Large Parks

Large Parks Examines An Increasingly Hard-to-define Landscape Type: The Urban Park. By Viewing Such Landscapes Through The Lens Of Size, The Essays Contained Here Cut Across Conventional Binary Categories Of Classification - Historic Or Contemporary, Built Or Unbuilt, Competition-sponsored Or Commissioned - And Enable Us To Analyze Landscapes Not Usually Considered Collectively. From A Discussion Of Historic Parks Such As New York's Central Park And Paris's Bois De Boulogne, To Intriguing New Projects Such As The Orange County Great Park In California, Large Parks Highlights The Intricacies That Go Into Designing These Massive And Culturally Significant Works. By Analyzing Design, Concept, Construction, And Technique, Large Parks Gives Designers Concrete Insight Into The Complicated Task Of Designing A Large Park That Is Structured Enough To Give Form, Identity, And Meaning To The Site, But Pliant Enough To Adapt To Changing Ecologies, Demands, And Uses. Editors Julia Czerniak And George Hargreaves Present Writings By Leading Academics And Practitioners, Along With Original Graphics And Photographs, Foregrounding A Set Of Preoccupations In Landscape Discourse That Relate In Complex Ways, Such As Ecology, Public Space, Process, Place, Site, And The City.--jacket. Foreword / James Corner --introduction: Speculating On Size / Julia Czerniak -- Sustainable Large Parks: Ecological Design Or Designer Ecology? /. Nina-marie Lister -- Uncertain Parks: Disturbed Sites, Citizens, And Risk Society / Elizabeth K. Meyer -- Matrix Landscape: Construction Of Identity In The Large Park / Linda Pollak -- Large Parks: A Designer's Perspective / George Hargreaves -- Re-placing Process / Anita Berrizbeitia -- Conflict And Erosion: The Contemporary Public Life Of Large Parks / John Beardsley -- Legibility And Resilience / Julia Czerniak. [edited By] Julia Czerniak And George Hargreaves ; Contributors, John Beardsley ... [et Al.]. Includes Bibliographical References. The discipline of landscape architecture encompasses many typologies, from domestic gardens and neighborhood playgrounds to urban designs and state parks. Most critical studies of the discipline tend to approach it from a historical or contemporary perspective organized around criteria such as built versus unbuilt, urban versus peripheral, or competition-sponsored versus commission-based. Very few analyses have been undertaken from the seemingly obvious jumping-off point of size. In "Large Parks," Julia Czerniak and George Hargreaves present eight essays by leading scholars and practitioners that engage large urban parks in depth as complex cultural spaces, where key issues oflandscape discourse, ecological challenges, social history, urban relations, and place-making are writ large. From historic parks such as New York's Central Park and Paris's Bois de Boulogne to contemporary projects such as Toronto's Downsview Park and Staten Island's Fresh Kills, to newly unveiled and yet-to-be-built projects such as Ken Smith's ambitious plans for the Orange County Great Park, "Large Parks" highlights the complexities and unique considerations that go into designing these massive and culturally significant works.