The whole park looks like it’s regularly washed down to keep things clean. ![]() And, of course, there’s the requisite doggy poop bag station. ![]() The park also contains a little patch of lawn (artificial, I’m assuming) rocks (for peeing?) a dog-height drinking fountain and a multi-level platform (perhaps so the pups can play “king of the hill”). This wall is an attractive metal gabion which includes a carefully-placed line of aqua-colored glass stones along the center. Instead of being separated from the street and other areas with fencing, the designers took advantage of the grade change of the site and included a retaining wall which works very well as a barrier. This little dog park is the best-looking one I’ve ever seen – although the dogs don’t care, their humans probably appreciate the pleasant features of this space. Dogs who live in the city are probably used to smaller, cramped quarters anyway, so they don’t need a lot of space to run around and socialize off-leash. Most leash-free sites that come to mind are the suburban variety with large fenced lawns – although this one is small, it’s a valuable amenity for those urban-dwelling canines who don’t have their own yards to roam. The first is a unique little dog park on 6th Avenue, on Amazon’s campus but open to the public, tucked between a tall building and the company’s new “Spheres” near the downtown. I’m back from a blogging hiatus, and I’ve got a few sites to post about that I visited during a trip to Seattle earlier this year. Smaller fountain structure next to one of the park’s plazas I hope the interest and support for Freeway Park will persist into the future. Urban parks built in this style in the decades following World War II have often suffered from neglect in recent years, but this space seems to be relatively well-maintained and appreciated, at least for now. The plant communities represent those typically found in the natural areas of the nearby mountains, and include many mature trees and broadleaf evergreen shrubs. Plantings throughout the park were also designed to help mask freeway noise and to reduce vehicular pollution. When I visited, no water was running, and I don’t know whether the fountains are turned on at all during the summer. However, due to maintenance and safety concerns, some of the fountains were shut off in more recent years. Waterfalls were a large part of the fountains during the early years of the park, and effectively masked the noise from vehicular traffic on the freeway below. Also, Halprin envisioned the character of this space as “freeway vernacular” (hence the emphasis on concrete), while representing the region’s mountain ranges with the various heights and shapes of the fountain structures. The park’s structures were designed in the brutalist style that was in vogue at the time, including board-formed concrete walls, planters, and fountain elements. The original section of the park was opened on J– the nation’s bicentennial. It was the first park built over a freeway, and was conceived as a means of re-connecting neighborhoods that were severed from the downtown when Interstate 5 was built. I had the opportunity to visit Jim Ellis Freeway Park in downtown Seattle last June – an iconic public space designed by landscape architects Lawrence Halprin & Angela Danadjieva. Project Design by StudioMLA Architects, Brookline, MA Musical play, grass hill, and stage with seatingīuilding construction area, including a permanent wooden frame that children can lean sticks against to form forts and other structuresīridge over the stream bed near the sand play, dirt play, gardening, and art areas Water pump and stone stream bed, with adjacent sand play area Pergola with vines at the playground entrance ![]() Additional features include a stage with seating, planters for gardening, music and art spaces, a building construction area, a gathering (seating) space, and a boardwalk. The playground includes all the important elements of nature-based play: water, sand/dirt, wood, plants, rocks, and hills. In about eight years since the playground’s construction, the vegetation has grown nicely to form a cozy play space consisting of several “rooms” of activity areas. The “Nature Nook” is a delightful natural play space on the grounds of the Boston Nature Center & Wildlife Sanctuary, located in the Mattapan neighborhood of the city.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |