If you build it they may not come.

[Music]

i want everyone

to think about a park in your

neighborhood that you visit most

frequently on a daily basis

or weekly basis or if you don’t go to

park just a park near your home

how does the park look like what

facilities

or activities do you see in that park

how does the park you just pictured in

your mind look like this one

this is london park here in logan utah

i would say a typical american named

park looks very

similar to this one having huge turf

grass lawn

some tall trees winding paths all

together

providing pastoral and peaceful

landscape

the thing is whether you are aware of it

or not

your perception of urban parks is likely

framed by

18th century english landscape painting

which is a prototype of

picturesque aesthetics in the

picturesque

gardening or creating a park should be

an imitation

of beautiful nature so that any human

work

should be concealed the visitors should

be

only able to see

the like the beautiful nature not the

works by landscape architect

but here’s the problem how do we define

beautiful nature when there are so many

different versions of it depending on

where you are and where you live

why do parks look so ubiquitous and

identical across the country

when the local nature is so distinctive

from one another

why do we import a certain version

of beautiful nature when we build our

own parks in our own city

and what’s wrong with that the problems

with

the imported beautiful nature in a park

earn multiple

for one it is expensive

to create a peaceful haven for new

yorkers the central park

had cost over 14 million dollars in mid

19th century which is was a significant

increase

from the original 5 million dollar

budget it was mainly due to to transform

the rocky and swampy ground into smooth

topography

and ultimately pastoral landscape that

we can see today

a recent national survey of park

agencies show that a typical naval park

cost twenty two hundred thousand dollars

per acre to be built excluding land

price

and a major portion of the construction

cost goes to

grading and greening again to mimic

the imported beautiful nature

building a park is not the end of the

story

to keep it green and give water to turf

grass and non-native plants

our parks require huge amount of water

on average twenty thousand dollars per

acre every year for overall maintenance

of a park

and we all know that it’s not just our

park it’s our

suburban single family neighborhood

requiring

excessive amount of water

to keep its beautiful nature aesthetics

with the current pace of water usage and

population growth in utah

is forecasted that the water demand will

exceed the water supply within 20 years

from now

another problem with the imported

beautiful nature in the park

is that it only accommodates certain

types of activities

most park agencies do not don’t allow

for

gravity protests nightlife

or even regular commercial activities

within their parks

since the inception of urban parks in

19th century they

only had they had only open to

like certain passive uses like walking

jogging or picnicking

that’s all it’s not open to all

last but not least our native parks

are empty in spite of their health

economic environmental social benefits

that a park can provide

we are not fully enjoying them recently

researchers surveyed

about 200 renewed parks across multiple

u.s cities

and found that most of them are

underused

on average there were two persons

per acre like this image where cities

spend

two hundred thousand dollars to build

and another twenty thousand dollar

every year to maintain

so the rest of the green space is empty

where sprinklers are running every day

as a behavior researcher i also

conducted

observational studies of 30 navy parks

in salt lake area in utah

using a drone the finding

2.5 persons per acre aligns with the

national average

you remember two persons per acre

you know utah is quite a typical place

representing this country

and of course there are not many things

we can say so

there are fewer female and even fewer

seniors

this is an example of an empty park out

of 180 observations that i made

parks were empty 26 percent

no single person at the time i visited

there

so what do empty parks have in common

like what what’s the problem is it park

itself

or the surrounding community environment

and the answer is both as you could

guess

parks were empty when they had only

limited types of facilities and second

when they were poorly maintained so

simply is not

a fun and safe place to go

and not only is design and maintenance

parks will

also empty when they are located in a

single family residential neighborhood

and second when they were only

accessible by car

not by walk by bike or public transit

like buses

jane jacobs one of the most influential

urban theories said that

too much is expected of city parks

so we should not simply assume that

putting a new grassland can complete our

neighborhood

if you build it they may not come even

including yourself

so knowing that problems you may wonder

what

popular parks what successful parks have

in common

what should we do and before answering

that question

let me share some numbers it’s two

persons per acre

typical in any parks in any urban any

countries

no sadly that’s not the case you may

know that if you have traveled abroad

or if you’re watching this talk outside

of the united states

like my family members who may be

watching this live broadcast

in korea the user density of native

parks

in other countries ranged from triple to

over tenfolds

of debt in the united states even

including

brazil and canada whose nationwide

population density is lower than this

country

in essence i found that successful

neighborhood parks

have three characteristics

salience intricacy

and accessibility

salence means that there are some

memorable

unique and distinctive features in a

park

have you heard of the word instagramable

or instagram worthy

so salem park is instagram worthy like

attractive enough for photographing and

posting on social media

salence can be also achieved by

embracing the natural landscape

around the park again to make the place

memorable

unique not identical or ubiquitous

another feature of successful navy park

is intricacy

or you can call it complexity

accommodating multiple types of

activities

and providing rich user experiences not

just passive ones

an example of a neighborhood park in

greece providing reach user experiences

through workload equipment

and outside of the park parks with

visitors throughout the day and

throughout the week

have different types of uses around the

park not just residential

there are grocery stores schools

libraries

apartments all together providing the

intricacy

in the built environment

and they’re easily accessible on foot

the kovi 19 pandemic has changed many

things in our cities mostly in

negative ways but it has renewed our

interest

in parks trails and

walkable outdoor environments because we

need a place to relax

exercise socialize while maintaining

some physical distance with others

so more than ever we need a different

approach

do we really need identical parks

identical neighborhood

everywhere that is expensive

unsustainable

inaccessible in a volvo empty most of

the time

instead for example you can attend a

public meeting

and speak up that we need different

parks different neighborhoods

that is salient intricate and accessible

also you can begin with a small change

with your own park

i’m talking about your front yard

backyard or balcony

using by using native plants and some

using some water saving strategies

the beautiful nature might be something

that already exists

in and around your town not necessarily

the one from the english countryside

painting

then we’ll have a place that is used and

loved

again i want you to reimagine a park

in your neighborhood thank you

[Music]