Sept 1: Pullman’s hidden waterway revealed by landscape architecture students

By Brett Staav, College of Engineering and Architecture

PULLMAN, Wash. – Pullman is a water city, yet much of that water remains out of the consciousness of most residents.

The city’s original name was “Three Forks,” a reference to the founding of the city at the intersection of three distinct streams:  the Missouri Flat Creek and the Dry Fork Creek, which both flow into the South Fork of the Palouse River.

Yet the Dry Fork is largely invisible to most citizens, hidden underground for nearly one-half of a mile as it flows under the sidewalks along Grand Boulevard in downtown Pullman.

Landscape Architecture students from WSU’s Voiland College of Engineering and Architecture have developed ways to reveal to the public the hidden portion of Dry Fork Creek. Methods include installing art above the course of the Creek, collecting data about the creek including pollutants, creating diagrams to illustrate qualities of the buried creek and creating a social media network to share their findings.

The overall goal of the project is to increase the public’s awareness of the Dry Fork Creek, and by doing so increase efforts to improve water quality of the stream.

The landscape architecture students will be finalizing their artistic expressions along Grand Boulevard, 2 p.m. Friday, Sept. 1, near the Neill Public Library. Students will be installing art along poles in the area as well as on the sidewalk covering the creek itself.

 

Media Contact: 

  • Steve Austin, instructor, School of Design and Construction, 859-473-3880, steve.austin@wsu.edu