Grand Junction Plaza Featured in Fast Company!
Climate Crisis Resiliency, Stormwater Management, and Riparian Corridor Reparation Meets Social Overlay
Grand Junction Plaza is featured in Fast Company this month! Diving into the consequences of the Swamp Land Act of 1850, the article focuses on the reparative nature of the park’s responsive design. Located in Westfield, Indiana, this park overlays strategic infrastructure with communal amenity to create a socially-purposeful, environmentally-resilient, and inclusive landscape.
Two weeks following Land Collective’s selection to design the city’s new 7.8-acre downtown park, a 500-year storm event flooded the burgeoning hamlet. What was to be a civic park for citizens to gather, suddenly required a stormwater infrastructure solution. In response to the challenge, Land Collective curated a collaboration which includes architecture firm, HWKN, Bruce Mau Design, RATIO Design, FlatLand Resources, and VS Engineering. To resolve the threat of flooding, Cool Creek, which bifurcates the park site in downtown Westfield, required stabilization and repair of its channelized profile. Today, the creek is once again a feature of the City as it once was celebrated in documents pre-1850, which described a town where citizens could engage with the creeks, streams, and each other in a verdant setting. Incredible photographs taken by Alan Karchmer capture the results as citizens once again identify with their landscape setting.
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Victory Heights at University of Pittsburgh Moves Forward
In other great news, Victory Heights was approved by the University of Pittsburgh’s Property and Facilities Committee, with groundbreaking tentatively scheduled for 2023. The landscape for this cutting-edge athletic performance center and arena will be seamlessly integrated into the topographically challenging Hillside Campus reflecting Land Collective’s SCUP Award winning Hillside Framework Plan, stitching together individual capital projects for a unified campus vision. Along with Victory Heights, Land Collective has been collaborating on the Recreation & Wellness Center and the Hillside Quadrangle itself, the interstitial space connecting UPitt’s capital improvement projects to create a comprehensive whole.