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.

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.

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.

By Elliot C. Williams, DCist

On Wednesday, a combination of non-profit organizations, companies, and design teams launched the Tidal Basin Ideas Lab, an online exhibit that presents new plans for building a more sustainable Tidal Basin.

Originally intended to be an in-person exhibit, the project was shifted completely online, where visitors can submit feedback and ideas for the Tidal Basin’s future.

By Mimi Montgomery, Washingtonian

Could there one day be a land bridge extending from the Jefferson Memorial through the Tidal Basin?

Perhaps, at least according to the Tidal Basin Ideas Lab, which released renderings from five architects that depict possible renovations of the historic area. The Ideas Lab aims to address the Tidal Basin’s flooding and deteriorating infrastructure by bringing design and sustainability leaders together to collaborate on solutions.

By Deane Madsen, published by Architectural Record

The saying goes that a rising tide lifts all boats, but what happens to national monuments, environmental landmarks, and other fixed elements of landscape when the waters rise and refuse to recede? That question is at the crux of the Tidal Basin Ideas Lab, which showcases the work of five firms, commissioned by the National Park Service, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and Trust for the National Mall.left unaddressed, rising waters could inundate the trunks of those cherry trees along with monuments to figures such as Martin Luther King Jr., Thomas Jefferson, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt in several feet of water every day during the river’s twice-daily high tides.

By Nate Berg, published by Fast Company

The roots of Washington, D.C.’s iconic cherry trees are rotting. At the National Mall Tidal Basin, where cherry trees line the water’s edge amid some of the country’s most famous monuments, sea-level rise and riverine flooding threaten not just tree roots but a landscape inextricably tied to the history of the United States. If the situation is left unaddressed, rising waters could inundate the trunks of those cherry trees along with monuments to figures such as Martin Luther King Jr., Thomas Jefferson, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt in several feet of water every day during the river’s twice-daily high tides.

By Elizabeth Blair, NPR,

Five landscape architects unveiled proposals Wednesday to save the sinking Tidal Basin on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The plans run the gamut from a conservative approach to radical re-imaginings.