Page 56 - Alumni Horae: Vol. 94, No. 3 Spring 2014

FACETIME
Matthew Baird ’83 – Architect
Many of our ideas relate to looking
through the waste-stream of New
York City at materials for making
a new edge to the waterfront. For
example, we found that 93,000 tons of
waste glass is produced in New York
City each year, so we designed ways of
converting this material into reef building
units, which we called “jacks,” which could
be made into artificial reefs. Glass is an
ideal material for reef building since it is
inert and 99 percent sand. Artificial reefs
provide a new habitat for marine plants
and animals and also provide a necessary
storm-surge absorptive mass, mitigating
the effects of swells driven by hurricanes
and nor’easters.
The storm surge associated with
Hurricane Sandy was 9.23 feet at
the Battery. When we overlay the mean
projected sea level rise of two feet by
mid-century, the effect is catastrophic.
The storm surge for a Category 3 hurricane
increases to over 20 feet. Much preparation
is necessary to protect New York from
such a devastating flood.
In our research and design work, we
challenged ourselves with the follow-
ing questions: How could we adapt and
remake the water’s edge by methods
that would not further exacerbate climate
change and sea level rise, and what readily
available materials might we use to do so?
How could we change the public opinion
of a tarnished brownfield landscape so
as to draw people to the beauty of a post-
industrial seascape? How could we reuse
the latent energy stored in existing, soon-
to-be-obsolete infrastructure? Given
polar ice cap melt, and the new routes
to Asia over the Northeast Passage,
what would be the future of shipping in
New York Harbor? How could we make
a vibrant and working waterline?
In 2009, Matthew Baird ’83 was selected
as one of four architects to participate
in the Museum of Modern Art’s Rising
Currents design workshop and exhibi-
tion. Each designer was designated to
lead a team of specialists to conduct
research into the effects of rising sea
levels in New York and, specifically, to
conceptualize and draw plans for the
mitigation of increased storm surge.
Baird’s three-month research project
included work with other architects,
landscape architects, a marine ecologist,
a shipping consultant, contemporary
artists, and environmental consultants.
The product of that research was a
master plan for the southwestern
portion of New York Harbor, including
Staten Island, the Kill van Kull water-
way, and Bayonne, New Jersey. The
exhibition was shown at the Museum
of Modern Art in 2010.
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