Beautiful by design.

Most evenings, the lagoons are simply the view. A heron stalks the shallows. A bass breaks the surface. The last light turns the water gold behind the house. It all feels as if it has always been here, and that was exactly the plan.

The first problem was rain

In the early 1970s, the Boston firm Sasaki, Dawson & DeMay set out to plan a community on a low barrier island ringed by marsh. The first problem they faced was rain. On land this low and this flat, every storm needed somewhere to go. Their answer became the signature of The Landings: 151 lagoons, engineered to carry water off the island and shaped to look as though nature had put them there.

A secret beneath the surface

Beneath that calm surface, many of the lagoons hold a secret. Hidden gates, called water control structures, let the Association lower a lagoon before a big storm arrives. The water drops, the lagoon makes room, and when the rain comes, the overflow flows out to the marsh.

Back to everyday work

When the skies clear, the same water goes back to its everyday work. It helps keep the golf courses green. It feeds largemouth bass and bream in the freshwater lagoons, and red drum and spotted sea trout in the brackish ones. And every evening, it becomes the view from a great many back porches, walking, playing golf and enjoying our magnificent island.

So the next time you walk past a lagoon, take a second look. It is beautiful, yes. It is also fifty years of quiet, careful engineering, still doing its job.

Questions people ask

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