Suckahanna Rain Garden, 2004
Suckahanna Rain Garden was a site specific installation at Powhatan Springs Park in Arlington, Virginia. The park was composed of three major elements; an in-ground skatepark, a soccer field and an interactive nature area. For this project, I worked in collaboration with design firm Oculus, the Kerns Group Architects, the Christopher Consultants Engineering Firm and skate park design firm Purkiss Rose. The central theme of the nature area was a rain garden with educational and recreational elements. One element featured integrated filtration of ground and runoff water from the paved areas of the park (skate area, parking lot, walkways, and rooftops) via sand and clay in the rainwater garden, and storage of the water inside an underground cistern. The cistern was connected to a water flume, allowing children to pump it out and into the wetlands of the garden, inventing games that affect water flow. Other elements included hopscotch stepping stones scattered throughout the wetland plantings, a raindrop system with water basins that provided for the collection of droplets or the making of sand formations, and water vessels that caught storm water runoff from pavilion roofs. The floor of the play area was sandy at the edges with soil and wetlands at the center. Commissioned by the Department of Park, Recreation and Cultural Resources, Cultural Affairs Division.
Skate park overall dimensions: 150’ x 90’
Garden overall dimensions: 56’ D
Storm drain overall: 340’L
The slanted roof design of the skate park shelters helped channel the water to flow into the water flumes. The rain garden was just beyond this area of the park.
Rain garden viewed from the path, image shows the pipes which drain water from the roof of the skate park into the garden, as well as two of the vessels.
Red water pump with the wetland garden it feeds at center
A child playing with the rain garden water pump. Photograph courtesy of Arlingtonva.gov. The red pump was attached to an underground cistern, where runoff water from the park was stored and could be pumped out as desired.
Concrete water basin stepping stones, 3' diameter
One of the rain flumes at the edge of the rain garden.
Another flume underneath part of the pavilion roof
View from the skatepark promenade
Water vessel detail
Stamped impressions of leaves and stones decorated the water channels that ran through the park
Another channel directing stormwater from the pavilion roof into the rainwater garden
Leaf impressions in the parking lot channel