Precedents

We’ve already seen lots of successful precedents in the design week about overpass project and I was shocked by many creative thinking and works designed by our students. A lot of ideas give me and make me think about what are the overpass and garden related to it doing in Perkins Road? That make me more think about what people do here and what people need here.

The precedents give me some good examples.

• Splash Pad Park is located in Oakland, California and is sited in the north of Lake Merritt. The most useful stuff for the Perkins Road of this project is its liaison to the city and its interesting activity held annually and periodically. The park is along Lake Park Ave, between Grand Ave and Lakeshore Ave, and north of the 580 Freeway. Just because of its important location, the park provides featured liaison to the city, the surrounding business used land, community group and some other neighboring merchants. We could see the park as a connecting spot to those area and connect the surrounding spots together and provide the people a decent a space to hang out and take a brake. The similarity between the surrounding environment of Splash Pad Park and Perkins Road is that both of them incorporate many restaurants and business stuff. So how to connect them together and what kind of space do hang-out people need in this area? Maybe especially create a space for the drunk person… Another big event of this park is its annual event and periodical activity. People use the open area and the column of the overpass to do something specially. Open space is common for Farmers’ Market. And what I found interesting is that people use the pillars of the overpass to do a chalk painting festival. Maybe to some people, overpass’s column is boring , the gray color , the tedious not changed shape and its concrete feeling make people uncomfortable. But when some color painting are put on to them , the space become active accordingly. I am also thinking about to do something on the pillars of the Perkins Road, there are lots of amazing pillars when you are watching them at some specific angles.

• Zaanstadt overpass, another highway overpass that has split a neighborhood in the Dutch city of Zaanstadt for decades. What make this park featured is that it provide a lot of sports area for the people, say skatepark, basketball court, soccer fields. But what useful for the Perkins Road I think is this outside area of overpass, Zaanstadt also provides some open area and sports area outside the overpass. These areas are in the different usage according to their surrounding building and environment. For instance —

“In front of the church, it was decided to free the square of the existing greenery to make the space flexible for housing open air fairs and celebrations. On the paving of the refurbished square, with a change in the colour of the blocks, the urban fabric that preceded the building of the motorway is redrawn. From time to time pieces of wood set into the paving indicate the position of the living rooms of old demolished houses.”

“On the town hall side there is a new park with topographical features that adds a little green to the intervention. The park includes a bowling ground, a small grassy hill planted with birch trees, a space for barbecues and a football pitch surrounded by a metal fence.”

So in terms of Perkins Road, what kind of space does people need when they are out of overpass and what’s kind of space fit into the surrounding area? I think when I am going to design the area I really should take all of this into serious consideration.

• Burnside Skatepark , located in Portland, Oregon, is almost the most successful and most famous skatepark. When I was reading the story of the park, I found that what seriously does people need on the site is very crucial for the space. Burnside Skatepark was exactly how develop from this way, the designer and his partner needed a space for skating and they thought of different ways to skate. The park developed from a baby skatepark to a diverse usage park is a perfect explanation that what does people exactly need in the area. Apparently this park is cool stuff when I took the first look at it, but when I explored more meaningful things, I found that the park fulfill people’s need on the site and people really could enjoy themselves and could do whatever they want. The FUNCTIONAL aspect! That also what is useful for Perkins Road — I was always shock by very cool / amazing image and landscape when I was in the first touch of landscape architecture so that made me kind of ignored the real functional need of people for the space. I think I should seriously consider what people do and what people need for the park this time.

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