One of the main systems level ideas I have been working with is that instead of using a currently forested region of the Wasagaming town site as a dry pond, Parks Canada could use the existing parking lots as natural filter points that slow flows, cleanse water and build resilience into the system. The map below shows the simplistic sketch of my proposal – a pedestrian boulevard and green swale to carry stormwater to the large underused parking lot in the middle of town. The parking lot acts as the reservoir/dry pond and another green swale takes the flow through from the dry pond to the Ominik Marsh system.
This strategy just seemed natural to me – it made sense from the study of topography and of the urban systems and ecosystems. Then I found this post card for sale on ebay!
If you can locate yourself using the above map, the large parking lot I am proposing as a reservoir is actually wetland in this image! This low point was obviously part of the collection and flow through of surface water moving through Ominik into Clear Lake. The placement of my reservoir is really a step BACK towards the pre-urban condition but it a way that both addresses the natural system needs and human use of the site. Very exciting to have my reading of the landscape validated by these kinds of finds. Why put a man-made marsh where a forest wants to be? Why put an impermeable parking lot where a marsh wants to be? My solution is to put a marsh AND a parking lot where the town and the topography and the ecosystem suggest they should be and by studying the system in layers and finding ways to tease apart these layers I hope to achieve integration of infrastructure and landscape – and within that, building and landscape as this parking lot is also the site of my building proposal.
naryndavar 
Pretty cool Naryn, and I’m not surprised. Every time we have one of those ‘rain storms of a century’, the big parking lot is always under water. I remember when we were little and we had a massive rain storm, people were canoeing around in the lot.
For sure Kendal, I remember a couple flood years where canoes took over the streets. One issue with the shovel ready proposal I’m being critical of is it doesn’t take into account that we are going to be getting more of those ‘rain storms of a century’ this century than last – if the water wants to be there I say let it and make the architecture so that it doesn’t destroy out buildings when it does.
fascinating – work with nature rather than against it !