DCist: “On Wednesday, a combination of non-profit organizations, companies, and design teams launched the Tidal Basin Ideas Lab, an online exhibit that presents new plans for building a more sustainable Tidal Basin. Originally intended to be an in-person exhibit, the project was shifted completely online, where visitors can submit feedback and ideas for the Tidal Basin’s future. The project is a partnership between the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Trust for the National Mall, and the National Park Service (which manages the Tidal Basin), along with architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and American Express. The group enlisted five landscape architecture firms to come up with proposals for a reimagined Tidal Basin — DLANDstudio, GGN, Hood Design Studio, Reed Hilderbrand, and James Corner Field Operations, the firm that designed New York City’s High Line. The 107-acre landscape is home to the Martin Luther King Jr., Thomas Jefferson, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt memorials, along with 3,000 cherry trees. But all of that is threatened by the effects of climate change — the area has racked up $500 million in repairs and faces a crumbling sea wall and daily flooding. Last year, the site made it to the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s list of the most endangered places in the United States.

Currently, the Tidal Basin’s cherry blossoms stand in three feet of water at high tide, according to a spokesperson for the lab. At this rate, the Jefferson Memorial is expected to be submerged in four feet of water by 2040, and by 2070, the MLK Memorial could be in six feet of water at high tide…”