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Professional and academic landscape architecture portfolio for J. Liam Mahoney
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P O R T F O L I O
“A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they will never sit”
-Greek Proverb
My master’s report on the St. Roch neighborhood in New Orleans, LA came as a response to the explosion of vacant lots after Hurricane Katrina. It was a practical approach to redevelop these vacant lots into greenspaces that restore the local ecological processes and develop a sense of self sufficiency through local food production. The end product was a collaborative process that was broken down into three phases; a planning phase, construction phase, and maintenance phase. In each phase the community at large held some authority or role in moving the process along.
ORGANIZERS
DECIDERS
CONTRIBUTORS
SPONSORS
ANALYSTS
FACILITATORS
AFFECTING STAKEHOLDERS
CITY GOVERNMENT
NGOsRESEARCHERS
LABOR TEAMS
DESIGN TEAM
EFFECTED STAKEHOLDERS
CONCEPTION OF IDEA
SITE VISIT & EXPLORATION
DELIBERATION
SHARED VISION &
DESIGN DECISIONThe goal of the report was to develop a collaborative process that would involve the community throughout a project’s lifespan. Designers would be more visible in the public to develop a stronger relationship with the community. By decentralizing the design responsibilities, there is more opportunity for residents to develop their own schemes and programs. By giving the community more responsibility, they achieve a sense of stewardship and fulfillment.
The
collaborative process was developed to involve and integrate all parties in a project, and allow them to be more visible to one another. The designer will orchestra and focus the discussion as needed to
ALPHA: A COLLABORATIVE DESIGN PROCESS
ORGANIZERS
DECIDERS
CONTRIBUTORS
SPONSORS
ANALYSTS
FACILITATORS
AFFECTING STAKEHOLDERS
CITY GOVERNMENT
NGOsRESEARCHERS
LABOR TEAMS
DESIGN TEAM
EFFECTED STAKEHOLDERS
CONCEPTION OF IDEA
SITE VISIT & EXPLORATION
DELIBERATION
SHARED VISION &
DESIGN DECISION
The diagram
illustrates the collaboration and
interaction between the parties and community groups that
are involved in a project’s initial phases. In the same way that ecosystems initially begin to respond after a shock or change in state, this process is designed to react and adapt to shocks and changes throughout the social and built environment in the St. Roch neighborhood.
This phase is the initial development, design, and planning process for a
given project’s
lifespan. Throughout this
phase community organizers, non-profits, and
the public come together through the guidance of design professionals to bring their schemes to life. There is an active community engagement process that allows these projects to be made public through workshops, charrettes, site visits, and art installations. The idea is to transition the leadership responsibilities from professionals to the public. These projects are typically small in scale and can be implemented rapidly.
Through this process, the public slowly becomes self sufficient in their creative process, and develop a momentum that allows the community to have control over their environment and truly develop their sense of place.
Site selection
Hydrology Suitability Soil Suitability Social Composite
Site selection is a big part of the collaborative process. Sites can be selected on high visibility to other community assets, and their program needs. For instance, wetlands were selected on water needs, soil quality, and vegetation. The three diagrams to the left show the analysis for each
of the previous categories mentioned. There should be highly visible elements put on each site. Shade structures and fences can be used to show that the site is owned by the community, and should be treated as such to promote safety.
ALPHA: A COLLABORATIVE DESIGN PROCESS
Constructing these sites provides a real life learning lab to educate the community members of the St. Roch neighborhood. The labor is broken up into three work forces; professional construction crews who will aid in the heavy construction and education, workforce development teams that are searching for job skills, and public volunteers who aid in small tasks. Throughout the process of construction there will be opportunities for public volunteers to participate, learn, and
invest in their community, Workforce teams will be given specific projects assigned to their requested job skills to be learned. In this way, the sites can be an example of construction in the
BUILDING PLACES TOGETHER
Community gardens
VEGETABLE PLOTS
COMMUNITY IDENTITY
RAIN GARDENS
SHADE STRUCTURES
MARKETPLACE
Wetlands
URBAN FOREST RESTORATION
BOARDWALK
NATIVE WETLAND RESTORATION
FLEXIBLE GREENSPACE
The Apiary is a collaborative nursery operated entirely by residents of the city, so they might foster stewardship and ownership in what the city becomes. Participation is encouraged through fun elements such as merry-go-rounds and hand pumps, which operate like a Rube Goldberg Machine to care for the nursery’s plants.
top 15 finalist FOR THE SIXTY NINE SEVENTY URBAN IDEAS COMPETITION
1UTAH IS NUMBER ONE IN THE US FOR VOLUNTEERING
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The apiaryThe Apiary seeks to revitalize Salt Lake City through this idea of working collectively towards a common goal. By introducing a collaborative nursery operated entirely by the citizens of the city, residents become active participants in what the city becomes. Visitors find appreciation of this venerable morale of stewardship on an intimate level through active participation. Through its implementation, propagation, and ongoing maintenance and production, the Apiary will foster a new sense of stewardship in Salt Lake City.
BLOCKS SIXTY-NINE SEVENTY
CONCEPTUAL SKETCH
WIDEN PEDESTRIAN SPACE
PRESERVE CULTURAL ELEMENTS
RECONNECT THEM
WITH VERTICAL GARDENS
CREATE IDENTITY
The Apiary be completely operated by the people and visitors of Salt Lake City, rather than hired hands. The goal is to incorporate maintenance and operation in such a way that any visitor to the site will be encouraged to participate in the procurement and propagation of The Apiary’s plants. By mechanizing this process, visitors explore The Apiary as a Rube Goldberg machine, playing with inputs whose outputs help care for the plants. From this open interaction, all users who come to the site will have an invested interest in Salt Lake City, and will be encouraged to return.
The Apiary is malleable by all types and sizes of groups. An office employee can tend his sapling till it grows to a mighty tree, a family can plant a group of wildflowers that will be transplanted to their neighborhood, and even an entire class from Washington elementary can develop an tire grouping of plants that will help restore habitat areas around the city. Goldberg Machine to care for the nursery’s plants.
SITE PLAN
Main St. gardensThe production spaces feed into Main Street, which acts as market space for the nursery, but also for other local venders. The amount of vehicular circulation is minimized to a single lane way with no parking. This creates a more vibrant streetscape for pedestrians, rather than the automobile. In this way, more interaction between the retailers and pedestrians can occur, restaurants can have more spacious outdoor seating, and the theaters will have more ample spillover space before and after shows.
Main Street will regain its traditional Main Street appeal again. The collaborative experience continues throughout Main Street as well. Amid the hexagonal structure there are projectors that exhibit ideas, questions, images, that anyone can text to exhibit their ambitions and concerns. The apiary becomes a more vibrant space that exposes real time information and issues from anyone passing by allowing the question of what Salt Lake City becomes to be constantly evolving by its participants.
The alleys, vacant lot and open spaces of 69 70 will be the main production areas for the nursery. Mechanical water pumps will shower various vast areas of vertical gardens, creating a sense of curiosity in the visitor. Merry-go-rounds are attached to gears which slowly
rotate the vertical gardens, allowing all plants to reach sunlight and allowing plants to be moved and maintained on the ground plane. All of these mechanics harvest kinetic energy for use in the outdoor furniture.
Apiary systems
kinetic elements
water pump overhead structure
vertical gardens
merry-go-round attached to vertical gardens
charging station lounge
The apiary plaza
lounge laptop station shade community gardens kiosk performance platform
Laptop and cell phone hookups add another layer for participation
with the machine. Alleys become quiet gardens, a space for someone
to retreat from work during lunch to find solace, whereas larger open
spaces become areas for high activity and collaboration. These areas will
house large lounging benches for people watching and a plethora of other
community geared furniture.
The Denver Metro Studio was one of the more intensive studios in the Kansas State curriculum, but the challenge was one of the
appeals of this project. The site was an old medical campus in the Denver downtown area that had been uprooted and moved to
Colorado University’s campus. The first phase of the project was a masterplan for the entire site. Some of the dilemmas presented
in this first phase were integrating the two different grids north and south of the site along with breaking up the superblocks effectively.
The second phase was a focus area, such as a plaza or streetscape to detail further, in which some design detail was required.
sunrise suns
et
The site for the Denver Metro Studio is located at the intersection of 9th & Colorado in downtown Denver. The purpose of the project was to create a urban infill project that responded to its context and create new and meaningful spaces in Denver’s urban fabric. The issues with the site were various and pertained to recreating a neighborhood amenities that had long been blocked by the old hospital. This site is a critical piece of real estate in the Hale neighborhood of Denver. The above diagrams and sketches provide initial thinking in developing the overall masterplan to the right.
SITE INVESTIGATION
Existing hospital sketch
sun wind walk ideas
The masterplan seeks to reintegrate the site with its context. By developing a central green space that is centered around the most historic buildings of the Veterans Affairs Medical Center, it allows the history of the site to become an integral part of the new development, creating a staple of the site. The first critical issue to address was the massive size of the original block. The original block was consumed by the hospital, and appeared massive at the pedestrian scale. In this plan, retail is brought out in storefronts, and mixed with highly trafficked streets and open space.
On the eastern portion of the site, there is a major pedestrian spine that is angled to reconcile the grids to the north and south and sow them together. This spine is lined with shops as well as different plazas to provide different programs and various time intervals maintaining a constant activity on site.
masterplan
Colo
rado
ave
.
clem
ent s
t.
9th ave.
11th ave.
12th ave.
birch st. square
central greenopen air market art
museum
birch st.
pedestrian mall
The scale of the site is meant to increase density without overwhelming the surrounding neighborhoods. The building heights are taller along Colorado Ave. and to the east adjacent to the remaining hospital. To the north and south, the buildings step down to reintegrate into the existing neighborhoods. There is a mix of uses that have been missing from the
surrounding neighborhoods. There is opportunity for new retail and leisure spaces like a movie theater, shopping district, and farmer market spaces. The uses are meant to mingle and build off one another creating a new synergy.
ground floors
floors 9+
land use
floors 7-8
floors 5-6
floors 3-4
SEASONAL USES
CULTURAL BUILDINGS
TEMPORARY PEDESTRIAN SPACES
RETAIL
The focus of the open space was to create lively, active pedestrian space that engages residents at all times of the year. The con-text of plaza bora is cultural and retail space that flows out into the street. In winter there are opportunities for seasonal uses, such as temporary ice rinks, holiday shopping and activities. In the summer there are street festivals mixed with gallery exhibits on first Fridays.
Plaza Bora and Birch St. Square are meant to bring new identity to the neighbor-hood, and serve as the cultural infra-structure to bring people together.
PLAZA BORA
OUTDOOR SEATING
Birch St. Square
Plaza bora
e. 9th st,
bora st,
11th ave.
chinook st..
birch st.
BIRCH ST. SQUARE
FARMER’S MARKET
IDENTITY
BIRCH ST. SQUARE
VENUE SPACES
PHX Renews is an ongoing collaboration between Keep Phoenix Beautiful, Collier International, and the City of Phoenix. The site is 15 acres of vacant land in the heart of Phoenix. The result has been a mix of community gardens, temporary greenspace, learning spaces, and a testing ground for how we develop vacant lots in the City of Phoenix moving forward.
AZ forward environmental award honorable mention
conceptualization
concept 1 concept 2 concept 3 schematic design
SmithGroupJJR was approached to develop a master plan for the site as a pro-bono project. What started as a simple planning exercise grew into one an extensive project that had us planning out each part of the site as partners of the project bought into the site. Above are the initial concept diagram exercises to develop the masterplan.
Master planning the site proved to be tricky because of the constant motion of the project. There are constantly changing components and partners coming and going across the site. To fit all of them in an efficient and orderly matter required setting up a framework that would support that.
The most important thing for us was to develop a solid circulation system that would provide a skeleton for new programs to build on-site and take down as needed. The masterplan to the right illustrates the full buildout of the project as it was intended a year ago. Much has changed since then, but the overall circulation system has stayed in place.
PHX RENEWS AERIAL
The aerial best illustrates the main promenade as it would be on a active day. The idea is that this main drag can be a place for vendors and farmers to sell their goods and interact with the community in a pedestrian friendly environment. The original idea was to include a tree farm with the existing irrigation, thereby using this space as a depot for nurseries across the city as well as
provide tree inventory that could be donate to community spaces. In the background there is the Public Works site the came along early this year. It is a demonstration for several different sustainable techniques, most importantly landfill divergence.
PHX RENEWS AERIAL
main promenade
The main promenade is the central spine of the site and provides access between the different partner areas throughout the site. This image illustrates the site on a festival day with people enjoying shade under boxed trees and gutted storage containers. The site is completely temporary and must vacate in 180 days should Collier International decide to develop their land.
REALIZATION
42%
On September 21, Keep Phoenix Beautiful organized with several different partners to get volunteers to come together to build the site. Several hundred people showed up to demonstrate their support for the project. PHX Renews represents the current largest redevelopment of a vacant lot into community gardens in the country. The people of Phoenix have demonstrated that this is something they want to continue to happen with their city as it pushes to become more environmentally friendly.
of Phoenix land is Vacant
REALIZATION
St. Joseph, Missouri is the town I was born and raised in. While I enjoy having lived many different places in my short adult life,
St. Joseph will always be my home. While I want to continue to explore and learn in several different environments, I hope to
apply the methods I learn to St. Joseph one day, and help build its own sense of place again. St. Joseph has a lot to offer with its great
turn of the century building stock, the Missouri valley environment, and the wonderful people who live there.
While I have been away I have been able to be involved in some of the events of St. Joseph. Particularly, St. Joseph has begun a Better Block
campaign to revitalize the downtown core, and make it a walkable vibrant community again. The graphic on this page illustrates
the intended temporary uses for this better block day last year. I look forward to bring new ideas and methods to my
hometown as I continue to grow as a landscape architect and designer.
