This retaining wall’s 7.5 tons of concrete – or “urbanite”, as recycled concrete is sometimes called – is 100% reclaimed from local sidewalks. In 2009, the City of Ann Arbor began requiring residents to replace damaged sidewalks on their properties, which led to an abundance of this material at the local concrete yard. Since sidewalk concrete is generally poured to a uniform thickness, it makes good material for stacking if you have enough of it.

All except the top course of these concrete pieces were dry-stacked, without mortar, in the manner of a traditional Old World rockwall. As with real stones, installation is a laborious yet artfully meditative process of selecting just the right pieces for each spot in the wall.

The thickest, bottom-most course is completely under ground level, and many large pieces throughout the wall actually reach deep into the hill (deeper than the topmost course would suggest) for added structural integrity.  An equal volume of earth was first removed in order to make space for the wall and then returned as backfill behind a gravel drainage layer.

[more images coming soon]