A landscape architectural design by four JMU students provides a possible solution to flood mitigation efforts at the Wharf Lot in Staunton.
Two August 2020 floods affected the Wharf Lot and created more than $3 million in damages in downtown Staunton. In early March 2025, the city was made aware of structural concerns after an evaluation by an engineering firm, which led to temporary closure of the lot. More than a month later, the Johnson Street entrance to the lot remains closed.
As part of a class project, the students created a landscape architecture design intended to prevent flooding at the Wharf. Architecture is 50 percent keeping water out of materials, time and effort, according to junior Shaun Davis. Water can seep into anything and is responsible for the most damage to buildings and property.
“It can just cause so much damage so quickly,” Davis, who is majoring in Architectural Design, said.
In his junior studio class, Davis and three classmates, Lupita Gonzalez-Hernandez, Alana Hopkins and Ty Lafferty, created a solution for Staunton’s Wharf Lot.
“They were trying to provide other solutions, which is what we did,” Davis said of his and his classmates’ project, which was a follow-up to last year’s class assignment.
Their professor, Traci Wile, brought the Wharf Lot situation to their attention because she lives on Byers Street. The class assignment was to create a proposal for daylighting of Lewis Creek and provide space for flood mitigation, open space and a public bathroom (especially for use on Farmers Market Saturdays).
The project would emphasize “vegetation and the way the flood moves, because it’s inevitable it will move,” Davis said of flood mitigation for the Wharf. Green space rather than structures is more appropriate for areas that frequently flood. In the student’s design, flood benches around the entire Wharf Lot would create a natural amphitheater area. The students created a “design to work with [flooding],” not work against what is inevitable.
“What we’re trying to design is a solution for it,” Davis said of architecture and the class project.
Staunton Mayor Michele Edwards and some members of Staunton City Council attended a presentation of the project.
“They’ve got their eye out for us,” Davis said.
The students are willing to work with the community and weigh needs, but most of the parking at the Wharf would be eliminated in the design. Davis said the main goal is the students are still discovering, as they would with any architectural project, what the space might become. Their hope is for a green, sustainable space where the community can “gather,” but also a functional space in case of flooding. Less parking and more green is an “ideal solution to that space.”
Davis’s plan after he graduates JMU in 2026 is to go into construction management. He hopes to get his masters in civil engineering at UVA and perhaps start his own firm in Virginia or Tennessee.
“I just think that [Virginia] has a lot of opportunity for what I want to do,” Davis, who grew up in Madison Heights, said of the future.
The class project about the Wharf Lot offered Davis a lot of hands-on experience for what a career could be in architecture.
“It honestly kind of made me fall in love with the project that much more,” Davis said of the possibility of the students’ design being seriously considered by the city.
Related stories:
Staunton: Wharf, Byers Street closed for emergency repairs Friday
Staunton to limit traffic around the Wharf for safety reasons
Staunton: City responds to infrastructure concerns with new entrance to Wharf Lot
Staunton: Tunnel work begins city-wide flood mitigation efforts
Staunton: Unknown cost of Wharf Lot tunnel improvements requires city tax increase
Share
Rebecca Barnabi
