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20 / BUILDING DIALOGUE / March 2021 Context: Finding a City’s Expression in Public Spaces I n the tumult of this past year, we’ve seen how challenge spurs innovation and il- luminates where we as a society can im- prove. One thing that became abundantly clear in 2020 is that the public realm is a foundation to our social, civic and professional lives. Parks stood in for vacation destinations; streets served as platforms for democracy; stoops became living rooms; and plazas and courtyards became class- rooms, meeting rooms and everything in between. Playingsuchanimportant roleofhostingour shared humanity, it is paramount that public space be de- signedwith purpose and relevance. Whether it is city owned, privately owned, large or small, a well-articu- lated public realm adds value to our city and for its people, and at the same time also ex- presses the character of our cities. To design a lasting public realmwell requires embracing its context and culture anddelivering its expression with craft. • Context. Regardless of size or location, all sites have a rich context that serves as both a design constraint and design inspiration. Broadening the frame at the beginning of the design process can uncover great opportunities to ground a site inplace and ensure we put human needs first. For us, each project starts with a deep dive into the context – we explore climatic conditions, historic palimpsests, and geographic positioning to pull out relevant influences that often become design drivers. InOgden, Utah, ourwork at the quarter-acreDumke Arts Plaza started with an elemental look at the larg- er geography and geology of the Salt Lake Basin. We built a custom quantitative viewshed analysis tool to understand precisely at what heights the Wasatch Mountain Range was visible across the whole plaza. This analysis informed the function of the plazawhile a deep dive into the geologic formations common to the region inspired the three-dimensional forms of the space. At Denargo Market near downtown Denver, our team built a composite human comfort model that overlaid how seasonal wind patterns interacted with the new site massing and sun and shade exposure across seasons. These examples of contextual analysis embed a site’s design deeply within its precise loca- tion, making the designmore relevant. • Culture. Creating a cultural connection between a community and a public space ultimately will create a sense of ownership. We always should start with lis- tening to the community tounderstandwhat the indi- viduals in the communitybothwant andneed in their public realm. This cultivates anunderstanding of how subtle cultural differences influence people's comfort and familiaritywith designed elements. For example, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, we learned from the community that the notion of renatural- izing large areas of land was not welcome. While in Colorado or Utah we often celebrate a connection to nature through a rugged approach to our urban pub- lic spaces, that is not the case in Louisiana. We heard from locals that a wild environment means hidden snakes and alligators, and it is quickly seen as a place to avoid. With the goals of reestablishing some of the ecosystem functionalitywe had to balance that initia- tive with clearly differentiated places for people and places for nature. By clearly delineating both types of spaces, we responded to specific community needs Joshua Brooks, ASLA, PLA Director, Sasaki The Space Between Anna Cawrse, ASLA, PLA Director, Sasaki In Baton Rouge, Louisiana, our master plan for the 660-acre Greenwood Park analyzed the existing ecological, hydro- logical and cultural systems to establish baseline condi- tions. Examining nearly a century of historic site patterns revealed hidden ecological forces within the site, which ex- plained why the site was performing in a certain way and what the proper intervention should be to return natural hydrologic functions. This detailed microclimate analysis conducted for our work on the Denargo Market Master Plan greatly influenced the lo- cation of programand space articulation via the placement of trees and structures and surface material choices.