The Park and the Parking Garage
Last week, an LA Times article reported that downtown's Pershing Square was in line for
another redo. This little 4.5-acre park that sits in the heart of the business district has had 8 names and 6 reconfigurations since it was first laid-out in the 1860s. The park has followed the ups and downs of the community surrounding it, and the current "up" is the reason the city is contemplating another version. The most drastic change to the Square came in the late 1940s in response to retailer's concerns about customers fleeing the central business district. In an effort to stem the tide, a decision was made to build a parking garage under the old park, and the Square has never been the same. Providing parking did nothing to stop the declining fortunes of the downtown retail market, and in the early 1990s another attempt was made at revitalizing the area by redesigning the park again. Now the city is talking about reworking that design, done by Ricardo Legoretta and acclaimed landscape architect Laurie Olin, because it isn't working for 20,000 new residents that call downtown home. The community would like to see a park that resembles the original Pershing Square - one that has grass and trees and is more user friendly.
North of here, up in San Francisco, is a small 2.5 acre park that sits in a location very
similar to LA's Pershing Square. Situated in the heart of downtown's retail district, Union Square has been through a number of remodels of its own over the past 160 years. One thing that remained during the past few revamps is the 85-foot-high Dewey Monument topped by a statue symbolizing the U.S. Republic. The model for the bronze artwork was Alma "Big Alma" Spreckels, a doyenne of society and a colorful character in a city packed with colorful characters. The Square underwent a major overhaul in 1942 when the park was completely demolished and a parking garage was built on the site. Retailers had the same concerns as the LA merchants, and built the garage as a way to keep shoppers in the historic retail core. As with Pershing Square, the underground parking garage completely altered the relationship of the park to the streetscape; if you wanted to access the Square, you had to climb a set of stairs because the green space functioned as a cover for the concrete lid of the garage. The place was no longer pedestrian friendly, it was easier to walk around the park than through it. By the mid 1990s the remaining hedges in the park were removed because they had become a haven for the homeless, muggers and drug users. The city decided a new park was needed and an international design competition was held and won by local landscape architects April Phillips and Michael Fotheringham. The Square closed to the public in 2000 and the reworked public space was revealed 2 years later. Although the park is much more attractive, it still struggles with the fact that it sits elevated from the sidewalk, perched on top of a parking garage. Unlike downtown LA though, the retail district surrounding Union Square is a thriving tourist mecca.
chicagohistorymuseum.org, masmithers via flickr /Artwork: designslinger]
Chicago's Grant Park had it's first underground parking garage installed in 1953. The
automobile was a force that had to be reckoned with and these old commercial/business centers needed parking. Unlike their counterparts in LA or San Francisco, when the time came to provide parking, the Park District architects and engineers decided to completely submerge the garage below street grade. This meant that the sidewalks along the Avenue were still level with the Park's lawns. From the pedestrian's point of view there was no indication that an 1,800 car parking garage was underfoot. Continuing in that tradition, when a decision was made to revamp the old garages and build a new underground parking facility, the old concrete balustrades were restored, new plantings were installed and an entirely new portion of the park was created over the new 2,100 car garage: Millennium Park. Between Anish Kapoor's sculpture Cloud Gate (known as "The Bean"), Frank Gehry's Pritzker Pavilion and the video super graphic-portraits of the Crown Fountain, the park is one of Chicago's most popular tourist attractions, drawing millions of visitors every year. Tomorrow, November 4th, Grant Park will host the Barack Obama election night rally estimated to draw 1 million potential celebrants. Get those party hats ready!
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