Landscape as Narratives

it is the site itself that may suggest a design concept, an idea that develops into a concrete design. Investigating the history of the site and its context and the people and cultures that were prominent during this history might suggest a design concept. An old street layout or historical landscape features such as an old irrigation canal or drainage swale might be the wellspring for a design solution.

Historical precedents (previously built examples) have been a source of inspiration down through the ages, perhaps beginning with the Garden of Eden. The two garden spaces shown in Figure 5.1 are a palpable example of where a historical precedent such as the great lawn at Parc de Sceaux in Paris (Figure 5.1A) and many similar gardens, designed with long vistas developed around a simple panel of lawn bordered by trees, has been adapted to other public and private gardens as shown in the contemporary public open space situated within a dense mixed-use neighborhood in Paris in Figure 5.1B. A discussion attempting to pinpoint where design ideas come from is a slippery, at best intellectual, enterprise. To understand the slippery nature of the topic we will review a number of design sources that have informed and been successfully applied by landscape architects.

Figure 5.1 Use of historic precedents as a source of design inspiration: A: Parc de Sceaux by André Le Nôtre outside of Paris; People of all ages like a good story. Think about the B: A mixed-use residential neighborhood also in Paris. evenings when bedtime stories were read to you. Sometimes at your insistence particular stories were read repeatedly evening after evening. The use of storytelling is an approach not only to convey information but also to generate visual imagery. The words in the hands of a skilled author can create visual images for the reader. The reader “sees” from the words put down on paper or told in the verbal reading of the text. There are many examples where the landscape architect has selected or derived a story that was the basis of a design. The story or narrative provided the organizing framework of elements contained in the design that when explained (told) can be seen and understood by the client and others. Following are some examples of design landscapes based on narratives.

The office of the Olin Partnership in Philadelphia, PA, was the landscape architect for the design of the latest version of Pershing Square in downtown Los Angeles, California (Figure 5.2). The design is composed of an arrangement of interconnected spaces meant to symbolically showcase the cultural and natural history of the Southern California region, beginning with the Spanish Colonial

period. Each space is meant to serve as a narrative of Los Angeles’ past. For instance, one space designed as a gathering place for concert goers and large crowds hearkens back to the strawberry fields and other agriculture crops ubiquitous in the region prior to the early twentieth century. A second space containing citrus trees corresponds to the orange groves that the region of Southern California was famous for. The presence of water incorporated in a fountain and an elevated water trough suggests the water transport infrastructure that brought water to irrigate the area’s agriculture fields. Southern California is situated in an active geologic fault zone and is represented in a sculptural piece integrated into the pavement depicting Figure 5.2 Pershing Square in Los Angeles, California, by the San Andreas Fault. The architectural elements Olin Partnership, landscape architect, with Ricardo Legorreta, designed by the Mexican architect Ricardo architect. Legorreta are meant to symbolize aspects of the Mexican cultural heritage of Los Angeles. For most people visiting Pershing Square, the narrative is not obvious. But the narrative was an important component during the design competition when the landscape architect Laurie Olin used the story to communicate his firm’s design for the project. Like most designs based on a narrative, knowledge of the story is not necessary to enjoy the design. The elements of the story were carefully and thoughtfully woven to create a design with a solid organization, interesting and visually exciting physical elements, with arrangement of the program elements to facilitate visitors’ enjoyment of the spaces and the park as whole. Figure 5.3 Hayarkon Park, Tel Aviv, Israel, by Gideon Sarig, landscape architect.

Gideon Sarig, a landscape architect with a private practice in Israel, designed Hayarkon Park located on the outskirts of Tel Aviv (Figure 5.3). The Mayor of Tel Aviv, during an early discussion about park design goals, asked Gideon to design a rose garden. There may be some roses tucked somewhere in the park in his ultimate design but, as you will, see Sarig’s design took a direction different than the mayor’s initial request. During an initial field study of the park site that is dominated by variable rolling, dry terrain, Sarig concluded that a rose garden did not seem appropriate. The narrative story and eventually the basis of the park design, was taken from the Bible (Joshua 4). Since a small stream ran through the property bordered by the hilly terrain, Sarig was reminded of the River Jordan and the story of the Israelites’ time before crossing the river. The story goes: God asked Joshua, who was leading the Israelites, to ask each of the 12 tribal leaders to select a boulder and the next day to place their boulder in the river as stepping stones before crossing. This was done and the question one might ask on hearing the story is:

what happened, if anything, to the 12 boulders? Gideon’s answer can be found in his design of Hayarkon Park.

The design and organizing framework of the park were a series of outdoor spaces. Each space had as either a central landmark or the primary construction material rocks and boulders taken from 12 different geologic formations found in Israel. The design was, rather than a collection and exhibition of roses, a walk through the geologic history of Israel. Plants selected were endemic to each region complementing each geologic region. The rocks that were selected for each space were arranged in a unique creation, in some cases sculpturallike and in others suggesting the terrain’s endemic source where the rocks originated. Based on the telling of the biblical story during the presentation by Gideon Sarig, the design was accepted by the mayor. It has become a popular park because of its physical design with few or any visitors recognizing the biblical story of Joshua behind the design. They may wonder where all the rocks came from and for the curious, descriptive signage will provide an explanation.

In the mid-1970s, Mexico City completed construction of its first of many underground metro lines. The excess excavation material was stockpiled on a large parcel of land in the north quadrant of the city. The materials remained there in uneven piles. Among other results the site became a dumping ground for an assortment of debris, discarded materials, and refuse accumulated, to the consternation of adjacent neighborhoods. City government needed a solution of what to do with the area and the growing piles of debris. The idea of a park floated to the top of the discussion. The landscape architectural firm Grupo Diseños Urbanos of Mario Schjetnan, FASLA, was hired to develop a design solution. Initially the city assumed the mountains of excavated soil would have to be removed and transported at considerable cost to another location. Schjetnan’s office eventually arrived at a design concept where the mountains of accumulated material became the basis of a design narrative. The narrative also saved the city a great deal of money in not having to remove the debris and soil. The story was a good one and guided a design that has resulted in a well-used and often-visited park, typically filled during weekend family outings and picnics as well as during the week by school children bussed to the park for outdoor learning purposes. The landscape architects reformed the unruly piles of earth, and molded them into an almost full-scale model of the Valley of Mexico where Mexico City is situated (see Figure 5.4A). Lakes were incorporated into the design representing the expanse of water and wetlands found in the valley at the time the Spanish arrived around 1520. Other areas were carved and molded to represent the communities where numerous native cultures inhabited the area along with the Aztecs. Essentially, a stroll through Tezozomoc Park is a pilgrimage to the communities who inhabited the valley prior to the Spanish. An extensive signage system has been placed, noting each village population and ecological zone that could at one time be found in the valley. While in the two previous examples, the underlying narrative is not evident, a story

Figure 5.4 Tezozomoc Park, Mexico City: A: Courtesy of Grupo de Diseño Urbano and Mario Schjetnan with Michael Calderwood; B: Courtesy of Grupo de Diseño Urbano and Mario Schjetnan with Gabriel Figueroa.

Figure 5.5 California Scenario, Costa Mesa, California, by Isamu Noguchi.

is celebrated and rewards the visitors who come to Tezozomoc Park for the family or school outing.

The Modernist artist Isamu Noguchi was commissioned to create a site-specific sculptural piece for a proposed sculpture garden located adjacent to the South Coast Plaza Mall in Costa Mesa, California. The site had previously been a lima bean field through the 1900s. Instead, Noguchi proposed making the garden of one piece: a narrative celebrating the many indigenous regions of California and the role water had played in the state’s development. The aim was to also serve as a critique of man’s destructive relationship with the California landscape. In Figure 5.5, water is revealed flowing through the stone surface of the plaza with gently carved stone forms in the background. The narrative is achieved through the lens of water movement in the landscape, passing sets meant to evoke specific iconic California landscapes created with rock and plant material. The garden has a Zen or contemplative effect, perhaps drawing from the Japanese cultural roots of the artist.