Daniella Slowik
University of Washington
Department of Landscape Architecture
Jury
Leo Chow
Iker Gil (Chair)
Quilian Riano
Robert L. Wesley
Amanda Williams
At an early age, I discovered nature’s ability to comfort, inspire, and rejuvenate. My experience with Tourette's syndrome has granted me an intriguing blend of tics, curiosity, and challenges, and I have often escaped outside for respite and peace. Deeply embedded into my design values, these memories have influenced my desire to develop landscape-based systems that restore the health of sensitive ecosystems and invite underrepresented communities to experience the therapeutic benefits of the natural world.
As a person of mixed heritage, Daniella is sensitive to other people’s backgrounds, struggles, and works hard to give voice to their aspirations and dreams. Her dedicated mission to address social equity and environmental justice is imbued in all of her efforts. Daniella will be a leader and force of change and represent those who often feel they don’t fit into the mainstream. I have, and continue to be awed by her talent, intellectual rigor, compassion, and energy.
Daniel Winterbottom, Professor, University of Washington, Department of Landscape Architecture
With the generous support of the Robert L. Wesley Award, I am thrilled to focus my passions on restoring public and environmental health at several scales. In the spring of 2022, this award will support my plans to study abroad through a design/build landscape architecture program in Pokhara, Nepal with a diverse group of Nepali community members, public health officials, and urban planners. I am incredibly honored and eager to carry on Robert L. Wesley’s legacy of leadership to cultivate environmental stewardship and social justice through site-specific design and to shape our practice around the needs of people from all races, abilities, genders, sexualities, and socioeconomic statuses.
Over the course of hundreds of years, the Barton Woods Wetland region functioned first as a cranberry bog tended to by the Tu-oh-beh-DAHBSH Coast Salish people and as a farm owned by Japanese-Americans. Today it exists as an abandoned wetland owned by North Seattle College. It faces another dramatic structural change as Seattle’s Northgate neighborhood prepares for a new light rail station followed by commercial and residential development. As part of a larger wetland network within the Thornton Creek watershed in north Seattle, the new Barton Woods Wetlands will protect several endangered species, cleanse and slow stormwater runoff, and reduce the urban heat island effect. © Daniella Slowik.
The Barton Woods Wetlands will be divided into three fluid habitat regions to maximize biodiversity and create a wider range of food sources, habitat, and overwintering sites. The Emergent Wetland Zone forces high volumes of stormwater to filter through the site. Pockets of seasonal pools will emerge for the spotted frog and its tadpoles. The Riparian Zone protects the emergent wetland zone and offers spots with varying solar and moisture conditions for the Oregon spotted frog, Nelson’s checkermallow, Taylor’s checkerspot butterfly, and the cuckoo bird. Aquatic grasses and woody shrubs will prevent soil erosion and filter pollutants. The Forested Prairieland Zone acts as an insulating buffer and provides native grasses, wildflowers like Golden paintbrush, and woody species for butterflies and the cuckoo bird. These habitat regions fluctuate topographically, and it is through the change in elevation that these unique regions emerge and engage with the biotic world. © Daniella Slowik.
I often find high-potential in all future student-designers that I have the opportunity to teach or mentor. However, occasionally a student stands out as a person of such high character, leadership, and skill that I am certain he/she/they will change the future of design. Without a doubt, Daniella will be an influential change-maker in the world.
Kristi M. Park, Lecturer, University of Washington, Department of Landscape Architecture
Through a combination of factors like the triennial fire regime and networks of trails and educational resources throughout this site, a thriving relationship between humans and ecology can develop. An integrated trail network will allow visitors to explore, study, and meditate within the wildlife haven but at a distance that prioritizes and protects the needs of each endangered species. © Daniella Slowik.
Dani is inquisitive, engaged, and focused. She works hard not only to advance her own thinking but do so in a way that supports her peers. Dani recognizes that design education isn’t about advancing an individual’s approach to develop solutions, but a collective effort to advance opportunities and develop new perspectives.
Ken P. Yocom, Professor and Chair, University of Washington, Department of Landscape Architecture
This project involves capping the West Oakland BART Station with a terraced, vegetated transit lid. Taking advantage of the site’s contaminated soil, this green infrastructure will stitch the two fragmented halves of West Oakland and provide space for public parks, phytoremediative gardens, festivals, and year-round farmer’s markets. The existing parking lot will be reformed to its prior wetland habitat to mitigate climate-related events like flooding and sea level rise. The densely vegetated site will also function as a therapeutic outdoor space for residents and visitors. Exercise equipment, educational wayfinding, meditative trails, and local art exhibitions will celebrate the culture of the neighborhood and invite people to regularly return to this space. © Daniella Slowik.
Daniella Slowik
University of Washington
Department of Landscape Architecture
Daniella Slowik
, a biracial Puerto Rican woman in her second year of the Bachelor of Landscape Architecture program at the University of Washington, discovered nature’s ability to comfort, inspire, and rejuvenate at an early age. Her experience with Tourette’s syndrome granted her “an intriguing blend of tics, curiosity, and challenges.” She often retreated to the therapeutic oasis of her mother’s garden for respite and peace. These memories are deeply embedded into her design values and have influenced her desire to develop landscape-based systems that restore the health of sensitive ecosystems and invite underrepresented communities to experience the therapeutic benefits of the natural world.