Page 45 - Winter_2020

Project: 7th Street Park and Recreation Pier
7th & Wharf streets, SW, Washington, DC

Architects (District Wharf Master Planners): Perkins Eastman, PLLC
Landscape Architects: Michael Vergason Landscape Architects, Ltd.
Lighting Designers: C.M. Kling + Associates, Inc.
Structural Engineers (7th Street Park): The SK&A Group
Marine Engineers: Moffat & Nichol
Sustainable Design Advisors: Heller and Metzger, PC
Irrigation Consultants (7th Street Park): Lynch & Associates, Ltd.
Swings & Railings: Gutierrez Studios
Water Features: Fluidity Design Consultants LLC; Kusser FountainWorks
Fire Sculpture: Fire Features, A Division of Colombo Construction Corporation
Floating Wetlands: Biohabitats, Inc.
General Contractors: Clark Construction Group, LLC (7th Street Park);
Cianbro Corporation, Inc. (Recreation Pier)
Detail of the 7th Street Park. Photo © NicLehoux

Floating islands with aquatic plants. Photo © Michael Vergason
Landscape Architects, Ltd.

MVLA’s commission was for two adjacent areas:
a small park between two of the buildings and a
“recreation pier” extending from the park into the
Washington Channel. The pier, unique among a
dozen piers at the Wharf, includes no boat docking or
berths—it is intended for the leisurely recreation of
pedestrians. This meant that it was not subject to the
rather stringent requirements for docks. “There was
still a lot of regulatory oversight,” said Vergason,
“but we had a lot more freedom than the other
pier designers.”
Various leitmotifs (compositional elements that
recur throughout the project) were explored, but early
in the design process, the landscape architects hit upon
the idea of a rolling wave. Although the Washington
Channel, as a man-made harbor, is designed to have
calm waters, the idea fit with the Wharf’s overarching
goal to reconnect DC with its waterfront. The “fluid and
supple” (Vergason’s description) character of the wave
provided contrast to the rectilinear geometries of the
development’s major buildings and the other piers.
The park portion was conceived as a somewhat
traditional residential park, such as one might find
in 19th-century areas of cities in Europe and the U.S.
East Coast, but updated with the rolling wave motif. It
has curving walkways irregularly carving through a

Photo © PN Hoffman ROLLIN’ ON THE RIVER 43