Some may say St. Louis has lost its connection to why we are here—the Mississippi River, its tributaries, and watersheds. There are multiple factors for this, ranging from the literal erasures of nature-based systems, as well as to the cultural erasures of indigenous, riverfront, marginalized communities and others in the St. Louis region. More recently, our region has been besieged by climate change-based extreme weather events. These cultural and environmental challenges affect all of us since we are all connected by water as a shared resource. But water may be our greatest asset, and the clue for an optimistic future, and particularly for the future of the landscape architecture profession. 

Hoeferlin’s umbrella research project “Way Beyond Bigness: The Need for a Watershed Architecture," challenges design disciplines, including landscape architects, to collaborate outside their disciplinary definitions to confront large-scale challenges, such as climate change and infrastructural management, and to promote future trans-boundary sustainable futures, ones that are “way beyond bigness.” More importantly, this is done so across multiple scales of watersheds, defined as "watershed architecture." Hoeferlin’s book of the same title highlights his comprehensive work of almost two decades, including in depth comparative field research across the Mississippi, Mekong and Rhine, along with a diverse body of academic and multi-disciplinary professional collaborations and contributions, ranging from the speculative to the community-based. 

Hoeferlin will first present an overview of the book and more specifically the Mississippi watershed, and then home in on how it specifically relates to the St. Louis region. Additional presentations of local projects by book contributors include Jennifer Colten and her ongoing photographic documentation “between the levee and the river” in the American Bottom, and by Roo Yawitz on the river ring advocacy efforts spearheaded by River City Foundation and Big Muddy Adventures.