Introduction
Congratulations to Chao Li for being awarded the 2021 WLA Student Awards – Award of Excellence in the Concept – Analysis & Planning category for his thoughtfully comprehensive thesis project entitled: '42nd Street Soundscaping.’
Chao's robust proposal for 42nd Street in Manhattan was built upon in-person observations of the various scales and intensities of city sounds. His research led him to explore how a careful recalibration of aural phenomena might help shape and inform our urban experience, refresh our perception of the relationship between nature and natural process in the city as well as provide a methodology for the holistic integration of ecology and habitat as primary catalysts of sustainable urbanism.
I am super proud of and honored to have had the privilege of working closely with Chao as his Primary Thesis Advisor throughout the development of this work. However, as is typically the case at RISD, it was truly a team effort. Special thanks also need to go to Clare Feldman, Chao's Secondary Advisor, whose insights were invaluable. Finally, additional thanks also need to extend to the larger faculty group who provided sage input at various points along the way.
Congratulations, Chao, on this great accomplishment! We're thrilled to have this opportunity to share your work.
- Michael Blier
42nd Soundscaping by Chao Li
Background
Right now, we can barely hear the sounds of birdsong in the urban condition. Birds find it hard to locate suitable habitats inside the crowded city. Another fact is that their “song” is covered by loud, low-frequency urban noise. Especially when we stepped into the Anthropocene, the relentless expansion of industrial and urban areas makes the earth sound much louder than it did during other times in the earth’s history. Since Rachel Carson’s important work, “Silent Spring,” sound has started to have a tight connection with the health of our surrounding environment. How the environment sounds, in some ways, reflects the ecological quality of a place. At the same time, people who live in urban areas are also suffering from noise which damages people’s health. It’s an interesting and challenging task to consider sound as the main media to shape and create an ecological landscape that can fix, improve and fit into the new types of urban ecology.
World sound timeline.
The impact of noise.
Goals
This proposal aims to draw people's attention to our surrounding acoustic environment and shift people's awareness from "hearing" to "listening." In urban areas, to enrich our living experience, people choose to get rid of noisy environments. I believe landscape architecture always has the power to connect human's different senses with our environment. As the most dynamic and abstract phenomenon, sound has the potential to guide landscape spatial design and modify our ecological system.
Manhattan - “Noise Land”
For more than a century, New York City has done a series of policies and activities to battle the din of New York.
New York’s war on noise.
According to Manhattan 311 Noise Complaint database, we can see noise has been a big issue in people’s daily life.
Manhattan 311 noise complaints.
There are diverse species to be discovered in New York but the urban areas don’t provide enough habitats and suitable soundscapes for them.
Acoustic species and urban sounds.
42nd Street
The investigation focuses on 42nd Street as a Primary study area which is historically one of the most iconic streets in the midtown of Manhattan, connecting the Hudson River and East River. As a witness of Manhattan’s history, 42nd Street combines historic urban fabric and innovative ground. Different types of space along 42nd Street create rich ecological and cultural soundscapes. These spaces include the elevated green spaces of Tudor City Green, Bryant Park, Hudson River Waterfront, and the vibrant human realm of Times Square and Grand Central Station. They work well together, but the balance between them is losing ground since humans take the primary role in the environment. I took a whole day to record the sounds along 42nd street 5 times to capture the dynamic changes of the soundscapes of the street.
42nd Street history.
Sound records of 42nd Street.
42nd Street sound and space analysis.
42nd Soundscaping Corridor
The final project strategically turned the issues of noise into opportunities for social and cultural improvement while working to rebuild an urban ecology by rethinking the relationship between sound and environment and between sound and perception. Studying the dynamic relationship between sound, city, people, and wildlife can produce a flexible strategy that provides suitable habitats, public realms, and cultural programs.
Master plan.
42nd inner wetland.
Bryant lawns.
Grand Central Station rain garden.
Tudor City Forest.
Wetland Perspective.
Tudor City Perspective.
Chao holds a Master’s degree in Landscape Architecture from Rhode Island School of Design and currently works as a landscape designer at Snøhetta. During his study in the RISD landscape architecture department, he was deeply influenced by the RISD landscape architecture department’s education concept, which encourages students to understand site context with their sundry senses. He seeks to extend the boundary of how people experience both natural and urban landscape conditions. Instead of focusing on the visual world, he tries to find various methods to help himself and others experience and understand sites with sounds, smell, and touch. Chao applies this concept to his works to create a dynamic landscape journey.
Based on his interests, he tries to use soundscape as a medium to value urban ecology and guide the future development of urban ecology in his thesis work.