Every week, we bring you the latest news in placemaking, landscape architecture and urban planning, the nature-mental health link, and much more. Check back each week for new roundups and items.
A Playful Plaza: Bringing Imagination and New Life to Downtown Providence
“Every Thursday in the summer, at about 9am, the Downtown Providence Park Conservancy (DPPC) crew gathers and prepares for the long day ahead—nine non-stop hours of family programming in Burnside Park. On one edge of the park, The O’Crepe food truck is already open for business as Jennifer Smith and her team of interns and volunteers unlock the doors of the Imagination Center and start moving colorful equipment out into the park. Folding tables, stools, and art supplies head to one area for Art in the Park, as jumbo beanbags, colorful benches, and a sound system head to another for Storytime. Book carts filled with the work of local authors and illustrators roll out onto the Imagination Center deck to create an outdoor reading room.’”
The 10 Most Livable Global Cities For Balancing Work And Play
“How do the world’s biggest cities stack up against each other in terms of their livability? Every day seems to bring a different sort of ranking, and comparing the different rankings can end up highlighting more about the rankings themselves than any given city on them. A new study, published in the World Review of Science, Technology, and Sustainable Development, tries to make sense of where seven different global city livability rankings overlap and why. Among the seven, it also examines its own new index, which unsurprisingly, it evaluates as the most “balanced” of the group.”
Presidio Park Project Lands Architect Behind High Line in N.Y.
“A New York landscape architect will lead the design efforts for what could become one of San Francisco’s most remarkable settings, a new bluff overlooking Crissy Field. The selection of James Corner and his firm Field Operations comes after an unusual competition where five teams were asked to submit conceptual visions for the 13 acres that will blanket two automobile tunnels now under construction. The competition was overseen by the Presidio Trust, which manages nearly all of the 1,491-acre park at the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge. Corner is best known for the High Line, an unusual elevated park in Manhattan that has become a sensation. His concept here extended the Main Post’s central lawn to a curvaceous bluff atop the tunnels, then slid via paths to a more intimate landscape along Mason Street facing Crissy Field’s marsh. Equally important, Field Operations’ proven ability to work with neighborhood groups and bureaucracies could improve the odds of success for a project sure to be as closely scrutinized as any in the city.”
Los Angeles Proposes Ambitious Earthquake Plan
“In the wake of damaging reports about Los Angeles’ unpreparedness for the next Big One, Mayor Eric Garcetti yesterday proposed a new earthquake plan that, if passed, would require owners to retrofit thousands of wood frame and concrete buildings. The report, led by the mayor’s Science Advisor for Seismic Safety, Dr. Lucy Jones, would specifically target “soft-first-story” buildings and “non-ductile reinforced concrete” buildings built before 1980. It also recommends shoring up the city’s water supply in the case of an earthquake, developing an alternative firefighting water supply and facilitating stronger pipes and aqueducts. The effort would also upgrade the city’s telecommunications and power networks to prevent dangerous disruptions.”
