Sol Lee

The Edge Between: Village and Marsh, History and Future at Alviso Marina County Park

The Edge Between proposes a regenerative landscape framework that reconnects the fragmented boundaries between Alviso Village and its surrounding marshlands. Rather than treating these edges as fixed lines or barriers, the project redefines them as spatial zones of transition—where ecology, culture, and public life intersect. By transforming disconnected edges into a continuous, circular system, the project aims to restore relationships between land and people while supporting long-term ecological resilience and everyday public use. Alviso Marina County Park, located at the southern edge of San Francisco Bay in San José, serves as a gateway to the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge. Defined by salt ponds, tidal marshlands, open landscapes, and traces of Alviso’s former port and cannery history, the site forms a unique meeting point between ecology and cultural heritage. Despite its significance, public access to the marsh and salt ponds remains limited, resulting in short visits and underused civic spaces. Current levee and marsh transition projects address sea level rise, but they primarily treat the landscape as technical infrastructure rather than a public environment. Meanwhile, Alviso Village faces economic stagnation, and the abandoned cannery complex reinforces disconnection from the waterfront. This thesis proposes landscape architecture as a connective framework that reunites ecology, history, and public life, transforming Alviso’s edges into spaces of engagement, continuity, and regeneration.

Faculty Mark Yin

Awards MFA Landscape Architecture Thesis Award for exemplary scope, approach, and proposal in a thesis project