From Partners for Public Spaces:
It’s time for a little friendly competition. Together with our buddies at Planetizen, we’re inviting you to name the Top 100 Spaces in the United States and Canada. You can nominate a place, or vote for one that’s already on the list, over at Ideascale. (You do have to register, but it’s quick and painless.) Voting goes on until October 15, and then Planetizen will share the results.
The Ira Keller Fountain in Portland, Ore.: Jump right in and have a good time. Photo: Ralph Huntington via Flickr.
So, what makes a place great? Well, we look for four very simple but critical qualities: accessibility; comfort and positive image; a range of activities and uses; and sociability.
In other words, it should be an attractive place you can easily get to (and get into). A place where there are a lot of engaging things going on. A place where connecting with other people happens naturally and often. A place that makes you feel good. You know the kind of place we’re talking about.
When last we checked, Roanoke City Market, the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, and New York’s High Line park were leading the pack. But not all the choices are big and famous — take the Ira Keller Fountain in Portland, Ore. (which turns out to have a pretty interesting history: Jane Jacobs attended its opening).
Karja Hansen provides a video and says this about the place:
This one-acre downtown Portland fountain from 1970 may not be the most classically beautifully thing ever, but it does evoke the crashing Oregon streams and rivers nearby and is a wonderful place to passively engage with (reading a book) or actively engage with (splashing around). Well designed into the site it is a great little pocket amid the 70′s era bad buildings in downtown PDX. And one of the best things about the Ira Keller Fountain is that is has somehow escaped the extreme liability concerns that have plagues America’s public spaces — everyone is free to walk right up to the edges, swim in the pools and splash around.
Is your city’s best place on the list yet? This is your chance to get it on the map.
If you need ideas, head over to our database of Great Public Spaces.
Tell your friends and get out the vote!
Actually, some time last year or so signs went up asking people to stay out of the Keller fountain (although I am not sure if they are still there – I used to work next door to the fountain but I moved across the river last summer).
The signs didn’t slow anyone down though, as it was full all summer long.
My kids absolutely love that fountain. It is a pretty amazing thing to play in.
The American Planning Association has selected the Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park in Nashville as one of 10 Great Public Spaces in America for 2011. It seems that we in Memphis should have been able to create something like this by now. Is anything on Miss River of such quality that it might qualify for such an honor? Is anything on the river a candidate for top 100 Spaces by PPS? I wonder if a finished Beale Street Landing will be a good candidate. What about Court Square? A greensward design linking Court Square, Confederate Park and Jeff Davis Park (all joined with a single name) would have been logical if a suburban motel hadn’t been built in the space. But I digress.
FG-
That surprised me re: the Bicentennial Mall. No doubt it is a well designed green space, but its surroundings- being around 50% vacant land and parking. That and the fact it is isolated from the core of the downtown area by an elevated rail, well it just sort of fell flat. A great photo op no doubt, but another expanse of unused green space.
Of course those were just my personal notes. However, should it one day (and no doubt it will) be the catalyst for extensive redevelopment along its edges that will fill the park with users and activity, then I can see it becoming a great space/place.
I agree with your notes concerning a mall linking Court Square to the river. I also like the idea of a similar green further south (say the Chelsea Hotel area) that would open a window- and thus a view- of the river further into the city. one would be able to sell views of the river without necessarily building on Front Street. The city gets a park which in turn creates enough value for surrounding properties (thanks to those river views) to spark redevelopment of the surrounding blocks. Nothing wrong with a day dream on occasion.
We think we should answer the question: What would it take to get the Memphis riverfront on a list of America’s special places?
Ok, I will venture an idea- perhaps it is more of a concept- at the risk of sounding like a heretic. Perhaps in reshaping the riverfront, the entirety of the open space need not be primarily to foster views of the river itself. I suppose there will always be a handful of local citizens that will trek to the river on a whim to simply look out over the water. However, how long will they remain if they are one or two of no more than 100 individuals spread over 15 acres? There must be more reasons to go to this particular public space than to simply look at the river. No doubt views and photo-ops are important both for locals and for the tourist trade, but it is not enough to bring residents back again and again throughout the year. It is exactly that type of frequency that is needed in order to foster the vibrancy which in turn can attract even more residents and tourists to enjoy the park. In a city where nearly every resident has its own outdoor space in the form of a yard, we cannot rely on our density of scarcity of green to be enough of an attractor. It will require more. Just a few thoughts as the idea moves forward.
I meant to type “…density OR scarcity of green…” in the last sentence.