Owen Beach Preserving a cultural legacy against sea level rise

The project team collaborated with the community to revitalize Owen Beach, one of the region’s most visited and historically significant parks, nestled within the greater Point Defiance Park. Through a broad framework of equity, ecology, and cultural sensitivity, the design team preserved the essence of the place—the beach—while upgrading the site and infrastructure to better serve future generations of Tacoma residents. Anticipating sea level rise, the project creatively pulled the park back toward the upland and integrated new facilities and amenities, while also improving accessibility, habitat, and shoreline function in a puzzle-like feat of reconfiguration that manages to

View the full submission