This speculative project proposes that we should include public works functions like stormwater facilities as designed landscapes and not merely engineering works. It imagines how a remnant ‘back yard’ landscape of a shopping mall/detention space could become an exciting "Flood Gauge Park."

It imagines how a remnant ‘back yard’ landscape of Bellevue, Washington could become an exciting "Flood Gauge Park." The project imagines how a park that gauges floods could also gauge civic involvement, operating as a section from low to high, of Individual Contribution (Creekside Landscape), Civil Organization (Recycling Center/Walk) , Civic Action (Floodwater Ramps), and Individual Leadership (Speaker’s Platform/Flood Gauge).

By conjoining ‘natural’ and ‘built’ infrastructures into one framework, we blur the dichotomy of the two, opening the door to more creative syntheses. And by reconsidering these municipal utilities’ values as public landscapes, we find new and expanded opportunities for civic expression.