Harbor Edge

In early colonial times, Baltimore’s harbor was broad and green. The threshold between land and sea was a gradient--from deep water to marsh to dry upland. Today, the waterfront is marked by a continuous armature of seawalls which reinforce a severe, blunt distinction between aquatic and terrestrial. Our proposed series of pop-up parklets and environmental graphics recalls the ecological diversity and sensuous richness that marked this once broad, wet edge. Each combines everyday materials in unexpected ways: dumpsters, chain link, plastic bottles, rusting posts and patched asphalt. The ensembles evoke the ecosystems and experiences that have been lost--and which might yet be regenerated as Baltimore natural heritage.