Lagoon Project: San Francisco Exploratorium 
 
 Laurie Lundquist
 
 
 

My interest in water begins with a respect for its sustentative connection to life and extends into a fascination for its visual and sensual properties. To investigate these interests I construct systems that reveal the functional relationship between water and plants.

I approached the Exploratorium [1] thinking that I wanted to do an artist's exhibit that would focus on the biological phenomenon involved with waste-water treatment. I began by talking with Peter Richards, the director of the museum's artist-in-residency program; he encouraged me to spend some time looking at the exhibits but also to consider the lagoon outside the museum.

Over the next few days I spent hours walking around the lagoon and absorbing the site. In some places the classical colonnades and exotic plantings conspired to give the grounds a timeless moody feeling. In other places asphalt and turf grass conspired to make it feel like any other city park. Architect Bernard Maybeck had designed the structures and supporting landscape for the 1915 Pan Pacific Exposition. He contoured the existing lagoon to capture reflected images of his soaring architecture.

Unfortunately, the vision is interrupted by algae blooms and surface scum. The present-day lagoon is in poor health. The problems of the lagoon seemed fairly straightforward. It is shallow body of water with no natural or mechanical circulation. I observed hundreds of sea gulls, ducks and coots using the shallow lagoon as a rest stop and began to consider it as a possible source of waste water! On further investigation I found out that the lagoon was completely dependent on city water. Given San Francisco's chronic water shortage, the luxury of occasionally flushing the system out could not be afforded. Algae dominated the well-fertilized system, making it impossible for a healthy diversity of aquatic life to flourish.

Apparently the failing health of the lagoon had been a subject of concern for many years. Beyond the visible problems, the park had experienced periodic outbreaks of viral infections among the bird populations. Richards expressed a willingness to direct financial support to an artist's project that might benefit the lagoon if we could establish a working arrangement with the City Parks and Recreation Department.

I began to synthesize ideas for a bioremediation [2] strategy that would improve the interface between the natural and mechanical systems at work on the grounds. Central to my thinking was the notion of integrating an aesthetic passage of landscape that would function as a biological filter for the lagoon water.

In the basic concept, lagoon water would be mechanically pumped up to a constructed wetland terrace, where it would flow by force of gravity through the natural filter. Once the stagnant water had passed through the filter it could be used to irrigate the surrounding landscape, thereby reducing the overall water consumption of the grounds.

The lagoon remediation project was an opportunity for the scientific expertise inside the museum to benefit its immediate surroundings. Richards and I proceeded to formulate a plan of action. I would begin my project by researching the ecosystem of the lagoon. We both liked the idea of bringing the real-life problems that the lagoon offered into the museum for research. We agreed that the first stage of my residency would be to literally channel a loop of the lagoon ecosystem into the "laboratory" of the museum floor.

The prototype wetland system that I designed would function as a filter for actual lagoon water---testing the effectiveness of marsh plants growing in gravel beds as a means to purify the unsanitary water. This type of constructed wetland system has proven to be successful in several communities that now use it for secondary municipal sewer treatment. The method warrants testing in this particular circumstance because the chemical makeup of bird guano, the lagoon's source of pollution, is very different than that of human feces. The inside loop will function simultaneously as a research prototype for the lagoon project and a wetland exhibit for the Exploratorium.

Throughout the design process I pushed the idea of bringing the outside into the museum. The symmetry of the undertaking lies in the fact that the indoor environment will benefit from the intrusion of life, and the life of the lagoon will benefit from the scrutiny of the scientific process. I was unwilling to compromise either objective as I moved through the series of decisions that resulted in the exhibit that is now nearing completion.

A core group of museum volunteers have been performing water-quality tests on the lagoon every week since August 1993. Their work provides a clear record of nitrogen, ammonium and phosphorous levels present in the water as well as monthly coliform counts.

Once the water begins circulating through the exhibit we will be able to compare the water quality of filtered water with raw water. The results of those tests will inform the final remediation design.

Notes

1. The Exploratorium is a museum of science, art and human perception. Founded in 1968 by physicist Frank Oppenheimer, the museum is a nonprofit corporation housed in San Francisco's historic Palace of Fine Arts.

2. Bioremediation of water depends on the biological activity of microorganisms to remedy unsanitary water. Microbes accomplish this by digesting complex waste materials that can harbor disease and transforming them into simpler chemical constituents. Wetland plants draw oxygen down into the root zone, providing a habitat for both aerobic and anaerobic microbes that actively break down wastes.