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 impervious landscape

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