GREEN THUMB ISLAND
WINNING ENTRY FOR CAVIN FAMILY TRAVELING FELLOWSHIP - 2020
The Cavin Family Traveling Fellowship is awarded to the winner of an annual competition. In 2020, competitors had 5 days to respond to the question of how to repurpose existing pieces of oil infrastructure, the THUMS islands off the coast of Long Beach, in a future where we are no longer dependent on fossil fuels.
The City of Long Beach has a long history with oil. Originally, the oil rigs were located within the city, where they were a blight on the urban landscape. The THUMS islands were constructed in the mid 1960’s as a way to move them out of the City of Long Beach. To avoid harming the public perception of the waterfront as they beautified the city, the perimeters of the islands were landscaped and disguised with abstract concrete forms, in order to hide the industrial equipment, culminating in the masking of the oil rig with a concrete covering reminiscent of a high rise building.
Project Narrative
The THUMS islands were built with hope, as an opportunity to maintain an important resource while preventing blight; to use an industrial site to improve, rather than destroy, the waterfront of Long Beach. In many ways, it has served its purpose, funding municipal programs and lending personality to the shoreline. But the oil produced by the THUMS islands has contributed to climate change, ocean acidification and countless externalities that have harmed the community that it was purported to serve, behind a thin veneer of midcentury optimism. In a future without fossil fuels, how can the island live up to its original ideals, acknowledge its history, and ameliorate the damage it has done?
The answer lies in reversing the carbon cycle, serving the public good while removing carbon from the surrounding environment. Through urban farming, carbon removed from the environment is manifested as something that serves the most basic of human needs: nourishing food. Long Beach is already home to populations struggling with food insecurity. The future holds population growth and the critical need for local, reliable food sources.
This proposal maintains the essentially utilitarian function of Grissom (Green Thumb) Island, and the dream of a prosperous Long Beach.
