RESILIENT CANDLESTICK POINT
Encouraging Frontline Communities to Embrace Sea Level Rise
By 2100, Bayview Hunters Point will see water levels reach up to six feet. Resilient Candlestick Point will allow this neighborhood at the southeast edge of San Francisco to make space for water while allowing for growth. It will do so by reclaiming Candlestick Point for the ecological, economical and community benefit of the city. Nature and its systems will be the tools used to encourage a personal relationship between the user and the coastal edge. Resilient Candlestick Point establishes a mitigation strategies to absorb, filter, and disperse flood water while creating a matrix for adaptive and flexible dwellings.
SITE INVESTIGATIONS
Since the removal of Candlestick Park, the previous home to the San Francisco 49ers, master planning has already taken place. Resilient Candlestick Point takes the city's current proposal and overlays the incoming phenomena. Together a series of strategies are implemented to maximize the amount of absorbing, filtering and dispersing of water. In essence a "green edge" is created which introduces both natural and engineered means to protect. This edge is a network of constructed wetlands that include recreational program.
REINFORCED EDGES
Interventions on the city edge must address key design strategies. Rising bay and coastal water levels are already affecting San Francisco with periodic coastal flooding. Using fundamental strategies such as accommodate, protect, and retreat we can create a vision in which planning, engineering and design come together and create an adequate response.
HOUSING MATRIX
Three essential housing typologies are incorporated into mix. Among the the three are floating units, "amphibious" units and resilient units.
Floating units involve deep section floating platforms are used to provide buoyancy for multi floor lightweight timber frame homes. These units are linked together to provide added stability and secured with steel and concrete guide posts.
Amphibious units are three and a half story timber frame units are paired together on concrete buoyancy decks that rest within a ʻdry dockʼ on the ground. This allows units to enjoy access to the gardens and parking during normal conditions and be elevated out of the dock on the buoyancy deck during high level floods.
At higher levels a mix of dry proof and wet proof construction
techniques are used to resist and cope with water inundationrespectively. The resilient units include secondary access decks and escape routes are
provided above ground floor to allow continued use of the property and access for the emergency services during times of flooding.
LAND USE VARIANCE
A series of land use strategies are incorporated in order to provide density while introducing the aforementioned mitigation strategies.
"Sponges" - Absorptive landscapes for collecting, filtering and dispersing flood waters during storm events.
"Land Swap" - Creating density nodes while allowing certain areas to produce space to support flood management strategies.
"Riverwalk" - Connections which enrich life a the shore's edge.
THE SPONGE
Nature as a primary Tool...
The introduction of constructed wetlands at a large scale will address in the incoming sea level rise. The new landscapes will absorb, filter and disperse flood waters. The “sponges will also provide an ecological diversity while improving current ecological systems. In addition, the development of an undulating berm will serve as a driver towards creating a dynamic "green network."
UNDULATING BERM
The berm makes its way along the edge of the “green network...”
The fluctuation in widths along the path is to provide planting and social space. It narrows to accommodate sports fields and other existing programs. Ramps and bridges are inserted at frequent intervals on major upland streets in the neighborhood. This creates legible corridors to the park and culminate in new program elements at the waters edge. The water’s edge recreation includes a diversity of recreational progams.
