Steering change from the shore : the working waterfronts of Marine Highway 95

Abstract

The primary contribution of this research is to discover, describe and argue for urban design strategies that connect public ports to their urban context in a way that improves environmental performance, clarifies freight circulation, and enhances workforce accessibility. The thesis begins at a regional scale looking at the networks and norms that effect maritime freight logistics along the Atlantic Coast of the US with an eye to how those networks and norms translate into site design and urban relationships. The regional scale analysis is then balanced with a in-depth site-specific case study focusing on the range of working waterfront conditions of the public port authority of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This case study serves as an entry point to transition from observations on the existing relationship of ports and their urban context into speculation and design of the future relationship of ports to their urban context. The Philadelphia case study explores the shore-side development implications of changes in the volume and type of cargo moving through Philadelphia's public port authority and concludes with a proposal for what types of urban design interventions would improve the port's environmental performance, clarify its freight circulation, and enhance its workforce accessibility. I then generalize from this case study to offer working waterfront intervention typologies as defined by the spatial, political and operational relationships observed in Philadelphia. These intervention typologies are then keyed to a series of precedent projects that demonstrate how the proposed interventions might come to life. Through observational and spatial analysis, this thesis seeks to explore the social value of selective integration of maritime industrial systems with urban public life. Overall, I hope these models for selective integration of industrial use will challenge inherited notions about industrial urban form and the relationship of white collar and blue collar work.