Known as the “Watering Place” where colonial navigators obtained fresh spring water in the 1600s, Tomkinsville’s water edge has since then transformed through cycles of expansion and contraction while interacting with nature. After the pier of George Cromwell Recreation Center collapsed, the water edge now exists as a line of division and boundary. My project considers three questions: how can the edge reconcile with nature? How can it bring back community recreation to Staten Island? And how to revive the cultural and physical memory of Tomkinsville as the “Watering Place”?

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The project addresses these questions through the conceptual gesture of blurring edges, transforming the water’s edge from a rigid boundary into a dynamic, adaptive interface that reconciles human activity with ecological processes. By dissolving physical, spatial, and programmatic boundaries, it fosters community connections, strengthens ecological resilience, and restores cultural and recreational significance. This approach challenges static conditions of the site, emphasizing its temporal nature and capacity for continual transformation, reimagining Tomkinsville’s water edge as “The Watering Place,” where communities converge to reconnect with water and nature.