Riffles and pools replace the dam and canal walls at Mill River Park and Greenway. Image © OLIN

The Rippowam River, a name given to the meandering waterway by the native Algonquin peoples who once inhabited its banks, has been the backbone of the Stamford community for centuries. The river stretches 17 miles inland from portions of Connecticut and New York State through the West Branch of Stamford Harbor and into Long Island Sound. The lower nine miles of the Rippowam courses through the center of what is now Downtown Stamford and was coined Mill River in 1642, when the area’s first Puritan settlers dammed the river to create the town’s original gristmill, and the lowland area upriver of the dam became known as Mill Pond. Ever since, Mill River has been the focus of intense industry and the key to economic prosperity for the area.

Postcard depicting Mill River Dam circa 1900. Image courtesy of the Mill River Collaborative

Stamford has evolved dramatically over time, from its early stages as a Puritan outpost, to an industrial mill and manufacturing center, to what is now a home base for major corporations. But as with many urban landscapes, Mill River’s natural systems have suffered the ill effects of industrial and economic progress.

Plan of Mill River circa 1870. Image courtesy of the Mill River Collaborative

By the turn of the 19th century, the dam had been used as a carding mill, rolling mill, a foundry, and a woolen mill. In 1922, in an effort to protect its people and infrastructure from flood risk, the City of Stamford rebuilt the dam and narrowed the pond by constructing 15-foot high canal walls on the eastern and western sides of the impoundment.  In 1929, city planner Herbert Swan proposed his Plan of a Metropolitan Suburb, proposing an “Olmstedian” vision for Stamford. The plan focused on creating open space along waterways and preserving the unique character of Stamford’s picturesque natural systems that Swan contended were “unexcelled anywhere in the New York metropolitan area.’” He wrote, “In developing its plan, [Stamford] should accentuate those things which it has received either through inheritance or through nature that differentiate it from other communities…the points of difference in the plan are its points of excellence; it is these which, if properly understood and sympathetically employed…afford the strength and interesting originality to a plan and give the city individuality and character.”

Herbert Swan’s Comprehensive Plan for Stamford. Image source: “Plan of a Metropolitan Suburb” by Herbert Swan

One of Swan’s recommendations was for a Rippowam River Park, “through which flow tiny rivulets, and serves as refuge for birds and lesser animal life.’” Throughout the 20th century, the area around the channelized Mill Pond existed as a network of underutilized lawn areas, paths and benches. One major improvement came in 1957, when Junzo Nojima, a Japanese immigrant, planted a grove of 100 cherry trees in the park. This intervention became a central focal point of the park, beloved by Stamford residents. But unfortunately the park’s other dominant feature—the river—stood out as a barrier and eyesore, with the imposing concrete walls both inhibiting pedestrian access to the water and compromising the river’s natural ecological systems of flow and drainage.

Invasive species and debris stifled Mill River prior to restoration. Image courtesy of the Mill River Collaborative

To make matters worse, it had become apparent over the years that the channelization of the river, a measure intended to prevent flooding, actually impeded Mill River’s natural defenses against floods. Silt buildup along the dam and impervious canal walls prevented stormwater infiltration, regularly forcing floodwaters over the walls and into surrounding neighborhoods. For decades, excessive amounts of silt, branches, trash, and other debris—everything from soda cans to street signs to cars—collected in Mill Pond, creating a network of unsightly and stagnant pools of brown muck choked with invasive aquatic plants and blooming algae.

The state of Mill River prior to the demolition of dam and canal walls. Image courtesy of the Mill River Collaborative

In 1997, as the dam and canal walls were falling further into disrepair, the City of Stamford began to study strategies to improve water and habitat quality in the river, and at the same time reconnect the residents of Stamford to the river and foster urban redevelopment in downtown. In 2000, The Army Corps of Engineers developed a proposal to naturalize the river corridor and remove all obstructions and impoundments from the waterway, allowing Mill River to flow freely for the first time since the 17th century.

Demolition of Mill River Dam. Image courtesy of the Mill River Collaborative

The demolition and restoration would reverse the effects of the river’s degraded ecological systems and reinstitute wildlife migration patterns—including the passage of anadromous fish (saltwater species that spawn in fresh water)—upriver.  Additionally, the restoration would reduce sedimentation into Mill River and beyond. In 2002, a joint effort between then Mayor of Stamford Daniel Malloy, the Stamford Partnership, and the Trust for Public Land led to the founding of the Mill River Collaborative, a partnership of civic, government, and business interests dedicated to realizing a world-class park along Mill River’s banks.

View from the Broad Street Bridge looking south before, during, and after restoration. Image © OLIN

In 2005, Stamford and the Mill River Collaborative engaged OLIN to create—in collaboration with the Army Corps of Engineers—a plan to restore the meandering river and craft a vision for the park in the same spirit of the plan that Swan proposed more than 75 years before. The plan aimed to achieve three primary goals: create a park that meets the recreational and civic needs of a diverse population, provide a natural habitat for native flora and fauna to flourish, and offer a vision that is economically viable, maintainable, and implementable in phases over time.

View of Mill River Park and Greenway looking north toward Broad Street. Image © Carly Berger

OLIN led a team of ecologists and civil engineers, collaborating with experts and engaging the public outreach sessions. Out of the process, a comprehensive and ambitious framework for a park and greenway emerged. The end result: a dynamic park that is viable, active and alluring, a continuous, programmed edge along the banks of Mill River, and a “green zipper” that brings together neighboring communities with downtown Stamford.

Mill River Park and Greenway master plan. Image © OLIN

The first phase of the park, which opened at the beginning of May, is the cornerstone for the entire park and greenway. It incorporates a naturalized river way, utilizing riffles, pools, and other stream restoration techniques which allow the river to flow naturally and direct flood waters downstream. This phase also provides areas for active and passive recreation, including the Grand Steps, a series of plinths and boulders which invite users to engage with the river’s edge.

Residents are reunited with their waterfront at the Mill River Park and Greenway Grand Opening. Image © OLIN

Another key feature, the Great Lawn, is an expansive green carpet that provides flexible open space for large events and a setting for waterfront entertainment. Thoughtfully placed benches and seating areas along pathways and overlooks encourage moments of contemplation and rest throughout the site. Paving materials were selected for their ability to withstand flooding events. Historic stone walls are maintained, and indigenous stone boulders were unearthed from a nearby construction and incorporated into the project as a celebration of local history and regional geology. A native planting palette is employed across the park—a further expression of regionalism—allowing for educational experiences for residents and visitors. Wildflower blooms and The Cherry Blossom Festival, the largest in New England, provide ephemeral experiences for park users in all seasons. Other programmatic functions, including movies, concerts, and fairs, are scheduled throughout the year by the Mill River Collaborative.

“Spielberg in the Park” drew hundreds of visitors to Grand Opening weekend. Image © OLIN

OLIN’s work, however, is far from complete. The studio is currently involved in several new phases of the park, including the rehabilitation and beautification of Tresser Bridge and key streetscape improvements along the Tresser corridor. Additionally, OLIN is working on the extension of the Park and Greenway southward to the Stamford Harbor. Future phases include a carousel pavilion and covered porch designed by Gray Organschi Architecture, a dynamic fountain, ice skating rink, and restroom pavilion designed by River Architects, and whimsical playground restrooms by Rogers Marvel Architects.

View over Stamford Harbor to Mill River Park and Greenway beyond. Image © OLIN

As Mill River Park and Greenway continues to evolve, the commitment and vision by private and public partnerships is firmly in place. Each phase brought to life from the pages of the master plan will weave together the Stamford community, creating a distinctive public realm. The park and greenway will be a place like no other in the region, one that showcases local flora and fauna, restores natural ecological systems, fosters new urban redevelopment, and celebrates community through diverse programming and daily enjoyment. And of course, as with Mill River’s own storied past, this park will surely continue to evolve for generations to come.

This video, produced by GreenTreks Network, truly captures the spirit and energy of the InFill Philadelphia – Soak It Up! design competition. Congrats again to all of the participants and winners, whose collective expertise, creativity and innovation continue to fuel progress toward a more sustainable Philadelphia.

OLIN and TCLF are also offering the chance to put your eye for cultural landscapes to the test during What’s Out There Weekend with the  Instagram™ Challenge. One grand prize winner will win an OLIN monograph and two general admission tickets to the Barnes Foundation! Here’s how it works:

We’ll tally up the correct answers and post photos from each tour’s winner on our blog. The winners of each tour will then be placed into a random drawing from which the grand prize winner will be selected.

Disclaimer: The Instagram™ Challenge uses the Instagram API and is not endorsed or certified by Instagram or Instagram, Inc. All Instagram logos and trademarks displayed are property of Instagram, Inc.

Rendering for Wishard Hospital in Indianapolis, created using Rhino, Blender, Photoshop and hand drawing

Laurie Olin is a good example of someone who is skilled at a lot of things, especially as an artful draftsman. Decades and countless hours of sketching, rendering, and documenting have refined his ability to communicate through drawing in an accurate yet lyrical way. He sits confidently in front of anyone, designers and clients alike, and draws beautifully. While landscape is his gift and trade, drawing is his specialty and his platform for communicating his vision. It is a great example of the benefits of focusing on a particular skill.

Hand sketch by Laurie Olin of the fountain at the J. Paul Getty Center

Landscape architecture is, by definition, a generalist’s profession. Landscape architects must know a multitude of things: construction codes, human behavior, soils, plant species, sustainability, history, the arts, and so on. But throughout their process, they must still ultimately convey ideas in a visual way, whether it is through a sketch, a rendering, a model, a diagram, CAD, photography or graphic design. They must have some way to impart their ideas. And until recently, they could conceivably learn to decently communicate in all of these ways. The tools, though, are getting more and more complex and varied. Designers have very nearly reached a point where they must decide what tools they will spend their time on, and what their signature way of communicating will be.

Rendering depicting part of OLIN’s design proposal for the Living City Design Competition, created using Sketchup, Photoshop and Illustrator

While I am not a landscape architect by training, I work closely within the profession as a visualizer, creating 3D models, renderings, animations, and even documentation. Because of constraints on my time and demands for my services, I have made a conscious decision to focus on specific tools to refine my skills. While I still need to be a generalist with a number of tools, I have focused on a select set of tools are my primary means of communication. This requires some calculation, a bit of introspection, and most importantly, laziness. Laziness is critical. If you want to get better at being faster, you have to stay lazy. Any programmer will tell you that the brevity of one line of code is better than five lines if it does the same thing. But brevity in any medium is impossible if you are always learning a new language. Working in a limited tool palette allows you to really refine your moves, your technique, your style.

Rendering of a custom-designed bench to be installed at Philadelphia’s Dilworth Plaza, created using Grasshopper and Rhino

My training is in art. One of the things you learn quickly in art school and elsewhere is that you can’t be really good at everything. I have moved slowly, carefully from a focus on fairly traditional approaches like sculpture, painting, and printmaking to newer approaches like parametric modeling, animation, and scripting, using tools like Grasshopper, Photoshop, 3D Studio Max, and scripting. It has been a long, incremental change. But all along I have had the sensibility of drawing, which I learned first, to guide my understanding of every other medium that I’ve tackled. And I have made deliberate decisions to learn specific tools. The balance between practicing the familiar and exploring new territory is a tricky one. If one goes too far in either direction, they risk the danger of being too specialized or too general. Just like Laurie Olin, you have to know when to be laser-focused and when to try something new.

To learn more about the grand opening’s events or to join the celebration in Stamford, visit the Collaborative’s website at www.millriverpark.com.  OLIN will also be hosting a live Twitter stream of Thursday’s opening ceremony and reception—tune in by following us at @theOLINstudio or searching the hashtag #millriverpark.

Friends of the Rail Park board members Aaron Goldblatt and Leah Murphy gave a compelling presentation about the history and relevance of the place, using a framework of defining and responding to opportunities within very real constraints. The issues that the Rail Park faces toward its realization are complex and political, including diverse land ownership and design agendas, unknowns about funding sources, and ongoing projects that threaten the preservation of the rail infrastructure and overall connectivity of the corridor.

With the long view in mind, Friends of the Rail Park are engaging many different communities, stakeholders, and local decision makers in inclusive discussions about shared values, ideas, and vision. Based on the reception of the rail park’s vision plan reveal last week, the enthusiasm in the community around these discussions is becoming palpable and infectious. The audience gasped in awe as the before-and-after photos of the rail park at Broad Street flashed on the screen. During the Q&A after the talk, some in the audience posited their thoughts about what the park should be, while others posed questions about phasing, schedules, and budgets. They seemed to be asking: “I like it. I need it. Now where can I get one?”

Top: A concrete wall currently blocks the view from North Broad Street to the viaduct below. Bottom: Rendering by OLIN of the proposed open view down to the rail park, no longer an eyesore but a vibrant civic amenity threading through the city.

A young man in the audience brought forth the question that was on the mind of everyone in the room—“How can I help make this happen?”

“What this project needs now the most is very vocal and broad public support,” responded Leah. “To make all the stakeholders, agencies, and players involved realize the benefits of creating the Rail Park, we need to make it known that this is something people want and that this is something people can get excited about.”

During the vision study, the design team engaged over forty stakeholders to build broad consensus for the project, and the momentum only continues to grow. So, in the support of the advocacy demonstrated by Friends of the Rail Park, I urge you to voice your support for this important project that’s very dear to the hearts of many of us here in Philadelphia.  Here are ways that YOU can help:

To learn more about the Webby Awards, view other nominees, or vote for the Landscape Architect’s Guide to Washington, DC, visit the Webby Awards website.

Want to learn how to draw like Laurie Olin? Watch as Laurie demonstrates the mechanics and methods of drawing using only a stick, a scrap of paper, and a jar of ink. Each semester, he begins the first day of his University of Pennsylvania landscape drawing class with this unconventional yet compelling exercise, explaining how learning to draw is less about the materials and more about seeing and interpreting the word. It’s a skill anyone can learn with practice.

As a recent graduate student of landscape architecture who studied his designs, I jumped at the opportunity to attend Laurie’s “Topics in Representation: Landscape Drawing” class and learn how to draw better. I would like to share a few key takeaways to help anyone who, like myself, would like to learn how to draw or expand upon their existing skills.

Laurie began by recounting how he started drawing as a young child and, unlike most people, never stopped. “Most children stop drawing in middle school when it loses its utility for them in society,” he said to his students. “But you guys are all oddballs. You have ended up going into a visual field where visual information and the conveying of it are very important and fundamental to our profession as landscape architects. You need to understand it and be able to use it.” He then went on to explain some fundamental tenets of drawing, which can be summed up into four key rules:

1.) “The only way you are going to learn or get better at drawing is by drawing.” Laurie likened drawing to a foreign language that is best learned through immersion and constant practice. Like learning a language, he explained, “there is a vocabulary of gestures and marks that are useful in drawing.”

2.) “Drawing is not just wiggling your wrist.” Laurie emphasized that drawing is about truly seeing the world. You must pay careful attention to the details of an object for your brain to then interpret what you saw, and then move your arm, hand, and the pencil to replicate the outline.

3.) “The people who draw best by hand make the best computer drawings. And those people who intuitively can make elegant things by computer can probably draw well with a pencil or brush.” There is a visual intelligence about composition, weight and balance, form and perception of how representation works that carry over to the computer and vice versa. However, the power of a computer is still no match for the speed and nuance of hand drawings. “It takes an immense amount of time to draw well with the computer. We produce things that are just a little too focused or a little too much detail…or they are just horrible,” Laurie contended.

4.) “You can draw with a stick.” It is easy to create a mystique about your drawing media and tools—these pencils are too soft or this paper has too much tooth. But if you truly know how to draw, Laurie promised, you can draw with a stick in the dirt.