Hargreaves Associates - News
MINDBOGGLING REVEALS: BEHOLD WILLOUGHBY SQUARE PARK
Willoughby Square in Downtown Brooklyn will be a street-level public space that sits atop an underground parking garage.
The project is one of a series of more than $100 million in public investments in open space and infrastructure commitments made under the Downtown Brooklyn Redevelopment Plan, adopted in 2004 to reinvigorate the neighborhood and celebrate the area’s unique heritage.
The one-acre Willoughby Square open space is located on Willoughby Street between Duffield Street and Gold Street in Downtown Brooklyn, half a block from the vibrant Fulton Street Mall.
The project is being designed by Hargreaves Associates through a community-oriented design process. NYCEDC anticipates seeking proposals for developers to construct Willoughby Square and the parking garage.
For more information, please visit the NYCEDC, Nest Seekers Internationl, and Brownstoner Brooklyn.
UNIVERSITY OF MONTPELLIER SUD CAMPUS DESIGN AND PLANNING COMPETITION
Hargreaves Associates has been short listed to compete in the University of Montpellier Sud campus design and planning competition. The university, founded in 1289, consists of four separate schools and has an enrollment of 50,000 students. The goal of the competition is to create a master plan to unify the disparate university bodies while reconnecting the urban campus with the surrounding community.
Hargreaves is teamed with branding firm ALGOE, urbanist and architecture firms Forma 6 and Archivolt, ecologists Confluences, and local landscape architects Terres de Paysages, to provide a vision for the University in 2040 and move it onto the list of the top 100 universities globally.
For more information, please visit the University of Montpellier Sud campus website.
CARRYING THE TORCH
The exceptionally well-organised Sydney Games were a true celebration of Olympic values and sporting excellence. Now 10 years after Sydney's 2000 Olympic Games, the redevelopment and innovative use of the Homebush Bay Olympic facilities, along with the infrastructure challenges Sydney has faced post-games, are featured in The Australian.
For more on this story, please visit the The Australian.
PROGRESS BEING MADE ON AMERICAN INDIAN CULTURAL CENTER
The completion of the East Gate Entry demonstrates the continued progress being made and represents the commitment to complete this important development, even in challenging times.
The American Indian Cultural Center's East Gate Entry continues the American Indian tradition of storytelling, as the stone walls convey an important story while welcoming and guiding guests into the cultural center experience. The East Gate entrance is a 113’ walk through two dramatic inclining stone walls rising to 40’. The intricate Mesquabuck stone possesses several subtle and compelling attributes. The East Gate walls align precisely with the sunrise of the March (Vernal) and September (Autumnal) Equinoxes, with the sun rising directly in the center of the gate on these astronomically significant days. Executive director Gena Timberman comments, “This distinctive architectural feature reflects building traditions from throughout the Americas dating back millennia which also positioned prominent structures to correlate with astronomical events, such times of equinox and solstice.”
For more on this story, please visit the Native American Times.
10 FREE, FUN THINGS TO DO IN SAN FRANCISCO THIS WEEKEND
Crissy Field is featured as one of the Top 10 Free and Fun Things to do in San Francisco.
Crissy Field
If you're looking for a patch of coast to hike with the kids and the dog, it would be hard to beat Crissy Field, boasting 100 acres of windswept shoreline with stunning views of the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz, keeling sailboats and kite surfers. The former military airfield (which closed in 1974) and restored salt marsh stretches from Fort Point to the Marina Green. Bring a sweatshirt for cool afternoon winds and plan to stop at the Warming Hut cafe for a snack. You can park on Mason Street near the Exploratorium or at Fort Point, just below the Golden Gate Bridge. (parksconservancy.org.)
For more on this story, please visit the Native American Times.
CONSTRUCTION FOR NASHVILLE'S RIVERFRONT PARK COULD BEGIN SOON
Nashville’s downtown riverfront prepares for a dramatic transformation, and it all starts with a family friendly Adventure Play Park. For years now people have been working on a plan to bring more people to Nashville’s riverfront. Now some new projects and millions of dollars are helping to make it a reality. It is space covered in concrete – a giant parking lot that sits empty most of the time. But soon it will all be changing from parking, to park.
The first phase, a six acre Adventure Play Park, will sit on the East bank and break ground in September. An open house was held at LP Field to unveil the plan for a riverfront renaissance. The idea is to help the city rediscover the river. Nashville’s Civic Design Center brought dozens of people to look at the plans for the adventure park, and the old NABRICO building, which now sits vacant on the East bank.
The project will be geared toward families. Mayor Karl Dean wants the Cumberland River to be the center of the city. $30 million has already been set aside for the effort, which will eventually include 15 unique spaces on both sides of the river. They are even finding potential in a parking lot.
The Adventure Play Park will cost $8.5 million to build, and should be open by next summer. City leaders believe it will bring one million visitors to the riverfront each year.
For more on the Nashville Riverfront Park Construction, please visit WZTV Nashville Fox 17 and KKRN News 2 in Nashville.
555 MISSION'S 3 HEAD SCULPTURES MORE THAN A NOD TO S.F. LAW
San Francisco mandates that new downtown buildings must include publicly accessible space of some sort. Like any mandate, this one's had mixed results - but the best spaces make the effort worth the trouble. Here, alongside the 555 Mission office tower, a through-block plaza features artful benches, a living wall, easy access from the sidewalk - and a trio of mottled aluminum heads that keep an amiably surrealistic eye on the scene. Too much corporate art is innocuous abstraction, designed to be ignored. These guys always make me smile.
For more on this story, please visit the San Francisco Chronicle.
36 HOURS IN HOUSTON: PARK IT DOWNTOWN
Houston may be a sea of office towers, but this subtropical city is also surprisingly green. Hundreds of parks carpet the city, and one of the newest — a 12-acre park called Discovery Green — is quickly becoming the heart of the city’s still sleepy downtown. Opened in 2008, the park serves as a true public space; elderly couples stroll around the artificial lake as toddlers roll down grassy knolls. For sunset cocktails, follow the area’s young professionals to the Grove (1611 Lamar Street; 713-337-7321; thegrovehouston.com), a modern restaurant inside the park, which offers treehouse-like views of the skyline.
For more on this story, please visit the New York Times.
HARGREAVES ASSOCIATES WINS THREE SCUP 2010 MERIT AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE AND PLANNING
Hargreaves Associates is pleased to announce that we have won three seperate SCUP 2010 Awards for Excellence in the following:
Duke University West Campus Plaza for Excellence in Landscape Architecture Awards Program
Stanford University Science and Engineering Quad for Excellence in Planning for an Established Campus Awards Program
University of Utah Master Plan for Excellence in Planning for an Established Campus Awards Program
Winning entries will appear on For more on this story, please visit SCUP’s web site, in the October issue of Planning for Higher Education, and in the Tribute to Excellence newspaper in the coming weeks. In addition, members of the jury will present a 90-minute concurrent session on Monday, July 12 from 2:30 pm to 4:00 pm at SCUP–45, the Annual International Conference and Idea Marketplace in Minneapolis, MN July 10-14. They will present observations from this year’s submittals, what was “excellent,” and best practices.
FORBES NAMES UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI ONE OF THE WORLDS MOST BEAUTIFUL CAMPUSES
The University of Cincinnati's main campus has been listed as one of the world's most beautiful college campuses on Forbes.com.
Other colleges on the list include Ohio's own Kenyon College, Oxford University and Princeton University.
UC has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to rebuild its campus during the last decade, adding new buildings such as the Campus Recreation Center, the Engineering Research Center and the expanded Tangeman University Center.
The rebuilding plan also added the Main Street, designed by Hargreaves Associates, walking path through many of the new buildings.
For more on this story, please visit Cincinnati.com.
LONDON 2012 OLYMPICS SITE TO BECOME HUGE PARKLAND POST GAMES
The 2012 Olympic site will become a public park when the games finish, according to plans unveiled this week. The scheme by landscape architects LDA Design and Hargreaves Associates will turn 101 ha of former industrial land into the UK’s largest new urban park since the early Twentieth Century.
Minister for Olympics and London Tessa Jowell said: ‘The Olympics will create a stunning green oasis in east London that in legacy will join the long list of world famous parks London is so lucky to have. Nowhere else will features like the great British garden, wetlands and new wildlife habitats sit side by side with world class sports facilities. This will be a destination that the whole nation can be proud of.’
For more on this story, please visit The Architects Journal.
LONDON 2012 OLYMPIC PARK LEGACY PLANS REVEALED
Detailed plans for the design of the 100ha park, which will become a public open space after the games, were revealed by the Olympic Delivery Authority on Tuesday. The plans have been drawn up by LDA Design working with Hargreaves Associates, and form one of the biggest legacy projects of the games.
David Higgins, chief executive of the ODA, said: “Inspired by the original Victorian parks, the meadows, gardens, woods and river walks in this new great park will create a fantastic public space for people and wildlife right at the heart of the transformation of east London.”
For more on this story, please visit BD: The Architects Website.
LANDSCAPE ALCHEMY: THE WORK OF HARGREAVES ASSOCIATES
Landscape Alchemy spans the twenty-five year history of Hargreaves Associates, a firm that explores various landscape typologies at a multitude of scales, both public and private. This title carefully traces Hargreaves' role in advancing the re-occupation of post-industrial sites, reclaiming waterfronts across the US, Europe and Australia, as well as its significant contribution to the cultural landscape through urban parks, public plazas and private gardens.
Hargreaves Associates is a professional consulting firm comprised of landscape architects and planners with offices in San Francisco, California; Cambridge, Massachusetts; New York City; and London, UK. The firm has been on the forefront of landscape architectural practice since its' founding in 1983.
About the Contributors: George Hargreaves is Design Director and Senior Principal of Hargreaves Associates. Harvgreaves received his MLA with Distinction from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design in 1979. His work has been published and exhibited internationally. Anita Berrizbeitia is a professor of landscape architecture at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, where she also received her MLA. Her research focuses on contemporary and twentiethcentury design and theory. Julia Czerniak is a registered landscape architect and founder and principal of CLEAR. She is also an Associate Professor at Syracuse University School of Architecture. Educated both as an architect and landscape architect, her research and practice focus on the intersection of these disciplines. Liz Campbell Kelly is a landscape designer working in New York. She is the co-founder and co-editor of topophilia.org, an online journal of landscape architecture. She received her MLA at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design in 2006.
Serial rights are available for Landscape Alchemy, as are images to accompany feature or review coverage. To arrange, please contact Gordon Goff at gordon@oroeditions.com or 415.663.0678. Order direct from ORO editions.
MGM CITYCENTER GIVES LAS VEGAS A HUGE TWIST
The MGM CityCenter oepened in Las Vegas on Friday, December 18, 2009. A joint venture between MGM Mirage and Dubai World, the $8.5 billion development is said to be the largest privately funded construction project in U.S. history. The MGM CityCenter also is among the largest developments on on record that was built green from the ground up, boasting six buildings that have earned the LEED Gold certification.
To read more about the MGM CityCenter Opening, please visit the San Francisco Chronicle and the MGM CityCenter.
LANDSCAPE INSTITUTE AWARDS LONDON 2012 OLYMPIC PARK AND PUBLIC REALM MASTERPLAN TWO HONORS
The Landscape Institute honors the London 2012 Olympic Park and Public Realm Masterplan with two presitgious awards: the Peter Youngman Award for an Outstanding Contribution to Landscape in 2009 and the Local Landscape Planning Highly Commended Award in 2009.
To read more about Landscape Institute and their awards, please visit the Landscape Institute 2009 Awards.
SYDNEY'S BLAXLAND COMMON AND OLYMPIC PARK WINS AUSTRALIAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS NATIONAL 2009 URBAN DESIGN AWARD
The Walter Burley Griffin Award for Urban Design has been awarded to the Armory Wharf Precinct at Sydney Olympic Park by Hargreaves Associates, Lahz Nimmo Architects and Lacoste + Stevenson Architects. “The Armory Wharf Precinct is a remarkably attractive park precinct with much-enjoyed, well-designed public facilities. It is a most agreeable place to visit, uncluttered, well resolved, and in harmony with the natural and man-modified landscape”.
To read more about Blaxland Common's Walter Burley Griffin Award for Urban Design, please visit the Australian Institute of Architects.
HOUSTON’S DISCOVERY GREEN IS A BUSINESS WEEK / ARCHITECTURAL RECORD AWARDS WINNER
Since opening in April 2008, this 12-acre public park has helped energize Houston’s east side, turning a less fashionable part of town dominated by Minute Maid Ballpark, Toyota Center Arena, and the George R. Brown Convention Center into a family-friendly neighborhood attracting both residential and commercial development. Hargreaves Associates designed the park, while PageSoutherlandPage (PSP) designed a number of small buildings in the park, including a restaurant (The Grove), a café (The Lake House), a park-administration facility, an outdoor stage, and entrance pavilions for a 600-car underground parking garage.
To read more about this Discovery Green feature, please visit the Architectural Record.
HOUSTON’S DISCOVERY GREEN ACHIEVES LEED GOLD CERTIFICATION
Discovery Green has achieved LEED Gold Certification, making it the first completed LEED Gold project for new construction in downtown Houston. LEED Gold Certification – the second highest rating and still quite rare – places Discovery Green in a category with other environmentally responsible projects around the country. LEED certification is awarded solely by the U.S. Green Building Council to projects that adhere to universally accepted criteria such as energy efficiency, material conservation, water efficiency and indoor environmental quality.
To learn more about Discovery Green's LEED Gold Certification, please visit the Discovery Green Website, the Houston Chronicle and the Houston Business Journal.
NASHVILLE RIVERFRONT PROJECT AWARDED TO HARGREAVES ASSOCIATES
The Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency has invited Hargreaves Associates to return to town to design 17 parks and open space projects along the Nashville riverfront. In 2006, Cambridge, Mass.-based Hargreaves helped the city design its Nashville Riverfront Concept Plan, on which work got underway earlier this year. The Metro Council approved $30 million earlier this year to fund the initial phases of riverfront development. On Tuesday, MDHA authorized paying Hargreaves up to $2.1 million for the additional design work.
To learn more about the Nashville Riverfront Development, please visit MSN Money Central, the Nashville Business Journal, the Nashville City Paper and Grant Hammond's Nashville Real Estate News.
OKLAHOMA CITY MAPS OUT BIG PLANS
A $777 million MAPS 3 plan unveiled by Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett and members of the Oklahoma City Council for a proposal that is expected to be considered by the citizens of Oklahoma City on December 8. It will include a large 70-acre downtown Central Park, designed by Hargreaves Associates. The plan also includes a new convention center, transit improvements such as a downtown streetcar and commuter rail system, Oklahoma River improvements, renovations at State Fair Park, health and wellness aquatic centers for senior citizens, 57 new miles of bicycle and pedestrian trails and money for new sidewalks.
To learn more about the MAP 3 Plan, please visit NewsOK and The City of Oklahoma City.
RICKY BURDETT ON LONDON 2012 OLYMPIC GAMES & LEGACY TRANSFORMATION
Ricky Burdett, centennial professor of architecture and urbanism at the London School of Economics (LSE) and chief adviser on architecture and urbanism for the London 2012 Olympics, was recently interviewed in Regeneration & Renewal Magazine.
Burdett believes that the London 2012 Games are on course to deliver a lasting legacy, and had this to say: “The most important contribution the Olympic project is making is creating a network of connections and a series of public spaces in a short period of time in an area that would otherwise never, ever have seen that level of investment,” he says. “After 2012, you will have a very beautiful park and some of the better examples of landscape design that we have seen in Britain for some time.”
To read Ricky Burdett's full interview, please view the Regeneration & Renewal Magazine Article.
PANAMA PACIFICO GAINS USGBC AND CLINTON SUPPORT AS SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Panama Pacifico is a mixed-use business, residential and recreational center being created over the next 40 years. The scheme helps to make sustainable developments commercially viable and has this week been chosen as one of 16 projects in the USGBC and Clinton Climate Initiative’s Climate Positive Development Program which promotes large-scale urban projects that demonstrate cities can grow in ways that are “climate positive.”
The project covers 1,400 hectares with nearly half dedicated to parkland and open space. Wetlands, mangrove, forests, and native habitat are being preserved, in addition to many of the large trees in the area. New storm water systems will be integrated to allow the natural run-off of rainwater to nurture the land, and new trees will be planted every year as the development progresses.
1 million sq m of commercial space, 20,000 homes, together with retail centers, hotels, shools and places of worship and a championship golf course will be constructed creating a well rounded community and destination town.
For more information about Panama Pacifico, please visit World Architecture News.
FORUM FOR URBAN DESIGN 2009 SPRING CONFERENCE
The Forum for Urban Design will host a panels comprised of leading landscpae architectural figures from North America to discuss different visions for the 21st century urban park. Three prominent landscape architects; George Hargreaves, James Corner and Michael Van Valkenburgh; will discuss the ways in which innovative and creative designs are redefining the park and city of the 21st century.
For more information about the Forum for Urban Design 2009 Spring Conference, please visit the Forum for Urban Design.
EVENTS CELEBRATE NEW FEATURES AT DAVENPORT'S CENTENNIAL PARK
Centennial Park opened successfully and with much praise from the enthusiastic city of Davenport on Saturday April 18, 2009.
The day-long list of events included a ribbon-cutting ceremony involving city officials and Iowa Gov. Chet Culver. There also was live music, basketball clinics, demonstrations at the Skate Park, family-friendly games and activities and giveaways. After the ceremony, people were invited to attend Davenport Night at Modern Woodmen Park. Tickets were free.
The skatepark has been open since 2006, but the Active Recreation Corridor has a lot to offer families, including a complex of two full, tournament quality basketball courts, a youth half-court, a concession/restroom pavilion, a stage, and picnic and informal play areas west of the new skate park. The skate park is for skateboard and BMX bike enthusiasts. It features handrails, stairs, ledges, ramps and a 10-foot bowl. It is open from sunup until one half-hour before sunset.
For more information about Davenport's Centennial Park Opening, please see the Quad-City Times.
BREATHING LIFE INTO RIVERFRONT PROPERTIES
Developer Grant Humphreys and Hargreaves Associates' Mary Margaret Jones were featured at the Urban Waterfront Development forum on Tuesday April 14, 2009. Mr. Humpreys' Ferris 105 foot tall Ferris Wheel will be the focal point of a 86-acre development dubbed 'The Waterfront' that over 10 years will include up to 950 homes, condominiums and apartments; 400,000 square feet of office space; 300,000 square feet of retail space; and a site for a hotel. Mary Margaret Jones, senior principal with Hargreaves Associates, has worked on riverfront developments around the world. She said the ingredients for a successful waterfront project are simple: Food, Water to play in, and a Waterfront. The Waterfront Park will allow Oklahoma City map its own plan and it’s a great opportunity to grow together.
For more information about Humphreys' Waterfront Park and the Urban Waterfront Development forum, please see the NewsOK article and video along with the Journal Record article.
RENOVATED SOUTH POINTE PARK REOPENS ON MIAMI BEACH
Hundreds of people, many with their pets, frolicked with Ferrer at the grand reopening of the 17.5 acres of green space at Miami Beach's southernmost point. The $22.4 million project took more than 20 months. Before, there was mostly plain open space with no major attractions. Now, there are 20-foot-wide walkways lined with Florida limestone and restored natural sand dunes, covered with grass. Children can play around metal tubes that look like stems and spout water like daisies.
For the full article, please read Miami Herald.
NEW YORK TIMES GIVES NOD TO NOLA: REINVENTING THE CRESCENT
In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina architects and urban planners all over the country began a spirited investigation of how to make New Orleans safer and more sustainable. The nonprofit Urban Land Institute, devoted to urban issues, presented a report a few months after the storm, based purely on the city’s topography, that proposed returning some of its most devastated low-lying areas to wetlands and concentrating more housing on higher ground — a plan that would, among other things, reduce the burden on the levees and canals that protect the city from storms.
At the same time local architects and preservationists began a campaign to preserve the layers of historical fabric that had been damaged by or lost in the storm, including downtown’s Art Deco Charity Hospital, some early Modernist schools, New Deal-era public housing and the Ninth Ward’s shotgun houses, as well as the Spanish-influenced architecture of the French Quarter.
Even some private developers seemed to understand the importance of balancing social and environmental concerns. Sean Cummings, a local developer, has proposed a master plan for a six-mile-long park on a site along the city’s riverfront, currently a strip of decrepit wharfs, abandoned warehouses and parking lots.
Designed by a formidable team of architects that includes Enrique Norten, George Hargreaves, Alex Krieger and Allen Eskew, the proposal is a model of how to knit together conflicting urban realities. A matrix of public parks, outdoor markets and mid-rise residential towers is woven through the existing fabric of old warehouses. Landscaped boulevards would extend from the park into a mix of working-class and gentrified neighborhoods. What’s more, concentrating more housing on high land along the river fit nicely with the Urban Land Institute’s vision for a more sustainable city.
For the full article, please read The New York Times.
PORTLAND SOUTH WATERFRONT GETS FIRST NEIGHBORHOOD PARK
Nutter Corp. with Hargreaves Associates and local local landscape architect Lango Hansen will build the South Waterfront District’s first neighborhood park. The Portland City Council on Wednesday accepted Nutter’s bid of $2.17 million on the project.
For the full article, please read Portland's Daily Journal of Commerce.