May 12th, 2015

Second day in NYC, windy.

Several projects we visited today indicates that how to integrate landscape with urban context is a crucial consideration runs through the whole design process. 

Along with Hudson River on the west edge, Riverside Park South takes advantage of (rather than hides) the overhead highway, which is exposed to the park visitors, defining the eastern border of the park. No shirking, illustrates the design concept that the lively busy scene is also an inevitable part of this metropolis.

Chelsea Cove Waterside Park, along with the same river and the same highway, although temporarily cuts off the connection of the highway by employing a cambered green basin, utilizes the artificial quality --- the same with NYC --- to construct the relation with its urban context. You don’t know you’re standing on ground or on water in the park, just like you don’t know you’re standing on ground or on metro in the city.

Some other projects reveal another significant factor in landscape design --- narrative.

Landscape architects use different elevations and different path directions to manipulate the delivery of different information. In Teardrop Park, the sectional change tells us a story: the higher entrance visually cuts the resident environment off from the street scene, the downward sloping lawn is a buffer zone between noisy urban and joyful lifestyle, and the ice wall splits public and privacy, in the privacy zone, height is also employed to make a distinction between resident path and child playground.

- Wenhui