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Case studies |
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Art
as a Bridge between Man and Nature |
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The Leonhardt
Lagoon in Fair Park, Dallas, Texas, 1981-1986.
Patricia Johanson, Artist |
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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). |
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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. |
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![](Fig1.jpg)
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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
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