The architectural profession must urgently prioritize how to manage waste material and land usage by considering construction processes and materials as having a lifetime and impact on our environment. This investigation considers the damage of building culture with challenging construction technologies, processes and goals. If we are to consider earth as a more viable partner for construction and choose to integrate it into future planning, our symbiotic relationship between humans and nature would flourish. In an effort to readdress construction customs I propose looking at sites with substantial negative impacts of human construction activity such as a mine.

According to the US Department of Interior Bureau of Land Management, there are currently 57,586 abandoned mine sites, 20% have been remediated or do not require further action. There is a need to rethink the opportunities to correct past construction processes and plan for the future in ways that allow mines to be reintroduced to landscapes with the program of plant mediation, etc.

In efforts to manage waste in landscapes that did not consider the future impact of our environment let alone be intended to be cared for. I introduce my site Three Kids Mine, an open-pit mine that extracted magnesium during periods of war. Located in Las Vegas, Nevada where most of the United State abandoned mines reside, this mine has not been utilized since the 1960 and has become a toxic site of high exposures of asbestos.

Las Vegas, a city known for its abundance of (money, glamor, and opportunities) was founded in 1906 after the auctioning of land by railroad company bankers. The city was named after its lush meadow landscape. This major Western American city, founded in the early 20th century has experienced a drastic shifts in landscapes over time, what began as a spring- watered grassland has resulted in a land of depleted natural resources caused by the maintenance of the elaborate urban life of Las Vegas.

This specific site, Three Kids Mine, is scheduled to be developed in the coming years and be treated with the backfilling of open pits and grading of the property to serve as a site for a future residential development. This proposed development would ignore the negative impacts of mismanagement of natural resource extraction, waste material management and the impact soil erosion caused by human activity. The covering and “erasing” of the mine over a course of years and later the placement of hundreds of residential homes will not be a benefactor to the nutrition of the land and soil. It will instead be another site where the depletion of more natural resources are exhausted to maintain the residents of these new residential homes.

My project proposes a new development for this area, and will operate through a lens of restoration and preservation by analyzing the current landscape and generating interventions to facilitate the engagement with land. Visitors will be encouraged to visit this plant and land sanctuary and reestablish their connection with land, develop new views on the handling of natural resources and participate fully with nurturing and caring for the land.

Phase 1: Bring water back to the site

Phase 2: Construction of Greenhouse

Phase 3: Seeding process and reconstructing a relationship with nature.