RISE

Peeking its head just above the midwestern grass, RISE is a forward-thinking wetland observation platform for birdwatching and contemplation. The six-foot-high structure is accessible via a 70-foot long ramp, and covered in a 90-foot wall of lumber. The horizontal structure has minimal environmental and visual impact.

Awards

  • Arch Daily awarded this project The Best Student Design-Build Projects Worldwide, 2017

  • The American Society of Landscape Architects recognized this project with a national “Student Collaboration” award, 2017

  • The American Institute of Architects, Ft. Worth chapter recognized this project with a Student Design award, 2017

About

RISE is located at Goose Island State Park and was made for Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. The park is eight miles north of Fulton, Texas on St Charles Bay where Copano and Aransas Bay converge. The Park is one of the ten most-visited in the state and is known for its winter bird watching, especially the highly-endangered Whooping Crane.

RISE is Goose Island State Park’s new wetland observation platform for environmental engagement and bird watching overlooks a coastal marshland notable for attracting migratory birds. The sensitive thirty-acre habitat emptying into the St. Charles Bay was recently given to the park by the Corp of Engineers to manage—in exchange for concessions to a new nearby residential development.

During the winter season, many migratory birds visit the wetland, especially Sandhill and Whooping Cranes that come there to feed on blue crab, which are plentiful during high tide. Views to this new area are not easily accessible because of a slough and wetland scrub, which separate it from a small native-grass meadow bordering a parking lot. To gain views to the wetland, the park authorities asked Gulf Coast DesignLab students to present their ideas for a raised observation area that would serve the park’s environmental educator—a place for her to talk about stewarding wetland habitats and the local bay systems. It would also provide a new viewing platform for birders who migrate to the park each winter.

The six-foot high observation deck had to be wheelchair accessible, which required a seventy-foot ramp. Responding to the native grass meadow as distinct from the wetland, students developed a one-hundred-foot long screen-wall that incorporated narrow vertical slots, making the wall opaque at times or opening up a bit, depending on one’s viewpoint when walking toward the viewing platform. The wall partially shields the platform/ramp as it provides a backdrop for the native grasses, important for the health of the local ecology which the environmental educator plans to discuss. Passing through the entry portal, the wetland partially comes into view and opens up as the visitor moves up toward the observation area.

The Project was created in a Design-Build studio with the University of Texas at Austin's Gulf Coast Design Lab. Over the fifteen-week semester the project was designed, partially fabricated on campus and then fully installed on site.