The University of Florida (UF) partnered with the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation (NYC Parks) to bridge design communication needs with education and training for landscape architecture design students. UF students learnt about and contributed to a real-world urban dam removal project in NYC. This pedagogical and research undertaking is funded by New York State Water Resources Institute (NYSWRI) at Cornell University. NYC Parks is working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to restore fish passage and enhance riparian and ecological conditions via dam removal at the Bronx Zoo Double Dam and the New York Botanical Garden Stone Mill Dam on the Bronx River. Dam removal at the Double Dam will provide an additional five acres of aquatic habitat and open 0.6 river miles for river herring and other species. Dam removal at the Stone Mill Dam will open 6.5 additional river miles, up to the next upstream barrier in Westchester. Because these dams are on land managed by beloved public institutions, the sites are highly visible, accessible, and programmed. NYC Parks required landscape architecture and design communication expertise to balance these constraints with the project’s ecological and engineering goals. UF students, guided by UF faculty, developed visualizations for dam removal scenarios to initiate ideation and communication for the project. The creative student outcomes visualized 2 scenes- the existing dam sites and their projected futures after removing the dams. The products generated by students as part of coursework were an academic exercise, meant to broaden the possibilities of imagination for the dam sites. It must be noted that this was a design communications course and not a design studio. The focus of the discussion is around experimental storytelling and a diversity of visual languages categorized by theme. The student objective was to critically engage with the tools and processes of design communication with little to no emphasis on landscape design. The research outcome of the landscape architecture synthesis hopes to facilitate a broader conversation around design thinking and visualization as the project moves forward.