PLAYA VISTA PARK BY MICHAEL MALTZAN ARCHITECTS

"The 8-acre Playa Vista Park provides an infrastructure of recreation and performance spaces to support expansive experience of public space in our city.

Located at the eastern terminus of one of the largest infill urban developments in the United States, the Park creates a flexible campus that links and expands the surrounding context of the office park.

CONNECTING THE PARK AND ITS CONTEXT

Defined as a series of bands which extend across its length, the Park physically and programmatically links offices to the north and south. Each of these bridges spans series of ponds and figuratively connects the surrounding context with the long bosques of alders, elms, and pines.

These tree-lined rooms, defined through their spatial characteristics, form a range of experiences through which visitors can traverse, short-cut across a single bridge, or navigate at random.

BRIDGING A RANGE OF ACTIVITY

The Park is not a mimetic representation of nature, but is instead defined by activity, utility, and performance. Rather than creating a series of static scenes in relationship to a fixed linear narrative, the Park encourages a multiplicity of simultaneous itineraries, experiences, and encounters through its function and form.

Soccer fields and basketball courts to the west, and amphitheater lawn and woodlands for gathering and relaxation to the east, extend the program areas to the street edge.

ACCESS AND VISUAL CONNECTIONS

Along its central axis, a single path connects entry plazas at the Park’s east and west edges, uniting it in a single perspective. Echoing the historic Howard Hughes runway which once crossed the site, this trajectory is further defined by elongated stripes of color and light, visible not only within the Park but also to aircraft landing at the nearby Los Angeles International Airport.

Long allées of jacarandas crisscross the Park from east to west, blooming in the spring and early summer to create strong unifying bands of color. The Park is akin to a campus, its tightly integrated network of pathways and programs open and unscripted in access and use.

AN ICONIC BANDSHELL

Beyond the courts, a large amphitheater slopes to the north, shaping sight lines to a Bandshell at the Park’s  center. Rising above the park, the Bandshell’s circular iconography is defined by three rings that arc above the pedestrian paths, extending trajectories of movement from the adjacent landscape into its dynamic form.

The three steel hoops structure the shell’s envelope, a pleated membrane that floats above the landscape, its glowing form visible throughout the Park and beyond as day gives way to night.

The Bandshell incorporates a flexible lighting grid and an expansive stage which can support a wide range of performances, including theatrical productions, outdoor movies, and concert events." Description of the Architects.

 

Location: Playa Vista, California
Architect: Michael Maltzan Architects

Size: 8 acres
Year: 2010
Cost: $9.5 million

Awards: AIA California Council Merit Award, 2011

SKYWALK ON TIANMEN MOUNTAIN

Jutting out from a sheer cliff 1,430 meters high, the glass skywalk in Zhangjiajie National Forest Park offers sightseers terrifying thrills and clear view of the mountains below as they tread nervously across the 60 meter long bridge encircling the vertical cliffs of Tianmen Mountain in Hunan province.

The walkway, made of tempered glass about 2.5 in thick, spans 200 ft of a two-km loop encircling the vertical cliffs of Tianmen Mountain in China’s Hunan province, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Tianmen mountain, literally translated as Heavenly Gate Mountain is so called because of a huge natural cave that occurs halfway up to the summit. Looking down between their feet while on the see-through skywalk, visitors have a crystal-clear view of the rocky ravine beneath them.

The walkway joins the west cliff at the Yunmeng Fairy Summit, the summit of Tianmen Mountain and Zhang Jiajie. “Tourists can walk, run or even jump on the walkway as the fence and planks are all tempered glass,” said Tian Huilin, deputy general manager at the tourism office of the Tianmen Mountain Scenic Spot.

“The experience is unique. Tourists can have a bird’s-eye view of the rocky pinnacles rising from a cover of dense subtropical vegetation and sometimes veiled by clouds through glass.

” Walking on the glass section of the walkway can make your heart beat like a drum but it is an experience you wont forget. Environmentalists, however, have criticised the project, saying the overhang would tarnish the pristine mountain.

“The glass road is odd compared with the ancient plank roads, which appear to be made of stone or wood and are more harmonious with the landscape,” said Wang Yanyong.

He added that innovation should not go against the basic natural and cultural context. Do you dare to take up the glass skywalk challenge? I will be honest. I won’t dare. My head will go giddy and I may throw up as I have a fear of heights.

WASHINGTON CANAL PARK BY OLIN

OLIN, a landscape architecture, urban design and planning studio with locations in Philadelphia and Los Angeles, has led the design and construction of Canal Park in Washington, D.C. The park opens to the public on November 16, 2012.

 

One of the first parks built as part of the District's Anacostia Waterfront Initiative, Canal Park has been designed as a vibrant social gathering place and an economic catalyst for the surrounding neighborhood. The park is also a model of sustainable design, serving as a pilot project for the Sustainable Sites Initiative (SITES™) and a candidate for LEED® Gold certification.

 

 

The three-block site was once a part of the historic Washington City Canal that connected the Anacostia and Potomac Rivers. The canal was paved over in the 1870s and most recently served as a parking lot for school buses. Inspired by the canal’s heritage, Canal Park’s design evokes the history of the area with a linear rain garden reminiscent of the Washington Canal and three pavilions, designed by STUDIOS Architecture, which recall floating barges that were once common in the canal.

 

 

The park will feature diverse amenities, including a café with outdoor seating, an interactive fountain, an ice skating path, play and performance areas, and sculptures by artist David Hess. Each block is given its own unique identity within a cohesive urban experience. The Canal Park Development Association, in partnership with the Capital Riverfront Business Improvement District, will host numerous events throughout the year, such as movies and concerts, holiday and seasonal festivals, farmers markets, art expositions, educational and environmental programming, storytelling events, and more.

 

 

In addition to being a vibrant social destination, Canal Park is a model for green infrastructure strategies. The former brownfield has been transformed into a landscape that restores vital ecosystem services that were lost when the site served as a parking lot. Contaminated soils were replaced with a healthy growing medium and the native plant habitat was re-introduced. Canal Park’s stormwater system includes a linear rain garden that spans the length of the park, Low Impact Design tree pits, and two underground cisterns which can collectively hold 80,000 gallons of water.

 

 

The stormwater system captures, treats and stores almost all of the stormwater runoff generated by the park and neighboring city blocks, which averages to 1.5 million gallons of reused water each year. The treated water is used to satisfy up to 95 percent of the park’s water needs for fountains, irrigation, toilets and the ice skating path. Underneath the park, 28 geothermal wells provide a highly efficient energy supply for park utilities. The wells are forecasted to reduce Canal Park’s overall energy consumption by 37 percent.

Other sustainable features include the use of sustainably harvested wood for benches and architectural elements, electric car parking stations, ample bicycle racks and cross-streets designed to calm traffic speeds around the park and provide a safe pedestrian environment. “Canal Park is a unique place that delivers an artful assembly of social, economic and environmental performance,” stated Steve Benz, OLIN Partner and Director of Green Infrastructure. “As a successful social space, people can enjoy the re-established natural systems previously lost to development while providing an economic stimulus for the surrounding area.”

Through a close collaboration with OLIN, STUDIOS Architecture designed three permanent pavilions. The largest pavilion, at 9,000-square-feet, will host a café and dining area, as well as utilities that support the park and ice skating path. The structure is made of reclaimed and sustainably harvested wood from black locust trees and is expected to earn LEED Gold certification. The roof also serves as a public plaza and features a large lantern with translucent acrylic panels which will become a medium for projection art and light displays.

The pavilion’s sustainable features include geothermal heating and cooling, vegetated roof surfaces, natural ventilation, low-flush toilets and fixtures, energy/water monitoring dashboard systems, and utilization of the park’s stormwater treatment system for non-potable water. Made of similar materials and approximately 150-200-square feet each, a second pavilion appears to float above a linear fountain, while a third pavilion bookends the park at the north and provides storage for park amenities.

The OLIN team, led by Partner and Director of Green Infrastructure Steve Benz and managed by Associate Sophie Robitaille, directed a team of fourteen consultants on the project, including architects STUDIOS Architecture; stormwater engineers Nitsch Engineering; civil engineers Vika Capitol, Inc.; lighting designer and sustainability energy consultants Atelier Ten; MEP engineers Joseph R. Loring & Associates; structural engineers SK&A Structural Engineers; irrigation designers Lynch & Associates; ice path designers & fountain engineers Stantec Bonestroo; geotechnical consultants Soil Consultants; sculptor David Hess; signage designers The Design Theorem; audio visual consultants Shen Milson & Wilke; dry utility consultants Richter & Associates; and cost estimator Davis Langdon, an AECOM Company.

 

Location: Washington Dc, USA

Architect: OLIN

Area: 131,000 Sq Ft

Budget: $20m

Year: 2012

PERRY PARK BY HASSELL

As part of a limited competition for the City of Sydney, HASSELL undertook the challenge to rejuvenate Perry Park in the inner-Sydney suburb of Alexandria. Taking the themes of sport and ecology, our response provides for a range of passive and active recreational activities within a park and wetland setting.

Our goal was to create a destination for both individuals and groups; a place where sport and ecology mix seamlessly, support and complement one another in a balanced environment. Our proposal encompasses the design of several new buildings to house six indoor basketball courts and associated facilities, a synthetic outdoor hockey field and the surrounding landscape.

The design visually enhances the park by breaking the large mass of the typical ‘mega-barn’ sports hall structure into specialised halls, reflective of the program, and creating areas of green refuge which allow the landscape to flow in and around the building.

This approach created the opportunity to set the building within a regenerated wetland of Eastern Suburbs Banksia Scrub, once endemic to the site. The development of green networks and links throughout the site build on the city’s pedestrian and bicycle arteries.

To help facilitate a shift away from private car ownership toward more sustainable transport, safe storage for bicycles and changing facilities are provided. Free Wi-Fi and power incorporated into park furniture was explored, along with digital wayfinding options and an informatics system that delivers real-time data to help individuals and groups monitor their health and sports performance goals.

The Perry Park design seeks to become an exemplar for future development and assist the City of Sydney in attaining its ‘2030 Vision’ sustainability objectives.

In designing a park that embraces both sport and ecological imperatives, the desire has been to create buildings using ‘low embodied energy’ materials and techniques, that respect the principles of good passive design, and therefore minimise energy use.

Location: Alexandria, Australia

Architect: Hassell

Collaboration: Taylor Thomson Whitting / Northrop / Arup

Client: City of Sydney

Year: 2012

Status: Invited competition – unrealised

Award: World Architecture Festival 2012 – Shortlisted

SEOUL MEMORIAL PARK BY HAEAHN ARCHITECTURE

Secluded by mountain hills from a bustling highway gateway, Seoul Memorial Park rests in a serene valley area of the Woo-Myun Mountain on the outskirts of Seoul, South Korea.

Seoul Memorial Park is a crematorium constructed in harmony with the natural terrain of the site, which previously lent calming scenic views to meditative passing-by hikers, and is now converted to a sanctuary for solemn rituals concluding life’s journeys.

To overcome the unwelcomed response from the community, this crematorium was sought to be a “non-erected” building. 

Instead, Seoul Memorial Park emerges as a form of “land art” sculpted into the existing topography with a flowing array of architectural forms and motifs.  Concaved at the center of the Park, lies a courtyard encompassed by a series of ritual spaces devoted to separate functions.

These spatial layers bordering the courtyard resonate from a distance with the surrounding mountain trails and ridges.

The 2-storey high crematorium facility configured in the curvilinear belt along the courtyard has roof structures linked in the way flower petals pinwheel one another, punctuated by a reflective pool at the very heart of the courtyard.

Families in bereavement take the final journey of parting as they encircle the courtyard along a path reminiscent of spiritual spaces with vaulted ceilings and indirect lighting.

Towards the cremation alcove, the ceiling rises drastically as a clearstory above a triforum. Upon completion of the path, a meandering garden comforts the bereft.

As the water from the mountain flows  down and gives life to the garden, one might be reminded of the transfiguration of sorrows in praise of the harmony in nature.

The garden shimmers with sunlight, whispers with snowfalls, and dances with spring rains. Season by season, tranquility is discovered and the spirit is renewed.

Just as nature was dissolved into a building to rest in the valley, Seoul Memorial Park was embodied in a piece of land art to celebrate life and transfigure sorrows.

Architects: HAEAHNarchitecture

Client: Seoul Municipal Facilities Management Corporation

Date of Completion: 2012

Site Area: 36,000 m2

Project Area: 18,000 m2

source: Bustler