Rob Morgan from McKnight & Associates redesigned two different parks, in two different contexts. The first project, Perk Park located at Chester Avenue and East 12th Street in Cleveland, Ohio and the second project being the Greenspace at Zone Recreation Center also located in Cleveland. Both projects are similar by the way that they valued the people, the ecology of the site, and the economy of its patron and dissimilar by the size of the project.
Until recently, Perk Park had been seen as unsafe and furthermore was the location of a gruesome crime in 2009. Now, in credit to McKnight & Associates, the park is seen as a contemporary safe haven due to renovations to the once unsafe location. The project itself is only one acre in size and had to conform to the site conditions of being on a corner with surrounding cityscapes. The first phase of the project, started with the plaza design which included demolishing existing walls and raised plaza grade into a flat surface to improve visibility of the park and visibility to the surrounding buildings. The landscape architects wanted to give the park its urban context back and open it up to the surrounding site so that it fits contextually within the city. Phase two of the project dealt with security issues such as adding additional lights and opening the space up making it more visible and less likely to house another malicious crime. The architects achieved this by creating two different grass planes; also referenced as a “forest and meadow” concept where shade trees and mounds were preserved from the old design but accentuated with an open lawn with precast concrete seating created through the lawn. The site also includes a program of economy that includes food vendors as part of the site with café seating underneath the red trellis. The achievement of the park is remarked to have opened the space up and create an axis to the surrounding buildings which in affect makes it one of the most aesthetically pleasing ways to approach the building.
The second project that Rob Morgan worked on was the Greenspace at Zone Recreation Center, which unlike the Perk Park, had twenty acres of land. The first phase of the project dealt with knowing the surrounding conditions of the site, which included a community center and a border along a major highway. The architects then grouped off the site into different areas; such as, area of greatest infrastructure outside of the building footprint and the highest degree of use within the site. With the data collected, they created an undulating path through the site connecting the different programmatic elements of the site and also focused on using sustainable strategies throughout the park. For example, solar panels provide energy for lighting the restrooms and concession stands but also designed the park gardens to absorb the storm water runoff. The architects also masked some of the highway sounds by placing trees in select areas and creating sloping mounds to dissipate some of the sounds coming from the highway. Along with designing with nature, the architects focused on designing for the people and for the economy of the patrons. First, the architects focused on designing for the people who would use this park. For example, the architects reached out to the skateboarding community and focused on what they would like in part of the site and the architects were able to accommodate their wants in the skateboard ramps included within the site. However, the design was also limited due to funds for the project. Unlike Perk Park, Greenspace is a twenty acre project which therefore, requires more funding to be used and was dealt with effectively by choosing materials that would work with the site and the economy.
In conclusion, the two different projects talked about by Rob Morgan were different in size of scale. Both the Perk Park and the Greenspace at Zone Recreation Center projects focus on landscaping architecture that is beneficial to the neighborhood but also to the people. In the case of Perk Park, it changed the appearance of that particular space with much success. Even though Perk Park is an acre, it creates spaces intended for different uses such as café seating, outdoor seating areas, and green areas. The Greenspace at Zone Recreation Center focuses on the same concepts of creating spaces intended for different program. Even though the projects were different in terms of size and context, the design phases were similar to the effect of knowing the existing conditions and designing off of prior knowledge. Successfully, both projects benefit the neighborhood by increasing green space throughout a city, benefiting the livelihood of the people who live in the city, and the economy of the patrons who funded the projects.