Project Details

Dumbarton Oaks Park is a significant cultural landscape with the potential to function as a green infrastructure in an important urban sewershed. Amplifying the site's dynamic hydrological cycles by inserting a constructed wetland increases its stormwater handling capacity and performative ecological qualities. The constructed wetland complements the spatial organization and sense of 'place' created by Beatrix Farrand's original design strategy. The site environmental analysis used a combination of software tools, working in tandem, to develop intervention strategies and performance measurements including: ArcGISv10, Rhinoceros 4. (#D modeling) & Grasshopper (parametric modeling), and SWMMv5 (Stormwater Management Modeling software designed by the EPA). This proposal takes the essential components of the Wild Garden aesthetic and applies them in a way that amplifies the existing site dynamics to enhance their ecological and performative qualities. This utilizes the landscape as a green infrastructure network and reduces maintenance burdens creating a new landscape type: Wild Infrastructure.