Archinect - News

Field Operations completes major elevated walkway on Seattle waterfront

2024-10-08T08:31:00-04:00

Seattle’s Waterfront Park transformation took another step closer to completion last week with the opening of Overlook Walk, a new elevated park for the waterfront designed by Field Operations. The new walkway creates a “new pedestrian destination and journey between the city and waterfront,” linking the historic Pike Place Market with the Seattle Aquarium, Pier 62, Waterfront Park, and Elliott Bay.

Image credit: Tim Rice

The walkway is located in the footprint of the former Alaskan Way Viaduct, which was demolished to improve access to the waterfront. Sitting between Pike Place Market and the Seattle Aquarium, Overlook Walk bridges a nearly 100 vertical foot gap between the market and waterfront, featuring 360-degree views of downtown Seattle, Lumen Field, T-Mobile Park, Elliott Bay, the Olympic Mountains on the western horizon, and Mount Rainier to the south.

Image credit: Tim Rice

Image credit: Lara Swimmer

The design also envelops the new Seattle Aquarium Ocea...

SCAPE teams with BIG for Manresa Island power plant redevelopment on Long Island Sound

2024-10-02T11:27:00-04:00

Landscape and planning studio SCAPE has announced the addition of architects BIG to a new adaptive reuse project in southern Fairfield County, Connecticut, called Manresa Island.

The project, which is set to reimagine a decommissioned coal-fired power plant into a new 125-acre public park in the city of Norwalk, intends to elevate the site’s endemic wetlands and biodiversity while creating a range of opportunities for dining and recreation.

Image courtesy SCAPE and Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG)

Three buildings — the two 22,000-square-foot boiler and turbine towers and a 8,200-square-foot office component — will be redeveloped through the effort, added to by SCAPE’s master planning and landscape contribution, and connected via a newly unearthed scenic waterway.

Image courtesy SCAPE and Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG)

The project's features include an expansive green lawn and meadow with a public beach. A 1.75-mile tract of waterfront access will be created, offering residents an alternative t...

Domino Square opens, completing Field Operations' Domino Park contribution in Williamsburg

2024-09-23T20:20:00-04:00

The completed and final piece of Domino Park at the redeveloped Domino Sugar Factory site in Williamsburg, Brooklyn has been unveiled after developer Two Trees Management opened the one-acre Domino Square to the public for the first time on Monday.

Image: Daniel Levin for Two Trees Management

The square extends the larger six-acre Domino Park design from Field Operations, establishing a 33,300 square foot public area between the completed One Domino Square residences and The Refinery at Domino office component to be used for public gatherings as a retail-lined extension of the urban realm.

Image: Daniel Levin for Two Trees Management

Brooklyn's Studio Cadena collaborated with Field Operations in order to create a distinct and alluring space that can be operated in all seasons. A lifted edge interior bowl fitted with corten steel enclosures is framed by tiered amphitheater-like seating and large planters in between the two buildings. On the other side, a retail arcade addresses the ...

LA issues RFQ for $352 million Exposition Park recharge

2024-08-19T11:52:00-04:00

The City of Los Angeles will issue a major $352 million upgrade to Exposition Park in its build-up to the 2028 Olympic Games in an effort to address spatial inequalities in neighborhoods that had been “historically left behind,” Governor Gavin Newsom’s office said at the August 1st announcement.

In order to help mitigate the effects of an urban heat island in one of California’s most park-deficient and densely populated areas, the project will install a new six-acre green space and underground parking structure. Residents of the surrounding neighborhoods in South LA will benefit from the incorporation of other state-of-the-art amenities like EV charging stations and a new community space after asphalt surface parking areas are removed from its southeast corner. The announcement noted this area is currently underserved with only about 1 acre of green space available per every 1,000 persons, which is about ten times less than the national average.

Image: Torti-Gallas + Partners

Califor...

Brooklyn group opposes new Tony Hawk-backed skatepark: 'Pouring concrete is Stone Age'

2024-04-08T11:58:00-04:00

The city has construction plans for Mount Prospect Park, once the site of a lookout station for George Washington’s army. About 40,000 square feet of the 7.79-acre park are to be turned into one of the largest skateboarding spots on the East Coast. Some nearby residents are fighting the plan. [...] They say the poured-concrete skateboarding facility would take up precious green space in a city that does not have enough of it.

A total of four skatepark designs are scheduled to be built in the Bronx and Brooklyn, courtesy of The Skatepark Project (or TSP). Costs for a new park at the contested Brooklyn location are about $100,000.

The Mount Prospect Park location calls for 40,000 square feet worth of concrete to be poured, leading to local protests recently. Hayley Gorenberg of the group Friends of Mount Prospect Park told the Times, “Paving green space isn’t acceptable to the community, and it’s not the way for New York City to look forward to a more resilient future. It’s backwards thinking.”

Tony Hawk is also involved in Peterson Rich Office and OSD’s new adaptive reuse design for the Shepherd Gallery and Art Center in Detroit.

Water landscape design experts Fluidity are hiring in Los Angeles

2024-01-24T13:28:00-05:00

Following last week’s look at an opening for a Studio Director at Doug Aitken Workshop, we are using this week’s edition of our Job Highlights series to explore an open role on Archinect Jobs for a Project Manager at Fluidity Design Consultants.

The role, based in Los Angeles, calls for an individual to “coordinate and manage the firm’s relationship as the sub-consultant to the prime design lead on projects.” Among the requirements for the role are a professional degree in architecture, landscape architecture, or design management, 3-7 years of professional experience, and a history of writing and reviewing design contracts.

Grand Park, Los Angeles, CA by Fluidity Design Consultants. Photo: Jim Simmons.

Why the role interests us

The open role at Fluidity offers us the opportunity to highlight a firm specializing in water feature design and engineering that has previously been featured in our editorial. In August of last year, for instance, we reported on the firm’s collaboration with...

Studio Gang to lead Denver's Civic Center Next 100 Phase 1 implementation

2023-11-01T11:56:00-04:00

Studio Gang has been selected to lead the Phase 1 Implementation of Denver’s Civic Center Next 100 revitalization plan targeted at its Greek Theater and Central Promenade along 14th Avenue.

The firm received a $2.8 million design contract for the project and was chosen based on an approach that was “rooted in a community-centered process [and] respects the historic aspects of the park while bringing innovative architectural design,” according to a press announcement.

The project is being delivered with extensive community and stakeholder engagement. The Concept Design also calls for improvements to the Central Gathering Space and Bannock Street between Colfax Avenue and 14th Avenue. Denver’s Mayor Mike Johnston said it will prepare the space for “the next 100 years.”

“We are looking forward to working closely with the city, the conservancy, and the communities of Denver on the design for Civic Center that extends its democratic legacy and invites everyone to come together around per...

Field Operations completes North Park transformation at Freshkills Park, once world's largest landfill

2023-10-17T17:24:00-04:00

Field Operations has shared photos of their completed work on the first phase of North Park at the Freshkills Park redevelopment project for the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation.

Over the course of 30 years, what was once the world’s largest landfill will become an interconnected series of parks and open spaces spread across 750 acres on the west side of Staten Island, beginning with the newly inaugurated 21-acre segment. A pathway carved into a gently curving earthwork arc guides visitors from a new entry approach around the base of the northernmost landfill mounds, culminating in an overlook that offers views of the Main Creek wetlands and William T. Davis Wildlife Refuge. Costs for the project have been reported at $21 million.

Image: NYC Parks/Malcolm Pinckney

Visitors entering from Wild Avenue will encounter an arrangement of flowering ground swales leading northeast to a sumac-lined plateau and picnic lawn. There, a bird tower set against the water’s edge dominate...

Reed Hilderbrand signs on for a $22 million sculpture park at Louisville's Speed Art Museum

2023-08-15T17:54:00-04:00

A new three-acre sculpture park design for Louisville, Kentucky’s Speed Art Museum has been unveiled by Reed Hilderbrand Landscape Architecture in a preview of the project, which is expected to host some 500,000 visitors a year after it opens in 2025.

The firm’s $22 million Speed Outdoors makeover will recreate an area surrounding the museum with native flora, a water management system, and 150 new trees in coordination with the adjacent University of Louisville and with a 13-artwork bequest from local collectors.

Image courtesy of Reed Hilderbrand Landscape Architecture

The Museum’s Director, Raphaela Platow, said it will also instill Frederick Law Olmsted’s "dream of a Louisville connected by public parklands" while serving as a "welcoming forum for the whole community to connect with art, nature, and each other for generations to come."

Image courtesy of Reed Hilderbrand Landscape Architecture

The sculptural work of Zaha H...

Sasaki Associates will lead in designing the largest public park in Athens, Greece

2023-08-03T13:52:00-04:00

The city of Athens is preparing for a groundbreaking addition to its already historic city. Thanks to the efforts of Lamda Development, the city will welcome Ellinikon Metropolitan Park, set to not only be the largest park in Athens but also "Europe's largest coastal park."

Urban Land's Bennett Voyles reports that "after 3,400 years, Athens will soon get its first big park [...] When completed in 2030, Ellinikon Metropolitan Park will be 600 acres (243 ha), about three-fourths the size of New York City’s Central Park, an enormous addition of public green space that may prove as important to Athenians as Central Park is to New Yorkers."

Project render of Ellinikon Metropolitan Park shows design details inspired by the Olympic venues. Image courtesy of Sasaki Associates.

Spearheaded by international planning and design firm Sasaki Associates, the site acts as another unique factor to the development, with areas of the new park being "leftover remnants" of venues from the 2002 Summer Ol...

SWA unveils plans for new 1,200-acre park in Irvine, California

2023-04-28T13:57:00-04:00

A new master plan led by SWA Group has been revealed by the city of Irvine, California, showcasing a park design that, at 1,200 acres, would create one of the largest municipal park environments in the nation.

The so-called Irvine Great Park would transform the site of the historic former Marine Corps’ El Toro Air Station into what could evolve into a new national landmark for the 3.16 million residents of Orange County replete with educational offerings, modern sport and recreation facilities, and cultural attractions.

The framework SWA developed in unison with Kellenberg Studio calls for a five-zone subdivision of the site. A 200-acre Sports Park, Cultural Terrace, 60-acre Botanical Garden, and Veteran’s Memorial Park will join a linear park called the Bosque that features trails and a children’s play area. A central “Heart of the Park” zone completes the spatial design, featuring the 12,000-seat Great Park Amphitheater, a farm, and a three-tiered, 22-acre system of small lakes.

A...

San Francisco's Presidio Tunnel Tops attraction gets an opening date

2022-04-16T10:00:00-04:00

The much-awaited debut of San Francisco's Presidio Tunnel Tops is now set for July 17th, according to a recent announcement from the city and design partner James Corner Field Operations.

The new attraction has been in the works since at least the early 90s when San Francisco’s seismically-untenable Doyle Drive was declared unsafe in its present form, and a plan was hatched to submerge the highway section into tunnels with a connector on top to give the park an unencumbered layout for the first time.

Image courtesy James Corner Field Operations

Situated above the highway to the Golden Gate Bridge, the Tunnel Tops’ design was the product of hundreds of hours of input from more than 10,000 community members and a whopping $118 million public-private investment.

Image courtesy James Corner Field Operations

The 14-acre park now includes a comprehensive network of hiking trails, picnicking areas, a visitors center, and a meadow with 180 different...