How do site histories, expressed through topography, influence landscape creation?

Site Explorer Card, 'On Wilderness' Field School. 

This is a liminal landscape in every sense of the word: located along a rail corridor, on the edge of Detroit and in a district lacerated by highways and industry.

This landscape was created through two formative moments of demolition, each introducing new minerals to the site. The beginnings of its current form are the destruction of the Poletown neighborhood, which was cleared in 1981 to make way for the promise of jobs for Detroit.

The most recent major disturbance was in 2003, when the area to the south was cleared and re-graded. Over time, these acts of mineralized genesis have authored very different landscape expressions.

At one end, a mature grove of cottonwood trees (40 years old) traces the notation of rail spurs that once serviced foundries. The cottonwoods are spreading southward. At the other, a field of phragmites (17 years old) rises up against all botanical odds and through an impossibly compacted ground plane, spreading north. The restrained pallet of plants feels intentional, and is visible evidence of the past.

A series of man-made edges limit and influence botanical activity on site. Rail spurs, berms of debris, and the geometry of transportation infrastructure unintentionally create extended view sheds and the perception of soft, veiled edges. This remnant gesture of history enhances the slow theatrics of the plants that animate this landscape.

The creation of new urban wildernesses requires an act of disturbance, isolation, and time to develop. On the ground, a very slow standoff is underway between the grove to the north and the field to the south. Given its size, this landscape has a true, sizable interior condition—a quite rich and messy middle where both factions are beginning to mix.

This example of wilderness is uniquely visible and contained. Despite its sizable footprint, very little evidence of human interaction exists on site. The vastness of this landscape gives rise to a symphony of insects during the growing season. Given its position at the margins, the redevelopment of this landscape in the near term feels unlikely.