The Design (as I see it)

The greenway is an example of a carefully designed urban open space. Today I spent the day walking around the park and looking for clues to the design intentions of the space. The first aspect of the park that I wondered about was the layout of the paths. there seems to be a deliberate hierarchy between the two main parallel arteries. The path along the city side is narrow and gravel while the path along the north-end side is wide and paved. the smaller more intimate space seems to be for solitary use. there are a few benches and a lot of shrubs. When I walk down the path I usually see individuals eating alone, reading or taking a nap. these individuals seem uninterested in people watching and do things that limit their engagement with others like sit sideways, cover their face, or lean back. This space feels small and private. the path is only in view of the main sidewalk for a brief moment and the direction of pedestrian traffic is usually moving past it. the shrubs create a nice symbolic shelter for this space. They are about three feet high, concealing most of your actions while seated or laying down. They also provide a visual barrier, blocking out the city and street traffic. The unpaved quality of the path also seems to be a deliberate indicator of it's secondary status.

The Larger corridor feels almost like an airport terminal or a porch. I related it to an air port terminal in that the behavior of the occupants seems similar. People wander more or less from one end to the other and if they see a spot that suits them they stop to rest, read or eat. some people are in a rush to get from point A to point B, but most seem to be people with a little bit of time to kill. It is very interesting to watch them navigate the space. Many take a few steps and then pause as if they are testing the location to see if it suits them. they often look around and see if there is another "empty" space that looks more appealing. Sometimes they move there, some times they stay put and sometimes they move on all together. Weather someone stays or not seems to be related two two factors, weather and the population density. When the weather is nice (not too cold or windy) and there is a good number of people (around twenty or so) people seem to stay in the space more often and for longer. One day when the sun was out I observed the largest number of people in the space I counted 31 seated people. Interestingly, I saw that they were all grouped along the north side of the park where it was sunniest. The park layout then seemed to be determined not by the view but by the sun exposure. sitting on the northern edge provides the maximum amount of sun exposure while the view from there back into the city is mostly composed of parking garages.

I think the porch feeling comes from the layout of private and public space. The causeway overlooks the lawn as if it were a front yard. once people enter the open park space they come into view of thoes seated in the causway or portico area. This area is also semi-sheltered and completly open on one side with smaller more restricted passageways on the back side.

The best views in the park are observed from the center looking either East or west. at one end is the old Custom House and the other the Zakem Bridge. The view is choreographed so that when you are walking from one district to the other you cross over the park space and look into it as you pass. Almost everyone i observed does this. Your eye seems to be guided by several stimuli, first the human activity in the space (children playing, people laying out and so on) and secondly by the lines of the park. the park is gently curved and the the major lines seem to radiate out from the two nodal view points. Each seems to be the vanishing point of a perspective of the space. There are a network of secondary lines that point both into the space as well as up. the lattice and grout lines point subtly in these directions. They feel like the pencil strokes that add depth and dimension to the composition.

The interior space also seems to have an element of privacy to it. the enges of the park are slightly raised around it providing a bout a two foot space of privacy above the grass. By this I mean that if you lay flat you would be hidden from outside traffic and if you were sitting you would be only partialy exposed. The space is not closed off but has a distinct feeling of being enclosed. people seem to feel comfortable to let their children and pets roam about the space. there is a slight grat to the lawn that makes it more comfortable and interesting as well the slope makes sitting and grouping eaiser and forces the user to engage the terain when walking accross it.