drew mcnamaraALL PATTERNED EVERYTHING

Noisette Site Analysis

56 north charleston, south carolina

noisette

charleston

7 mi

I-26

park circle

amtrak

high school

clemson conservation center

cmmc detyens ship yard

noisette creeknoisette reserve

north park village

st charles place

cooper river

daniel islandliberty hill

industrial

North Charleston, South Carolina has the distinction of being home to a portion of the former Charleston Naval Shipyard. Earlier uses of the land included plantations, standard fare for the lowcountry. In 1901 the shipyard began operation, closing in 1996 as part of BRAC. This was the first event in a long, drawn out saga for the area that continues even to this day. Given its location, history, current situation, contrast in building pattern, and peculiar plan, the site makes for an interesting and fitting location to being experimenting.

When the base closed, the City of North Charleston made a deal with the Noisette Company. In exchange for a 340 acre section of land (dubbed Noisette, after the company and the creek), the company would develop a 3000 acre master plan (The City of North Charleston). The focus of the plan was sustainability, incorporating feedback from many community meetings. Unfortunately for North Charleston, the plan never came to fruition. A majority of Noisette’s land was foreclosed on, being sold off in pieces. As of the time of this writing, the future of Noisette is still in the air, although the spirit for in the initial plan and promise is still alive with the citizens, taking great strides to make the most out of the site (Behre).

57north charleston, south carolina

noisette

charleston

7 mi

I-26

park circle

amtrak

high school

clemson conservation center

cmmc detyens ship yard

noisette creeknoisette reserve

north park village

st charles place

cooper river

daniel islandliberty hill

industrial

58

The original master plan that was to be enacted raises some poignant questions. First, there is the question of scale and in turn flexibility, or adaptability. When a plan of this magnitude goes year after year with little progress, is it possible to make changes without having to reconsider the entire plan? Second is the actual pattern of the plan. Is this an appropriate form, considering the somewhat ad-hoc plan that the original base took shape with? Is this the pattern that ‘sustainability’ propagates? Or is this no different than deciding to simply recreate the Casbah because of the type of experience the city is intended to engender? Drawing from other case study lessons is it possible to create a complex, varied environment by amplifying the patterns that already exist on site? This is not to say that there are not perfectly valid merits for this sort of development. Yet, for a site that had experienced a disturbance such as base closure, was it wise to consider a determinate plan that required a large investment of resources? The remainder of this project serves not as a corrective measure for the apparent shortcomings of the original plan [though to be fair, considering the timing of the project, not all the blame can be placed on form, or the plan, or the planner]. Conversely, the intention is develop alternate futures for Noisette, taking to heart Gregory Bateson’s wisdom that “Nothing comes of Nothing”.

59

CASE STUDIESthe navy yard at noisette

ANALYSISroads + rail

30

30

20

20

2010

10

30

10

10

10

10

10

20

20

20

10

10

20

ANALYSISproposed master planning and phasing

2004 - 2008

2014 - 2018+

2009 - 2013

figure groundnoisette comany master plan

rail

topographyphasing

60

ANALYSIScurrent zoning

ANALYSISground cover

industrial oak-pine lowland forest

freshwater marsh

tidal marsh

general business

residential

multi-family

mobile home

ground covercurrent zoning

61

CASE STUDIESthe navy yard at noisette

ANALYSIShydrology

watershed

�oodplain

hurricane surge levels

site �owsANALYSIS

site flowshydrology

wind

water

material

flickr data

62

site organization

63

20’

Noisette Creek Watershed Rail

Cooper River

Storm Surge Levels

Flood Plain

1020 Kinzer

1150 Kinzer

1185 Kinzer

10’

Noisette Creek

2575 McRitchie

2585 McRitchie

1445 McMillan

Bldg No. 32

1635 Cosgrove

site selection

64

The first step in working towards an appropriate grounds on which to perform design testing was basic site analysis. Identifying current development trends on site was an important consideration. Noisette has an abundance of three story, narrow buildings with their short side to the street and the rest extending into a deep plot. These storehouses are restored and in-filled with new business. There are other buildings on site of higher architectural quality that used to serve as officer housing. These buildings go through the same restoration process. Another process ongoing in Noisette is conservation, particularly of the Noisette Creek. North Charleston has identified the need to protect and restore the Noisette Creek and its salt marsh habitat. The Noisette Creek itself serves as great inspiration in terms of a patterned process that results in a rich, lively environment. This will be expanded upon in the next section.

With those processes and patterns identified, it becomes easier to assess those sites within the Noisette footprint that do not match or lend themselves to easy categorization. The question then is how to handle the design of these sites so that they attain a strong part-to-whole relationship with the rest of the site, but do not simply uncritically adopt the same pattern that the rest of Noisette is

65

experiencing. To ensure that the new sites being developed have a relation to the rest of the site, an underlying conceptual structure was drawn up according to the buildings and lines already existing on site. There is no readily apparent order to the site, possessing a decidedly suburban density. However, if the original failed master plan is in the least bit any sort of indication as to what the site should be [or wants, or even needs] in the interim, forcing a dense, ‘urban’ pattern is not a solution. Resiliency and complexity grow from simplicity, small pieces aggregating, and evolution.