Work of Practicality

Figure 5.26 Garden at the Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris, France.

The art gallery of the Musée de l’Orangerie, located in the Tuileries Gardens in Paris, exhibits Impressionist and post-Impressionist artists, and is also home to the water lilies paintings of Claude Monet. The gardens, detail of one outside the museum is shown in Figure 5.26, may have been inspired by the art inside the museum. Certainly the colors and the very painterly manner in which plants have been arranged suggest the influence of the Impressionist art inside the museum. Try squinting your eyes while looking at the photograph in Figure 5.26, then the image takes on an Impressionistic quality.

The next works designed by landscape architects were the result of commissions to fix something, to improve water quality, to reduce flooding, to increase habitat and therefore biodiversity, or restore a river as a strategy of rebuilding a community from an abandoned industrial neighborhood. Restoration, improving water quality, mitigating hazards from natural disasters, rebuilding dysfunctional landscapes, and attendant improvements such as trail and park installations have become a significant source of work for landscape architects.

Baltimore Harbor, Maryland, was cut off from the rest of the city when the port, shipping yards, warehouses, and manufacturing were built along the water edge. As these once profitable economic uses fell upon hard times and were abandoned or underused, the city saw the revitalization of the harbor into a tourist and recreation destination as part of a larger strategy of transforming the harbor and downtown Baltimore from a derelict collection of abandoned buildings into a vital cultural and tourism center on the American East Coast. The previously derelict site of the London 2102 Olympics has a similar story to Baltimore’s. Other examples of landscape transformations are described in this section, all examples of the type of projects landscape architects have become increasingly involved with; some in a collaborative role with others or as the primary designer.

It may be hard to imagine but the water feature in Figure 5.27 was a concrete-lined drainage channel a matter of only ten years ago. Buffalo Bayou was in a bad state, like so many rivers and water features in cities all over the world, that were not appreciated for their recreational, environmental, or aesthetic value and were either covered over, filled in, or cut off from the urban fabric. The city of San Antonio had a river that ran through the downtown that was once the source of flooding in the business district and was used as the service entrance to business lining the San Antonio River. The river is now a tourist attraction, contributing to the economic life of the

city. The improved sections of Buffalo Bayou have now become popular walking, jogging, biking, and passive recreation attractions for adjoining neighborhoods. The improvements of the bayou became a catalyst for upgrading adjoining properties as part of a larger strategy for economic development. In addition to the extensive plantings, the landscape architects of the SWA Group widened the channel, increasing the water detention capacity to better accommodate the volume of water of heavy rains and thus contribute to the reduction of area flooding.

Water Ranch was a project of the environmental science firm of Jones & Stokes from Sacramento, CA (Figure 5.28). The firm had a staff landscape architect, who, with the firm’s wildlife and environmental engineering specialists, conceived of a proposed wastewater treatment spreading grounds (infrastructure for water to recharge the underground aquifer) as a wildlife preserve (primarily for migratory birds), and regional outdoor education and family recreation facility. The project incorporated a city library, adding diversity to attract additional users to the park. A water treatment plant was also constructed on what was formerly an agricultural field. The designers developed a concept not originally considered by the city client. Previously constructed water spreading grounds in the region were composed of grid-like water-holding cells with earthen levees that contained the treated water. These facilities were designed without vegetation; a concept to reduce maintenance costs.

The firm of Jones & Stokes proposed the creation of ponds of irregular size and shape with variations in water depth. The irregular shapes increased the amount of edge that was then planted with a variety of endemic plants to provide habitat and nesting areas. With the varied water depth, different plant species could be supported in creating a varied habitat to attract a wide variety of birds and animals. The plantings also function to “polish” the treated water, adding another level of purification before the water infiltrates through the soil to the aquifer below. Along the edge of the park adjacent to the library, a children’s play area was constructed with water features for the children’s use such as a hand pump with a gravel-lined swale to carry the pumped water toward one of the ponds. Bird blinds were strategically located to afford viewing for birdwatchers without disturbing the birds. Educational signage was included along the pathway system. A community demonstration or outdoor education classroom was constructed where students and other visitors could learn about the wildlife in the area and water conservation.

Figure 5.27 Buffalo Bayou, Houston, Texas, by the SWA Group. Figure 5.28 Water Ranch, Gilbert, Arizona, by Jones & Stokes.

South or Zud Park is located in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. It is a large multi-purpose green space comparable in size to New York City’s Central Park. The original park was designed in the early twentieth century for passive recreation with great swaths of open lawn areas framed by dense forest trees cover. The park served a primarily middle-class residential population. Over the years the surrounding neighborhood population changed with the influx of Eastern European and Middle Eastern immigrant families. A few years into the new millennium the Figure 5.29 South (Zud) Park, Rotterdam, the Netherlands. City Parks Department of Rotterdam sought to do a total make-over of the park with two primary goals: (1) to develop facilities and activity areas to better serve the new ethnic population; and (2) to increase the storm-water detention capacity of the park lands as part of a larger city-wide strategy to improve resilience to flooding. There are several elements to observe in Figure 5.29. The park visitors can be seen strolling on a path built on a levee. The levee was constructed to contain storm water. This area of the park represents the potential storm-water detention capacity by increasing the level of detained water of the lake near the height of the levee as seen in the middle of Figure 5.29. The edge of the lake was planted with vegetative species having a water cleansing capacity so as to improve the quality of surface water runoff moving downstream. The forest cover in the background is a remnant from the previous park design. The forest serves as animal habitat, reduces water pollutants that come from runoff from surrounding roads and neighborhoods, as well as accommodating walking trails. Figure 5.30 Landscape erosion control and restoration, Frank’s Valley, Muir Beach, California.

The area adjacent to Muir Beach and Muir Woods on the coast north of San Francisco is a popular day-hiking destination for Bay Area residents and visitors. The drainage swale in Figure 5.30 was recently repaired with an erosion control system consisting of netting and a matrix of deeply rooting native plants. Over the years, erosion in this upper area of Frank’s Valley has resulted in siltation of the wetlands downstream (visible in the middle ground of Figure 5.30). Landscape architects and others developed a detailed design to reduce the erosion coming off the slopes along the drainage swale as well as replanting the wetlands below impacted by siltation from slope erosion. Medium-sized boulders were placed in the drainage channel to slow down and reduce the erosive force of rapidly moving