District Wharf Waterfront Park Washington, DC

Services Provided

Landscape Architecture
Design
Documentation

People Involved

Joseph Chambers
XIbei Song

A new park, the largest of the three designed for Washington DC’s District Wharf, brings a series of activated spaces for the surrounding community to enjoy.

MKSK completed the design, documentation and construction administration of a new 3.5-acre neighborhood park at DC’s District Wharf development in 2017, one of the largest new parks to be built in Washington’s center city in the last decade. The park sits at a bend of the Potomac along one of the river’s few straight sections, providing long views south toward the tidal Bay. Features include a large play lawn, events plaza, waterside promenade, rain gardens and bioswales, bocce courts, interactive fountain, and pergola.

The heart of the park is a circular play lawn, bounded on one side by the stepped wading fountain. This fountain, together with seating areas overhung by a shady pergola, are a welcome respite from the heat of steamy DC summer afternoons. The riverside promenade provides dramatic waterfront views and connects the commercial boardwalk of The Wharf to adjacent residential areas. Plant materials throughout the park are predominantly native. Special measures to protect an allee of forty mature Willow Oak trees on the site were successful.

MKSK made a number of contributions to the final design and acted as landscape architect of record for the project.