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Virginia Tech

Landscapes in Process: Designing Future Relationships between the National Mall and Cockeysville Quarry

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

This thesis explores relationships between the National Mall and the quarries that supported its construction. It focuses on the Washington Monument and its source of material, the Cockeysville Quarry, Maryland. By studying the movement of stone, the thesis begins to understand both sites as landscapes in process. It then examines the sites histories including land forms, immigrated laborers and railways changes associated with quarrying and construction. It happens that Ian McHarg also studied both sites fifty years ago in Design with Nature. Mcharg's analysis overlooks the potential of the industrial quarry to recharge the Marble Valley aquifer and does not account for the projected sea level rise on the National Mall. It is necessary to examine the two sites again. McHarg's ecological principles and methods are still the basic evaluation criteria for the examination (especially his understanding of landscapes as process.) The design project of this thesis uses shifting hydrologies at both sites to drive new uses,earthwork, urban forest (tree canopies), and axial relationships, inspired by the materials, forms, and historical links between the two landscapes. By looking at the landscapes as a pair, the design recalls the past connections between the sites and constructs new relationships ideologically and physically.

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
MLA
Level thesis:degree_level
masters
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Landscape Architecture
Department dc:contributor.department
Landscape Architecture
Grantor dc:publisher
Virginia Tech
Year dc:date.issued
2019

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Zhou, Xiaolan
Chair dc:contributor.committeechair
  • Heavers, Nathan
Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember
  • Kelsch, Paul J.
  • Carmichael, Dennis

Subjects

dc:subject × 4

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • In Copyright

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Dc Identifier Other
vt_gsexam:17635
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/87709

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Virginia Tech
Base URL
vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-22
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Zhou, Xiaolan. Landscapes in Process: Designing Future Relationships between the National Mall and Cockeysville Quarry. masters thesis, Virginia Tech, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/87709