Waterfront spectacular

Through discourse analysis and site evaluation, this thesis asks two questions: first, what is the potential of the contemporary urban waterfront to structure and perpetuate meaningful spectacle; and second, what is the potential for spectacle to restructure the post-industrial public waterfront thus affording these sites more transformative power within society? Discourse analysis of spectacle is used in order to establish a typology of spectacle as well as a new definition of the phenomenon. Three case study cities—New Orleans, New York City, and Chicago—are evaluated in order to understand contemporary design strategies in post-industrial public waterfront projects. Spectacle is newly defined by the author as, “a visible deviation from the norm intended to provoke a response.” That understanding of spectacle is then explored as a design strategy on a riverfront site in downtown Detroit, Michigan, as part of the Detroit by Design 2012 Detroit Riverfront Competition. The author proposes a concept called “CityWorks Plaza & Port: a Publicly Owned Working Wharf and Repurposing Cooperative” as a model for Detroit. CityWorks Plaza and Port capitalizes on two detrimental aquatic invasive species: the sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) and zebra mussel (Dreissena polymorpha) and asserts that making work visible, in public, is spectacular—as noted, “a visible deviation from the norm intended to provoke a response.” In conclusion, this thesis discusses how instrumentalizing spectacle in design can lead to a post-post-industrial scenario—one which merges industrial space with public space, thus enabling a more diverse and generative economy while meeting public demands for waterfront access and recreational space