The Competition
The three-stage competition process includes (1) portfolio evaluations to select up to eight potential lead designers for each site, (2) team interviews to select up to five potential design teams for each site, and (3) a design competition to select a design for each site.
the Ideas
Washington Monument Grounds at Sylvan Theater
Balmori Associates & Work Architecture Company
Washington Monument Grounds at Sylvan Theater
Michael Maltzan Architecture & Tom Leader Studio
From the Daily Mail:
It is steeped in history and the place where Washington's power games are played out. But of late it has been looking a bit neglected.
Now the designs that are in the running to be chosen as the new look for the National Mall in Washington have been released.
They have emerged as finalists in a design competition conducted by the nonprofit Trust for the National Mall to overhaul neglected sites on the landmark.
This design by Nelson Byrd Woltz and Paul Murdoch Architects, shows a proposed new look for Constitution Gardens, one of three overused and neglected areas of the National Mall in Washington
Designers and architects have been dreaming big for the chance to improve America's 'front yard.' One vision calls for a garden 'museum without walls' in a place called Constitution Gardens.
Another would 'peel up' the landscape of the Washington Monument to reveal a large structure below ground with a theater and visitor amenities.
Since last September, architects and designers have been competing for the chance to make over areas near the Capitol, Washington Monument and Constitution Gardens, which was once imagined as a pastoral park near the Lincoln Memorial but has since been left as a fetid pool with crumbling edges, surrounded by broken sidewalks.
Each of the designs would bring major changes, adding amenities including food options and restrooms.
Diller Scofidio Renfro and Hood Design's proposed new look for Union Square has also been put on show
The Diller Scofidio Renfro and Hood Design team also entered this design for the National Washington Monument grounds at Sylvan Theater
The nonprofit National Mall group aims to raise $350 million from donors and corporations to help restore the mall, beginning with one of these sites. Former first lady Laura Bush joined the fundraising effort last year, and the group committed $875,000 to the design competition.
After sifting through entries from 32 teams, a jury picked four finalists for each of the three sites.
Organisers are seeking public comment to help select a winner for each site in May. The group aims to build one of the designs, overhauling either Constitution Gardens or the Washington Monument grounds by 2016.
Union Square, which includes the Capitol Reflecting Pool and a memorial to Ulysses S. Grant, had been envisioned as a space that could host demonstrations or protests, but Congress placed it under control of the Architect of the Capitol and Capitol Police instead.
Still, the design competition will choose a winning design to pass along to congressional overseers of the site. One option calls for a new reflecting pool that would be a piece of art in itself. Ripples would emanate across the pool from the House and Senate sides of Congress.
On the other side, a visitor could speak through a microphone to send ripples back toward their lawmakers as a symbol of public discourse.
For the Constitution Gardens site, the design possibilities offer significant improvements. The park with a lake framed by trees was dedicated in 1976, and a memorial was added a few years later honoring the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence on a small island.
The park was slated to have a restaurant as well, but funds ran out. In the past 30 years, its memorial has been mostly forgotten, and the grounds grew shabby.
Designers have proposed glass pavilions or buildings growing out of earthen berms, as well as performance spaces and cafes. They would open up views to the nearby Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial and link the park to one of Washington's main boulevards nearby, Constitution Avenue, to connect with its urban setting.
Proposals in the competition are varied. One from New York-based landscape architect Diana Balmori calls for reshaping the landscape as a grassy bowl around an outdoor theater and adding a building with a garden roof to produce food for a restaurant below.
Another design by New York-based Diller Scofidio Renfro and Hood Design, the landscape would be 'peeled up' on one edge to serve as an outdoor theater and reveal a new underground structure.
'The whole intent is that the mall continues to be an evolving place,' Stastny said. 'The improvements at this point will carry us into the next evolution - I think that's what a lot of the designers are feeling.'
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2127218/Designs-running-new-grand-plan-Americas-yard-released.html#ixzz1rvUZBKkH
Baker is on the Constitution Gardens Andropogon & Bohlin Cywinski Jackson for preservation and civil services! Please do go to the link for the competition website and at the bottom of our team's entry on the site. http://www.nationalmall.org/design-competition/photo-gallery/cg-andropogon-bcj
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