Thurston Creek Watershed / Reclamation Park | Virginia Beach, VA

The students of Kemps Landing Magnet School wanted to transform a three-acre vacant and spoiled waterfront lot behind their school into a beautiful park for Pembroke Elementary, Kemps Landing, and their community. WPL provided guidance and taught them to walk in the shoes of a landscape architect so that they could achieve their dreams.

The students devoted a quarter of their science class school year to learning the physical, biological, and cultural features of the site and designing 17 different master plans for their project. WPL merged the best of each plan into an illustrative comprehensive plan and sketches which the student volunteers are using to help raise funds.

First, WPL analyzed this site, taking three separate site inventories. One inventory focused on the physical features of the site (water drainage, winds, soil composition, slope). A second analyzed the biological features of the site (native animals and plants, introduced species) and a third was a cultural inventory (relationship to roads, houses, people).

Project was put on hold for fundraising efforts.