This year I was invited to speak at the SCASLA (South Carolina American Society of Landscape Architects). The event was tackling the issue of stormwater and thereby entitled “Come Hell or High Water”. I was asked to talk about my design solution called Rain Parks. Rain Parks are a design solution I had developed over the last 7 years to address rainwater runoff in developed areas. In Jan 2016, I submitted Rain Parks as a solution for Columbia, SC to address flooding for its urban core. With the weather pattern changes we are seeing throughout the US along with the increased urbanization, flooding will only become a bigger and bigger issue. In fact, stormwater is already a huge issue for every type of location in the US from coastal communities to urban centers to suburb neighborhoods to rural spaces.
What We Should Do
I think we have to embrace the changes we are seeing with increased water levels and the dramatic alternating of rain and flooding. It’s not enough to simply believe we can wall-off or barricade our existing places from the coming tide.
What We Should Do
I think we have to embrace the changes we are seeing with increased water levels and the dramatic alternating of rain and flooding. It’s not enough to simply believe we can wall-off or barricade our existing places from the coming tide.
Green Building Apex
In my presentation, I chronicled my design work from when I focused primarily on energy efficiency and net zero efforts for large building to how my attention became more and more on stormwater and the landscape. The pinnacle of my energy work was when I worked with NYU (New York University) to determine if their new Zipper Building could be net zero.
In my presentation, I chronicled my design work from when I focused primarily on energy efficiency and net zero efforts for large building to how my attention became more and more on stormwater and the landscape. The pinnacle of my energy work was when I worked with NYU (New York University) to determine if their new Zipper Building could be net zero.
Through a 4-month process we found the building couldn’t be completely net zero, but could get within 7% of the ultimate goal. The financial impact would be a savings of over $3million annually.
Oysters are Awesome
The biggest change for my work came when I worked with CCU (Coastal Carolina University) on oyster research. Over a period of 7 years, we undertook field research to determine the positive impact of oyster restoration throughout the Grand Strand area of South Carolina.
The biggest change for my work came when I worked with CCU (Coastal Carolina University) on oyster research. Over a period of 7 years, we undertook field research to determine the positive impact of oyster restoration throughout the Grand Strand area of South Carolina.
The Grand Strand is a extremely popular tourist area on the northern coast of the state that includes Georgetown, Myrtle Beach and Little River. We discovered that restored oyster reefs begin to create viable habitat from almost day one of installation. Plus oysters have an incredible filtration ability to filter 4 gallons of water each hour. This allows them to potentially be an ecological infrastructure to manage stormwater runoff as it enters an estuarine system.
What I'm Really Trying to Say
The bulk of my talk was about Rain Parks however, and how the concept for the parks grew from my 2011 book, Urban Green: Architecture for the Future.
The bulk of my talk was about Rain Parks however, and how the concept for the parks grew from my 2011 book, Urban Green: Architecture for the Future.
The main idea in my book is that humans need to be keystone species. Keystone species are a species that, when present in an ecosystem, fosters huge positive impacts to the entire web of life. Oysters are a keystone species. In my book, I talked about oysters as well as beavers, which are another keystone species. The interesting thing about beavers is that they are extremely unsustainable animals. They come into an area and can, within 5 to 10 years, completely overuse the natural resources to the point they have to abandon their dams and huts for other places to live. Humans are really unsustainable too, and often overtax the natural world within a short time. But the big difference is that beavers create thriving, healthy ecosystems. Humans usually create wastelands of negative impacts to the natural world.
Can we learn from beavers and other keystone species how to transform ourselves into keystone species? That’s a hard question I’ve come to see. It’s not simple, but it could be possible. Rain Parks are my first effort to try to put that idea into practice.
Back to Rain Parks
Rain Parks need to do more than make the ecological world better. In fact, Rain Parks can’t solely focus on the needs of ecosystems.
Back to Rain Parks
Rain Parks need to do more than make the ecological world better. In fact, Rain Parks can’t solely focus on the needs of ecosystems.
map of rain gardens throughout South Orange, NJ. Yellow indicates designed projects. Purple indicates installed projects
They need to primarily be something that makes our lives more engaging, more entertaining and more fulfilling. In South Orange, NJ (where I live), I have been working with homeowners to create rain gardens within their yards.
Design of Backyard with Rain Gardens
Same Yard with Rain Gardens installed, Year One
Same Yard with Rain Garden, Year Two
In the last 2 years, I’ve designed and/or installed about 20 rain gardens in the surrounding areas. Every rain garden is different but all of them use native plants, local materials, local labor and ecological principles to beautify the yards while holding onto rainwater and attracting birds & butterflies to them. This has big positive impacts, but as the area amasses more and more rain gardens, they will, as a network of rain gardens, help stop downstream flooding.
Rain Parks in Columbia, SC
Map of Downtown Columbia, SC. Green Dots indicate locations of Rain Parks for stormwater protection network
In Columbia, the concept was integrated in the urban core of the city as well as proposed for the more suburb area of the Gill Creek Watershed. In Oct 2015, Columbia was hit by a hurricane and huge areas of the city were flooded.
Sunny Day at Rain Park
Rainy Day at Rain Park
Lots of the damage during the Oct 2015 flooding was within the Gill Creek Watershed while other damage happened in the downtown core. The rain parks I proposed looked to embrace the flooding as parks that were dry when it was sunny and not raining. When it did rain, the spaces would flood creating a completely new condition for public engagement.
Map of Devine Rd in Columbia that was damaged during flooding
In the suburb areas of Gill Creek, the rain parks took on an opportunity for landowners and developers to increase the value of their holdings while making the spaces denser.
Map shows concept for rain parks where parking lots currently exist
Image shows how new development could be situated around rain parks
The goal for both the urban core and suburban models were to redefine our relationship to rainwater, create economic engines for growth, attract talent to the areas and turn the liability of stormwater into a value amenity.
Rendering of how new development could look around rain parks, and why it would be called rainfront
I coined the term rainfront for these new areas of development opportunity.
The Presentation
I got lots of love from the attendees of the SCASLA about the talk. I had a great time meeting folks from around the state that work on these issues everyday. Because I got so much positive feedback, I thought it would make sense to post my presentation here so others could see it. It’s a big file, but full of images about all the things in this post. Some of the images aren’t mine, but the majority of them are.
I got lots of love from the attendees of the SCASLA about the talk. I had a great time meeting folks from around the state that work on these issues everyday. Because I got so much positive feedback, I thought it would make sense to post my presentation here so others could see it. It’s a big file, but full of images about all the things in this post. Some of the images aren’t mine, but the majority of them are.
| scasla_prez.pdf |
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