NOMA Sculpture Garden Expansion

The Sculpture Garden is an extension of our work on the Greater New Orleans Urban Water Plan where we advised the city on how to live with water. The site is located adjacent to a system of lakes on the southern end of New Orleans’ City Park. The runoff from the city tributary to Bayou St John and surrounding areas flows through the site into the intricate network of channels and lakes before eventually falling into Lake Pontchartrain, making this area of City Park a significant hydraulic corridor for this part of the city.

Sherwood worked with New Orleans Museum of Art and Reed Hilderbrand to implement a low impact development approach that used stormwater best management practices, a floodable site design, and enhancement of the visitor experience. The LID stormwater infrastructure features rain gardens and wetlands placed in different areas of the waterfront to cleanse the city water flowing throughout the site before being discharged into the surrounding lakes. The strategically placed natural treatments promote the slowing, storing, and re-using of water and pumping only when necessary. Water elements were designed to not only manage the inundation of stormwater but amplify visitor experience and the aesthetic and acoustic qualities of the sculpture garden.