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]