DLANDstudio

We adopted three interrelated strategies: connect, absorb, and secure.

New visual and physical connections will include a land bridge, forming an axis between the Jefferson Memorial and the White House. A jetty in the Potomac River off the Lincoln Memorial will house the relocated memorial to Martin Luther King, Jr., connecting national struggles for civil rights over time. The creation of new wetlands and green walls will, like a sponge, absorb rising waters. Sedimentation will create tidal flats reducing runoff, storm surge, and flooding. These new features will offer soft and dynamic edges. Changes will protect both natural and man-made features from the effects of flooding; to secure their futures, the memorials to Roosevelt and King as well as the cherry trees will be moved and a berm will be built.

Full Presentation

Bird’s-eye view looking northeast. The proposed design radically re-imagines the land of the Tidal Basin area in form and function, as a phased response to the sweeping, inevitable wave of climate change-driven transformation. The proposed interventions seek to improve security—of people, of landscapes, of culture, monuments, and infrastructure—as well as to better connect existing sites and destinations, while establishing a more sensitive, symbiotic, and dynamic relationship with the Tidal Basin environment.

DLANDstudio is an interdisciplinary design firm in Brooklyn, New York. Founded in 2005 by Susannah C. Drake, the firm was born from her vision of making cities more ecologically productive. DLANDstudio develops methods to layer environmental, engineering, and political structures to make real change in the built environment. Projects include New York’s QueensWay and Gowanus Canal Sponge Park™; Argenta Plaza in North Little Rock, Arkansas; and the Public Media Commons in St. Louis, Missouri. Visit Their Website

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Reed Hilderbrand
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