parking day | IDEAS

Ten years ago, PARK(ing) Day was established with the goal of temporarily transforming metered parking spaces into tiny public parks. Some of the novelty has worn off since then, but the appeal has only strengthened, and the annual event now occurs around the globe. With “The Goatlet,” in 2013, the San Francisco studio brought live… Read more »

With “The Goatlet,” in 2013, the San Francisco studio brought live goats into the heart of the city. The concept highlighted urban versus pastoral life, sustainable (edible) construction, and goats as weed control. Among the many surprises that day was how the appearance of goats disrupted the pedestrian flow in the normally bustling financial district, causing passersby to break from their patterns to engage with our temporary street park. The staged interaction between people and goats became a kind of landscape intervention, a temporal performance that transformed the static parklet from an object into a space of interaction. This was a prime example of how the activities on a site, how it’s programmed, should be of equal importance for designers with its construction.

This year’s entry from SWA SF, The Harplet, builds on that idea of the staged interaction, but this time by introducing the ethereal sounds of live harp music to activate the park. A geometric construction of commonplace triangular cardboard tubes skinned with artificial turf created a comfortable lounge/stage for the musician. The audience sat on a series of steps across from the parking spot, outfitted with custom cardboard and turf seating elements. The big surprise this time was that the harp music managed to coexist with the urban cacophony, providing a kind of sonic refuge from the surrounding commotion.

The goats and the harpist’s music were both unpredictable elements that reframed the known city through juxtaposition. The goats generated a puzzled delight among onlookers. Crowds formed and many photos were taken and shared. “Why are they here?” was generally followed by a big smile when the answer came. By contrast, the harp music this year encouraged a quiet pause in the day. Passersby stopped and sat calmly, taking in the music and recording videos. Seemingly spontaneous events function as a kind of cultural currency every day now; only the provocative and unexpected are deemed especially worthy in the age of Instagram.

Today, the urban landscape is the designated place of public expression and the locus of cultural movements. Advertising agencies put on festivals and pull off outrageous stunts in public spaces to help their clients reach sought-after demographics. Protest movements have become synonymous with their sites of resistance, from Occupy Wall Street to Tahrir Square.

The Goatlet and Harplet suggest a type of urban experimentation for landscape architects. How does the introduction of unexpected living elements and sounds affect the streetscape? What can we take away as designers from these types of unexpected interventions? Is it enough to say “Place Art Here” in our documents, or should we take a more active role in the programming of space? In order to push the boundaries of the unpredictable and indeterminate aspects in landscape architecture, this type of direct action is a useful tool.

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Posted by Daniel Affleck
in Arts and Culture, Landscape Urbanism
on 30 September, 2015

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This month, a pro-bono project that our Los Angeles office has championed for more than three years of community effort, fundraising, permitting, city process and construction hurdles, ended with a community Planting Day. This project has given a Hawthorne, CA neighborhood a new park along the Dominguez Creek with native plants and native trees, seating,… Read more »

We took this project on through the Patrick T. Curran Initiative (PTCI). Patrick Curran was a Landscape Architect at SWA in our Sausalito and Los Angeles offices who had an unrelenting passion for the environment. After he died at a young age in 2009, a group of co-workers, friends, and family members were inspired by the positive influence Patrick had on their lives and formed the PTCI to support a variety of environmental, sustainability, and humanitarian undertakings that foster community and/or advance the profession of landscape architecture.

Together with the Los Angeles County Flood Control District, Friends y Amigos of the Dominguez Watershed and From Lot to Spot, we collaborated with students from the Environmental Charter High School (ECHS) and the surrounding community on the Dominguez Enhancement & Engagement Project (The Deep).

In 2010 we started a series of design charettes with the ECHS students and From Lot to Spot. The student’s visions, guided by SWA landscape architects, were to revitalize 20,000 square feet of cracked and uneven pavement and graffiti throughout what was then characterized by the community as “Triple U” (Undesirable, Unsafe and Unusable).

The ECHS students played an active role on the team, designing site elements and leading the community engagement effort. They hit the neighborhood streets around the project to present their ideas to residents and passersby and they ultimately won the support of the community who was eager for the implementation.

But before the landscape design could be realized, certain improvements were required. As a part of the first of a muilti-phased plan to revitalize the areas surrounding Dominquez Creek, The LA County Flood Control District amended the soil of The DEEP site, installed irrigation for the trees and shrubs, new fencing along the channel, new entry gates, interpretive signage, decomposed granite slabs for seating opportunities, and resurfaced and striped the bike path.

On Friday, September 21, 2012, at the corner of 7th and Flower, The DEEP project was introduced to downtown Los Angeles pedestrians on a sign of the “park” designed by SWA as a part of the international Park(ing) Day event. SWA LA created the “Displaced Forest” installation, a mini-urban forest for a shaded respite from the harsh downtown streetscape— with the help of Sunny Slope Nursery who donated 20 boxed trees. After Park(ing) Day the trees were relocated to The DEEP site and planted.

On Saturday, December 8, 2012 the culmination of the ongoing work ended in a community Planting Day for The DEEP. With the help of 70+ volunteers ranging from local high school students, community members, SWA employees, From Lot to Spot members, friends and the Curran family, 21 native trees and more than 600 shrubs and groundcovers donated from local nurseries were planted along the Dominguez Creek.

Inspired by the students’ ideas for the mural and the natural environment, community muralist Mike Gower depicted a historic landscape scene of Los Angeles and the Dominguez Creek. If you look close enough, you can see Patrick Curran sitting on a rock reading a book. Final touches to the artwork were painted by Patrick’s brothers and sister.

These partnerships speak to a unique and unparalleled environmental justice collaboration where the community meets real-world planning. We are so happy to have participated in it.

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