2007 VA ASLA Awards

Award of Excellence - Smithsonian Institution National Museum of the American Indian

 

Award of Excellence 

Project: Smithsonian Institution National Museum of the American Idian
Landscape architect:  EDAW, Inc.
Architect: Smith Group
Client: Smithsonian Institution
Contractor: Clark Construction
Landscape contractor: ValleyCrest

Native American Core design team members:

Donna House (entho-botanist)
John Paul Jones, AIA (Native American architect)
Ramona Sakistewa (artist water feature & wetlands mechanical engineering)
Waterline Studios (water feature design)
Ilze Jones, AIA, FASLA (contributions to hardscape design)

The site and landscape design for the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) is intended to showcase the cultural significance of "site" in Native American cultures. The visitor's museum experience begins as he or she steps off the curb and into the property, welcomed by Grandfather Rocks, waterfalls, and communities of native plants. The scheme is designed to take the visitor away from the rigid formality of the National Mall, and create a sense of welcome and engagement along winding pathways beside the sounds and textures of shallow slow moving streams. The entire site is constructed to reveal and celebrate local native habitats of pre-Western contact, to involve the visitor in the sights, smells and waters particular to the confluence of the Potomac and Anacostia Rivers; and to put the visitor in mind of the contemporary presence of another culture and its antecedent environment.

The landscape architect was responsible for working with the core Native American designers (an ethno-botanist, an architect, and an artist) to translate and create design ideas to make the site an integral element of the museum experience. The landscape architect developed and illustrated the site design, presented them to the client (Museum and the Smithsonian Institution) and reviewing agencies (Commission of Fine Arts and the National Capital Planning Commission), executed construction documents and construction observation. The landscape architect's work included site design, tree preservation, grading, site irrigation, plant research and sourcing, paving and wall design, boulder selection and placement, wetland and water feature design and planting and soil design for multiple plant/soil regimes.  We worked with a water feature mechanical engineer to develop storm water storage in support of the wetland, mechanical system to control wetland water elevations and the mechanical system for the water features.  We also worked closely with the architectural team to design paving and site elements to flow seamlessly from building exterior to building interior.

The project demonstrates the value of site design to cultural resource and museum facility objectives on a national stage. The design demonstrates the use of local stone and building materials, and of plant materials native to the mid-Atlantic region in pre-colonial times across the variety of habitats of the region (xeric, mesic upland forest, eastern meadow, and wetland) to educate the public about ecology, environmental change, cultural relationships with the land, and the vibrancy of contemporary Native American cultures and societies.