2022; Research Exhibition
Le Chemin du Rois: A Self-Reflexive Procession through the American Bottomland
The history of this place is continually eroded by the very river which has birthed it. Ancient and contemporary metropolises have been established, abandoned, and forgotten (Cahokia by the Indigenous Mississippian Culture, Kaskaskia by the French, East St. Louis by the Americans, etc.) Archaeologists, historians, and architects have attempted to collect the shattered remnants. But what histories are worth remembering? What legacies are worth preserving? The beauty of the American Bottomland is not found in its resistance to time, but rather in the mystery of its many lives.
This proposal seeks to preserve the embedded histories of this place through a legacy of action. It facilitates a pilgrimage along the historic path of Le Chemin du Rois in order to establish a memory which is only discovered through its experience. It is a self-reflexive procession which addresses the universal and the particular. It is a journey which reflects on the place and on the individual. The procession seeks to create something which is both universal (memory) and particular (experience). The legacy of human movement along Le Chemin du Rois is continued with new purpose.
Kings Highway—Kaskaskia, IL
Approaching the Passetto—Kaskaskia, IL
I. Kaskaskia—The Vanished Metropolis—The Passetto
During the Great Flood of 1881, the Mississippi River diverted its path, causing Kaskaskia to become an island on the west side of the river. The remnants of Fort Kaskaskia remain on the eastern bluffs, with the river dividing the two. Portions of the original town now rest beneath the river. Only one road leads onto the island, crossing the former riverbed of the Mississippi. It crosses from Missouri, despite the town remaining part of Illinois.
[Sunrise]
Approach Kaskaskia. Cross the bridge onto the island. Note boundaries crossed (river, state border, levee, etc.). Note material composition of the place (water, compacted earth, corrugated tin, etc.).
Follow King’s Highway to La Grande Rue. Pass the Church of the Immaculate Conception and the Kaskaskia Bell.
Approach the termination of La Grande Rue at the northern edge of the island. Stop at the levee and continue on foot to the Passetto.
Ascend the Passetto. Note the spiraling form. Observe the landscape dividing the island from Fort Kaskaskia, the breadth and force of the River.
Descend and observe the barren island.
Exit the island and continue toward Valmeyer. Cross the River and follow Bluff Road north.
[Intention]
At the termination of La Grande Rue, a Passetto spirals upward into the air, searching for connection to the eastern shore to which this island once belonged. From the top, the view looks across the Mississippi to the ruins of Fort Kaskaskia, now disconnected by the river.
Symbolically and visually connect the island of Kaskaskia to Fort Kaskaskia.
Offer a vantage point of the River, floodplain, and island.
Facilitate reflection on the force of earth (nature) against order (humankind).
La Grande Rue—Kaskaskia, IL
Ascending the Passetto—Kaskaskia, IL
The Passetto—Physical Model [Plaster, Wood, Wire, Paper, Foam, Gauze]
Site Context—Kaskaskia, IL
The Passetto—Physical Model [Plaster, Wood, Wire, Paper, Foam, Gauze]
Tracing Le Chemin du Rois
Approaching the Chapel—Old Valmeyer, IL
II. Old Valmeyer—The Sacrificial Village—The Chapel
After the levee was intentionally breeched during the flood of 1993, residents decided to rebuild the town atop the bluffs. The street grid remains in Old Valmeyer, but crops are planted on the empty lots where houses once stood.
The bluffs which divide the old and new towns were mined with the room-and-pillar method in the late nineteenth century, leaving over two hundred million cubic feet of scarred voids in the earth.
[Early Morning]
Arrive in Old Valmeyer. Observe the empty plots, where crops have replaced homes. Note the remaining street grids.
Follow the road toward the quarries in the bluffs.
Approach the Chapel from the trail-head. Observe the scars left behind by the mines.
Enter the Chapel and move toward the light at the back of the space. Sit and reflect on the space.
Visualize the amount of earth that has been removed against the traces of the grid.
Feel the rock along the exit path. Exit and follow Bluff Road toward East St. Louis.
[Intention]
A three-dimensional grid and a composition referencing Old and New Valmeyer are inserted into the landscape, bringing a formal structure to the absence of earth. The composition rests delicately upon plots of shallow water. One half of the bifurcated facade attempts to rise above the reflecting pool, while the other descends into it.
Materialize absence (scars in the earth).
Signify infiniteness of space against presence of rock.
Facilitate reflection on the force of order (humankind) against earth (nature).
The Chapel—Physical Model [Plaster, Wood, Wire, Paper, Foam, Gauze]
Site Context—Old Valmeyer, IL
The Chapel—Physical Model [Plaster, Wood, Wire, Paper, Foam, Gauze]
Tracing Le Chemin du Rois
Approaching the Monument—Sterling Steel Foundry, Sauget, IL
III. Sterling Steel Foundry—The Architectural Ossuary—The Monument
The abandoned steel foundry lies in the heart of industrial East St. Louis, with a view across the river to the Gateway Arch. Larry Giles purchased the foundry in order to store his growing collection of artifacts from demolished buildings, establishing the National Building Arts Center in 2005.
Stacked crates of salvaged material fill the grounds like caskets, with the majority of the artifacts hidden inside. Lonesome statues, intricate terracotta friezes, and all manner of ornamentation are stacked in a simultaneous state of preservation and decay. The site operates in the foggy realm between museum and landfill.
[Late Morning]
Wander the site and observe the crates of artifacts. Explore the stacked rows of sarcophagi.
Enter the main foundry warehouse and approach the northeastern concrete volume.
Follow the ramp toward the large canopy in the distance.
Circulate through the space, viewing the artifacts that inhabit the ground plane and projections above. Reflect on the destructive nature of progress. Reflect on the duality of creation as an act that generates and destroys.
[Intention]
A new space is created in the language of an archaeological site and of a mausoleum. Physical and projected digital artifacts are transposed and morphed together into a continually changing visual environment. Familiar elements of foregone architecture are mutated into unfamiliar, dynamic facades. The destructive nature of progress is juxtaposed against the beautiful remnants of its path.
Reorganize the collection of artifacts into a mutative monument.
Provide a framework for display of physical materials juxtaposed against the projection of the virtual.
Facilitate reflection on the force of progress against past.
The Monument—Physical Model [Plaster, Wood, Wire, Paper, Foam, Gauze]
Site Context—Sauget, IL
Tracing Le Chemin du Rois
Approaching the Grave—East St. Louis, IL
IV. Bloody Island—The Battleground of Hubris—The Grave
Circa 1798, a sandbar began to form in the river adjacent to St. Louis, gradually expanding to become Bloody Island. The island did not fall under the jurisdiction of Missouri or Illinois, which caused it to become a popular site for duels.
The clashing egos of attorneys Thomas Hart Benton and Charles Lucas resulted in two duels and the death of Lucas in 1817. This event would mark the start of forty years of duels at Bloody Island. The island has since merged into the Illinois shore, where it occupies abandoned blocks of a once industrial area.
[Noon]
Follow the road north along the River. Approach the pumping station which marks the intersection of a drainage canal and the River, with two architectural figures beyond.
Approach one of the volumes.
Enter the volume and follow the ramp around the edge.
Enter the central space. Note the stones below and the sky above. Note the obscured horizon within the space.
Pick up a handful of stones from the ground surface and exit the volume.
Cross the bridge over the channel.
Enter the second volume and place the stones on the ground surface. View across the canal to the opposing figure.
Exit the second insular volume.
[Intention]
The procession ends at Bloody Island with a contemplative space at the site of previous duels. Two architectural figures face one another across the channel. The visitor participates in the formation of the space by moving stones from one volume to the other, in reference to the tradition of placing pebbles on a gravestone. The movement of stones creates a fluctuating ground plane between the two figures, allowing views out of one volume and not the other.
Obscure the horizon to create an insular, grave-like space.
Participatory construction to create an ephemeral experience of the space.
Facilitate reflection on the force of ego (humankind) against ego (humankind).
The Grave—Physical Model [Plaster, Wood, Wire, Paper, Foam, Gauze, Epoxy]
Le Chemin du Rois: A Self-Reflexive Procession through the American Bottomland—Installation View