My thesis is a space to display the parts of a ship hull excavated from the ground along the waterfront in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia. My thesis is about finding a way to display these ship hull parts in a way that not only contextualizes and informs the public about them, but also respects their part in the history of the Potomac River and the neighboring buildings.
These found ship hull parts (from here they will be referred to as the "found ship") amount to one third of the hull of a late 18th century merchant ship that was scuttled along the waterfront of Alexandria to extend the shoreline and to create more useable land. It was one of four found over a period of three years between 2015 and 2018. It was the largest, being approximately 102 feet long, 25 1/4 feet in beam, and 11 feet deep; it was believed to be three-masted, fully rigged (or ship rigged), with the main mast estimated to have been at least 100 feet tall. It is also estimated to be flat-floored and to be able to carry up to 264 tons. The recovered remains are 85 feet long and 30 feet wide.
It is my goal to display the found ship in a publicly accessible manner that not only represents the history correctly, but also respects the context of both today and its time. To display the found ship, I will need to either display it as-is (some old pieces of wood) or as a part of a fully reconstructed vessel. Both present challenges and advantages but will be unique design additions to the project.
Regardless of how I choose to display the found ship, I must display it somewhere. To do this, I need to design a building that not only allows it to be displayed, but that does so in a way that is respectful to it the context of the city and river themselves. I will design a building on a site immediately adjacent to West's Point Park on the Potomac Waterfront. / Master of Architecture / The Alexandria waterfront is full of history. A lot of it is visible: the row houses, the street grid, the old buildings and piers. Even more of it is invisible, lying unseen below the ever-changing waterfront and the earth beneath it. Here, in the depths of the mud that makes up the waterfront of Old Town Alexandria, Virginia, lay the remains of four of water-going vessels. Of these, three were small boats and barges, not being capable of sailing on the open ocean. The fourth, however, is an ocean-going vessel, a ship. This found ship was a merchant ship and is only partially intact – most of the ship is gone (the decks, the masts, rigging, and sails, and any other parts of the structure), but a portion, roughly thirty percent, is still intact, although very fragile.
When I learned of this archaeological find, I immediately wanted to know more, and to display it somewhere. It was my goal to design a building in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia, to not only house the found ship in some way, but to allow the community to come and learn about it and the rest of the city and region. I also wanted to design a building that was more than a museum, but a place for people to gather, and as a place people wanted to come back to. I hope you enjoy reading about it as much as I have enjoyed researching and designing it.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/119412 |
| Date | 12 June 2024 |
| Creators | Loeffler, Lincoln Webb |
| Contributors | Architecture, Piedmont-Palladino, Susan C., Keslacy, Elizabeth Marie-Freha, Linn, Andrew Pincus |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | ETD, application/pdf, application/pdf |
| Rights | Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ |
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