The engineering of riparian infrastructure is undergoing a design transformation in the Northwest region of the United States. The removal of large-scale dams constructed for energy and water extraction has been proposed for some of the region's rivers in an effort to restore degraded biological systems and services that preceded them. This migratory shift from static infrastructure to dynamic living processes is latent with regenerative potential that has yet to be seen in its many implications. The contested and hydro-modified landscapes of the Klamath River offer a poignant location in which to research the emergent possibilities of these transformations. Through a research process of historic documentation, extensive field work, data mapping, and applied design scenarios, an integrative analysis and visualization of what the Klamath River used to be, the constructed nature of what it is now, and the design possibilities for its future reclamation will be investigated.

Brett Milligan is a practitioner, researcher, and educator in the allied fields of landscape architecture and urbanism. He is the creator of the collaborative research practice of Free Association Design (FAD). Currently based in Portland, he teaches design courses in both the School of Landscape Architecture and the Department of Architecture at the University of Oregon, and in 2008 was as a visiting scholar at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. 

Milligan's design practice is situated at the intersection of applied ecological theory, infrastructure, and the design of regenerative water systems. His design work has received multiple awards and has been exhibited internationally, including at the recent HYDROCITY symposium. His writings have appeared in design journals such as MONU: Magazine on Urbanism and the Journal of Landscape Architecture. His latest coauthored research project Dredge will appear in Bracket [Goes Soft], in Fall 2011.