Jennifer Cooper RLA,MLA
Instructor Columbia University
PROJECT SITE:The New Jersey Meadowlands is a large estuary roughly the size of Manhattan. It has a long history that is both natural and industrial and traces the story of the region. Its ecosystem has been fragmented and is now only understood piecemeal by cars speeding by on the Turnpike. But it is a site of great potential impact, being the first glimpse of NJ for many coming from Newark Airport to the Lincoln Tunnel. The richness of the Meadowlands as a system is the inspiration for this studio.
The project site itself is a triangle of land on the peninsula of Kearny Point at the confluence of the Passaic and Hackensack Rivers that gazes out into New York Harbor. It is in a heavily industrial area in Kearny, NJ and is underutilized considering its prominent geographic location. The area previously housed heavy industry but is now mostly home to the trucking and other trappings of the transportation and storage of goods. There is a correctional facility to the north and large corporate offices. The site is split in half, one side is a sewage treatment transfer station run by the Kearny Municipal Utility Association and the other half is a BASF brownfield site that is being capped. There is an abandoned rail line to the north that previously connected Newark with New York through Jersey City. It severs the site from its surroundings.
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