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.

Plan rendering of the phased Tidal Basin design proposal, depicting DLANDstudio’s overarching concepts and principles: secure, connect, and absorb. This framework is realized through a series of design interventions, including a jetty that extends west from the Lincoln Memorial into the Potomac River, a sinuous berm at Independence Avenue, an elliptical reflecting pool, reconstructed wetlands, and an axial land bridge connecting the Jefferson Memorial with the White House across the Tidal Basin.

View looking east. The proposed jetty is a bold extension of the Lincoln Memorial/Washington Monument axis westward into the Potomac River. Proposed as a new, prominent home for a relocated Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial, the jetty is ambitious and aspirational, providing not only new literal and cultural ground for memorial, growth, reflection, and discourse, but also new hydrological patterns, areas for Potomac sedimentation, and easing of Tidal Basin loads.

View looking north. The land bridge is, simultaneously, a proposal to improve pedestrian connections between existing memorials, a scheme to better the environmental, ecological, and hydrological functioning of the Tidal Basin, and a plan to generate new space for those places and monuments currently threatened by flooding and sea-level rise. It is an intervention that draws from the ethos and historic design language of the National Mall to envision a new, environmentally responsive future.

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.

Plan rendering of the phased Tidal Basin design proposal, depicting DLANDstudio’s overarching concepts and principles: secure, connect, and absorb. This framework is realized through a series of design interventions, including a jetty that extends west from the Lincoln Memorial into the Potomac River, a sinuous berm at Independence Avenue, an elliptical reflecting pool, reconstructed wetlands, and an axial land bridge connecting the Jefferson Memorial with the White House across the Tidal Basin.

View looking east. The proposed jetty is a bold extension of the Lincoln Memorial/Washington Monument axis westward into the Potomac River. Proposed as a new, prominent home for a relocated Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial, the jetty is ambitious and aspirational, providing not only new literal and cultural ground for memorial, growth, reflection, and discourse, but also new hydrological patterns, areas for Potomac sedimentation, and easing of Tidal Basin loads.

View looking north. The land bridge is, simultaneously, a proposal to improve pedestrian connections between existing memorials, a scheme to better the environmental, ecological, and hydrological functioning of the Tidal Basin, and a plan to generate new space for those places and monuments currently threatened by flooding and sea-level rise. It is an intervention that draws from the ethos and historic design language of the National Mall to envision a new, environmentally responsive future.

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.

Plan rendering of the phased Tidal Basin design proposal, depicting DLANDstudio’s overarching concepts and principles: secure, connect, and absorb. This framework is realized through a series of design interventions, including a jetty that extends west from the Lincoln Memorial into the Potomac River, a sinuous berm at Independence Avenue, an elliptical reflecting pool, reconstructed wetlands, and an axial land bridge connecting the Jefferson Memorial with the White House across the Tidal Basin.

View looking east. The proposed jetty is a bold extension of the Lincoln Memorial/Washington Monument axis westward into the Potomac River. Proposed as a new, prominent home for a relocated Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial, the jetty is ambitious and aspirational, providing not only new literal and cultural ground for memorial, growth, reflection, and discourse, but also new hydrological patterns, areas for Potomac sedimentation, and easing of Tidal Basin loads.

View looking north. The land bridge is, simultaneously, a proposal to improve pedestrian connections between existing memorials, a scheme to better the environmental, ecological, and hydrological functioning of the Tidal Basin, and a plan to generate new space for those places and monuments currently threatened by flooding and sea-level rise. It is an intervention that draws from the ethos and historic design language of the National Mall to envision a new, environmentally responsive future.

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

Other Proposals

Reed Hilderbrand

Hood Design Studio

James Corner Field Operations

Back to Proposals

Presented by

Partners

Civic Partner