From The Publisher March 1998 Parks . . . What in the world is a park? When is a park a park? Is it when land is left alone and designated as a site to be left undisturbed? Does it take a certain amount of development before it turns from just open space into a park? Can open space be a park? Is open space a park even if it isn't called a park? Is a park with a plastic play structure a park worth parking at? If there's parking in the park does that pit the parker against the park? And what about the placement of a park? Can a park be located in a parking lot or does it require a two hour drive through a forest to be a real park? Oh no, did I say Forest? Is there a difference in the part of a park that looks like a forest from the part of the forest that has been designated as a park? Oh my . . . . what peril there is in defining a park . . . after all . . . a park is a park and that can't be a lark! So, where do you start when you design a park? Is a park there for people or just for the park? I guess it depends to which school that you've been, when a park is a fiend or a park is a friend. Many will tell you that disturbing the site is worse than an earthquake and much more of a fright. Will all the small animals that there used to play, still be around at the end of the day? And is it a park if the animals there, are all found in cages through which we can stare? Not every time is it clear, you will say, for all things have a purpose, it is just that way . . . Whew . . . I don't know how long I can keep this up but hopefully by now you are getting the point that the Landscape Architect's role in designing a park is dependent on a great many things and that every beholder has a right opinion whether or not they agree. I've seen a park in Portland, Oregon that was barely more than a bench and tree grate located at the corner of a busy intersection. I've been to Yellowstone where a loss of one inch of top soil might take 50 or 100 years to be replaced. In Yosemite 726,000 people entered that park last August. Some say that's terrible, of course they are right. But others say that it's their right to visit the site and again they are right. (Did you know that the single most visited attraction at Yosemite is the Yosemite Falls, and that Lawrence Halprin, a (dare I say) Landscape Architect, is redesigning the site . . . not the falls, mind you, just the visitor section . . .) Some say the intrusion of plastic play structures are dominating park design, but ask the kids if they mind and then tell me that it's not a natural thing. There wouldn't be so many play structures if they weren't so darn fun to play on! But I'm sure we'll hear from a professor or two who will tell us that the kids would have just as much fun playing on a fallen log. This too is true, so watch for the play structure people to start designing natural effects into their products. Things like rock climbs and hieroglyphics are already being introduced to soften the impact of the structure on the landscape while truly letting the kids (of all ages) continue to play. Humans need open space and irregular scenery to calm their mind. Kids, of all ages, need places to run and explore and test their bodies. Animals need a place to remain alive and thrive. All these places fall into that category called Parks.