ARTICULATING CARE AND ARTFUL JOY GRASSLANDS PARK TRAILS

Concept sketches of grasslands punctured by corrugated metal planes; Plan fragment of trails and pavilion in grasslands area.

One challenge with native ecologies in public space is the perception by uneducated visitors that the land has been neglected and that the plant life are undesirable weeds as a result of improper maintenance. The inspiration for the grasslands was the idea of providing a new context for visitor perceptions: If you placed weeds in a flower vase, they would appear to be a cultivated beautiful aesthetic due to the change in context. In the park, this context shift is provided by angular shifting metal planes that slice though the grasslands to define articulated paths.

INTENSIFYING K-12 EXPERIENCES EDUCATIONAL NARRATIVE JOURNEYS

The site is currently heavily used by K-12 school groups with limited time to spend at the site. For this reason, many ecological exhibits are clustered in a hub on the north side.

CANE BRAKE PLAZA introducing lost ecologies

WETLAND WEIRS making the invisible visible

CANOPY TREEHOUSE finding fellowship with treetops

WILD + CALM PLAY engaging all ages and abilities

Unfolding set of pavilions and park structures to keep a dynamic but unifying theme across exhibits.

WORKSHOP home base for budding scientists

BOAT HOUSE launch point for aquatic sports

Teaching Terraces

guiding Memphis in new practices

GRAVEL SANDBAR sinking into wildlife of lake edge

Transition From Urban To Wild Cane Brake Plaza

This is the moment visitors enter the northern edge of the park. The plaza is punctured by mounds of native cane, introducing visitors to a species that once dominated the Mississippi River tributaries but now exists in rare patches. The cane and paving form a figure ground relationship to create a transition from the urban to the wild: The paving is broken by cane patches until the relationship and proportion shifts to where the cane brake is dominant with meandering swarths of paving. The walls change from controlling the cane to being scattered into the cane. The plaza connects to the wetland weirs and to play zones to the south.

0"-6"WATER DEPTH -WETMEADOW

6"-18" WATER DEPTH - SHALLOWMARSH

18"-36": WATER DEPTH - DEEP MARSH

18"-36": WATER DEPTH DEEPAQUATICBED

Learning Beyond Signage

Wetland Weirs

Small changes in water depth have large impacts on plant specifics that will colonize the area. The invisible gradient of water depths is punctured by colorful weirs that label each aquatic zone in one area of the wetland:

WET MEADOW > 6" deep

SHALLOW MARSH = 6"-18" deep

DEEP MARSH = 18"-36" deep

DEEP AQUATIC BED < 36" deep

This physical demarcation allows visitors to comprehend the changes of vegation and identify the different eco-types. The weirs and boardwalk begin as gentle forms in the wet meadow, only to become more turbulent and forceful upon reaching the deep aquatic bed.