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Restoring and Revealing Urban Waters

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WPLP

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Penn

Sulzberger

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Ideas

Scenario

• You have been selected (along with a select group of other designers) to develop a proposal for revealing and restoring urban waters in the Mill Creek neighborhood. Although the sponsors have asked several designers to participate, ultimately only one design will be selected for further development and implementation. The sponsors hope to identify a design which satisfies their requirements and attracts the support of neighborhood residents.
  
  
• The sponsors of the project are the Philadelphia Water Department (PWD), the Philadelphia Board of Education, and the Mill Creek Empowerment Zone. Teachers and students at Sulzberger Middle School are available for consultation. The proposals will be reviewed by staff from the PWD and Empowerment Zone and by teachers, students, and parents; feedback from residents of the Mill Creek neighborhood will also be solicited. Funding for the project comes from two major sources: the PWD and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). A local public arts program has also expressed an interest in participating in the project; it is up to you to suggest a possible role.
  
  
• The PWD wants to explore the potential of above-ground stormwater detention as a strategy to reduce water flow in sewers after rainstorms in order to help alleviate combined sewer overflows, prevent physical damage to sewers caused by flows that exceed capacity of the sewer pipe, and reduce local flooding in the Mill Creek neighborhood.
  
  
• The Board of Education wants to explore how curriculum in science, social studies, arts, and language can be enriched through outdoor "classrooms" cared for by students.
  
  
• The Empowerment Zone wants to integrate environmental improvement and community development and to involve Mill Creek residents in decisions concerning the future of the neighborhood.
  
  
• The sponsors welcome any related ideas you may have beyond the program spelled out below.
  
  
• Your proposal must be presented on the World Wide Web for review and comment by the sponsors and the public-at-large. This review process is part of a larger project to create an electronic public forum where people have access to information about plans for their neighborhood and the opportunity to influence decisions. Residents of the Empowerment Zone with personal computers enjoy free Internet access. Public Internet access is also provided at the Empowerment Zone Office (Bridge Project) and at Sulzberger Middle School.
  
  
• As a demonstration project, your proposal has potential as a national model.
  
  

• Design a water garden and a place for water play as outdoor classrooms for <../../local/sulzberg.htm>Sulzberger Middle School.
  
  
• The water garden will be a retention/detention basin for stormwater runoff: a portion will have water all the time; another portion will flood temporarily after rainstorms. The area must have a fence and gate(s) which can be locked. Planting design and detailing of pavement, walls, and water edges should reveal and respond to water flow and changing water levels. The water garden/pond will serve as a living laboratory maintained by students as part of their ongoing curriculum. Your design should reflect potential academic work at the school and the specific activities which will take place there.
  
  
• Serious consideration should be given to directing as much runoff as possible into the water garden, including the possibility of rooftop drainage from the school and adjacent public housing.
  
  
• The place for water play will be open to children and adults of the neighborhood (unlike the water garden which must be locked). Water used for contact play must come from city water pipes rather than stormwater runoff. The water cannot run continuously; provision must be made for turning the water on and off, and the area should be attractive even when no water is flowing.
  
  

• Sulzberger Middle School and the area around it, particularly the public right-of-way along the abandoned section of Aspen Street, 47th Street between Brown and Fairmount, and the watershed which drains (or can be made to drain) to the intersection of 47th and Aspen.
  
  

• Text describing your proposal. Give your proposal a title which conveys the theme(s) of your design.
  
  
• Plan showing the relationship between Sulzberger, "water-garden classroom," water play, and other relevant features such as the sewer, low-lying areas, and adjacent homes.
  
  
• Plans, sections, and sketches showing specific features significant to your proposed design.
  
  
• Plan/diagram/drawing of water flow illustrating quantities of water, direction and quality of movement, seasonal and daily variations. How much water is there in the retention basin part of the water garden? How much additional surface runoff is accommodated in the detention area?
  
  
• Construction details of design features important to your proposal, including, but not limited to, slope and channels controlling water flow (including the way water is seen and heard) and planting materials and methods.
  
  
• Any other graphic material necessary to describe the main themes/features of your proposed design.
  
  
• Submit a self evaluation (use form) with your proposal.
  
  
• Remember: the initial reviews are walk-around discussions; the ultimate presentation is on your web gallery. Text and images should compose a narrative that tells the story you have designed.
  
  
• Note: check how close you are to your limit--3MB--and how large your addition is before loading it on your gallery page. If you have questions about this, ask Robert or Brian Lee. Make sure you have a back-up copy on disk!!!
  
  

• As usual, reviews of work will take place in three modes: self evaluation; peer review; studio-wide review and discussion.
  
  
• On November 4, there will be a walk-around review/discussion with Bob Hanna and AWS from 2-6PM. Post your proposal and preliminary self evaluation by 1:00. The work must be understandable on its own. You will not have the opportunity to make a verbal presentation.
  
  
• On November 11, there will be a walk-around review/discussion with Laura Aibel, Bob Hanna, and AWS from 2-6PM. Post your proposal and preliminary self evaluation by 1:00. You will not have the opportunity to make a verbal presentation.
  
  
• Details of other reviews TBA (to be announced).
  
  

See Laura Aibel's memo on stormwater runoff and assessment of area surrounding Sulzberger and the West Philadelphia Digital Database for further information.

Now would be a good time to read Donald Schon, The Reflective Practitioner (Basic Books, 1984), a study of professional practice as artistry involving "reflection-in-action."

See also Edward Tufte, Envisioning Information. Cheshire, CT:Graphics Press, 1990.

The following are additional sources on water:

• Thomas Dunne and Luna Leopold, Water in Environmental Planning (Freeman, 1978)
  
  
• T.S. Eliot, The Four Quartets, especially "The Dry Salvages," (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich).
  
  
• Anthony Hecht, "The Gardens of the Villa d'Este" in The Hard Hours (Atheneum, 1984).
  
  
• Charles Moore, Water and Architecture (Abrams, 1994).
  
  
• Toby Tourbier and Richard Westmacott, A Handbook of Measures to Protect Water Resources in Land Development (Urban Land Institute, 1981)
  
  

• Designing with water flowing, plants growing, kids learning and playing.
  
  
• Giving ideas material form: moving fluently back and forth from the conceptual to the material/formal to details of contruction
  
  
• Web authoring: presenting your ideas persuasively; telling the story of your design vividly.
  
  
• E-mail: participating in on-line discussion to share information and ideas.
  
  
• Reflective practice: self-evaluation; peer review.
  
  

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