public spaces
At a time when scores of American cities are still looking for ways to revive the faded glory of their urban cores, possible approaches are as visionary (and numerous) as can be. The process has resulted in new parks, major redevelopment, architectural restorations and a long list of other solutions - including the unique watershape commissioned by the city of White Plains, N.Y. A town with 54,000 full-time residents whose population swells to more than 200,000 during the day when office workers, shoppers and visitors come calling, White Plains made the decision to invest $4.5 million of public and private grant money in resurrecting a small downtown park. Appropriately named Renaissance Plaza, the park surrounds a state-of-the-art musical fountain unveiled in October 2003 for the specific purpose of luring people back to the downtown area - and it has worked. In fact, the plaza has become such a hub of activity that nearly 1,700 units of new residential housing are now under construction in its downtown neighborhood. URBAN OBJECTIVE First settled by British colonists who bought it from the Mohican tribe in 1683, this historically rich city located 25 miles north of Manhattan has truly been reborn, and it's with no small measure of
Founded in 1634, Boston Common is the oldest public park in America - a significant and historic public place. It is familiar to us as Bostonians, of course, but we've also been privileged as a firm to have worked there before, when we renovated the park's main watershape, the Frog Pond, to serve as a splash pool in summer and as an ice-skating rink in winter. During the pond renovation, we learned that tackling projects in such storied surroundings can be a tall order. For example, we had to place all of the pond's chillers and pumping equipment underground to mask any obvious intrusion on the 17th-century space. As we approached a second major project - this time the renovation of the park's playground - we knew going in that those who hired us were keenly sensitive to the nature of the place and came armed with preconceptions about colors, images and what would be "appropriate" for the setting. To keep things moving, we worked very closely with the city's Historic Commission in establishing the color palette, procuring artwork and developing an overall plan that would result in a space that was attractive and safe for children and suited to the surroundings. To be sure, the negotiations were intense as we
The Light and Space Movement first emerged in the beachfront community of Venice, Calif., during the 1960s, when a group of artists collectively began to explore and redefine the way art was observed and appreciated. Leaders of the movement - painter and sculptor Eric Orr; Robert Irwin, who later designed the gardens at the Getty Center in Los Angeles; and environmental artist James Turrell - started by breaking down the transformative processes of art and minimalism, defining the character of their movement through
At its most basic, public art creates spaces in which people experience art without paying hard-earned dollars to own it or going to a museum or gallery to see it. Public art is also about giving everyone within eyeshot new types of experiences amid their daily routines. Perhaps it's an object they'll pass on the way to the subway or an environment they'll spot out of the corner of an eye as they drive to the grocery store. Maybe it's a place where people gather to eat lunch or a landmark for arranging meetings with friends. Whether it's familiar to the viewer or sneaks up unexpectedly, the work becomes
No matter how it's used - as a focal point in a design or as just another feature balanced among many - the thoughtful use of water offers landscape architects and other watershape designers a huge range of aesthetic opportunities. Indeed, the water's texture, reflectivity, sounds and sculptural qualities can all be used to enhance the observer's experience as he or she moves through an environment, and in a near-infinite number of ways. Regardless of how familiar one becomes with these attributes and using them in built spaces, the presence of water in a design often yields something new, interesting and even unexpected. Whether you use it as a visual transition, a physical destination, an expression of nature or an architectural statement, water is
A watershape doesn't need to be immense to be either beautiful or monumental. Nor does it need to be outsized to serve its community as a gathering place or point of pride. Those are a couple of the lessons we learned in shaping the York Street Millennium Fountain in the heart of one of the highest profile tourist areas of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Using an inventive approach that balanced the needs of the neighborhood, a range of national and local government officials and the general citizenry's desire to celebrate the new millennium, the project also embraced the city's own rich history. The new fountain sits at a significant crossroads of pedestrian traffic between the Byward Market and the government district in downtown Ottawa. Indeed, the traffic island surrounding the fountain stands just blocks from Parliament Hill, the seat of Canada's national government, and was intended from the start to serve as a focal point and gathering place. Although small and comparatively simple, the project was complicated by the need to satisfy both local and national officials, which meant we had to incorporate
Perhaps the hardest thing for a watershaper to accomplish is to take a set of someone else's drawings, plans, sections and elevations, roll them all around together and come up with an accurate, three-dimensional, living interpretation of an architect's vision. The project shown here is a prime example of what's involved in this process. Designed by senior landscape architect Patrick Smith of the Austin, Texas, firm of Richardson Verdoorn, the plans called for three separate streams ranging in length from 50 to 80 feet (with each dropping 36 inches over various weirs) - all converging on a rocky
From the beginning of my career as a sculptor, I've mostly given myself over to two simple elements - metal and water - and have tried to develop approaches that turn one into an extension of the other. I like the sense that a sheet of flowing water completes the simple stainless steel shapes I create. I also like to play with illusion by creating the impression that the water appears to come from nowhere. And I like getting involved in the hydraulics of laminar flow by making the water emerge from steel as a smooth, cohesive sheet. In a sense, I draw constant inspiration from
The Getty Center is a true multi-media experience: imposing architecture, lots of people, incredible materials of construction, amazing views, diverse spaces, rich and varied sounds - and it's mostly all a bonus, because none of this has much to do with the Los Angeles center's core functions as museum and research institution. Designed by architect Richard Meier, the 750-acre campus is dominated by outsized structures wrapped in travertine, glass and enameled aluminum. It's all a bit cold (maybe time will soften the sharper edges and
Looking for inspiration in an urban environment can leave a designer with precious few useful references. Take downtown Chicago, for example, where our indigenous waterfeature is Lake Michigan and our public art is too often plopped in the middle of concrete plazas. Be that as it may, I do my part by trying to introduce both water and art into my projects. So I was thrilled to be retained by Mary O'Shaughnessy, owner of the Wood Street Gallery in Chicago, to design a sculpture garden. I knew it would give me the chance to create a balanced, beautiful space - even though I also knew the job wouldn't be easy. What she wanted was a garden environment in which she could display and sell contemporary American sculpture - a place that would help clients visualize the way the art might look in their own gardens. As we dug deeper, we uncovered additional goals: It needed to be a space that would accommodate a changing variety and number of pieces; it had to be functional for large parties; and it had to incorporate and acknowledge the garden's urban neighborhood while still providing a sense of enclosure for gallery visitors (and, of course,
