Dry Mole

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Marking the line of high tide.

Design

1996 (competition)

Greenport, Long Island.

This proposal traces the line of detritus which marks high tide. Small buildings resting on wooden piers make-up the existing harbor structure. Our idea changes the relationship between building and sea:

• Rotate the orientation of the piers 90 degrees to run parallel to the water’s edge.

• Set the building line and boardwalk back from the water’s edge.

These two operations form and protect a wetland threshold between land and sea.

Twilight transforms the punched-metal enclosure into a translucent box, revealing shadows of the wooden horses spinning inside. Thus the carousal enclosure becomes a lighthouse at the mole’s end.