Projects

Dumbarton Oaks Park
Concept Plan

Dumbarton Oaks is a significant historic landscape. One of the most important designs by landscape architect Beatrix Farrand, the former private estate is comprised of two settings: formal gardens, and naturalistic ones. The 27-acre Dumbarton Oaks Park serves as the rustic counterpoint to the refined formal gardens adjacent to the mansion. 

The Whitehaven west entrance area to Dumbarton Oaks Park is an exceptional community asset that has been unconsidered, neglected, and left to the ravages of time. The land is shrouded in invasive plants and eroded by stormwater. Significant elevation change across the site makes accessibility for the public a major challenge. The National Park Service, Dumbarton Oaks Park Conservancy, and its partners have an opportunity to help bring ecological balance and vitality to this important site and in the process, unify it with the surrounding community and historic park.

David Kamp, leading the Dumbarton Oaks Park Conservancy team, helped developed a conceptual design strategy that heals the land and begins the process of building community – ecologically diverse, thriving natural communities and engaged, dynamic human ones. Our goal is to expand opportunities for daily enjoyment while actively engaging the public in the process of building health and stewardship. 

This effort will involve multiple stages of work, starting with a focus on restoring nature. As part of a site-wide stormwater remediation strategy a living framework of resilient and biodiverse native planting will be established, creating a network of supportive ecosystems. Universally accessible pathways, an integral part of the stormwater remediation design, will provide public access to the newly created landscape and adjacent park. Subsequent stages will focus on the community. Exploring opportunities for recreation, education, socialization, and respite we will engage the public with an emerging healthy landscape and incorporate their desires and aspirations for the site towards a vibrant, resilient, and equitable future.