Water’s Edge
Gadsden Green
Charleston, South Carolina
Class
Interdisciplinary studio
Year
Spring 2024
Gadsden Green, colloquially known as “Back Da Green,” is a historic, culturally significant site in downtown Charleston. For decades, Gadsden Green was one of the only black owned communities existing on the Peninsula. Bordering Gadsden Creek, the neighborhood possesses strong cultural, social, and religious ties to the last remaining tidal creek existing on the Charleston peninsula today. Nestled in the heart of the city, this community faces a unique set of challenges and opportunities. Most pressing is how prone the site is to regular flooding, posing a significan risk to both its residents and its infrastructure.
Over the course of the semester, our team was tasked with finding solutions to the sunny day flooding that occurs on the site daily while simultaneously addressing issues like housing shortages, unit requirements, low income housing, parking solutions, and designing with long term solutions in mind regarding environmental conditions.
Within this studio, one landscape architecture student was partnered with two architecture students produce work that addresses challenges and obstacles across multiple disciplines.
MASTER PLAN
As the landscape architect on this project, my role was to address the environmental factor impacting this community such as sun exposure and flooding through the use of strategic plant design.
Through thorough analysis, the most flood prone areas on the site were determined to be the central corridor as well as the property line along Hagood avenue.
By working collaborative with the architects, the footprints of the buildings were strategically places to allow room for a retention area along the central corridor of the site. This space not only acts as water retention and storm water management, it is also an activated area that creates views, encourages gathering and circulation, and brings a significant amount of vegetation and tree coverage to the site.
Along Hagood Avenue is a cypress bog that offers a significant increase in canopy coverage - increasing shade and decreasing the heat island effect - while simultaneously standing as the community’s first line of defense regarding flooding and water retention.
The central corridors are flood-able retention basins planted with riparian species to manage the impacts of flooding.
