A hiker comes around a bend on Wissahickon Yellow Trail
and they witness a breach in the adjacent hillside. Strands of
bright green grass seep onto the path, offering an alternative
route to the expected dirt trailways of the Wissahickon.
An alee of low-canopy Musclewood creates shade and compression, tunneling visitors into an amphitheater of site-origin reclaimed brick and concrete rubble and circling grass paths.
In the Lot Garden, detritus becomes topography, grass becomes trail, and trees become frames through which visitors can observe the Wissahickon for its ecologies, contexts, and eccentricities. In creating a simultaneously more manicured and more chaotic landscape, space for comfort, gathering, and wandering is tailor-made for the weirdos who happen to find it.
Here is the Lot Garden, a new landscape that posits: What if the material expectations of the Wissahickon were disrupted?
Wissahickon Park, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Long section details the changing qualities and planting design of each area.
Site plan, with watercolor background and planting collages.A dreamlike haven, dubbed “The Lot” is created at the end of the transformed desire path.The parti diagram describes the transformation of rubble into topography.Process model.The approach to the high point is gradual as rubble - in this case, styrofoam - accumulates.