Author(s)

D. J. Almy III

Abstract

This paper outlines an urban redevelopment project to develop and sustain culturally meaningful landscapes in the City of Bath, Maine. The resultant project establishes a plan for the recovery of the city’s public landscape in the wake of one hundred and fifty years of infrastructural transformation. Generated from research on the history and form of the city, this approach is intended to empower the design process with the ability to sustain the city’s cultural identity through an urban vision derived from within the city’s own specific morphological history. The research involved accessing archival information, mapping data from GIS databases, and community input gathered from a series of Town Hall meetings, as well as discussions with the city planner, city council and the Maine Department of Transportation. The design process used the mapped histories as vehicles for accessing the historical transformation of the physical fabric of the city over the course of 150 years. Among the critical tactics employed in the design were a reconsidered notion of public space at the junction of urban infrastructure and the extension of existing systems of public space to reestablish the historic connection between the city and the river. Keywords: urban design, urban landscape, waterfront, urban history, town planning, cultural landscape, revitalization. 1 Bath, Maine \“History makes maps and they in turn make history [1]”. The City of Bath, Maine (Pop. Approx. 10,000), has been dependent upon transportation for it’s economic livelihood for the last 150 years. Initially established as a shipbuilding port, the city’s location along the Kennebec River,

Keywords

urban design, urban landscape, waterfront, urban history, town planning, cultural landscape, revitalization.