Erosion Control Archives | Marek Landscaping

Residential Living Retaining Wall, Bluff Trail, and Bluff Restoration

Megan Foley — Sun, 08 Mar 2026 14:34:49 +0000

The focus of this project was to stabilize and maintain the former UW-Milwaukee Chancellor’s residential lakeshore bluff, which had eroded to within 8 feet of the porch steps. Working with a geo-technical engineer, Marek Landscaping designed a solution that included a 15 foot high and 90 foot long Filtrexx Living Wall. The Filtrexx system consisted of lightweight geo-foam block back-fill material, soil anchors, and 3” galvanized pipe tied to layers of geo-grid wrapped around every two layers of Filtrexx Sock at the face of the wall. Native seed and restoration shrub plantings were used for slope stabilization.

In addition to stabilizing the bluff and creating the Living Wall, the team also built a trail down to the Lake Michigan beach and designed and installed a cantilevered deck at the top of the bluff.

The project received a 2015 Award of Merit in the Residential Category from the Wisconsin Chapter of the American Association of Landscape Architects (WI ASLA).

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Menomonee River North Bank

Marek — Tue, 25 Oct 2016 14:06:38 +0000

This project restored 1,000 linear feet of eroded riverbank and created a multi-use trail along the north bank of the Menomonee River between 33rd and 35th Street. The scope of the design work included a site investigation and vegetation analysis, planting plans, river access planning, native species selection, river access planning, green infrastructure — including a tamarak-lined bioswale, and development of a long-term restoration and management plan. We worked with a highly diverse and integrated team of civil engineers, fisheries ecologists, and fluvial geomorphologist, to implement a fabric-encapsulated soil (FES) system to reform and stabilize the riverbank. Positive outcomes included, contamination clean-up, infrastructure protection, water quality improvement, and balancing of the adjacent aquatic ecosystem. The highly diverse riparian plant community was designed to withstand tough urban conditions which will aid in the stabilization of the river bank, and benefit wildlife and fisheries ecology as well as surrounding neighborhoods.

“We put the bio in bio-engineering”

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