DESTINATION CORPUS

 Destination Corpus: A Terminal for Rail, Ferry, and Cruise

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Resolving the tension between oil and water.

The push to expand industry development threatens the existing economic balance and ecological diversity of the Corpus Christi Bay Area. How do you protect one of the country’s most diverse estuarine ecologies with a port exporting the highest volume of oil and gas in the country?

TEAM Lily Barboza, Alex Bowman, Andrew Finney / INSTRUCTOR Oswald Jennewein / MY ROLE ON THE PROJECT: Community Engagement, Masterplan, Final Renderings


First our team hosted two community engagement events in Corpus Christi that attracted over 200 people, and helped the team  gather qualitative research from a broad spectrum of the city’s residents (SEE VIDEO BELOW).  In addition to co-facilitating group discussions I created a Water Bar serving different types of alkaline waters, to reinforce the threat of industry to the region's already weak potable water infrastructure.  I also created an interactive map to track where the attendees lived in the region.


As individual teams we developed a design strategy based on the qualitative data gathered at the community engagements, resulting in a strategy to counterbalance industrial growth by developing Corpus Christi as a tourist destination.  With the proposed high-speed rail lines connecting the cities of the “Texas Triangle,” building a high speed rail connection to San Antonio would empower the tourism and eco-tourism industries of the Coastal Bend Region.

This move would diversify the local economy, decrease its dependence on industry, and a ferry system connecting local tourist destinations would reinforce this move on a local level. Finally, establishing a cruise terminal would diversify the use of the ship channel, offer a more convenient boarding option for many residents in the Texas Triangle, and reinforce the local tourism industry. With the potential to reach over 4 million people, this high-speed rail extension and hybrid terminal has the ability to convert Corpus Christi into a passenger port destination for the Coastal Bend Region.


The ultimate goal of this project is to share all proposals with the community of the Corpus Christi Bay area in a panel-centric community engagement structure. Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic this has been postponed, but is intended to be a public event including representatives from all stakeholders to generate a dialogue about the future of the Coastal Bend Region and how to start reconciling this tension between OIL and WATER.


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