The Potomac River is merely a backdrop for the city’s monuments, which perhaps explains the city’s disinterest in Roosevelt Island. Located in the middle of the river, it remains underutilized and inaccessible; pedestrians must cross a highway to access the island. With the recent expansion of the Kennedy Center, it seemed necessary to improve the city’s pedestrian connectivity.
When zooming out to the city scale, it becomes clear that the location of Roosevelt’s monument has an axial connection with the Lincoln Memorial, a gesture that extends L’Enfant’s plan into the river. This proposal attempts to make this visual connection evident, and is a polemic gesture to connect their presidencies as they relate to American imperialism and the problematic expansion westward. The taking away of territories from the native population that resulted became the inspiration for a bridge of atonement, one that would re-territorialize the island and better the environment. As revisionist histories continue emerge, the proposed building is designed to act as a telescope, directing the visitors gaze to monuments and contemplate their problematic state as more narratives come forth.
The Ecological:
The resulting proposal is an open air bridge / building that takes into account the increase in the river’s salinity as a result of sea level rise, making an oyster hatchery possible. With oyster’s ability to filter water, the bridge / oyster hatchery would become a device to better the Chesapeake Bay watershed by growing and deploying the oysters out to the bay. The island’s landscape, designed by Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., was designed to have a “naturalistic look” in honor of Roosevelt’s preservationist legacy. In some cases, park designation meant taking away sacred land from natives. This proposal attempts to address this problematic narrative by replacing the “naturalized” existing wetlands that will be lost to sea level rise with a highly geometric and artificial floating wetlands replacement that becomes a didactic landscape, thus calling attention to the site’s artificiality..
Winner of the 2019 AIA Maryland Student Design Award