Green Technology Research : Art & Water





	Case studies
	Art as a Bridge between Man and Nature
	The Leonhardt Lagoon in Fair Park, Dallas, Texas, 1981-1986. Patricia Johanson, Artist



	At the Leonhardt Lagoon in Fair Park, Dallas, the sculpture, created by Artist Patricia Johanson, is placed to control shoreline erosion, create microhabitats, and enhance public access (fig. 1). Living ecosystems are restored by enlarging and balancing the food chain, and the lagoon, itself, acts as a flood basin. The lagoon functions as both natural habitats and educational and recreational "people places" (Campbell and Ogden, 2001).

	Site Context: "The five-block-long Leonhardt Lagoon is in the middle of Dallas' largest park with four major museums along the shore, and it seemed a wonderful opportunity to convert it into a home for native wildlife-ducks, turtles, fish, shrimp, insects-by cleaning up the water and conceiving of landscaping as food. The sculpture, created by Johanson, is considered as not only aesthetic, but rather a means of bringing people into contact with the plants, animals and the water.

	Historical Context: The Leonhardt Lagoon, named after philanthropist Dorothea Leonhardt, was built with Federal WPA (Work Progress Administration) funds in 1936 at the site of the Texas Centennial Exposition (fig. 2). By the 1970's the lagoon had become choked with algae fed by fertilizer runoff from the nearby grounds area surrounding the museums as well as silt from the erosion of the lagoon's banks. Its food chain had become unbalanced because of an overabundance of vegetation. In 1981, when Johanson was asked to design an environmental sculpture for the lagoon by the Dallas Museum of Art, she researched pond and wetland biology with the objective of combining clean up of the water with a sculpture that would be an educational tool. Since 1983, the lagoon has been drained, excess vegetation cleaned out, and native Texas plants introduced to restore the ecological balance in the lagoon. The sculpture was built to create an environment to be experienced and explored, while providing an interesting way for visitors to see the lagoon's plant and animal life.

	Designer's Context: For over twenty years, Patricia Johanson has insisted that art can help to heal the earth. For the last ten years, she has been creating large-scale projects that posit a radical, yet wholly practical vision. She holds both an art degree and an architectural degree (Campbell and Ogden, 2001 and http://www.patriciajohanson.com). She works with engineers, city planners, scientists and citizens' groups to create her art as functioning infrastructure for modern cities. Johanson's designs for sewers, parks, and other functional projects not only speak to deep human needs for beauty, culture, and historical memory, but also respond to the needs of birds, insects, fish, animals, and microorganisms. Her art reclaims degraded ecologies, and creates conditions that permit endangered species to thrive in the middle of an urban context. Using the structures of nature as a way of thinking, she reconciles delicacy with strength, generosity with power, and creativity with consequence.

	Components: Johanson's sculpture was envisioned as a means of leading people to interact with wildlife and water in creating innovative paths, bridges, islands, overlooks, and seating. She created refuges and microhabitats, such as isolated islands, for the animals. The sculptures, completed in 1986, are built of a type of concrete sprayed over a steel foundation. Crushed firebrick was mixed with the concrete to create its vivid terra-cotta color. The forms that inspired the sculptures are particular wetland plants leaves and roots. Comprised of two segments at the north and south ends of the lagoon, they are glimpsed through the drooping foliage of the Bald Cypress trees that line the water's edge. Sagittaria patphylla, the sculpture at the north end, is named for the delta duck-potato, the native Texas wetland plant used as the form of this sculpture, and measures 235' x 175' x 12'. It provides a mass of interwoven paths in the form of roots to break up wave action and to provide access to the water for people in placing them within the wetlands (fig. 3). Pteris Mulitfida, the one at the south end, is inspired by a Texas fern, and measures 225' x 112't. The sides of several of its 'leaves' curl upwards, and at one point, form an arch creating a bridge for people to walk across.

	Ecological and Educational Function: Upon approaching the Dallas Museum of Natural History, with the idea of "living exhibits" in the lagoon rather than inside the museum within glass cases, Johanson received support, and worked with the museum staff to develop wildlife habitat plantings on the shoreline and restore the ecosystem of the lagoon (Campbell and Ogden, 2001). Based on research on the needs of wildlife, the lagoon was planted with emergent plants such as bulrush, along with wild rice as a waterfowl food source. Today, the lagoon abounds with life. Wildlife live in the lagoon since it provides food and shelter for themselves and their offspring. Funded by a generous grant from the Meadows Foundation, the Leonhardt Lagoon features twenty-five numbered markers and four descriptive panels highlighting the birds and insects, plants and trees, fish and other wildlife that make their home at the lagoon. A printed walking-guide, keyed to the markers, helps visitors learn more about the flora, fauna and wildlife living around the area of each of the markers. The secrets of this ecologically balanced aquatic community are revealed through a printed walking guide and descriptive panels strategically located around the perimeter of the lagoon. Visitors are encouraged to explore the lagoon sculpture, discover the fascinating world of exotic plants such as "Lizardtail," "Cypress Knees" or "Duckweed", and to observe this special habitat that is home to more than 70 species of birds, like the Least Bittern and Chimney Swift. The walking guide also explains the contribution that Damselflies and other insects make in providing food for the wildlife living at the lagoon. Developed by the Dallas Museum of Natural History, the nature walk extends the Museum out-of-doors providing a "living" exhibit for visitors to Fair Park and the Museum.

	The Leonhardt Lagoon provides aesthetic, ecological, and functional values for both people and wildlife habitat. Johanson states that because of the multiple-layered design, the lagoon acts as "an inclusive, life-supporting, open-ended framework that allows for dialogue between art, man, and nature" (Campbell and Ogden, 2001). Incorporating landscaping that serves multiple functions, ranging from providing wildlife food to improving water quality and bank erosion, Johanson's sculpture act as an inseparable piece of components for all organisms in the Leonhardt Lagoon in Fair Park.



	References: Campbell and Ogden, Constructed Wetlands in the Sustainable Landscape. Lewis Publishing. Washington, DC. 2001 http://www.patriciajohanson.com http://www.patriciajohanson.com/timeline/fair_park.html http://www.dallasdino.org/permanent/lagoon/Index.htm http://www.utdallas.edu/dept/sci_ed/ledbetter/SCI5324/dallas_museum.htm http://www.amazingsites.com/trip/texas6.htm