Rebuilding Place in the Urban Space

"A community’s physical form, rather than its land uses, is its most intrinsic and enduring characteristic." [Katz, EPA] This blog focuses on place and placemaking and all that makes it work--historic preservation, urban design, transportation, asset-based community development, arts & cultural development, commercial district revitalization, tourism & destination development, and quality of life advocacy--along with doses of civic engagement and good governance watchdogging.

Wednesday, March 27, 2024

Gaps in Parks Master Planning: Part Five | Planning for Public Art as an element of facilities

  Gaps in park master planning frameworks

-- "Gaps in Parks Master Planning: Part One | Levels of Service"
-- "Gaps in Parks Master Planning: Part Two | Academic Research as Guidance"
-- "Gaps in Parks Master Planning: Part Three | Planning for Climate Change/Environment"
-- "Gaps in Parks Master Planning: Part Four | Planning for Seasonality, Activation and Public Art as an element of facilitiesn"
-- "Gaps in Parks Master Planning: Part Five | Planning for Public Art as an element of facilities"
-- "Gaps in Parks Master Planning, Part Six | Art(s) in the Park(s) as a program "
-- "Gaps in Parks Master Planning: Part Seven | Civic Engagement"
-- "Gaps in Parks Master Planning: Part Eight | Park Architectural (and Landscape Design) History
-- "Gaps in Parks Master Planning: Part Nine | Second stage planning for parks using the cultural landscape framework

Public art in parks and as an element of facilities.  This is a different issue from arts programming more generally, which is the subject of the next entry.

Gary Webb’s artwork Squeaky Clean takes the form of an interactive public sculpture and is a permanent commission situated in Charlton Park, Greenwich. Built from steamed wood, polished aluminium and cast resin, the work combines brightly coloured and large-scale public sculpture with elements of modular playground equipment. The work is aimed at local users of the park and the local community.

Many parks have public art programs that display public art, usually sculpture or murals ("Lauren Haynes to Be New Head Curator on Governors Island," New York Times, "Governors Island in New York: Public art installations," TimeOut New York).  From the article:
“We have big ambitions for the arts program here, which is to be New York’s pre-eminent public art destination,” said Clare Newman, the president and chief executive of the Trust, a nonprofit organization created by the city to develop and operate the island as a recreational and cultural resource. 
Mark di Suvero at Governors Island, presented by Storm King Art Center.  Photo: Donald Yip.
... “We have fantastic examples of public art throughout the city, but what makes Governors Island unique is really our location and the fact that it’s an experience to get here,” Haynes said. The idea of disconnecting from the city, while still visible, and reconnecting to nature on the island, she continued, “feels like where the opportunity is.”
Murals and other types of sculpture placement can be a mix of permanent and temporary installations, displaying sculptures, billboards like on the High Line in New York, etc.


Sculpture at Red Butte Garden, Salt Lake.

High Trestle Bridge on the Trestle Trail at night, Iowa

An advantage of ephemerality is that after awhile, patrons may take permanent pieces for granted and pay less attention.  Not the High Trestle Bridge...

The NoMA Business Improvement District and the Metropolitan Branch Trail in Washingtonp DC hold a mural festival each year, affiliated with Pow Wow, where the previous year's murals get painted over.  The Sioux Falls Sculpture Walk changes each year also.

Metropolitan Branch Trail.  Flickr photo by Joe Flood

Each year the High Line installs a new art billboard.  This is by John Baldessari.


Neon signs from Boston area defunct businesses displayed on the Rose Kennedy Greenway 
Boston Globe).


The Gates, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Central Park, New York City, 2005

Separately, murals as an element of public art are often used by communities as a way to call attention to a district and move revitalization objectives forward ("10 new murals added in South Salt Lake for 6th annual Mural Fest," ABC4).  Philadelphia's Mural Arts Project is a national leader in creating a city wide mural program.

And of course, public art is an element of the built environment in arts districts like the Wynnwood Walls in Miami ("How the Wynwood Walls Have Shaped Miami's Art Scene," Architectural Digest) or the Neon District in Norfolk, Virginia.

Murals in the Wynwood neighborhood in Miami, Florida. 
Photo: Josh Ritchie, Guardian

Hell, Time To Go Fishin’,” displayed on the sidewalk in front of Sarasnick’s Hardware., Bridgeville Pennsylvania.  Photo: Teagan Stoudemire, Pittsburgh Post Gazette.  From "He's not hot, he's just buzzed by the public art in Bridgeville."

There is also a special event variant of special night time illumination (Georgetown BID's Glow, Austin's Waterloo Greenway's Creekside Festival, Oakland's Lakeside Gardens Autumn Lights Festival, traveling shows), often as a fundraiser.  (There is also the variant of park holiday lighting in December).  

Waterloo Greenway

Prismatic public art/architectural lighting exhibit by RAW Design and ATOMICS3, 
Distributed by Quartiers des Spectacles Internationale (Montreal)

Colorful lights, Lighted paths and trees are part of Dazzling Nights at the Pittsburgh Botanic Garden

Some parks also have temporary exhibits featuring photos, like Millennium Park in Chicago and the plaza of the Gare de Lyon train station in Paris.

"Dancing in the street" à la Cité de la Mode et du Design, Peter Knapp. Photo: SNCF

Incorporating public art into park facilities


Regardless of active public art display programs, most park systems fail to take "public art" to the next level by incorporating artistic treatments into what would otherwise be regular facilities, be it restrooms, playground equipment, pavilions, street furniture, or other facilities ("Using art to define our parks," NRPA, "Children’s play area design: How landscape architects set the stage for fun and games," Stantec.

Greenhouse, Dalston Curve Garden, Hackney, London
Every year the Garden’s Rainbow Greenhouse is transformed into a magical shadow lantern, using cut-out paper silhouettes. This community artwork brings colour and light in the dark winter months

A log climbing structure at Verna Playground at FDR Park, Philadelphia

Basketball courts painted as a mural.  Trinity Art Court Trinity Park, Fort Worth
Artists: Arnoldo Hurtado, Noel Viramontes and Ricky Cotto

Concept for a shade pergola as public art, Phoenix.

Funtime Unicorns playground equipment by Derrick Adams


Dionicio Rodriguez "faux bois" bus stop, 
originally created for the San Antonio streetcar system, c. 1927

Reproduction of a Seurat painting on a public restroom in Saugatuck, Michigan

Everett, Massachusetts.  Boston Globe Photograph

Archway as part of the trailhead for the Sauk Rail Trail in Lake View, Iowa. 
Photo: Philip Joens/Des Moines Register

Park entrances. Are opportunities for public art treatments.  Historically, park entrances may have been marked by archways, piers, and other architectural elements.  But in the modern era, such treatments are rare.

Lincoln Park Gateway, art deco, 1933, Los Angeles

Rusch Community Park entrance, new construction, Citrus Heights, California

Gage Park, Topeka Capital-Journal photo by Chris Neal.



Accessing parks by road and sidewalk can be opportunities for public art treatments.

Indianapolis Cultural Trail

Art crosswalk in Lima, Peru, by Carlos Cruz-Diez

Miami, Carlos Cruz-Diez

Being systematic.  Using Transformational Projects Action Planning as a way to be innovative at multiple scales, the best way is to incorporate the opportunity to incorporate public art into facilities is to add it to the project checklist as an item to consider for every project ("A wrinkle in thinking about the Transformational Projects Action Planning approach: Great public buildings aren't just about design, but what they do").

For example one of the most stunning trail public art projects is the Waukee Railroad Pergola.  There is a nearby restroom built out of block and value engineered.  They could have treated the restroom as public art just as they did the bridge.


Located at the trailhead of the Raccoon River Valley Trail in Waukee, Iowa, the Waukee Railroad Pergola: In The Shadow of the Rails is a dynamic integration of public art and infrastructure based on the history of the railroad and creates a unique experience for visitors and a destination for bicyclists and pedestrians.

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Tuesday, March 26, 2024

Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in Baltimore: ferry/water taxi services as an option?

Photo: WJLA-TV

A tragedy this morning as the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore collapsed after being hit by a container ship. 

It's a key element of the roadway network--the bridge is part of Interstate 695, the freeway that rings the city but mostly in the suburbs, called the "Baltimore Beltway", carrying an estimated 12.4 million vehicles per year-- and its collapse means it blocks the Patapsco River entry into the Port of Baltimore ("Baltimore Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse: What we know about ship and bridge," BBC).

It's not like a freeway span in California or Philadelphia ("How commuters avoided ‘carmageddon’ after the I-95 bridge collapse Drivers," Washington Post) that can be replaced relatively quickly.  It will be down for a long time.  Although it's possible that many people can adjust.  According to the Post, in Philadelphia:

Drivers, helped by real-time traffic apps, public transit and more liberal work-from-home policies, quickly adjusted their habits to avoid gridlock

That won't help the Port...

The New York Times quoted a woman concerned about her ability to get to her job:

Marquita Finch, 38, was among a dozen or so people who climbed an embankment along a highway in Dundalk, just south of Baltimore, to see the collapsed bridge. The job she was supposed to be at this morning was just on the other side of the bridge. “I’m probably going to lose that job,” she said. A lot of people would probably lose their jobs, she said. 

I wonder if it's possible to institute a ferry/water service there in the interim, so people can cross more easily, so Marquita Finch won't lose her job.

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Gaps in Parks Master Planning: Part Four | Planning Programming, for Seasonality and Activation

 Gaps in park master planning frameworks

-- "Gaps in Parks Master Planning: Part One | Levels of Service"
-- "Gaps in Parks Master Planning: Part Two | Academic Research as Guidance"
-- "Gaps in Parks Master Planning: Part Three | Planning for Climate Change/Environment"
-- "Gaps in Parks Master Planning: Part Four | Planning for Seasonality and Activation"
-- "Gaps in Parks Master Planning: Part Five | Planning for Public Art as an element of facilities"
-- "Gaps in Parks Master Planning, Part Six | Art(s) in the Park(s) as a program "
-- "Gaps in Parks Master Planning: Part Seven | Civic Engagement"
-- "Gaps in Parks Master Planning: Part Eight | Park Architectural (and Landscape Design) History
-- "Gaps in Parks Master Planning: Part Nine | Second stage planning for parks using the cultural landscape framework

Some park systems do seasonality and activation within their plans and programs.   

For example the Salt Lake City park master plan, ReImagine Nature, does discuss programming and activation.   

Still, a majority of parks master plans don't address these items in a systematic enough way.

And definitely not in terms of actively providing programming.

Types of park spaces.  Image: Integrated Public Realm, Glatting Jackson.


Flexible spaces allow for flexible uses.  This Boston Globe article, "‘Sticky’ places are urban planning lifelines Shared spaces build community and are key to alleviating America’s loneliness epidemic. Here’s how to create them.," discusses the design of spaces like parks in ways that foster interaction and connection.  This concept extends to the organization and delivery of programming.

-- "What makes a successful place?," Project for Public Spaces
-- "High-Performance Public Spaces: A Tool For Building Great Communities," David Barth

The Project for Public Spaces book How to Turn a Place Around is good for thinking about these issues.  And Learning from Bryant Park: Revitalizing Cities, Towns and Public Spaces too.  

PPS Place diagram, extended version.

Programming.  Programming can be as simple as facilitating groups, organizing play at playgrounds, reading time at playgrounds, making sports equipment available so people can play without having to have equipment, organizing biking training, facilitating "drop in" play time without permits, etc.

-- Activating Parks for Stronger, Healthier Cities, City Parks Alliance
-- "Programming parks. How do organized events and activities affect the inclusivity of urban green spaces?," Journal of Leisure Research (2023)
-- "The layering effect: how the building blocks of an integrated public realm set the stage for community building and Silver Spring, Maryland as an example" (2012)

Plan for all age segments and demographics.  When planning for programming it's important to be systematic and address all ages and demographic types (e.g., households with dogs, families, etc.).  Design Workshop, in discussing their Branch Park project in Austin, Texas, expresses this very clearly:

Accommodating All Generations: When people think of parks, they think of children as the main users, but in reality, people of all age ranges benefit from using outdoor spaces. Today’s parks need to be multi-generational and multi-functional, requiring designs and plans that create spaces that accommodate all ages. We must balance the diverse needs of empty nesters seeking outdoor space in which to relax, young adults seeking a space for an evening kickball game, teenagers who want to hang out with friends, and young kids who want to play. At Branch Park, the design team took these various experiences into account, incorporating seating options, shaded areas, viewing gardens, open spaces conducive to informal games, and a playground. The park allows all community members to enjoy the space simultaneously.

Seasonality.  My writings on daypart planning ("Planning programming by daypart, month, season: and Boston Winter Garden, DC's Holiday Market, etc.," 2016) are relevant to parks planning.  

Sugar House Park, Salt Lake City.

Plan for time of day and day of the week sure.  But plan for four seasons of activity, depending on the park and its location.  Make accommodations as needed, from lighting when it's dark to snow clearance in winter--provided your park is used in winter.

In a study for the Bridge Park project in Washington, DC, one team came up with a nice hierarchy for programming for seasonality:

-- Season
-- Month (July 4th, Christmas, New Year's, etc.)
-- National Events (Public Lands Day, Earth Day, etc.) -- not included but should be]
-- DC/city events (e.g., Cherry Blossom Festival in April)
-- Events or programming related to the geographic interest area (neighborhood street festival, etc.)

and then what it calls
-- Private Events
-- Special Events
-- Extended Events (like a farmers market)
-- Festivals.

But this is more about programming around major events, not simple things like reading group at a playground.

Reading to children at Riverside Park, New York City, 1962.  Photo: Neal Boenzi, New York Times

More parks systems are developing outdoor winter programming guidance (Denver Outdoor Adventure and Alternative Sports Strategic Plan), when before use of parks in winter wasn't considered a priority.   


WRT winter and children:

-- "New Survey: Majority of U.S. Adults are Less Active During the Winter," National Recreation and Park Association public art as a park element and presentation
-- "Seasonal Variation in Children’s Physical Activity and Sedentary Time," Medicine & Science in Exercise & Sport, 2016 

The researchers found that physical activity was lower in autumn and winter compared to spring; average activity levels across the group peaked in April at 65.3 min/day and reached their lowest levels in February at 47.8 min/day. Physical activity was at its lowest at weekends during winter. Children were at their most active during early summer, particularly at weekends.

Activation.  There has always been tension in park management over active versus passive use.  Active use tends to focus on heavy duty physical activity, especially team sports.  A lot of time, except at recreation centers, parks aren't actively programmed. 

By default, park users are the programmers, but how they program is determined by the facilities made available to them.  But active use doesn't have to mean team sports, it can just be stuff to do, from the presentation of a movie to a group walk or yoga.  And I think it's important to facilitate this kind of variety when typically parks and recreation departments have focused on sport/athletic uses.

From Salt Lake City's ReImagine Nature park vision plan.  

Salt Lake City's park plan outlines programming opportunities by the month, in terms of different activities in two categories, culture and entertainment, and community and recreation.  

The "wheel" diagram, organized by month, then indicates the months that the various activities, such as yoga, movie nights, pop up events, sledding, outdoor education and dining, are likely to be conducted.

Canada's Park People published a set of short manuals on how to organize various kinds of activities within a park:

-- How to host a picnic in the park
-- How to host a campfire in the park 
-- How to host a movie in the park 
-- How-to connect with nature in the park
-- Adopt a park tree manual

Montgomery County Maryland has an initiative to do more activation, especially of smaller spaces in more urban areas, as are more parks systems elsewhere.

-- Energized Public Places Functional Master Plan

Types of park spaces

Laird Park's Movie Night is sponsored by local realty company Niche Homes.

Neighborhood Parks.  Laird Park, a neighborhood park in one of Salt Lake's most historic neighborhoods, has a lot of activity going on, although it's more sponsored by local businesses and community groups, but without the creation of a formal Friends group.  It's a great example of ground up park activation.

They have movie nights with food trucks, kids toys left out in the playground for communal use, music events, a huge Easter Egg Hunt, and a Fourth of July parade.  

Neighborhood streets.  Not a park function per se, but parklets, "streeteries"--parklets used by restaurants, dining in the street, public space treatments and initiatives may involve parks departments as partners.

Parklet

Regional Parks.  In park categorization systems, large multi-faceted parks tend to be called regional parks, and can have an array of activities.  There are many examples.  In Salt Lake, Liberty Park is like New York City's Central Park, and Pioneer Park serves downtown, and is a hub of activity such as during the Saturday Farmers Market.   

Toronto and some other communities also have a tradition of community brick ovens in parks, run by volunteers which supports bread baking, community potlucks, etc.

-- How To Start A Community Wood-Fired Oven Project
-- "Wolfville community oven serves up meals with side of neighbourly connection," CBC TV
-- Cooking with fire in the public space (pdf)
-- "A Wood-fired Communal Oven In A Park: Why Bother?," PPS (excerpt from Cooking with fire)

Berczy Park Fountain, Toronto.

Plazas, squares, central park spaces, streets and parking lots in neighborhoods and districts, like in Berczy Park in Toronto or Sundance Square Plaza in Fort Worth ("Sundance Square turns 5," Fort Worth Business Press) are other examples of signature parks at a smaller scale.  

Parking lots and streets can become vibrant spaces when repurposed temporarily for farmers markets and other activities.  

Like the Waverly/32nd Street Market in Baltimore ("The Magic of the Waverly Farmers Market," JHU News-Letter, "Finding my way at the Waverly farmers market," Baltimore Sun).

Waverly Market

Pete Seeger tribute singalong, Columbia Heights Plaza, Washington, DC, 2/1/2014
Movable table and chairs, 1100 block East Market.  Tom Gralish, Philadelphia Inquirer
tr
Armenian Heritage Park, Boston Greenway.  Photo: John Tllumacki, Boston Globe.

People kneel in the park at Logan Circle during a vigil as protests over the death of George Floyd continue on June 9, 2020, in D.C.  Photo: Brendan Smialowski, AFP.

Noe Valley is the only neighborhood in San Francisco with a town square.
It was created by buying a parking lot
San Francisco Chronicle


Sundance Square Plaza, Fort Worth, Texas

Sometimes plazas are poorly placed, like Freedom Plaza in Washington, DC, so they go unused most of the time.  DC's Franklin Square is more centrally located, but wasn't designed for such a function.  Although more recently the National Park Service and the city changed the park so it can serve a more "gathering" function ("D.C. Mayor Bowser cuts ribbon on newly renovated Franklin Square," Washington Post).

Franklin Square, Daniel Slim/AFP via Getty Images

Freedom Plaza, DC

Interior versus exterior plazas.  While most plazas and squares are what we might call exterior spaces, which are open blocks, sometimes these spaces are interior spaces, bounded by buildings, like courtyards but large.  

One example is the Gallivan Center in Downtown Salt Lake.  This space is managed by the Downtown Alliance and includes programmed events like concert series and special events, and when there aren't events, the space is open, and includes facilities, like painted pickleball courts, usable by patrons.  A disadvantage of interior spaces is many people may not know they exist.  Interior spaces are often deployed in more private spaces, like office campuses.

Gallivan Center

Signature Parks/Central Gathering Spaces.  More cities are developing what we might call "signature parks" usually in their downtowns, but not limited to downtowns.  In downtowns, these spaces tend to have leadership from business improvement districts and real estate interests.

-- The Case for Open Space: Why the Real Estate Industry Should Invest in Parks and Open Spaces, ULI

In parks typologies these might be called Regional Parks or Central Gathering Space (squares, plazas).  Depending on their size, activities and programming I would re-term them and call them Signature Parks.

Levy Park, Houston

Guthrie Green, Tulsa

Bryant Park, New York

Discovery Green Park, Houston

Examples include Campus Martius in Detroit ("The Beach at Campus Martius," Project for Public Spaces), Levy Park in Houston (Levy Park, OJB Architecture), also Discovery Green Park in Houston ("History"), Guthrie Green in Tulsa ("Land for you and me: Guthrie Green at 10," Tulsa People Magazine), the expanded Grand Park in Los Angeles ("Take a Tour Around the Civic Center's Huge New Grand Park," Curbed LA), of course Bryant Park ("Inside the transformation of Bryant Park," New York Daily News, "A Place Is Better Than a Plan: Revitalizing urban areas is best done through small improvements, not grand designs," City Journal) in Manhattan, and many more. 

Bentway.  Photo: Bernard Well, Toronto Star.

The Bentway in Toronto ("The Bentway makes magic in a hostile urban space," Toronto Star) and the Underline in Miami are parks created under freeways, and the Bentway especially is actively programmed, especially with its winter ice ribbon.

Campus Martius beach.

These parks are designed to be actively and heavily programmed throughout the day and throughout the year.

They are often strongly branded and marketed.

Operationally, usually they are run by nonprofits separate from a city parks department, may be organized as parks conservancies ("Creating a Park Conservancy that Fits," NRPA) have financial support philanthropically or from the equivalent of a special service/tax district.  In business districts, often parks are managed by business improvement districts ("A business improvement district for a park? Hey, it just might work," amNY).

The way that the South Park Library in Seattle incorporates outdoor space into the library program, as Pavement Park, which was the street in front of the library, is creative.


Trails.  Some trails projects like Waterloo Greenway in Austin ("Waterloo Greenway gets $9M federal grant for second phase of parks system," Austin Monitor) and the Great Rivers Greenways in St. Louis ("Great Rivers Greenway Added More Greenways in 2023 Than Ever," Riverfront Times) are designed similarly, to be active and even if linear focused on connecting and enhancing cultural and other civic assets along the route.

Other examples include the Cynwyd Heritage Trail in Lower Merion Township outside of Philadelphia (this was one of the first plans I read that actively intended to connect various neighborhood, community, and commercial district assets together), the East Side Greenways in Belfast, and the National Capital trails in Ottawa.

Iowa, building on the 50+ year old Register Annual Great Bike Ride Around Iowa event each summer has expanded its trail network greatly, with signature trails including the High Trestle Trail and the Raccoon Valley Trail.  Recreational cycling has become a significant contributor to local economies ("Iowa's bike trails, tourism ambitions, grow along with RAGBRAI," Des Moines Register).

High Trestle Bridge at night.

Open Streets.  Another popular activity is what is called Open Streets, where streets are closed for the day (sometimes in a park like Rock Creek in DC/Maryland, for the weekend) in favor of sustainable mobility and other activities.  This doesn't necessarily happen in a park but could.

Open Streets Minneapolis

Ciclavia, Los Angeles Times photo.


Champs Élysées, Paris

-- Open Streets Design Guide
-- Open Streets Project
-- "Summer Streets NYC 2023: everything you need to know," TimeOut New York
-- "Summer Streets Begins This Weekend, Kicking off for the First Time in All Five Boroughs," press release
-- CicLavia, Los Angeles

Retail space and office building activation.  Shopping centers and other retail districts often use the same activation strategies as parks, libraries, and business districts as a way to attract patrons and keep them in their spaces longer ("Lifestyle centers: the mall is about the city," Interni, "Lifestyle centers: reinvented communities or dressed-up shopping malls?," The Conaversation, "What is a Retail Activation?," Bridgewater Studio, "Malls have transformed themselves into mixed-use lifestyle centers," Modern Retail).   

-- Retailers are investing in lifestyle activations and experiential spaces because theys," WBUR/NPR offer unique and immersive experiences that attract and engage customers. These spaces go beyond traditional shopping environments, creating a sense of community and excitement around their brand, products, or services. By providing memorable experiences, retailers can build stronger connections with customers, increase foot traffic, and foster brand loyalty, ultimately driving sales and enhancing their overall market position in a competitive landscape. -- Adetutu Adeshina.

This is also happening in office districts in the post-covid WFH environment.  

People have to be induced to come back to the office ("How downtown Boston is trying to transform to attract new businesses — and customers," WBUR/NPR).  

Some firms are responding by redesigning spaces and adding amenities  ("Amenities That Encourage Employees to Return to the Office," Facilities.net, "How to Attract Workers Back to the Office in 2023," SVN Northco).

Scheduling/creating, promoting, and distributing calendars.  I think it's important to create a set of anchor events for a park, and a schedule for the year, so that these events can be promoted in an ongoing, regularized fashion.  It should be done both digitally and analog, aiming to maximize communication ("Park City crafts special-event calendar loaded with festivals, sports," Park Record).



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