World Garden Commons – The Fargo Project

Explore Rabanus Park

The World Garden Commons site is located within Rabanus Park, adjacent to the Schlossman YMCA and a quarter mile from the West Acres Mall in Fargo, ND. Nestled in between both residential and commercial property, Rabanus Park hosts many amenities including several volleyball courts, walking trails, a warming hut, a community garden and a large storm water basin. Select the icons within the map to read more about planned features within the World Garden Commons stormwater basin.

The Storm Water Basin

Located in the northeast corner of Rabanus Park, is a storm water basin with a footprint of approximately 18 acres. The contributing drainage area to the basin includes West Acres Mall and the commercial/retail properties located east of 45th St, between 13th Ave. S. and Interstate 94. The storm water entering the basin is only stored temporarily.

Up to summer 2015, the site was marked by a large concrete channel conveyed storm water through the basin and ultimately into the storm sewer system located in the northwest corner of the basin. Often, the mowed grass basin is almost completely empty, acting as an unattractive separation in space, causing the community on either side of it to feel “cut-off” from portions of the park and City.

LISTENING GARDEN SCULPTURE

FRESH COMMUNITY GARDEN

OVERLOOK & NATURAL PLAY AREA

Site Conditions

Use the slider to see how the basin fills from the two inlets. Hover over the Ecological Areas to read more about the plant species and conditions of the areas highlighted.

Design Your Space

Interactive App

Help the Fargo Project design the next neighborhood stormwater basin. Throughout the City of Fargo, large basins collect stormwater to protect traffic and property during rainfall. Often, the basins are dry and seem to have purpose only during precipitation or times of fast snow melt. The goal of the Fargo Project is to make these basins into usable, beautiful places.

Go to the App

Design Process

During the neighborhood engagement phase of The Fargo Project, the local artist team set out to ask individuals within the community, and especially from the neighborhoods surrounding Rabanus Park, what they would like to experience in the new landscape. From activities and discussions, the project team condensed this information into four different aspects which seemed to stand out as important to the community. Ideas emphasized are: more plants, spaces for celebration, spaces to exercise, and an emphasis on the elements.

Plants

A recurring theme among community members is the desire for more vegetation in Fargo. Many different ideas such include community gardens, wildflower patches, native plantings, orchards, and wetlands. Ethno botanist Linda Different Cloud visited in late March 2012 to help members of The Fargo Project understand the different ways plantings can be integrated effectively and meaningfully into a storm water basin.

Celebration

Locally, there is a strong interest in creating more spaces which celebrate culture and an awareness of our diverse community including space for festivals, amphitheater, musical performances, and pathways for relaxation and contemplation.

Exercise

Part of the design challenge is to create a welcoming environment for summer and winter outdoor activities and favored forms of exercise. For example, safe and inviting pathways for walking and running, designated areas for gardening, sledding and skating. Part of the design challenge is to create spaces used for outdoor activity all year round.

The Elements

Certain features are always present on an outdoor site, thus learning to adjust and embrace those elements help enhance the quality of the site. For example, a shelterbelt helps protect from the wind and a temporary shelter offer protection from the sun. Natural playgrounds and sculpted terracing emphasize the earth. Finally, water is the major catalyst within this project, and design features such as creeks, fountains, and ponds emphasize this element.

Design Principles

Recognizing the vitality of any cultural heritage depends upon the health of the natural world that supports it, it follows that natural ecology is primary, and the humans’ dependent on the ecology is a co-creative. Natural ecology is the largest community circle of which we humans are part.

Let The Water Lead

Create a self-sustaining, hydrologically functioning basin true to the regional ecology and maximize opportunities for the regional prairie landscape to express itself and develop overtime.

Learn From the Natural Environment

Learn how the ecological systems behave, practice responsive adaptive design and adaptive management.

Involve the Community

Make efforts to maximize diverse community participation throughout the life of the project from conception through long-term maintenance.

Experience Nature and Ecology

Create opportunities for people to enjoy the natural environment; the landscape is a unique attraction where people can experience the qualities and ecological relationships of a prairie landscape.

Photo Gallery

Click on the photos to enlarge, watch as a slideshow, or to find a specific photo by thumbnail.

: New path construction at World Garden Commons

: World Garden Commons Construction Plan 2017

: Winter construction at World Garden Commons

: Winter is part of the construction season at World Garden Commons

: Friends and community advocates Laetitia Hellerud & Darci Asche

: The stormwater basin at Rabanus Park previously featured a mowed depression and a concrete channel.

: The orange and darker blue shapes indicate public and private detention basins that provide stormwater protection to properties within the City of Fargo.

: Lead Artist, Jackie Brookner pauses for a photo with neighborhood children playing in the basin

: Silt, clay and water make for a muddy basin

: Most of the soil in the basin is heavy, poorly drained clays and silts left over from glacial Lake Agassiz

: NDSU undergrad Aaron Green devised baffles to induce meander in the old channel bed.

: NDSU undergrad Aaron Green and volunteers creates a rock baffle

: Exploring World Garden Commons

: Meeting new friends and old

: Serving one another

: Sharing a meal with new friends and old

: Bhutanese Dance Troop

: Bhutanese Dance Troop

: Serving one another

: Meeting new friends and old

: Sharing a meal with new friends and old

: John Eliason

: Listening Garden is nearly complete

: Listening Garden is nearly complete

: Listening Garden

: Listening Garden is nearly complete

: City of Fargo Engineer April Walker shares with those gathered for NEA Chair Chu’s visit

: Fargo Mayor Mahoney, Commissioner Strand, NDCA Director, Beth Klingenstein speak with NEA Chair Jane Chu during her visit to the site

: NEA Chair Jane Chu complimented those who’ve helped transform the basin

: Nicole Crutchfield looks on as Dwight Mickelson describes the construction of the Listening Garden to NEA Chair Jane Chu

: People gather at the basin of World Garden Commons

: A WeDesign student participant and Kene Okigbo, communication intern at Reach Partners discuss the finer point of Natural Play at World Garden Commons

: Following 5th graders input into design, Artist Dwight Mickelson and a team of landscape architects, community and planners assembled a concept for natural play features at World Garden Commons

: A summer night featuring The Fargo Project and Fargo Park District activities at Rabanus Park

: Growing Together Garden at World Garden Commons

: Water quality collection stations along the World Garden Commons channel bed

: Vegetation plots test establishment, resistance to encroachment, hardiness, and durability for stormwater basins

: Artist Dwight Mickelson for introducing The Fargo Project: World Garden Commons and Listening Garden to the 2016 Plains Art Buzz Lab. Photo credit Karis Thompson

: The Fargo Project Collaborating Artists (l to r): Dwight Mickelson, Chelsey Dahlstrom, Al Ness, Michael Strand, Nicole Crutchfield (City of Fargo, Planning), Jackie Brookner Lead Artist

: Morning at World Garden Commons before construction

: The Fargo Project Collaborating Artists

: Artist Michael Strand led an “elbow pot” activity: people pushed small rounds of clay against their elbows to form a concave bowl. The elbow pots provided a metaphor for the World Garden conversations, as a basin holding water and a diverse group of people and native plants and animals, all embraced in the decision-making about the future of the site.

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: A 5th grade Westside student works on forming an animal during the 2016 WeDesign Charrette

: students form animals

: show ‘action’ in clay

: sharing a student’s example

: pride in their work

: 5th Grade Site inventory at World Garden Commons

: 5th Grade Site inventory at World Garden Commons

: 5th Grade Site inventory at World Garden Commons

: 5th Grade Site inventory activities

: 5th Grade Site inventory activities

: 5th Grade Site inventory activities

: 5th Grade WeDesign model

: World Garden Commons natural play models by 5th Graders

: 5th Grade WeDesign with Westside Elementary

: Students share an aspect of their cultural identity at the close of the WeDesign Charrette.

: working in teams

: 5th Grade WeDesign with Westside Elementary

: Students fashion clay animals

: Low flow in the channel at World Garden Commons

: Low flow in the channel at World Garden Commons

: Measuring the headcut due to low flow in the channel

: Measuring the headcut due to low flow in the channel

: Measuring the headcut due to low flow in the channel

: Winter 2015 Spring 2016 Site observations

: Listening Garden Model

: World Garden Commons

: Plunge Pool Water Color

: Community members chipped in labor to debark the Listening Garden marimba logs

: Design, engineers and construction meet for a pre-construction site visit

: Site Analysis Diagram

: Original Site, pre-construction

: Original Site, pre-construction

: Original Site, pre-construction

: Original Site, pre-construction

: Original Site, pre-construction

: Design Charrette Toolbox – Every table at the April 25th Design Charrette was supplied with its own set of design elements which could be used to create unique design solutions.

: During the 2012 WeDesign Charrette, community members modeled their ideas

: Early concept for the Rabanus Park stormwater basin

: Community members modeled ideas for restoration and features during a WeDesign Charrette

: 2012 Inauguration Celebration

: Add a caption

: In 2012, over 200 people participated in the celebration inaugurating the basin with Native American dancing and drumming and at the WeDesign workshop that followed.

: Initial World Garden Commons design

: Some of The Fargo Project original collaborating team

: 2012 WeDesign Community Workshop