The National Aquarium in Baltimore has opened the National Aquarium Harbor Wetland, a 10,000-sf floating wetland that mimics the Inner Harbor’s original Chesapeake Bay tidal marsh habitat. Located between Piers 3 and 4 on Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, the $14 million project features more than 32,000 native shrubs and marsh grasses.
With Ayers Saint Gross as the architect of record and Whiting-Turner as the construction contractor, the project is based on sustainable innovations developed by the Aquarium’s conservation and exhibit fabrication teams. At the project’s start about a decade ago, Studio Gang participated as the original concept architects.
“Harbor Wetland is the culmination of 12 years of research, innovation, and determination,” Aquarium president and CEO John Racanelli said in a press statement.
Ayers Saint Gross worked with the National Aquarium to design a sustainable, high-performing floating wetland intended to restore natural habitats and improve biodiversity and water quality. The project aims to reverse years of environmental degradation while creating a renewed, thriving ecosystem. The design features layered topography, with planting surfaces at tiered elevations to promote a variety of microhabitats and attract a greater diversity of species to the area.
![Photo: Philip Smith, National Aquarium](/sites/default/files/inline-images/Baltimore%E2%80%99s%20National%20Aquarium%20opens%2010%2C000-sf%20floating%20wetland%20that%20mimics%20the%20harbor%E2%80%99s%20original%20tidal%20marsh%20habitat_Completed-0007.jpg)
Free and open to the public, the constructed wetland serves as a floating classroom for the community. Interpretive signage allows guests to learn about the wetland, the species drawn to it, seasonal changes, and the surrounding harbor.
Featuring docks, walkways, and shade cover, the habitat is composed of recycled plastic matting planted with native tidal wetland shrubs and grasses, whose roots will grow down into the water. This provides microhabitats for native species while drawing nutrients and contaminants from the water. Coated with a UV protectant for durability, the matting is fixed to a system of air-regulated pontoons that allow for adjustable buoyancy of the wetland, offsetting weight gain from growing biomass.
Compressed air is pumped into the channel to circulate water through the wetland’s shallow channel. Bubbles from the compressed air release oxygen into the water—benefiting aquatic species and keeping water moving through the wetland as it would during tidal changes in a natural tidal marsh.
“We hear so much negative talk about Inner Harbor water quality, but there is life in this water and there always has been,” Jack Cover, the Aquarium’s general curator, said in the statement. “My hope is that when people see the life this wetland attracts, from tiny microorganisms to fishes, crabs, water birds, and even small mammals like muskrats and otters—all of which we’re already seeing here—they might reconsider our local waterways and perhaps even take better care of our natural surroundings.”
![Photo: Philip Smith, National Aquarium](/sites/default/files/inline-images/Baltimore%E2%80%99s%20National%20Aquarium%20opens%2010%2C000-sf%20floating%20wetland%20that%20mimics%20the%20harbor%E2%80%99s%20original%20tidal%20marsh%20habitat%20Exhibits_HW_Mural-0022.jpg)
![Baltimore’s National Aquarium opens 10,000-sf floating wetland that mimics the harbor’s original tidal marsh habitat. Photo: Philip Smith, National Aquarium](/sites/default/files/inline-images/Baltimore%E2%80%99s%20National%20Aquarium%20opens%2010%2C000-sf%20floating%20wetland%20that%20mimics%20the%20harbor%E2%80%99s%20original%20tidal%20marsh%20habitat_Completed-0003.jpg)
![Baltimore’s National Aquarium opens 10,000-sf floating wetland that mimics the harbor’s original tidal marsh habitat. Photo: Philip Smith, National Aquarium](/sites/default/files/inline-images/Baltimore%E2%80%99s%20National%20Aquarium%20opens%2010%2C000-sf%20floating%20wetland%20that%20mimics%20the%20harbor%E2%80%99s%20original%20tidal%20marsh%20habitat_Completed-0006.jpg)
![Baltimore’s National Aquarium opens 10,000-sf floating wetland that mimics the harbor’s original tidal marsh habitat. Photo: Philip Smith, National Aquarium](/sites/default/files/inline-images/Baltimore%E2%80%99s%20National%20Aquarium%20opens%2010%2C000-sf%20floating%20wetland%20that%20mimics%20the%20harbor%E2%80%99s%20original%20tidal%20marsh%20habitat_Completed-0007_0.jpg)
![Baltimore’s National Aquarium opens 10,000-sf floating wetland that mimics the harbor’s original tidal marsh habitat. Photo: Philip Smith, National Aquarium](/sites/default/files/inline-images/Baltimore%E2%80%99s%20National%20Aquarium%20opens%2010%2C000-sf%20floating%20wetland%20that%20mimics%20the%20harbor%E2%80%99s%20original%20tidal%20marsh%20habitat_Completed-0014.jpg)
![Baltimore’s National Aquarium opens 10,000-sf floating wetland that mimics the harbor’s original tidal marsh habitat. Photo: Philip Smith, National Aquarium](/sites/default/files/inline-images/Baltimore%E2%80%99s%20National%20Aquarium%20opens%2010%2C000-sf%20floating%20wetland%20that%20mimics%20the%20harbor%E2%80%99s%20original%20tidal%20marsh%20habitat-0001.jpg)
![Baltimore’s National Aquarium opens 10,000-sf floating wetland that mimics the harbor’s original tidal marsh habitat. Photo: Philip Smith, National Aquarium](/sites/default/files/inline-images/Baltimore%E2%80%99s%20National%20Aquarium%20opens%2010%2C000-sf%20floating%20wetland%20that%20mimics%20the%20harbor%E2%80%99s%20original%20tidal%20marsh%20habitat-0004.jpg)
![Baltimore’s National Aquarium opens 10,000-sf floating wetland that mimics the harbor’s original tidal marsh habitat. Photo: Philip Smith, National Aquarium](/sites/default/files/inline-images/Baltimore%E2%80%99s%20National%20Aquarium%20opens%2010%2C000-sf%20floating%20wetland%20that%20mimics%20the%20harbor%E2%80%99s%20original%20tidal%20marsh%20habitat-0008.jpg)
Related Stories
| Jan 20, 2011
Worship center design offers warm and welcoming atmosphere
The Worship Place Studio of local firm Ziegler Cooper Architects designed a new 46,000-sf church complex for the Pare de Sufrir parish in Houston.
| Jan 20, 2011
Construction begins on second St. Louis community center
O’Fallon Park Recreation Complex in St. Louis, designed by local architecture/engineering firm KAI Design & Build, will feature an indoor aquatic park with interactive water play features, a lazy river, water slides, laps lanes, and an outdoor spray and multiuse pool.
| Jan 19, 2011
Industrial history museum gets new home in steel plant
The National Museum of Industrial History recently renovated the exterior of a 1913 steel plant in Bethlehem, Pa., to house its new 40,000-sf exhibition space. The museum chose VOA Associates, which is headquartered in Chicago, to complete the design for the exhibit’s interior. The exhibit, which has views of five historic blast furnaces, will feature artifacts from the Smithsonian Institution to illustrate early industrial America.
| Jan 19, 2011
San Diego casino renovations upgrade gaming and entertainment
The Sycuan Casino in San Diego will get an update with a $27 million, 245,000-sf renovation. Hnedak Bobo Group, Memphis, Tenn., and Cleo Design, Las Vegas, drew design inspiration from the historic culture of the Sycuan tribe and the desert landscape, creating a more open space with better circulation. Renovation highlights include a new “waterless” water entry feature and new sports bar and grill, plus updates to gaming, poker, off-track-betting, retail, and bingo areas. The local office of San Francisco-based Swinerton Builders will provide construction services.
| Jan 19, 2011
New Fort Hood hospital will replace aging medical center
The Army Corps of Engineers selected London-based Balfour Beatty and St. Louis-based McCarthy to provide design-build services for the Fort Hood Replacement Hospital in Texas, a $503 million, 944,000-sf complex partially funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The firm plans to use BIM for the project, which will include outpatient clinics, an ambulance garage, a central utility plant, and three parking structures. Texas firms HKS Architects and Wingler & Sharp will participate as design partners. The project seeks LEED Gold.
| Jan 19, 2011
Museum design integrates Greek history and architecture
Construction is under way in Chicago on the National Hellenic Museum, the nation’s first museum devoted to Greek history and culture. RTKL designed the 40,000-sf limestone and glass building to include such historic references as the covered walkway of classical architecture and the natural wood accents of Byzantine monasteries. The museum will include a research library and oral history center, plus a 3,600-sf rooftop terrace featuring three gardens. The project seeks LEED Silver.
| Jan 4, 2011
An official bargain, White House loses $79 million in property value
One of the most famous office buildings in the world—and the official the residence of the President of the United States—is now worth only $251.6 million. At the top of the housing boom, the 132-room complex was valued at $331.5 million (still sounds like a bargain), according to Zillow, the online real estate marketplace. That reflects a decline in property value of about 24%.
| Jan 4, 2011
Luxury hotel planned for Palace of Versailles
Want to spend the night at the Palace of Versailles? The Hotel du Grand Controle, a 1680s mansion built on palace grounds for the king's treasurer and vacant since the French Revolution, will soon be turned into a luxury hotel. Versailles is partnering with Belgian hotel company Ivy International to restore the dilapidated estate into a 23-room luxury hotel. Guests can live like a king or queen for a while—and keep their heads.
| Dec 17, 2010
Sam Houston State arts programs expand into new performance center
Theater, music, and dance programs at Sam Houston State University have a new venue in the 101,945-sf, $38.5 million James and Nancy Gaertner Performing Arts Center. WHR Architects, Houston, designed the new center to connect two existing buildings at the Huntsville, Texas, campus.
| Dec 17, 2010
Subway entrance designed to exude Hollywood charm
The Hollywood/Vine Metro portal and public plaza in Los Angeles provides an entrance to the Red Line subway and the W Hollywood Hotel. Local architect Rios Clementi Hale Studio designed the portal and plaza to flow with the landmark theaters and plazas that surround it.