Marvels of Modernism, Related Landscapes
Located on 6.7 acres in Oakland’s Montclair neighborhood, Estates Reservoir is an open-cut reservoir constructed in 1903. In the early 1960s regulations were put in place by the East Bay Municipal Utilities District requiring coverings on all open water storage reservoirs to prevent contamination. In 1962 the firm Royston Hanamoto Mayes and Beck was commissioned by EBMUD to design a cover for the reservoir which would both protect the area’s water supply and provide a park-like setting in keeping with the surrounding neighborhood.
Located in downtown Fort Worth, Texas, the most significant area of the 112-acre park, which runs along the banks of the Trinity River, is Heritage Park Plaza, designed by landscape architect, Lawrence Halprin. The plaza, located on the Trinity River Bluff, was built as part of the 1976 US Bicentennial Celebration in commemoration of the establishment of Fort Worth as the Camp Worth military post in 1849.
Herbert Bayer’s Mill Creek Canyon Earthworks marks a turning point in the integration of art, ecology, and landscape architecture. Constructed in 1982, the Earthworks is composed of sculpted earth, pathways, water, and lawns, which function together as public park, storm water retention facility, and landscape artwork.
Constructed for 1962 World’s Fair as the U.S. Science Pavilion, the Pacific Science Center is a six-acre, multi-building pavilion set around an inner courtyard. Made of pre-cast concrete slabs, the pavilion’s skeletal, cathedral-like walls mix a Gothic aesthetic with Modern simplicity.
The 191-acre planned neighborhood of Parkmerced was developed from 1940 to 1951 and included nearly 3,500 residential units, a commercial zone, school, recreational areas, and a meadow, with high-rise apartment towers and low-rise garden apartments, built for middle income tenants in southwestern San Francisco, California.
Following on the tremendous success of Lawrence Halprin’s design and conversion of Nicollet Avenue into the pedestrian-friendly Nicollet Mall in 1967, a new priority arose- a public space for gathering that would not compete with mall activities. In response to this need, M. Paul Friedberg + Partners created Peavey Plaza in 1973. Often referred to by Friedberg as a “park plaza,” this two-acre space is also described by him as “a mixture of the American green space and the European hard space.”
In the 1960s, Portland, as many other American cities, was engaged in recreating and energizing the public realm with new parks, office buildings, shops and housing. This eight-block sequence of parks and plazas was designed to attract middle-class residents to the central city. It proved to be one of the most successful redevelopment projects of that era.