Bartonwood Natural Area - Ecological Systems Studio

Seattle, WA

Spring 2017, Year 1

Professors: Ken Yocom, Sara Jacobs

Duration: 4 weeks

Thornton Creek

Watershed Bartonwood Natural Area

Situated at the low point of the surrounding neighborhood basin, and the headwaters of Thornton Creek’s South fork, Bartonwood Natural Area offers a unique opportunity for an influential hydrological intervention. The site is an “ecological island” in the auto-centric but growing Northgate neighborhood, which seeks to cultivate a healthier, more ped/bike friendly community with more recreational public spaces. In dramatizing the site’s undulating topography, this design seeks to accomodate stormwater flows, including during extreme storm events, and create a multi-level wetland system that is shaped by the idea of seasonal fluctuation and much longer term fluctuation and succession.

Topographic and hydrologic modifications are intended to recreate a precipiation-dominated wetland continuum based on the survival of a beat bog on site that pre-dates Euro-American settlement. Integrated with a stormwater wetland system to improve natural wetland quality, some areas are periodically inundated, and others permanently depending on precipitation.

CARVE [topography]

cut areas fill areas +

CAPTURE [stormwater]

filter strips at water entry point constructed wetland: infiltration + groundwater recharge retention pond filter strips at water entry point

REVEAL [circulation]

elevated boardwalk connecting dry meadow zones elevated walkway in wet meadow zones bridges over vernal pools floating platforms within wetlands pathways between wetland platforms