Defensive Landscape

Commissioned for Counterpublic by curator Diya Vij, regenerative land sculptor and activist Jordan Weber’s Defensive Landscape is now installed at Peace Park. This permanent installation marks a milestone in the reenvisioning of Peace Park and opens a new chapter for College Hill residents and visitors to engage with the space.

For more than 20 years, Peace Park has served as an informal gathering place in College Hill. First envisioned by activist Otis Woodward, the vacant block became a hub for care and mutual aid. Following Woodward’s passing in 2015, residents and partners—including Green City Coalition, Land Reutilization Authority, Arbolope Studios, and Washington University—have worked to transform the site into a permanent community park, anchored by the historic Grand Avenue Water Tower.

Defensive Landscape plays a central role in this transformation. Building on Arbolope Studio’s overall redesign—which introduces new playscapes, plantings, shade, seating, and design-build projects by Washington University—Weber’s site-specific earthwork was realized in collaboration with community and institutional partners to advance long-standing and ecological goals for the park.

Serving as a permanent rainwater garden that redirects nearly half a million gallons of stormwater away from flood-prone zones, the work also functions as a gathering space and play area featuring obsidian and bronze monuments inscribed with histories of local abolitionist networks, contemporary resources for St. Louis residents of color, and a sculptural water mister shaped like a melting football field that offers respite and play. Together, these elements create a site for remediation, regeneration, and collective care. Long-term stewardship of Peace Park will be held by the GCC Community Land Trust, the Land Reutilization Authority and Jubilee Services.

“Defensive Landscape is a direct response to the harmful legacy of discriminatory urban planning that has left Black neighborhoods in St. Louis, and across the US vulnerable to environmental injustice,” comments Curator Diya Vij. “Through soil repair, water remediation, and community-centered design, the work advances Jordan Weber’s regenerative ecologies practice—one that heals the land while fortifying the communities that care for it. More than a work of art, this is a lasting investment in the health, resilience, and future of College Hill.”

“To heal the land is to heal the body,” adds Jordan Weber. “We hope Defensive Landscape offers a place to play, to gather, to plot the future, and most importantly, to breathe clean and open air.”