Posts in Media
WJLA-TV: NPS arborist says climate change threatens future of Cherry Trees

Facing the challenges of damage caused by increasing foot traffic from millions of visitors, the growing impacts of the changing climate and daily flooding caused by the rising sea level, the beloved Cherry Trees on the National Mall need our help now more than ever. National Park Service arborists work year-round to care for the trees and ensure they continue to bloom for generations to come.

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WUSA9: Social justice artist plants thousands of flags at National Mall for those who died of COVID

From September 17 to October 3, 2021, more than 670,000 small white flags covered the grounds at the northern base of the Washington Monument, each one representing a life lost to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Trust for the National Mall was honored to play a part in helping artist Suzanne Firstenberg bring this exhibit, called In America: Remember, to fruition, and to showcase the power that temporary public art installations can have.

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New neigh-borhood: National Mall Park Police horses will soon have state-of-the-art home

The horse of the U.S. Park Police Mounted Unit are getting a new home on the National Mall. The Trust for the National Mall is working with the National Park Service to replace the temporary horse stables built in 1976 with a brand new, state-of-the-art facility that also includes an Education Center that will be open to the public.

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The Chesapeake Bay Journal: Rising waters trigger change for DC's Tidal Basin

By Whitney Pipkin, published by The Chesapeake Bay Journal

A visit to the Tidal Basin in the District of Columbia should deliver sweeping views of cherry trees heavy with pink and white blooms this time of year, drawing millions of onlookers to the concrete shorelines annually.

But not this spring. For the second straight year, festival organizers are warning people to stay away, encouraging them to visit virtually. This is not only because of the coronavirus pandemic. The popular gathering spot also faces growing problems with accessibility and safety hazards caused by regular flooding. The water flowing into the basin from the Potomac River rises up and over its sea wall twice daily, at each high tide.

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Apartment Therapy: You Can View Washington D.C.’s Cherry Blossoms Without Leaving Your House

By Arielle Tschinkel, Apartment Therapy, March 8, 2021

If one of your favorite springtime traditions involves a trip to Washington D.C. during peak cherry blossom season, you might be bummed that the coronavirus pandemic has halted your plans for the second year in a row. Thankfully, you don’t have to miss out on a single minute of the gorgeous, pastel-hued blooms: the National Mall is launching a BloomCam, offering up real-time views of the famous spring arrivals that you can view any time and from anywhere in the world.

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Better Homes & Gardens: View the Washington, D.C., Cherry Blossoms at Home with This Free Live Stream

By Andrea Beck and Jennifer Aldrich, Better Homes & Gardens, March 5, 2021

In just a few weeks, thousands of cherry blossoms trees in Washington, D.C., will reach peak bloom, which means that 70% of the Yoshino cherry trees will showcase their beautiful blush blossoms…But if you're not making a trip to the nation's capital this April, you can still see the famous cherry blossoms from your own home, thanks to BloomCam.

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Renowned landscape architects unveil designs to save the Tidal Basin

By Lucy Wang, Inhabitat, November 20, 2020

The National Mall Tidal Basin — also known as “America’s front yard” — is home to some of the nation’s most iconic landmarks such as the Jefferson Memorial, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial and the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial. But the beloved Washington, D.C. public space is under threat from daily flooding and is in urgent need of critical repairs and improvements. In a bid to save the celebrated landscape, five prestigious landscape architecture firms — DLANDstudio, GGN, Hood Design Studio, James Corner Field Operations and Reed Hilderbrand — have been tapped to reimagine the future of the Tidal Basin and National Mall. Keep reading for a preview of all the designs.

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Washington Gardener: Tidal Basin Ideas Lab Launched to Address Landmark's Urgent Needs

By Nicole Noechel, Washington Gardener, November 2020

Over the past 10 years, Washington’s historic Tidal Basin has experienced worsening daily flooding and crumbling infrastructure, according to the Trust for the National Mall’s Executive Vice President, Teresa Durkin…To address these problems, the Trust for the National Mall, along with the National Trust for Historic Preservation and civic partner Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill, have teamed up to create the online Tidal Basin Ideas Lab with five reconstruction plans by world-renowned architects and design firms.

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dezeen: Five proposals to protect Washington DC's Tidal Basin from climate change

By Eleanor Gibson, dezeen

A bridge to the White House and man-made islands are among the conceptual proposals five architecture studios have developed for preserving Washington DC's Tidal Basin reservoir and the National Mall.

DLANDstudio, GGN, James Corner Field Operations, Hood Design Studio and Reed Hilderbrand all created schemes to reimagine the site for Tidal Basin Ideas Lab – organised by National Trust for Historic Preservation, Trust for the National Mall, the National Park Service and architecture firm SOM.

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Designboom: Ideas Lab unveils proposals to save Washington DC's sinking Tidal Basin

By Kat Barandy, designboom

With the ‘Tidal Basin Ideas Lab’ exhibition, a team of designers unveil proposals to reimagine the sinking tidal basin at Washington D.C.’s National Mall. The team includes leading landscape architects DLANDstudio, GGN,Hood Design Studio, James CornerField Operations, and Reed Hilderbrand. the area includes memorials to Thomas Jefferson, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and martin Luther king jr. as nearly 1.5 million people walk along the basin’s rim during the annual cherry blossom festival each spring, the increased car and foot traffic have driven parts of the tidal basin area underwater while the walkways flood daily.

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Architectural Digest: See How D.C.’s Iconic Tidal Basin Is Being Reimagined by Five Design Teams

By Elizabeth Fazzare, Architectural Digest

Home to some of the nation’s most iconic monuments, Washington, D.C.’s Tidal Basin—the man-made reservoir adjacent to the National Mall—currently suffers from crumbling seawall infrastructure and twice-daily flooding. Today the National Trust for Historic Preservation; the Trust for the National Mall; the National Park Service; Skidmore, Owings & Merrill; and American Express unveiled the Tidal Basin Ideas Lab to address these issues through design.

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At a Distance: Walter Hood on Rethinking Monuments and Memorials in the 21st Century

At a Distance, Episode 85, October 22, 2020

Walter Hood, founder and creative director of Hood Design Studio and co-author of the forthcoming book “Black Landscapes Matter,” talks with us about how his new proposal for Washington, D.C.’s National Mall Tidal Basin could facilitate unity, why spaces that elicit discomfort are a step toward reconciliation, and the importance of investing in people and places that society takes for granted.

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Architect Magazine: Tidal Basin Ideas Lab Unveils Five Proposals for the Historic D.C. Site

By Madeleine D’Angelo, Architect Magazine, October 21, 2020

The Tidal Basin on the National Mall is home to some of Washington D.C.'s iconic monuments—including the Thomas Jefferson Memorial, the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, and the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial—as well as 3,000 famed cherry trees. But a crumbling sea wall and daily flooding—which will only become worse with sea-level rise due to climate change—have left the area in desperate need of both repair and future-proofing. Aiming to find design solutions for the 107-acre site, the National Trust for Historic Preservation partnered with the Trust for the National Mall, the National Park Service, and civic partners Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and American Express, to launch the Tidal Basin Ideas Lab Exhibition.

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The Architect's Newspaper: An online exhibition explores how the National Mall Tidal Basin can be shielded from climate change

By Matt Hickman, The Architect’s Newspaper

The Tidal Basin Ideas Lab, a project initiated by a collaboration of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Trust for the National Mall, National Park Service, and civic partner Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), has unveiled a new online exhibition that envisions how the National Mall Tidal Basin in Washington, D.C., can evolve, adapt, and thrive while buttressing itself for a future increasingly vulnerable to the impacts of a changing climate.

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