21st Century (Projects + LA Firm) Flashcards
PROJECT/LOCATION:
CRISSY FIELD, SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA (2001)
LA FIRM:
Hargreaves Associates
DESCRIPTION:
A restoration of wetlands and dune fields along the bay front helped turn this former U.S. Army installation into San Francisco’s “front yard.”1 Hargreaves’s fi rm also created a series of paths and earthen forms that serve as a framework for new recreational activities along the waterfront.
PROJECT/LOCATION:
HERMAN MILLER FACTORY LANDSCAPE, CHEROKEE COUNTY, GEORGIA (2001)
LA FIRM:
Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, Inc.
DESCRIPTION:
The design for this rural factory was driven largely by hydrologic management. The entire 22-acre building site is graded at a 5 percent slope, allowing for runoff from the built surfaces to sheet into wetlands without the use of pipes or curbs. When the wetland system is dry, it functions as a meadow, with trees creating thickets along the edges of the floodplain
PROJECT/LOCATION:
BLUR BUILDING AND ARTEPLAGE, YVERDON-LES-BAINS, SWITZERLAND (2002)
LA FIRM:
Diller + Scofidio (architects), West 8 (landscape architects)
DESCRIPTION:
Built as the Exposition Pavilion for the Swiss Expo, this space takes the line between architecture and landscape, structure and atmosphere, and erases it completely. The site is consistently engulfed in fog, thanks to water pumped from Lake Neuchatel and shot as a fine mist through 35,000 nozzles.
It is a 21st-century rumination on the limits of physical spatial design.
PROJECT/LOCATION:
FORUM ESPLANADE BARCELONA, SPAIN (2004)
LA FIRM:
Torres & Lapena
DESCRIPTION:
When designers began employing renewable energy technologies in their designs in the latter part of the 20th century, the electricity-generating infrastructure often served merely as a skin applied to a design. However, the photovoltaic “pergola” at the Forum Esplanade Barcelona employs solar energy production as an integral space-making device.
PROJECT/LOCATION:
LURIE GARDEN, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS (2004)
LA FIRM:
Gustafson Guthrie Nichol Ltd., Piet Oudolf and Robert Israel
DESCRIPTION:
Built atop an underground parking structure and former rail line in Chicago, the Lurie Garden is the focal point of Millennium Park, the open space that connects the city’s downtown to Lake Michigan. Gustafson tapped into Chicago’s ecological history, using native plants and local stones to reference the Midwestern prairie in a grouping of geometric gardens.
PROJECT/LOCATION:
SHENYANG ARCHITECTURAL UNIVERSITY CAMPUS, SHENYANG CITY, LIAONING PROVINCE, CHINA (2004)
LA FIRM:
Kongjian Yu and Lin Shihong
DESCRIPTION:
With China’s stunningly quick turn toward urbanization in the 20th century, foodproduction landscapes in the country have come under increasing pressure. In response, landscape architect Kongjian Yu combined rice fields and native vegetation to frame spaces for outdoor education, helping make clear the connection between productive agriculture and urban existence
PROJECT/LOCATION:
TANNER SPRINGS PARK, PORTLAND, OREGON (2005)
LA FIRM:
Atelier Dreiseitl
DESCRIPTION:
In a city widely noted for its sustainable water practices, Tanner Springs Park stands out for its combination of smart hydrology and thoughtful aesthetics. Rainwater is collected and purified through a wetland system. An orthogonal boardwalk fl oats over the wetlands, bringing urban dwellers in close contact with these natural hydrological processes.
PROJECT/LOCATION:
FOUNTAIN PROMENADE AT CHAPULTEPEC PARK, MEXICO CITY, MEXICO (2006)
LA FIRM:
Grupo de Diseno (Mario Schjetnan)
DESCRIPTION:
One of several phases of redesigns for Chapultepec Park by Schjetnan and company, this piece sought to attract families to a previously underused area of the city’s central park. A promenade, stone-and-steel pergolas, and a children’s play area are integrated with the green infrastructure of the park, which includes new canals for water quality improvement and reforestation programs.
PROJECT/LOCATION:
THE LIVING ROOF: CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA (2008)
LA FIRM:
Renzo Piano
DESCRIPTION:
The architect employed a series of seven undulating landforms atop the roof of the Academy of Sciences to reference San Francisco’s iconic hills. The design allows Golden Gate Park to climb up and over the new building. The slopes draw cool air into the open piazza in the middle of the building, while the rooftop’s weather stations regulate its passive ventilation system
PROJECT/LOCATION:
ORANGE COUNTY GREAT PARK, IRVINE, CALIFORNIA (2010)
LA FIRM:
Ken Smith Workshop, with Mia Lehrer + Associates
DESCRIPTION:
The competition to design a park on the former El Toro Marine Base resulted in the greatest urban park commission since Olmsted’s Central Park. The project involves the restoration and transformation of more than 1,300 acres of land. The designers envision the park as three distinct conceptual areas: habitat, fields, and canyon. Features include a sports park and recreational fields; a Veterans Memorial; a Botanic Garden; cultural facilities, including a Library, Museum, and café; and a wildlife corridor contiguous to a State Park and National Forest. Goals of sustainability will be met through habitat restoration, natural water treatment systems, and the use of photovoltaics.
21st Century Summary
Thus our visual romp through landscape design history comes to a rest, as a whole new set of challenges faces the 21st century designer. In the first decade of this century, it is difficult to judge which of the more recent projects will survive the test of time. Go forth and plant the future
