This was a really fun project for an intro Planting Design class, in which we redesigned the planting scheme for the “quad” on the UW campus (where the famous cherry trees live). Each student chose an emotion, which we then needed to elicit as a response from visitors to the site. I chose “rage” as I thought it would be fun to come up with lots of evil ways to make people angry with plants.
For the final project of a collaborative design class, I teamed up with a group that had designed a floating chicken coop for the midterm. For the final, we expanded on that concept and proposed a floating community center (one of the primary citizen requests), with floating farms to make use of compost from all that chicken poop. We also had hand washing stations that used collected rain water, which I proposed piping under the river as a way to culturally and literally warm it. There is a cultural aversion to drinking rainwater, as all bad things come from the sky, and all good things from the river. Piping the rain below the water, without letting the clean water actually contact the highly contaminated river, would be a way of acknowledging the cultural heritage of the large indigenous population, while also addressing a primary vector for disease.
This was the final project for a Landscape Architecture Design Studio, in which we were tasked with designing a public park space where the UW Police Department is currently housed, on the shoreline of Portage Bay. The project involved exploring the site history, during which I became interested in the story of Cheshiahud, such an important figure in our city’s history that the Lake Union Trail was recently renamed after him. Cheshiahud was buried at Evergreen Washelli cemetery next to his first wife Sbeilsdot. I was unable to find details on the final resting place of Cheshiahud’s second wife, Tleboletsa, and thought it would be nice for her to have a park next to Cheshiahud’s trail.
In hindsight, my design choices lacked a bit of subtlety, that I think I might have found with more time and training (we had two weeks).
Tleboletsa Park includes a grand view of Portage Bay, continuing an axis beginning at the UW Fishery Sciences Building. A spiral is the unifying shape in this regenerative design, as the idea is not to return to place you started, but improve ecological function with each cycle. The spiraled bioswales improve stormwater quality while providing pollinator habitat, and the protected bay with floating wetlands provides migrating salmon with food and rest on their journey. The bay arms, formed by a massive-scale Canoe and Train, reference the cultural edge created by Europeans settling Duwamish lands, while shielding the site from street noise, boat noise, and waves. A broad street level terrace provides bike racks, seating, and room for Street Food vendors. The salmon-shaped boardwalk includes several staircases and an ADA elevator. The second terrace provides more seating, access to the upper spiral and waterfall, and a play structure. The restored, sparse forest to the West includes a mix of native conifers and shrubs, with a running path descending into the site from street level. The third terrace showcases the lower spiral and allows beach access, where shore armoring has been replaced by soft gravel and large woody debris.
board & model
A study and redesign of a bus stop near UW campus, introducing a below-grade water feature fed by a moat. This was a first foray into playing with SketchUp for a massing study, setting up a board, and drawing a perspective. It was fun, and I learned a lot.
An exploration of Kevin Lynch’s “five elements” of paths, edges, nodes, landmarks, and districts. I started with a spatial interpretation of the fountain, combining the volume of a sphere, the ordering principle of hierarchy, and the opposing qualities of active and passive.
Part II of this project involved symbolizing patterns of use and movement.
