Is A Makeover Necessary?

http://www.citylab.com/design/2016/01/rethinking-downtown-la-by-revising-pershing-square/423150/

Pershing Square
Los Angeles, California
laconservancy.org

Hello Everyone:

As promised, today we are going to take another look at Pershing Square in Downtown Los Angeles.  The focus will be a look at the finalists and their park-related projects.  Our guide for today is Kriston Capps's article, "Rethinking Downtown L.A. by Revising Pershing Square," for CityLab.  Mr. Capps writes, "it's not that Pershing Square is awful.  The way some Los Angelenos talk about it, you might think that it as a failed park...Maybe the issue is that Pershing Square hasn't lived up to its potential, while the rest of downtown L.A. is now exceeding it."  Facelifts are pretty commonplace in Los Angeles but is giving a public space a facelift every few decades any way to run a historic park?

PSR media graphic
pershingsquarerenew.com

On September 8, 2015, the non-profit public-private partnership Pershing Square Renew sent out a request for qualification for a design challenge to remake the historic park.  The winner of the design challenge would partner with PSR to re-envision Pershing Square as the "city's town square." (http://www.pershingsquarerenew.com)   The current configuration of the park dates back the 1990s and, as Mr. Capps opines, "...while there are admirable qualities to the postmodern design by Ricard Legoretta and Laurie Olin, too much of the park was given over to defensive design.."

Pershing Square, 1925
blogdowntown.com

According to PSR executive director Eduardo Santana,

Their [the architects] challenge isn't to win awards; it's to win over hearts.  More than anything else, these groups need to focus on the experiences their design will inspire and the memories the Square will create.  

By October, the ten semi-finalists were announced and on December 18, 2015, the four finalist were notified of their selection.  At the time of announcing the ten semi-finalists, founder and present Donna Bojarsky said,

Our semi-finalists are a diverse group with  rich and impressive track records that represent the world's best and brightest in public space design, urban public space design or urban design.  

With all this enthusiasm in mind, let us take another look at the finalists.

Highline
James Corner Field Operations
Manhattan, New York
dozen.com

James Corner Field Operations with Frederick Fisher & Partners: James Corner Field Operations are the designers of Manhattan's Highline and a likely candidate for any park design competition.  His and local architect Frederick Fisher & Partner's entry places emphasis on indigenous ecology and design which includes design references to downtown's cultural and civic terrain.  Mr. Corner has already completed one park project, Tongva Park, in the city of Santa Monica.  He transformed a former parking lot "...into a dynamic topography with lush landscape of rolling hills, meadows and gardens..." (http://www.fieldoperations.com) If James Corner and Frederick Fisher are selected as the winners of the competition, will we see more drought tolerant plantings and spaces that echo the Beaux Arts design vocabulary of Downtown Los Angeles?

Floor works
Agence TER
Geneva, Switzerland
landing.com

Agence TER with SALT Landscape Architects: The only prominent feature of Agence TER and SALT's entry is a "smart canopy" that "spans the length of a block."  This seems a little lacking in comparison to Agence TER's Floorworks in Geneva, Switzerland.  The Paris-based firm created a public garden surrounding a corporate headquarters.  Landezine called it, "...the exterior equivalent of 'Well Works,' a collection of works by contemporary artists including James Turrell, Cindy Sherman and Sol LeWitt..." (http://www.landezine.com)  While a block-length canopy may seem strange, it would not be the first time Agence TER deployed a covering of some sort.  In Floorworks, the firm used Cor-ten steel, "...Laid out in successive strips is folded or distorted according to the topography and structures that need to be enclosed." (Ibid)  Blogger wonders how this would play out in Pershing Square.

Buffalo Bayou Park
SWA
Houston, Texas
design applause.com

SWA with Morphosis: both are local firms that would contribute a "vast tree canopy as well as an artificial designed canopy."  SWA's Houston office recently completed the re-design of Buffalo Bayou Park.  The park is a re-imagined urban waterfront, composed of previously disconnected, somewhat overgrown green spaces.  Patrick Sisson of Curbed reported, "The $58 million project connects 160 acres that border a 2.3-mile stretch of the bayou, providing a new link between two important city thoroughfares..." (http://www.curbed.com)  If the Houston project is any indication, the local SWA office will revisit the historic landscape of Downtown Los Angeles and find a way create a thoroughfare that links Pershing Square with  Olive Street to the east and Sixth Street to the south.

North Carolina Museum of Art Park
Civitas
Raleigh, North Carolina
civets.com

wHY with Civitas: Kriston Capps writes, "L.A. young guns wHY partnered with the more established Denver firm, Civitas, for an entry that nests different kinds of uses within the park through tiered programs."  Civitas was responsible for North Carolina Museum of Art Park in Raleigh.  "The Museum Park art program facilitates collaborations among artists, designers, and environmental scientists inspired by the natural world." (http://www.ncartmuseum.org)  The artists are commissioned to create site-specific works-permeant and temporary-that engage the surrounding landscape, presenting new points of view on the natural world.  The work is intended to explore the human relationship to the environment and the part nature plays in contemporary society. (Ibid)  This presents an exciting possibility for Pershing Square, engaging local artists to create site-specific work that examines the role of nature in the urban environment.

Each of the finalists present an exciting vision for Pershing Square, yet is a makeover really the best way to manage the historic park?  Allow yours truly to clarify, the park is hardly an abandoned lot in the middle of the city.  Unfortunately, it is just underused.  Each of the finalists present innovative design concepts for reinvigorating Pershing Square but it is up to Pershing Square Renew and the City Recreation and Parks Department to create exciting programming that will bring visitors to the historic park and get them to linger.