The Cut
Within the context of the reports provided by the current Board of the Bergen Arches, the group’s research aims at understanding the historical relevance between architectural language and Jersey City. At the very core of this endeavour, there is a retrospective on the work of the Berlin group So & So Studio, whose project was widely celebrated for its power of imagination characterized by the transformation of forgotten railway arches into Jersey City’s Backyard through art and architecture, images and drawings.
In this document, So & So Studio embodies the relevance of imagination and perseverance in a continuous dialogue between the JC urban dwellers of the time. An impactful proposal then, which is still impactful today and therefore extends its creative regeneration potential onto the present and the future. Through this framework of discourse, Jersey City pays its homage to the American avant-garde, finding evidence of its innovation in the recent advances in creative thought.
The concept of this book is to continue to expand on, showcase and illustrate a progressive response to our experiences in creating a paper architecture proposal, in 2016.
Bergen Arches
list of spontaneously occurring plant species
Written by: anonymous
The flora of the Bergen Arches is cosmopolitan, consisting of disturbance-adapted species from many regions of the globe. Composition is likely a result both of individual species ability to tolerate the stresses of urban life (disturbance, pollution, non-native soils etc.), as well as the ability of species to arrive at the site via seed dispersal or through vegetative means. In other words, the flora of the site is heavily influenced by what might be nearby (in an extensive urban matrix), and this may pose limitations for the arrival of suitable species, native plants, and overall diversity.
The Arches contains both upland and wetlands areas, the latter presumably deriving from run-off and apparently groundwater as well. Conspicuous elements of the flora include Japanese knotweed, Virginia creeper, white snakeroot, Japanese honeysuckle, white mulberry, purple loosestrife, late-flowering boneset, path rush, common reed and tree-of-heaven -- typical species of an urban flora in our area.
By conjecture, one can see glimmers of several different native plant communities assembling. These include a wetlands assemblage of elderberry, red maple, arrowwood viburnum, lurid sedge, sensitive fern, and swamp milkweed; a coastal grouping of groundsel tree, seaside goldenrod, late-flowering boneset, and little bluestem (one occurrence only), and an early successional cluster including hackberry, black cherry, silver maple, grey birch, sycamore, white snakeroot, blackcap raspberry, early goldenrod -- really not a single community so much as a group that responds effectively to disturbance. To be clear, these groupings are extremely loose and in some cases based on a single individual or cluster of a species -- but this is all we have to go on in terms of considering reference communities should some sort of ecological restoration be attempted on the site. Of these, the wetlands community is most coherent.
The terrain is stark, with post-industrial ruins juxtaposed against sheer walls of rock blasted into over
a century ago. Some of the rock has been uplifted by tectonic events so that its laminations stand perpendicular to the ground surface. In this matrix, street art and urban detritus overlays a cultural archaeology. One area evokes a shaded clove between rock walls -- bookended by high arching tunnels.
So & So Studio Project Team: Rion Philbin, Kevin Driscoll