This project was created and proposed by Kathleen Ma, Matthew Maldonado, and Lindy Zeng for Princeton University's ARC 492 Spring 2017 final assignment. Museum exhibition design and drawings were created by Kathleen, river models, renderings, and drawings were created by Matthew, and website development and design and the interactive web demo were done by Lindy. Please direct any questions to klma@princeton.edu, mfm2@princeton.edu, and lindy@princeton.edu.
The five-year California drought, officially declared over in April, has created a distinct relationship between Angelenos and water. The Los Angeles (LA) River saw widespread flooding from rain and storms these past few months. In a more abstract sense, the LA River is so commonplace to the landscape of urban LA, yet it is also mysterious in that most Angelenos don’t know about it. Furthermore, the Angelenos who do know the river are more likely to perceive it as an eyesore, rather than a part of a physical environment that they are connected to.
In The Big Thirst, Charles Fishman examined water usage and crises in several prominent cities: Las Vegas, Galveston, and Atlanta. Las Vegas, located in the middle of a Nevada desert, draws all of its water from Lake Powell, whose water levels have been dropping rapidly in the last 15 years. Efforts by the City of Las Vegas to limit water usage of the Strip’s hotel resorts and golf courses have met resistance, because water is so abstract and disconnected from its source that it’s difficult to draw relationships between water and the economy and well-being of Las Vegas. Residents of Atlanta, too, are disconnected in thought from their water source. Fishman demonstrates that people’s ignorance of water is dangerous, through his chapter about Galveston during Hurricane Ike.
Los Angeles is coming out of its own crisis — Governor Jerry Brown declared California as free from the drought only last week. As Fishman emphasizes, Angelenos need to reconnect with their water. Although the LA River is not the source of Los Angeles’ water, the river runs through the city’s sprawling suburbs and through the heart in downtown. The disconnect between the citizens and the river reflects a lack of engagement and doesn’t encourage any sense of responsibility for the city’s environment. Raising awareness about the presence of the river goes a long way towards activating interest in Los Angeles’ relationship with water.
Our project brings the city to the river and the river to the city, reconnecting Angelenos with it. Not only does our project raise awareness for the river’s presence, it also invites the visitor to imagine possibilities for the river. We aim to depict the river as a fixture of an environment, rather than as an eyesore or blot on the environment.