Sites of Learning in Tukwila -- Proposals that Foster Ecological Awareness and Restoration

Proposals that Foster Ecological Awareness and Restoration

Habitat Corridors

City Team

Just like humans, wildlife need linkages within Tukwila's fragmented environment. This set of images demonstrates the potential for a westerly and easterly habitat connection, the former along the ridgeline, the latter through the valley of the city. The City Team provided illustrations of how school sites, backyards, and multi-story residential or commercial sites can be designed to contribute to a continuous wildlife habitat.

Proposed Habitat Corridor

School Site as Habitat

Backyard as Habitat

Multi-story Sites as Habitat

Habitat and Education

City Team

With the habitat corridors in place, a city-wide environmental education program can be implemented within these corridors at designated "Sites of Learning." The City Team's proposal indicates the location of these sites and the "curriculum" that would be delivered through interactive exhibits. This program would provide opportunities for meaningful intergenerational learning throughout the city, while promoting environmental awareness.

Proposed City-wide Environmental Education Program

Poverty Hill -- A Site of Learning

Celebration of Water

Tukwila Team

The Tukwila Team envisioned a natural water treatment system that would celebrate water and create a sensuous educational laboratory, while minimizing the schools dependence upon artificial water treatment mechanisms. The team proposed that cisterns be installed to collect water runoff from the roof, which can then be used for watering the gardens. The cistern design has a musical quality, intended to increase awareness of the continuity of water in all life. The cisterns, in combination with a bio-swale and natural pond, would provide a setting for studying hydrologic cycles and for celebrating water as a source of life.

Proposed Cistern at Tukwila

Proposed Drainage Pond at Tukwila

Proposed Bio-Swale at Tukwila

Interactive Sundial

Cascade View Team

The Cascade View Team proposed an outdoor classroom that would feature an interactive sundial. Students would be able to stand at the center of the sundial to tell time and figure out their solar orientation.

Proposed Sundial in Cascade View Courtyard

Eco-Lab

Thorndyke Team

The eco-lab is an outdoor classroom on the school site but it also exists throughout the neighborhood. Teachers would use this multi-site eco-lab to engage their students in learning about ecology and in being stewards in their community. Multiple sites in the neighborhood--discovery stations, bus stops, sidewalks, trails, park entrances, bridges, and natural settings--would become places for learning about the environment and for celebrating the presence of nature and children.

Proposed Concept for Eco-lab at Thorndyke