Reed Hilderbrand
Our vision for the Tidal Basin responds to an indeterminate future by setting up a strategic exchange across generations.
Adaptation is gradual and disciplined, like the 12-bar progression of blues music that orders and inspires improvisations among multiple performers. Our guiding principles are: Progress: Build upon the diverse voices, experiences, and cultural moments represented in the Tidal Basin to embrace even greater diversity in our national polity and respond to the challenges of climate change; Adaptation: Plot the harmonious migration of people, plants, and animals—especially the cherry trees—to fertile grounds that support novel and resilient conditions; Scale: Privilege the scale of the body and the phenomenological qualities of landscape for their ability to communicate among diverse peoples; and Balance: Shape a living, breathing place, recognizing the forces that shaped it over time and setting in motion an image of what America wants to be in the future.
Responding to a changing climate and America's ever-evolving culture, this plan preserves the essential qualities of the Tidal Basin and finds renewed power in the overlapping systems of the National Mall and the Potomac.
A vision for landscape architecture driven by investigative reason and speculative invention brought Douglas Reed and Gary Hilderbrand together in the mid-1990s to launch Reed Hilderbrand. The firm’s work aligns daily life with visible phenomena of nature and invisible patterns of culture to build communities, reinvent institutions, and enrich urban neighborhoods. Notable commissions include the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts; United States National Arboretum, Washington, DC; and San Antonio’s Alamo Plaza and Museum. Visit Their Website
