GGN
We envision a dynamic series of incremental changes that will adapt the site to the environmental challenges of the future and give rise to a new cultural aesthetic.
The design is structured to be achieved over three stages, between today and 2090, accommodating forecasted sea-level rise from three to twelve feet. This plan integrates regional ecologies including a flood-plain forest, wind gap meadows, and tidal marshes, bringing an overdue ecological point of view. Monuments are adapted, protected, or relocated. This will make the Tidal Basin: A Place for People that will be better integrated into the experience of future generations through improved scale, connectivity, and flexibility of space; A Cultural Landscape in which ecology will merge with history and culture for a more complex and meaningful landscape; and An Engineered Landscape where infrastructure and actively managed ecology will mediate the natural and the man-made, securing the National Mall from rising tides.
A gradual series of interventions over the rest of this century will be monitored, evaluated, and adjusted in order to integrate ecology with culture and history. This active adaptive management of the site will give way to a new cultural aesthetic at the Tidal Basin.
GGN is a landscape architecture firm based in Seattle that was founded in 1999 by Kathryn Gustafson, Jennifer Guthrie, and Shannon Nichol. The firm offers extensive experience in designing high-use landscapes in complex urban contexts. GGN’s designs are derived from deep research of each site’s history, ecology, and communities. Recent projects range from the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC, to India Basin Shoreline Park in San Francisco. Visit Their Website
