LAR 524, Summer 2018, Rocky Branch Artful Restoration, NC State resulted in a $5,000 value in design services and $3,500 in landscape construction.
Rocky Branch is an urban creek that runs more than a mile through NC State’s campus and drains into Walnut Creek, a tributary of the Neuse River. Nearly ten years ago, NC State partnered with NC Sea Grant to implement a three-phase restoration project of Rocky Branch which was completed in 2010. The goal of the restoration project was to create a safe and accessible outdoor teaching laboratory. Before the restoration began, the stream was narrow, deep, and suffering from severe erosion, as well as being an eyesore for the campus community. The creek project demonstrates how to stabilize a creek, improve water quality, and create aquatic and wildlife habitat, all while integrating the creek into the campus environment. Using natural channel design techniques, the restoration allows the stream to flow naturally through a newly created floodplain. The project installed 6,000 feet of trail path along the restored creek to provide a transportation alternative and bring people closer to the creek. A pedestrian underpass at Pullen Road allows safe passage for pedestrians and wildlife beneath a major thoroughfare. The underpass connects the path to Pullen Park and the City of Raleigh Greenway System. Interpretative signs along the greenway explain various restoration concepts.
With the direction of Dr. Barbara Doll, a civil engineer, professor, and Water Quality Specialist with NC Sea Grant, the students worked on a site includes the daylighted stream restoration area immediately behind Carmichael Gym. The project site begins at the chain-link fence adjacent to the parking lot and ends at the outfall just beyond at the base of the retaining wall. Students were asked to create an art piece or land art that incorporates sound and/or light, which provides a sense of the restored stream ecosystem and conveys the idea of “infinity”. They visited the “You are Here” exhibit at the MC Museum of Art. As seen in “land art” installations, the planting restoration/design a strong part of the sculpture and seen as making the “experience” of the stream be extended to the area above. The class worked with Dr. Doll and campus facilities to remove and prune plants to allow for access and create gathering spaces. Dr. Doll will use design proposals from student’s work to raise funds for a future sculpture project.