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Bonnet Carré Spillway
The vast 7,600 acre Louisiana Bonnet Carré spillway stretches nearly six miles to Lake
Pontchartrain and was built in response to the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927. Designed to flood itself with the Mississippi River when a threat of swelling and overflow occurs. The land, like much of the area, is flat punctured dramatically by two crossing bridges of local highways. The bridges create both a ceaseless, flat horizon and an exaggerated, perspective horizon. I set out to connect the two experiences. A visitors’ center that both mimics and draws notice to the drastic horizons of the land.
Starting with a study of how the left and right eye work together to interpret a line and translate that into a constant horizon. Each space works to erase the separation between nature and structure by striking a continuous line throughout to highlight the land and its spaces.