Dormant Stratum: Disentangling The Overlapping Layers Of Contamination And Waste That Shaped New Jersey’s Landscape, And Their Potential For Change

Laura del Pino

 Co-Presenters: Individual Presentation
College: Michael Graves College
Department: Robert Busch School of Design
 

Abstract:

Nested in corners and most of the time, completely overlooked, gas stations in Manhattan are nodal points inside the city where flows of cars of different sizes and uses arrive in a dynamic pattern. They are anomalies, glitches in the urban fabric that disrupt the rhythm of the surrounding buildings, create polluting points that reduce the air quality of the adjacent streets, and make the movement of public transportation and pedestrians even more difficult. However, they are a vanishing piece of infrastructure; their prime locations are very desirable from a real estate point of view and thus, developers are moving fast and transforming these pockets into new apartment buildings with clear consequences: improved air quality but lack of refilling spots for cab drivers and delivery vehicles, for example. There are many ramifications in the existence and elimination of gas stations and that is why they should not be dismissed. Necessary (for now) and polluting, small in footprint but far-reaching in influence, accessible and hidden in traditionally disinvested neighborhoods, gas stations show the changes in the city's urban geography as if we were studying the stratigraphic layers of a particularly complex rock.By observing and drawing the flows of pedestrians and cars, I was able to unveil hidden stories that go beyond a mere refueling service. Gas stations will almost certainly not completely disappear, but their footprint will be transformed by the arrival of electric vehicles. Those early 20th century sidewalk pumps that materialized next to the grocery and hardware stores may reappear as electric chargers controlled from your phone and another layer in the infrastructural network grafted on congested sidewalks.The gas station’s formal incoherence defies the pursuit of cleanliness and control of public space. With their open floor plans, extended business hours, and varied services, gas stations fill functional and recreational needs of drivers and pedestrians alike. To remove a gas station is to extract a polluting piece of infrastructure and to displace daily routines and rituals of drivers and pedestrians alike.