This project investigates the complex legacy of capped landfills in the Hudson Valley, focusing on the DuPont Stauffer Code 04 Superfund site in Newburgh, NY—a former industrial landfill now zoned for residential use. Though remediated and sealed, the site still harbors toxic residues, revealing the limits of environmental recovery. Our design reimagines the capped landfill as an installation landscape that exposes rather than conceals the ongoing chemical, geological, and biological processes beneath the surface.
Through bioindicator plants, reactive clay and copper totems, suspended magnetic probes, and methane-fueled flame, we translate invisible contamination into tangible experiences. Each intervention reveals the site’s slow, unstable transformation, making the unseen visible and reactivating the land as a space for public engagement, observation, and stewardship. The project challenges the illusion of remediation as resolution, offering instead a model for long-term, dynamic care.
