
May 15, 1998

WACA Awards: Special Applications -- Artistic

Journal staff

A flood control/detention pond bested three other entries (Carkeek Park playground, a private Seattle residence and "The Wall") in the Artistic category. While a detention pond doesn't sound like it could be artistic, the Meadowbrook project has many surprises.

Meadowbrook project

A unique project at Meadowbrook won the Special Applications -- Artistic category.

The nine-acre Meadowbrook project in Northeast Seattle includes an art park with sculptural earthworks and art installations in several styles, scales, techniques and materials -- including several types of concrete, which was selected for its durability and economy.

The Meadowbrook project has five major elements: the tufa cliff wall; the sound reflector wall; sediment walls and benches; mosaic and inlay pavement; and a flood pool and chute.

The tufa cliff wall is 80 feet long and up to 15 feet tall. It has permanent earth-cement facings on reinforced earth walls that form the "Reflective Refuge" room, overlook railing and benches. The "tufa" was created with peat moss, sand, granite grit, oyster shells and Portland cement. The mixture was hand-placed and molded, then stacked and whipped with willow/evergreen boughs for texture. Peat pots placed into the reinforcing mesh provide planting pockets in the wall for native cliff-dwelling ferns.

The sound reflector wall is a 9-ton precast concrete sculpture measuring 15 feet high, 18 feet wide and 8 inches thick. The wall acts as an instrument, catching and focusing the site's natural sounds of water, wind, wildlife and rain. That is accomplished with sound focus points located eight feet in front of the wall and marked by a large stone. From that point, sound "mirages" trick the listener into believing the sound is emanating from behind the wall instead of from its true origin. If the listener moves away from the focus point, the sound disappears.

The sediment walls and benches provide enclosure and seating at the main entrance and within the reflective refuge room. They were finished in integral colors that required several individual pours followed by hand sacking and sandblasting.

Pedestrian paths flowing through the site are made of textured and detailed poured-in-place concrete mosaic and inlay pavement. Each 3-inch pavement inlay was installed on top of a 4-inch concrete slab. The inlays required several pours with varying amounts of integral black color, hand-tooled joints and hand-seeded exposed aggregates of different color mixes and sizes.

The flood pool is a sculpted six-step elliptical helix water feature of poured-in-place concrete. When flooded, the pool's helical ramp moves water along each level's gutter down to a central sump drain. Each level was made of integral concrete with black color added to step the mixture from darkest at the bottom to lightest at the top. The flood chute is a basalt-lined channel that leads into the detention pond and allows flood waters to enter the pool.

The runners up in the Artistic category were Carkeek Park playground and The Wall.

Project teams

Private Seattle residence: Shannon & Wilson Inc., structural engineer; Hendrikus Schraven, general contractor and architect; Hendrikus Schraven and Jolly Miller Construction, concrete contractors; and Stoneway Concrete, concrete supplier.

Carkeek Park playground: Seattle Parks Department, owner/developer and structural engineer; Universal Design Constructors, general contractor; Tom Jay, concrete contractor/artist; Barker Landscape Architects, architect; Jolly Miller Construction, concrete contractor; and Salmon Bay, concrete supplier.

The Wall: Natural Creations in Rock and Water, owner/developer; and Lone Star Northwest, concrete supplier.

Meadowbrook Pond Reflective Refuge: City of Seattle, owner/developer; Parsons Brinkerhoff Quade Douglas Inc., structural engineer; Wilder Construction, general contractor; Jolly Miller Construction and Phoenix on the Rise, concrete contractors; Gaynor Landscape Architects, Kate Wade and Archetype, architects and artists; and Salmon Bay, Cadman Inc., Lone Star Northwest and Stoneway Concrete, concrete suppliers.