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by Tom Valtin
Environmental Expression Through Art Session
Robin Chiang

"You took a caterpillar and turned it into a butterfly!" This was how one community member expressed her happiness to landscape designer Alma du Solier after her landscape design firm had helped turn a local vision for a local park into an on-the-ground reality.

Du Solier was joined by Robin Chiang, a former professor of architecture and design now in private practice, and Allen Green, a professor of landscape architecture dedicated to involving the public in the design process, in a discussion on the role graphics, images, and design can play in bringing community visions for green public spaces to fruition. All three panelists presented slideshows of their work, demonstrating how graphics—whether hand-drawn or computer-generated—had helped build public and private support for their projects.

Chiang gave a presentation showing the results of several volunteer-led efforts to transform former industrial sites into enclaves of public art and open space. He stressed the impact that even one committed local volunteer can have in bringing such projects to fruition. One such volunteer had been the motivating force behind a former shipyard on San Francisco Bay being transformed into a quiet green space punctuated with colorful, whimsical art installations.

Du Solier stressed the role graphics had playing in communicating her vision for a linear park in a river flood plain in Modesto, California. Her plan took the river's natural meanders into account, dictating how the landscape was terraced and habitat incorporated into the overall design of the park. Du Solier put together imaginative computer graphics showing what the completed park would look like, which she says were invaluable in helping build community interest.

Allen Green also uses computer modeling and the latest graphics technology in helping developers, public officials, and citizens visualize his plans. But he says the simplest graphics are often the most effective. Green frequently works with kids, and asks them to draw what they'd like to see for the project. "Have people draw, even if they don't think they can," he stresses. "Do watercolors based on computer modeling. Sometimes drawing with a stick in the dirt can be enough to communicate your vision."

All three panelists stressed the need to engage the public in the design process. "We've had plans conceived by citizens that have competed with developers' plans and won out," Green says. "We've had kids design playgrounds, and their drawings helped communicate the vision. One successful project started when a woman heard a frog singing where a development was set to take place."

All three concurred that graphics—whether a watercolor done by a grade-schooler or a professionally generated computer model—can be invaluable in the process of building support for their projects and transforming visions into reality.

-- 09/09/2005 Fri
12noon