shane neill
of an ore bunker into climbing walls undermines collective memory and reinforces the place of recreation and distraction within dominant consumer culture. Perhaps the most aesthetically effective remediation elements are the objects that allow remediations to ‘live.’ The methane pumps at Field Operations’ Freshkills Park in New York are unapologetically mechanistic. Lacking the condescending shine of designed consumer interface, these pumps create a non-identification with the thin-skinned bucolic landscape and point toward the observer’s place within the cycle of consumption and waste, within the history of the city, to the problems of the collective future, and to the dross life that is covered over. Rio Tinto, the world’s third largest mining group, has purchased a trove of minerals and matte ore recovered through the ASARCO remediation for $8 million USD. 8 Along with other asset liquidation, the speculative value of this this mineral wealth is now the key to the restoration of the Parker Brother’s Arroyo, the largest arroyo on site and a critical channel for municipal storm drainage. These funds could also allow the site to be covered over with 1.5m of clean earth to accelerate the viability of future commercial development. Fortunately, the future of the site is yet undetermined. There is now a critical opportunity to point our imaginations away from preconceived notions of landscape and urbanism, pointing them instead to the life, history, and reality shared underfoot and across the border. To respond to such problems and to critically reimagine how we reinhabit such sites, architects must craft the aesthetics of remediation into an ethical tool. c
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8 Roberto Puga, “Former ASARCO Smelter Site Project Status Presentation” (report to Committee for a Future El Paso, El Paso, Texas, September 2012. www.recastingthesmelter.com/wp-content/themes/recastingasarco/
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