By Elyse Cote
One of the most defining features of 19th century New England mills are their prime location. Harnessing kinetic energy to fuel production, their initial proximity to rivers and lakes positioned them well to serve as economic catalysts for their time. As the nature of industry evolved however, many such sites have languished and fallen into disrepair. Their activation requires strategic urban design and planning, detailed environmental review and an honest assessment of the market to bring them back into a productive use right-sized to their context.
The Site
The Union Hardware campus is one such asset, abutting the Naugatuck River in Torrington, CT. Once the largest “producer of roller and ice skates in the world”, the complex of 160,000sf evolved as a place of production for over 100 years, generating significant bi-products as well as their famous sporting equipment. The solid waste needed to go somewhere … and a 13-acre site that abutted the manufacturing parcel proved to be a convenient receptor. The waste included bricks and stone and glass and ash among other contaminants. In the mid to late 20th century and under a new owner remediation was necessary to stabilize the landfill, cap it and monitor the groundwater. Today, the undulating and heavily wooded space is undevelopable, underutilized and largely invisible to the community.
Repositioning the Torrington mill towards the river rather than retreating from it quickly became a guiding design principle. The strategy was bolstered by a burgeoning trail network that sought to expand north along the river through this area from downtown just a few miles south. But how do you design a trail network when it resides on a landfill which has become closed to the public and inaccessible for generations?
The Process
Our site reconnaissance to find out incorporated long hiking pants, intrepid colleagues, sunscreen and a whole lot of geospatial tracking! To fully appreciate the site’s unique qualities we immersed oneselves in it – literally. With engineering reports in one hand and geospatial trackers (Strava* and fitness watches) in the other, we received authorization to enter the property and explored the landfill. As we hiked, we collected geospatial data, took site photos, and sketched sections freehand to analyze back at the office. The property’s undulating topography surprised us, with numerous paths and man-made plateaus ideal for active recreation. A network emerged on a number of levels – a lower river section, a wider flat area in the middle and an upper section of drumlins suited to mountain biking. The confluence of walking trails, river overlooks, hills and areas of respite all under a mature tree canopy fit well within a health and wellness narrative that was emerging. The 13-acres became a productive extension and complement to the more urbanized and paved Naugatuck River Trail downtown.
Transitioning the geospatial data we collected into accurate 2d maps requires georeferencing and digitization via geographic information systems (GIS). Once the geospatial data collected on site is uploaded, the georeferencing begins by adding a variety of control points to the raster (geospatial data) which correspond with locations on a basemap. Hard infrastructure of road intersections and building corners are identifying control points which enhance the accuracy of the geospatial data transforming to a digitized layer.
Although the digitized layer visualizes valuable information, spatial relations, and ground conditions that were previously invisible, GIS data tends to remain flat and neglects to communicate important topographical features. Therefore, we employ additional instruments to accurately represent topographic qualities. LiDAR (light detection and ranging) data reveals ground elevation and vertical accuracy by deploying laser beam technology which can be digitally mined from local to national level agencies. LiDAR data and all desired GIS layers (buildings, roads, digitized trail, water bodies) are then combined in Adobe Illustrator for post-production annotation and Adobe Photoshop for color adjustment. The final graphic created in Adobe InDesign enabled our team to identify conduits between existing spaces within the manufacturing parcel into this new geography to advance the regional trail network in the Torrington community.
Creating new geospatial data and corresponding graphics for a multimodal network is a fluid, multi-step process. The workflow consisted of one long site visit, two tracking softwares, three coffee breaks, four team members, and five software programs! After this memorable summer outing – voila! – we proposed the Naugatuck River Trail extension. The trial will eventually include a mountain biking circuit, tranquil walking and jogging paths, and a reunited relationship with the former Union Hardware campus along the river.