problems…
Some problems also come with the solution of refining the design of the park .
- Is it too seperated for the three parts in the park ? How to make them merge better?
- How to seperate the open gathering area in the north to the adjacent residence house?
- How to connect the bridge to the edge of the park? I worry about how people use the edge of the park…
- How to draw children to the educational area in the south? What is more attractive to the kids?
I remember the jury in the last review say how to make it more sense to the community although what I designed gave the idea for the whole city-levee breaking, floating water and wetland for protection. To be honest , I am still not sure how to make more sense to the community . Am I on the right direction … what Donnelly Park mean to the community …
There is always more problems when you are exploring more and trying to touch deeper meaningful area…
rethinking about the park more deeply…
I have end up with building a wetland in the south area of the park , I was trying to think about how to make this wetland more access to people. I do not like the idea that just build a simply path go through the wetland. Some pictures I saw online inspired me to create a boardwalk bridge hanging over the wetland would be cool and more interesting.
The floating shape boardwalk over the wetland also gave the idea of the floating water/flooding and the different elevated bridge could make a different experience underneath, the different height of the bridge also correspond to the landform underneath it . But it seems that I still need build another path in the water to make people get closer to the plants.
When I build a wetland in the south of the park, I have seperated the park into two totally different area, and I was trying to merge them better. I initially thought about use some wetland plants on the edge of the wetland , probably could be used as a buffer area from land to wetland. But after I thought of the idea of creating a boardwalk bridge , I found it is easy to figure out this problem.
let’s put the end of the bridge to the landform on the land and let the end of some bridge to be submerged to the water. That reinforce the idea of using the bridge in the park and put the landform on the spot. I know wetland could protect the city from severe flooding but who knows there is not going to be another big flooding in New Orleans. So the idea of putting the end of the bridge in the water is to envision the future that something will happen…
In terms of the three initial floating shape in the north of the park which giving the idea of the break of the levee, I want to get rid of them. It has less interesting… But I continued on the idea, making a gentle topography that sloping down to the south and building retaining wall which also in the same shape… anyway, I will try this on some models and see what will happen…
After explored my idea more, I found it is becoming more clear in the program, north open space – sports, meeting, gathering, south wetland area – education, walking. The weaker space in the park for this moment is the floating shape landform on the land , I am not sure what will happen in this area and what exactly people will do here , but I am thinking of put a more natural path in the area.
Putting a tree trunk embedded in the ground as the edge of the path to remind people the destroy of the tree in Katrina.
what is wetland and what is its benefits?
I began rethinking about the park with searching some more information about what the hell is wetland. I feel like it seems that there is no chance to create a real wetland just like in the real nature world because of the small scale of the park. But some benefits of the wetland that I learn online gave me some inspiration.
- Facilitating subdivision/development
- Providing aesthetically pleasing surroundings
- Improving water quality
- Continuous water source
- Reducing flooding — this makes more sense especially in New Orleans
- Providing wildlife habitats and corridors — let me quote something about relationship between animals and plants in the wetland : “Submerged portions of all aquatic plants provide habitats for many micro and macro invertebrates. These invertebrates in turn are used as food by fish and other wildlife species (e.g. amphibians, reptiles, ducks, etc.). After aquatic plants die, their decomposition by bacteria and fungi provides food (called “detritus”) for many aquatic invertebrates. Seeds of bulrushes are consumed by ducks and other birds while geese, muskrats, and nutria consume the rhizomes and early shoots.“ I do not want my wetland to be a crazy area , but I guess if there is a few cut animals in Donnelly Park, children probably would like it, say , some fish, ducks, birds etc.
- Providing recreational and educational experiences — this benefit inspired me a lot, I initially thought I would do a big thing for this purpose in my wetland area. I have searched some wetland plants and I could put them in the park, combining my landform I probably could create an interesting place for the children.
some more wetland plants —
Marsh Marigold (emerge from shallow water or on small mounds) : I thought maybe I could put it on my landform
these three plants are what I saw in Crosby Aboretum , I’ve no idea what the name of the last species, if you know, please leave a comment.
wetland
I am thinking about build an area of wetland in my project, in terms of ecology issue, maybe I could build some diverse plants species in the area. Different kinds of species could provide biodiversity and I feel like this could be benefits for the community. Here are some species I found interesting and maybe suitable for the site,
Cattail – partially submerged with no permantly standing water
Bulrush – Perennial grass ; in shallow water/moist soil
The idea to build a wetland sort of made me nervous, because the landform I created before is an urban form,but the wetland is a natural stuff, so how to make them fit together is a problem.
feedback…
It could be good to tell a story through a park, but the concept of the Katrina story is just a general talk. I guess I should focus on how it really function in the community, how the neighborhood use this space. And also get rid of some hardscape , that is too much for the site , and think about the plants , the arrangement is too formal and they do not function well in the landscape.
I am still not sure about how to arrange the trees, I saw some projects that incorporate the very formal arrangement for the trees. Is it only happen in the urban space design? Do the neighborhood prefer more natural area on the site? … Anyway, I guess I should explore how a landscape function when the people use it and take a serious consideration what it mean to the community.
Proposal
After struggling to figure out the plan, I found that my initial concept about the flooding is more interesting and it could help me design my plan. I am proud of the concept that tell a story to the people, how Katrina came, how the flooding floated into the city and how the people react to the flooding. I am also happy to build a pretty shape in Sketchup for the first time. But in the end, I was so frustrated by the perspective I did, I am sure I do need more practice on free hand drawing.
Here is my initial sketch about the concept…
and my first time sketchup try…
Sketchup is pretty cool, it could help me to feel the design in real world, when I was changing the angle or zoom in/out, I could feel the space! and it is much easier than 3D max, although I barely remember how to use 3D…
VARIATION + SIMPLICITY
I initially thought the moon shape of the landform was cool and thought of people could hang out on the gentle slope. But I was worry about what could be do with that perpendicular wall. If it is just a cool shape in a landscape , I mean only visual meaning, then in that way it is just wasting space and has no more environmental or deep meaning. So I was trying to think about how to fully use that wall. I was inspired by the chalk painting underneath the freeway in Splash Pad Park and I also found that a park or a landscape is really important/interesting especially for the kids. So I am assuming that the children in the neighborhood could use these walls for their painting. Also, maybe some color mosaic could be put on the wall to show something related to memorial. I am happy I could think of something meaningful for the wall, although it is sort of detailed at this moment.
When I saw my first surface topography model and tried to refined space division , I had a hard time to figure out what space could be look like. How the circulation goes? Where is active/passive space? Where is the entrance? How to connect the sidewalk? But the most difficult thing to figure out is the shape is hard to deal with and space that be made by the shape , sometimes, looks wired… Brad suggested me maybe the shape could be overlapped and the quantity of the shape could be bigger, and someone also said maybe I can think about changing the shape a little bit and that might help me to figure out the space. When I began to arrange the shape in the space randomly and combined some shaped together, I still confused… then a landscape I saw before pop out, the grass was covered the whole area of the space and there was no path, the people who came by this area could ‘design’ a path by themselves by stepping on the grass. Why not let the residence figure out the path or space that could be used by themselves ? So I covered the ground with grass to follow the area where the moon shape goes and use the grass to document people’s step to see where they would go and which space they prefer. I was excited by this idea but the composition from the plan view has something wrong. The edge I put for the grass is sort of control the direction of people to walk where they do not want to go. The space division seem to be not very successful. And the concept and the shape in the park has not be showed completely , they are still not strong …
I feel like I should take a risk to explore the shape and variate them, maybe sometimes exaggerate the shape and concept might help. I should two key points when I am dealing with the next step refined design. VARIATION – that might make the landscape more interesting ; SIMPLICITY – that might make the concept and form strong.
Have fun with clay
I have improved a lot on clay model from the last semester. I had a hard time working on clay last semester. But this time I am having fun with it and enjoy it and I could spend much less time to finish a model. But still, I found that sometime it is sort of hard to made a precise scale model on clay and the shape is still hard to be done.
the perpendicular wall could be used as free standing wall , to plant some trees besides it or set up some sitting…
Paley Park
Paley Park , this pocket park is so simple in its beauty. You cannot believe that you are in a quiet place that located in such bustling avenue. The same thing that could be found in Paley Park and Levi Park is that both of them are in the area of business, and Levi Park provide the dense tree as a barrier to the sound of the road and Paley Park uses a fast running waterfall wall as a backdrop of sound that causes the city noise to fade away.
I’ve known this park several years ago, at that time I was just amazed at its simple design , a ivy-covered wall, waterfall, and some chairs. But at this point , I am also amazed that such simple park could fully serves people’s need , from the movable chairs to the white noise of waterfall, to the dense canopy tree that provide enough shade for people. I like this kind of simple and small space park that could serve both a popular meeting space and a place for relaxation and calm.
The leaves of honey locust tree in front of the white waterfall, I feel like this means a quiet park in a noise avenue
summer & winter – shade & sunshine
Precedents
Levi Park, located in the business district of San Francisco, is owned by Levi’s corporation. It mainly used by the people in the near business building for their lunch brake and some other people who want to have some leisure reading.
- Cons-When I saw some visitors’ review, many visitor said that the security guard there is crazy, they not only prevent the long time stay on the mod but also keep the people’s feet out of water. I have no idea it is the rules by the corporation of by someone else, I just thought in this decent beautiful space that someone could enjoy their lunch and brake, why it keep people no more easy access to the park? The nature of the people is to be close to the water and especially after long time work people really need the color of green, but how people enjoy these if the crazy secure guard keep on doing their rules? It is ridiculous that when someone want to lay down on the sod and is ready to put out his blanket, the secure guard who barely speaks English came by and said, blanket!blanket!NO!
Another cons of the park is the small scale, I am not saying the small scale is no good in terms of a design, but it is just when talking about some specific aspect , say exercise, this kind of small scale is not preferable. Also from the review of some visitors , their football would go out of the park and run into other space when they played. So this made me think about the project in New Orleans , probable when people are playing they need a effective barrier or something to protect their balls , or rather to protect the pedestrian who walking around. This kind of stuff maybe has functional use, but also own that ornamental use or show some interesting , say culture or history issue.
- Pros – The pros in the park not including quick lunch enjoy, but also because of sod covered the most part of park, the space is dog-friendly. And it is said that some jazz bands will hold periodically in the park around the noon time , so that the people enjoying their lunch probably also enjoy the music. This made me think of Donnelly Park. New Orleans is the birth city for jazz, if jazz could amuse the busy business area, it should be used more in its own original place. The people in New Orleans are really crazy about music.
Splash Pad Park sited in the north of Lake Merritt and the scale is pretty much like Donnelly Park. I found it is interesting that someone here do like to do some take-out lunch in the public park and this is viewed as not sort of decent in my country. This happened both in Levi Park and Splash pad park. But I also found that people here value nature and landscape more than in China , so probably that is the reason why people are likely enjoy them in every possible brake time.
This park gives me some reminder that it provide the liaison to the city , the surrounding business used land , community group and some other neighboring merchants. the neighborhood around Donnelly Park is mixed age and mixed career , so how to make them together and how to provide a valuable space for different kinds of people for various purpose? Splash Pad Park probably is a good example. Temporal- year round Farmers’ Market. Featured events – Chalk painting on the pillar under the freeway. Everyday use – hangout around the fountain and take-out lunch enjoyment.
Another think about this park makes me think of is plants. Close to 580 freeway, there must be tons of vehicle come by each single day, how to protect the plans in the park or rather to say which kind of tree is suitable for this higher pollution air. Katrina in New Orleans makes the designer of the project take care of this issue due to the disappear of some species in the region.
