TURNING TIDES: HOLISTIC REMEDIATION
Work by Hannah Moore - Arch 410 Design Studio
Site: Abandoned Shipyard Brownfield, Bellingham, Washington
This project begins with a simple, yet urgent question: What do we do with what we've neglected? Across our cities, neighborhoods, and landscapes, there are people, places, and ecologies that have been overlooked, marginalized, or forgotten. In Bellingham, Washington, this condition takes form in a derelict shipyard—once a thriving industrial site on the waterfront, now an unconnected, contaminated brownfield. This project reclaims that space through an architecture of care, designed to support environmental repair, social inclusion, and urban reintegration.
The guiding motif of this work is remediation—not just environmental, but social and spatial. At the heart of the project is a community-centered support program for individuals experiencing homelessness. These residents, too often treated as invisible, are provided with shelter, job training, work-sourcing opportunities, and—most importantly—spaces that foster dignity and connection. By identifying the parallels between forgotten sites and forgotten people, the project offers a dual strategy of restoration: reactivating land while rebuilding lives.
Iterative Study Models
Attention is also given to the ecological dimension of the site. Landscape interventions include the restoration of native habitats, constructed wetlands for stormwater treatment, and protected zones for local species. These measures are not secondary, but integral—offering healing for the land alongside the people who will inhabit it.
Floor Plans
The building itself emerges as a system of sectional conditions nested within a standing structural grid. Within this framework, programmatic elements—ranging from public gathering areas and job resource centers to private transitional housing—are inserted according to context. This spatial logic allows for gradients of privacy and interaction, encouraging both community engagement and personal recovery. Adaptive reuse plays a central role in the architecture, incorporating existing structures and salvaged materials to reduce waste and preserve memory.
The structural system of the Holistic Remediation Center is rooted in the adaptive reuse of existing industrial infrastructure. Rather than demolishing the remnants of the former shipyard, the design strategically integrates and reinterprets these elements to form the basis of a new architectural language. Central to this approach are a series of large wood trusses—fabricated using reclaimed timber from the site and surrounding region—which span across the main bays of the building.
These trusses not only provide the structural framework for the new program but also serve as a visual and spatial expression of transformation. Their scale and rhythm reflect the site’s industrial past, while their material warmth and exposed construction invite a new sense of openness, care, and community. This adaptive strategy reduces material waste, honors the site's history, and anchors the new architecture in a story of resilience and reinvention.
Though grounded in the specific history and urban fabric of Bellingham, this project is a microcosm of a broader global condition. Many cities carry legacies of industrial decline and social displacement. The Holistic Remediation Center is not just a local proposal—it is a call for architects and designers to actively seek out the neglected edges of our built environment, and to imagine new futures where healing, inclusion, and sustainability are the foundations of design.
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By weaving together environmental stewardship, adaptive reuse, and community support, this project reclaims both place and purpose—reminding us that architecture can be an act of renewal for people and planet alike.
