser and David Tilman. 2009. Bioenergy and Wildlife: Threats and Opportunities for Grassland Conservation. Bioscience Magazine 59:767-777
Roth, Amber M., David W. Sample, Christine A. Ribic, Laura Paine, Daniel J. Undersander, and Gerald A. Bartlet. 2005. Grassland Bird Response to Harvesting Switchgrass as a Biomass Energy Crop. Biomass and Bioenergy 28(14):490-498
McLaughlin, S.B., and M.E. Walsh. 1998 . Evaluating Environmental Consequences of Producing Herbaceous Crops for Bioenergy. Biomass and Bioenergy 14(4):317-324
Robertson Bruce A., Patrick J. Doran, Elizabeth R. Loomis, J. Roy Robertson and Douglas W. Schemske. 2011. Avian Use of Perennial Biomass Feedstocks as Post-Breeding and Migratory Stopover Habitat. Public Library of Science 6(3):1-9
Bakker Kristel K. and Kenneth F. Higgins. 2009. Planted Grasslands and Native Sod Prairie: Equivalent Habitat for Grassland Birds? Western North American Naturalist 69(2):235-242
U.S. Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration. 2011 . Airside Applications for Artificial Turf. [Special Issue] Advisory Circular 1-10
Blackwell Bradley F., Travis L. DeVault, Esteban Fernandez-Juricic and Richard A. Dolbeer. 2009. Wildlife Collisions with Aircraft: A Missing Component of Land-Use Planning for Airports. Landscape and Urban Planning 93:1-9
Bibliography
Fike John H., David J. Parrish, Dale D. Wolf, John A. Balasko, James T. Green Jr, Monroe Rasnake and John H. Reynolds. 2006. Long-term Yield Potential of Switchgrass-for-biofuel Systems. Biomass and Bioenergy 30:198-206
Washburn, Brian E. and Thomas W. Seamans. 2013. Managing Turfgrassto Reduce Wildlife Hazards at Airports. In Wildlife in Airport Environments. ed. Travis L. Devault, Bradley F. Blackwell, and Jerrold L. Belant, 79-90. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Martin James A., Tara J. Conkling, Jerrold L. Belant, Kristin M. Biondi, Bradley F. Blackwell, Travis L. DeVault, Esteban Fernandez-Juricic, Paige M. Schmidt and Thomas W. Seamans. 2013. Wildlife Conservation and Alternative Land Uses at Airports. In Wildlife in Airport Environments.ed. Travis L. Devault, Bradley F. Blackwell, and Jerrold L. Belant, 79-90. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Belant Jerrold L., Travis L. DeVault and Bradley F. Blackwell. 2013. Conclusions and Directions. In Wildlife in Airport Environments. ed. Travis L. Devault, Bradley F. Blackwell, and Jerrold L. Belant, 117-125. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
DeVault, Travis L., Washburn, Brian E.. 2013. Identification and Management of Wildlife Food Resources at Airports. In Wildlife in Airport Environments. ed. Travis L. Devault, Bradley F. Blackwell, and Jerrold L. Belant, 79-90. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
L I F T
Related Documents
