Location: Waynesboro, VA
Status: In Progress

What started as an effort to daylight and restore Loth Spring, in collaboration with Ecosystem Services, turned into an ambitious and collaborative endeavor to develop a park along the South River in Waynesboro, Virginia.

Our design proposal borrows from the area’s storied past -- as a healing recreation landscape, a corduroy factory, and a wastewater treatment facility -- to create ecological interventions that reveal distinct site histories. The central stormwater basin calls back to the site’s days as a wastewater facility, and the phytoremediation grove was inspired by the texture of corduroy; both capture and clean stormwater. New paths, a boardwalk and overlook, and trout inspired playground are set within a matrix of reforestation and meadow plantings, improving the park for humans and non-humans alike. The proposal reunites the spring and river and improves connections between the public and their local waterways.