Infrastructural Landscape: Strategies for Post-Industrial Reuse

Abstract

This thesis examines the regional challenges facing the Great Lakes and proposes a series of simultaneous multiscalar strategies to address them. The proposal activates the potential, in the greater number and area, of small cities within the region to improve water quality and water consumption. Reusing post-industrial sites is the strategy for applying the theoretical frameworks and research on the region. The concept of Landscape Infrastructure informs the project's approach of creating multifunctional infrastructure systems. When considering the creation of new infrastructure through the lens of Landscape Infrastructure that infrastructure must meet social, ecological, and economic goals while preforming it's desired function. Strategies are proposed at the scale of the Great Lakes, Lake Erie, and Erie, PA. Those strategies are then applied through design at the former GAF Shingle manufacturing site.