A Seawall That Proves Strong Infrastructure Can Be Pretty, Too

Seawalls are considered boring and plain, but this seawall definitely made a change…

We all have had that once encounter with seawalls once in our lives, and we know that they can sometimes be ugly, un-manicured slabs of concrete that the owners doesn’t even care to mend as long as its doing its job. Its definitely nice to put up a seawall especially when you’re living off the coast of the beach. But in this case, due to Vancouver witnessing some badass record breaking tides back in December of 2012, everyone in English Bay coastline had to suffer with what they call ‘king tides’ that go up a tenth of their property and washing away everything it can. It was due to the gravitational pull of the sun and moon, but It has been making a lot of problems for homeowners since they don’t want their property to be washed away.

Barne Sali and Roxanne Diaz were specifically growing some plants, so it was a big deal to them. They talked with the city inspectors and they were advised to put up a fence because, nature is nature, and we can make commands and alter nature. In any case, this led to the couple hiring a landscape architect who will be able to get the job done.

But speaking of building seawalls, you wont actually be having thoughts of hiring an architect to get the job done, but an engineer or a contractor. Well, that is if you don’t want to spend as much as 650,000 Canadian dollars (USD 478,000). Anyway, what the couple had in mind is something that is something to do with agriculture and hired Vikas Tanwar’s team. They then have to work with biologists and engineers to make amends of what their client want and it soon turned to be a public art. The seawall is a beautiful design using the natural formations of sandstone done in geometric shapes that makes it a little more badass than it really is.

And as for a wall, it is something that you can be proud of and this is definitely not something that you will be seeing every day. The wall’s finish is Corten steel that is filled with shortcreate (a concrete blasted out of a hose) and along with the geometric shapes of the structure made it look like its going to be rolling at the waves if it spreads. The exterior material used, Corten, is also known to last up to 75-100 years of water battering it. Those walls also made us remember of bouncers in clubs that are able to hold on and maintain peace and control over everyone else in the club. Anyway, that wall can also be thought of as a sculpture since it looks like one especially with that rustic color.

The design also won an award back in September from the American Society of Landscape Architects. Never will people be able to think of seawalls as plain boring concrete, since this one is out of the box. This will definitely be copied and used as inspiration in designs all over the neighboring cities and states.