BACKGROUND: Waves arriving in Santa Cruz were the first to bring surfing to the continent when Hawaiian Princes introduces the sport in 1885. Surfing has grown to become an essential part of the culture, and its ethos is brought into the design process to re-envision infrastructure at Mitchell’s Cove: a half-mile stretch of coastline under immediate and long-term threat from erosion and sea-level rise. The resulting design imagines one of many possible futures for the site.
The interaction between waves and the unique geologic patterns of Santa Cruz have shaped natural bridges along the coast that bring pride to the community. However, in an attempt to protect infrastructure at the cliffs edge, rip rap is piled on the coast, limiting the opportunity to evolve new forms. In response to recent events that demonstrate the failure of the rip rap, the city has proposed eventual retreat and removal of rip rap, providing an opportunity to rethink coastal infrastructure.
DESIGN IMPLEMENTATION: Proposed infrastructure increases resilience in times of climate change as it adapts to, celebrates, and connects people with the dynamic coast that defines Santa Cruz. The design examines the site in section, first implementing managed retreat, then re-working beach access to be more accessible and geologically engaging, and finally installing an artificial reef with attention to erosion and recreation. All three aspects are linked by time; the reef’s life span of 30-50 years buys more times for the sensitive retreat process, allowing for the erosion process to take time shaping the coast once again
RESTORED PARK: Connecting beach-goers and surfers to ecology, the new park focusses on recreation and native habitat to improve on previous infrastructure with a recreational path, amenities, and ADA accessible tunnels to the beach. The park connects to adjacent parks and trails with durable, low-impact boardwalks and re-purposed material from old house footings.
THE OVERLOOK + TUNNEL: The Overlook embeds cliff markers in its structure to make the past visible. Below, the tunnel meets the challenge of accessibility and creates an intimate and dynamic connection to the rock formation. The two features highlight a static and dynamic relationship with change over time, respectively, and are linked by rock bolts that stabilize the tunnel while bringing in light. At the water’s edge, pocket beaches form when the rip rap is removed; the new beach supports recreation while exposed cliffs support habitat for native wildlife.
ARTIFICIAL REEF: Based on a study of bathymetric typologies that suit both breakwater infrastructure and surf breaks, the new reef creates a surf zone, slows erosion on the cliffs, helps deposit sediment, and re-purposes material in a variety of long- and short-term sea level conditions. Using the function height=1.3*depth for determining possible wave break height, the design for the reef anticipates a 15% reduction in wave velocity reaching the cliffs. At 8-10.5' tall, the reef is designed to break waves over 15' in the largest of storms, while allowing the persistence of smaller waves that help with paced erosion, sand deposition, and ideal surf wave conditions.
The proposed reef takes a sustainable approach to materiality as it accounts for constructability and the needs of biodiverse kelp forests. The design uses the ethos of surfing to turn a liability into an asset, enabling the site to adapt to and connect people with the dynamic coast.
Surf Lessons, or, the unmaking of coastal infrastructure
Masters Capstone Project, 2024
This coastal infrastructure project takes cues from the celebrated surf culture and regional geology of Santa Cruz, California. With residential and public amenities threatened by erosion and sea level rise, this set of interventions pairs back hard infrastructure, borrowing from the adaptability, attentiveness, and patience of surfing in order to re-engage the dynamic nature of the coastline that the city was once known for. The projects innovative approach turns a liability into an asset by pairing human recreation and accessibility with natural processes. In addition, the design improves as it changes with the cliffs over time by honoring deep time scales not traditionally recognized in landscape architecture.