The opportunity to design post-industrial waterfronts in relation to their ecological context

Many industrial facilities along urban shores, no longer useful in a post-industrial economy, are being redeveloped for new uses. In the context of efforts to conserve wetlands, improve water quality and restore healthier ecosystems in polluted estuaries, it could be expected that these urban waterfront redevelopments would include efforts to improve the ecology of urban estuarine edges. However, most new waterfront designs show no indication of awareness of the living aquatic communities along the edge and the benefits which could result from improving nearshore habitat. This dissertation addresses the question, How can ecologically rich waterfront edges be incorporated into the reconstruction of urban shorelines? A comparative case study was made of Boston, New York and Philadelphia. In these cities, key informants from the Development, Environmental and Regulatory Communities were interviewed and a comparison was made of the regulatory legislation and planning objectives guiding new waterfront construction. Two hypotheses were supported by the results: (1) there is a communication gap between people with knowledge of the aquatic environment of urban harbors and people responsible for making decisions about the future waterfront; and (2) there is subversion of ecological restoration goals in post-industrial waterfront design. Three assumptions were unsupported: (1) ecologically enhancing urban areas is goal of post-industrial communities, (2) given the option, planners and designers would choose to build biologically rich urban places; and (3) ecologically rich edges would be comparable to traditional engineering in cost. It was concluded that this communication gap inhibits the design of ecologically responsive urban waterfront edges. Bridging such a gap between designers and environmentalists may be more effective if a parallel educational effort, targeted at the general public, raises latent public interest in urban aquatic habitat. Design prototypes, illustrating ways to create new waterfront facilities that also enhance the aquatic environment, may help designers, developers, regulators and environmentalists visualize ways to take advantage of the opportunity to reconstruct urban waterfronts which are ecologically responsive. Preliminary prototypical designs are included in an appendix