Project: Constitution Gardens at the National Mall
Designed by PWP Landscape Architecture and Rogers Marvel Architects
Location: Washington DC, USA
Website: www.pwpla.com
PWP Landscape Architecture teams up with Rogers Marvel Architects’ to create the winning design for Constitution Gardens at the National Mall in Washington DC. See more of their solution after the jump:
PWP Landscape Architecture and Rogers Marvel Architects’ winning design for Constitution Gardens at the National Mall shows respect for the historic plans created by Olmsted, McMillan and Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. The new experience will allow for a secluded and welcoming garden where Washington families will come on weekends, where tourists will pause before continuing on their cultural journey, where children will discover the joys of newly discovered lake-edge activities, and where nearby workers can stop for a drink.
By carefully refining the scale, shape, and function of each landscape component, PWP will create a beautiful integrated environment that is ecologically productive. Large areas of the site will require soil excavation and replacement with a reconstituted growing medium and drainage layer. A variety of plants and conditions in close proximity will offer a richness of use for local wildlife and discovery for park-goers. A low garden wall running along Constitution Avenue and 17th Street will offer definition, identification and visual separation between street traffic and the interior landscape.
PWP will transform the lake into a critical piece of water infrastructure that reduces the damaging impacts of stormwater while creating a source of water for reuse in irrigation and toilets. The lake will also provide a unique opportunity for programming. An underwater ring wall in the east side will enable ice-skating in the winter and model-boating the rest of the year. Aeration will add an unexpected visual element while improving water circulation. Activity in the middle of the expansive lake will create an exciting new experience for everyone, day and night.
In addition to specific programmed space, the design includes flexible-use spaces at a range of scales for events of all sizes. The knoll, the meadows, the event lawn, the event terrace, and the wide lakeside walk will each accommodate multiple and varied uses. An amphitheater with a stage and electrical infrastructure at the south side of the lake will accommodate an audience of several thousand.
Rogers Marvel Architects’ multi-entry pavilion at the east end of the lake, containing restaurant, café, activity rentals, and storage will provide dramatic views of Constitution Gardens, and lure visitors down to the lake from a path that connects Constitution Avenue to the World War II Memorial.
The design and programming enhances and integrates historic elements, encouraging people to interact. Newly planted magnolias and an added footbridge of stepping stones above a new marsh and perimeter path will lead visitors to view the 56 Signers Memorial on ‘The Island’. Already standing as a gateway between the city to the north and the expanse of the National Mall to the south and west, the Lockkeeper’s House will be programmed as a gift shop, exhibition space and a connector to adjacent sites.
We will build a renewed Constitution Gardens that serves the grandeur of the National Mall – a park that lives, evolves and thrives.
