Lake Merritt, downtown Oakland
Ene and I are honored to be among the finalists under consideration to design a system of watershed markers for the City of Oakland, CA. We spent the morning meeting with stakeholders at the head of Lake Merritt, where several creeks converge and drain into the natural lake/estuary.
The group studied maps of the watershed, focusing on creeks that are now covered by roads and flow through culverts, draining rain water through storm grates on major thoroughfares. The goal of the project is to draw attention to these vital waterways in a way that is accessible but unimposing to pedestrian traffic, with a long range view towards increasing awareness by making a visual icon that is at once replicable and lasting.
This is potentially a dream project for us and a great opportunity to distill some precepts we’ve developed regarding what defines a bio-region, whose scale is determined by the confluence of the natural and cultural activities defining/defined by the watershed. We are excited to prepare for our interview with the selection panel next week!
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