ADAMS SQUARE MINI-PARK

Glendale, CA: 2006

A 12,000 SF pocket park in a mixed-use, largely Armenian community northeast of downtown Los Angeles. The corner site lies across from a small commercial district, but backs on a residential neighborhood. Half the site is occupied by an historic, 1920’s era “streamline-moderne” style service station that is diagonally oriented to the corner, and that the Owner wished to preserve.

The design of the park captures the mixed-use character of its context by being part urban in quality, part rural or backyard. It is organized so that pedestrians and other passers-by can choose various paths by which to cross the park: one which just glances across the corner, essentially as a short cut; another that cuts through the gas station as cars would have once travelled through it, past its pump area and under its canopy; a sweeping arc-shaped path that traces the line around the back of the station, at the edge of the greenspace behind; and finally, a meandering “pathless” path that weaves deep into the park and amongst the grid of trees that are planted there. The part of the park that was formerly the gas station property is largely paved, with planting being placed in aboveground planters using species that are highly artificial in appearance, as is found in the astroturf “islands” of flora that are frequently deployed as beautification measures at the edges of such properties. The paving, which varies in imperviousness from asphalt to turfcrete, is overlaid with various graphic patterns, in the manner of the roadside, including a children’s tricycle loop. “Curb island” benches are places under the existing porches. The existing glass booth at the center of the station, which is to be painted entirely white, serves as all-purpose service booth that can be used as a bar or serving counter for private parties and children’s birthdays. The rear of the park, meanwhile, is planted with a grove of acacia trees out of which several activity spaces are carved: one for a children’s play area, another as a lawn area for outdoor film showings, others for picnicing. In a manner similar to that of the mediterranean (originally to deter insect infestation, but now just by habit), the trunks of the trees are painted white (to match the color of the station itself). Construction cost: $600,000.00

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