Gowanus Canal ProjectDescription

Introduction
The Gowanus Canal Project: Personal Enrichment Through Structure began in Brooklyn, looking for neglected areas in the place we call home.  The proposal began with a borough that consisted of eighteen districts and based on statistics such as percentage of government aid, unemployment, industrial pollution and contamination we narrowed our search to one.  Community District Six is not only home to some of the most beautiful neighborhoods in the borough, but is also home to the second largest percentage of unemployment as well as some of the city's most infamous brown-fields and polluted waterways.

In the last five years serious efforts have been made to restore the Gowanus Canal to a state that can be enjoyed again by the public. Unfortunately, these efforts have not been enough to bring the already existing community awareness to a city wide level. Our projects main focus, deemed Personal Enrichment Through Structure, not only addresses the bettering of lives, but a universal involvement. By harnessing the talents and resources of the community around the canal to help design and fabricate the structures, the forms begin to have a more captivating allure, comparable only to that which draws people to architecture and artwork around the world.

Our goal within the Gowanus Canal is to utilize the waterways inherent beauty and natural resources to create a structure that draws a citywide interest to an area in need. A structure that embodies a historical relevance to the site and allows us as designers to try to relay the significance of a moment while bettering the lives of those who interact with the waterway.

Background
The second largest contributor of pollution to the canal, other than the city’s negligent dumping of raw sewage, is crude oil and concrete barge traffic.  In the recent past, a pipeline was proposed by Bayside Fuel (the heaviest commercial user of the waterway) that could have eliminated up to 100% of barge traffic along the Gowanus Canal. Capital provided up front by the city would have been repaid over a predetermined time period by a percentage per gallon of oil.  Once those funds had been repaid, that percentage could have been up for renegotiation allowing the city to turn a profit from their initial investment.  The city eventually rejected that offer on grounds that the upfront costs were too expensive, yet dumps tons of raw sewage into the canal each year upping the inevitable dredging and purification costs well into the millions.  The most interesting fact that goes along with this pipeline proposal was that if the city were to pay for the pipeline, Bayside Fuel would in turn pay the costs of dredging the canal out of pocket. This missed opportunity for the revitalization of the canal is a perfect launching point in which to bring the sources of the canal’s problems to both the local community and the New York City area at large.

Reclaimed Materials
While the armature for the installation is constructed from construction grade wood and steel, the skin of each individual canopy, creating both form and shelter, is sourced from the industrial waste of the outlying areas of the canal. This area contains a wide array of industry ranging from concrete production to scrap metal, plastic and paper recycling yards as well as abandoned areas of past industry.