Landscape Architecture: Landscape Architecture: - School of ...

Turbulent and Responsive Environments
Ignoring the chill in the air and the official end of the
summer season, the kids on the 16th floor immersed
themselves in the rooftop thermal bath until late November.
Most autumnal swimmers noted that the neighbourhood
groundwater temperature-signature reinforced their own
observations: swimming lasted a few weeks longer this year.
Networked into geothermal piles, the roof-garden swimming
fountain offers water temperatures distinct from ambient air.
Set by the buried meadow-mat, a legacy of the marshy history
of the neighbourhood, it affords exposure of the area’s
concealed watershed.
Sunset stretched the shadow of the Palisades on to the
parking lot as the crowd waited for the first film of the
summer to begin. The creative folks once again gradually
emerged from their studios. A remnant industrial concrete
slab is recycled as the garden’s surface facing the big screen.
Gathering unobstructed south and west sunlight, its reflective
heat is mitigated by an etching of mini runnels of rain runoff.
Through the toes of the visitors these mini streams are an
immediate request that even the smallest bit of water be
negotiated as a public actor in the emergent urban watershed.
When Hoboken’s backstreets flood, the easiest way to get
from the light-rail station is via a crown-of-the-road zigzag,
skirting the block-long reflecting pools held by the street kerbs.
This navigational detour extends long after the downpour ends,
as the Hudson Estuary’s tide needs to recede before the
neighbourhood can drain. Two roof gardens and two fountains
offer horizontal and vertical volumes for water storage to
mitigate this water surplus. The gardens are embedded with
varying material surfaces for multiple recreation opportunities,
whereas the fountains are contained within a compacted and
sealed surface for dining, play and commerce. When the rise in
sea level increases the duration and frequency of the flood,
these upper and lower surfaces afford reprogramming by the
next generation of owners and stewards.
TILL (Victoria Marshall, Brian McGrath, Mateo Pinto, Phanat Xanamane), Monroe Center for the Arts Watershed and
Energy Management Plan Phase One, 2006
The roof garden is part of a networked system of public spaces including the mixed-use complex’s front and back yards. Two
slowly percolating fountains, elm trees and hammocks dominate the main public space, while a temporary garden located on a
future construction site serves restaurant diners, informal picnics and night-time cinema events.
TILL, Thermal Rooftop Fountain, Monroe Center for the Arts, Hoboken, New Jersey, 2006
Connecting to groundwater temperature by geothermal piles, and rain water through retention vaults, this resident amenity
garden offers a microclimate that extends the seasons and brings climate-change awareness to its high-rise condo-caretakers.
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