For two months this summer, the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., is hosting an indoor mini-golf course. SOM is one of several firms in the D.C. area to contribute to the course by designing and constructing a hole inspired by an actual building, landscape, or monument.
SOM’s design for the mini-golf hole was inspired by the topography of Washington, D.C. The original Pierre L’Enfant “Plan for the City of Washington” and a recent satellite image were overlaid to create the form of “CONFLUENCE,” which refers to the city’s two rivers that serve as a path for the golf ball. The path begins at the mouth of the Potomac River and turns upstream to the Anacostia before reaching the cup. An exaggerated grid of extruded 2″ x 2″ wooden blocks were used in the construction of the hole and articulate the city’s changing topography and subsequent urban development.
Confluence
July 4 – September 3, 2012
National Building Museum
401 F Street NW
Washington, D.C. 20001