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During the last week of November 2001,
the Urban Open Space Foundation brought the renowned Seattle-based
landscape architecture firm of Jones
& Jones to town to facilitate a "community visioning"
process for Madison's Central Park.
Jones & Jones was a good choice
for this project for several reasons. The firm avoids easy
projects with simple answers, and it is well known for its
sensitivity to place and local character. Jones & Jones
is very experienced with railyard and industrial sites –
most prominently at Denver's Commons Park, a 30-acre
park between the Platte River and downtown that has spurred
redevelopment in the former industrial core. Other firm highlights
include the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum in Tucson, the restored
Pioneer Square in Seattle, Cedar Lake Park and Trail in Minneapolis,
and the Spokane River Centennial Trail.
The community visioning process
involved about 150 members of the public, at eight different
venues, over three days.
Workshops at the University of Wisconsin
Memorial Union and Ground Zero Coffee focused on issues and
opportunities. Participants voiced their concerns and goals
for the project. Knowledge gained from the land and from the
people was synthesized into a set of shared design principles
that will drive future design work. These were refined during
subsequent workshops.
The resulting Shared Design Principles
describe how we feel about the Isthmus, about Madison, and
about the potential of this future park space in particular.
They describe our hopes and our concerns, and they will guide
future park design.
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The park project should be
a place to learn ... about water, history, industry,
power, vegetation, night sky, phyto/bio-remediation,
culture, community, other people, and more.
The project should be an
organic and adaptable process, not a monolithic intervention.
Retain and learn from the best of what is already there
and grow from it -- the region's native vegetation,
the emerging wetland, the historic structures, and the
active neighbors.
The project should build
on the economic, cultural, and social diversity of the
neighborhoods. The project should create economic growth
opportunities and build community and cultural inclusiveness.
The project should be built
to the scale of people not cars. The place should support
pedestrians and bicycle riders. Parking and traffic
should not drive the design.
The project should be for
people of all ages. The project should serve families
with places for young children, kids, teens, adults,
and the elderly. The place should encourage interaction
between different age groups.
The place should really function.
Stormwater wetlands, solar power gardens, phytoremediation
or anything sustainable innovations should be real.
Demonstration is important but it is no longer enough.
The place has a responsibility to the region to lead
in workable solutions.
The project should serve
many purposes simultaneously. The spaces should be functional
at different times of day and seasons of the year. The
place should be an intensely local amenity and also
should be inviting to visitors from the city and region.
The project should build
on the "joyous freakishness" of the local
neighborhoods. It should grow out of their distinctive
character. Don't over-interpret experiences. "Keep
it real" to allow for discovery and a "no
man's land" sensibility.
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The place should promote
encounter and discovery in all realms -- natural, social,
and industrial. The place should bring dissimilar elements
into dynamic interactions that stimulate enquiry.
The place should be welcoming
to all, with universal access to and from and through.
The park should function as a pathway connecting the Isthmus
for all.
The park should be a place
for all people. It should embrace the challenge of creating
a twenty-first century "commons."
The project should be a model
for improving water quality in the park and in surrounding
development.
Higher density should be
achieved while preserving existing building stock. The
project should improve housing affordability. Housing
should be considered in the context of the neighborhoods'
housing needs. Low-income housing should be included
fairly.
The project should connect
to important natural and cultural resources, especially
across the isthmus to the two lakes and to the Yahara
River. The project should build on existing green spaces
and their community-based organizations.
The project should be an
attraction in all seasons and safe at all times of the
day.
The project should be conscious
of light pollution and energy efficiency.
The project should be related
to future rail transit possibilities and other transportation
issues such as the revitalization of E. Washington Ave.
Any parking associated with the project should be done
in the most environmentally sensitive way.
The place should serve the
spiritual needs of the community. There should be spaces
to look inward and renew oneself and spaces to gather
and share with others.
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Workshops at Monona Terrace, Immanuel
Lutheran Church and the Wil-Mar Neighborhood Center focused
on themes and elements. Participants used sketches, words
and photographs to describe unifying themes for the park,
and select the features they would like to see in it.
Words evoke how we feel about
spaces and places, potentials and possibilities. Here are
some of the words people used to describe what they would
want a Central Park in Madison to be:
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anti-gentrification
beer
BIG SKY
childhood thrill
children
circus
CIVIC ENCOUNTER
commerce
community
connections
cultivation
DEMOCRACY
discovery
dogs
dreams
efficiency
energy
enlivenment
escape
FAMILY
found
flow
"JOYOUS FREAKISHNESS"
gardens
geology
harness the wind, water, sun
history of plants
HYDROLOGY
illustration of processes
inclusion
industrial design
INDUSTRIAL HERITAGE
infill
industrial aesthetic
integration
interpretation
isthmus
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journey
JUXTAPOSITION
leisure
mystery
NATIVE VEGETATION
natural history
neglected
night sky
no man's land
old to new
openness
organic
overgrown
PATHWAY
peace
PERFORMANCE
place to do nothing
playfulness
public art
recreation
reflection
REFUGE
restoration
river and lakes
seasons
social interaction
stormwater
SUSTAINABILITY
technology
temple for the body
transformation
URBAN
WILD
willy street
wisconsin
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Elements and Images can also describe
pieces of a possible park. Workshop participants make sketches
of what they'd like to see the park look like and what
they'd like to have in it. They also selected images
from books about a number of existing projects in other places.
There are too many of these thumbnails to show here, but for
a small sampling, look at pp. 15-17 of the report "A
Community Vision for Madison's Central Park,"
available in .pdf format on this website.
Workshops at the Urban Open Space
Foundation, Christ Presbyterian Church and the Willy St. Co-op
focused on putting the pieces of the park together. Participants
discussed several case studies of similar projects. Important
points were articulating a "big idea;" developing
strong and diverse partnerships; and flexibility in priorities
and phasing. Participants discussed possible names for the
park and ways that the elements and themes could be assembled.
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Names
matter. What is the right name for this place? How do
the words we choose to describe this place shape what
kind of place it will be?
Do we think of this as "open
space"? "green space"? "community
space"?
Is this place a "Park"?
A place to play and relax and join together with out
neighbors?
Is this an "Isthmus"
place? A "Madison" place? A "Dane County"
place? A "Wisconsin" place? How big is this
place's world?
Is this place a "Common"?
A deeply democratic place that is owned by no one, and
thus by everyone?
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Is it a "Village"? A
place where people work and live and play together,
a physical space that helps foster the a social space
called a "community"?
Is it a "Green"? A place
to take refuge from the city, to reconnect with the
earth as it exists and the earth as we sculpt it?
Is it a "Pathway"? A
place that is a link as much as a space, something that
draws together elements and people from outside its
own boundaries?
Or is it none of these?
All of these? Or some new idea that we have yet to invent?
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To see how Jones & Jones integrated
all of this public input into a vision for Madison’s
Central Park, click on Madison's
Vision for a Central Park.
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