Highlands + Railroads came to Grand Park on November 4. The park was filled with families enjoying f

What actually is the purpose of a public park in 2012? LA s newest park Grand Park in downtown LA opened in the fall of 2012 and announces hotels in denver colorado itself  in 3-D with its urban-chic, multilingual welcome sign.: The Park for Everyone. Leave no language untouched; this sign is talking to you .  It really really wants you to use it.
It was conceived as a piece of a larger vision to revitalize downtown and help LA in its perpetual hotels in denver colorado quest to build a center for this sprawling hotels in denver colorado megalopolis. Yes, this is a public park public in the sense of inviting people to enter it, use it, like it. But the park isn t public in its genesis nor in its aspiration; it s the brainchild hotels in denver colorado of star developer Eli Broad, who s made heavy investments in the area.  The Grand Avenue Project—still incomplete—endeavors to make downtown livable, not just workable. Though a massive mixed-use commercial and luxury residential project at park s edge is currently stalled, the park was originally conceived as a way to upgrade the neighborhood.
Due to the recent recession, much of the Grand Avenue Project's remaining vision has yet to be realized.  The Park, however, was able to forge ahead with its planning and construction thanks to the $50 million in private funds it raised. That the funding was successful is testament to civic engagement. But it also speaks to the value developers place on potential returns on their nearby investment. And it illustrates the complicated role of public space in contemporary American cities.
Public/private partnerships, forged between governments who no longer have the funding resources to build public amenities on their own, and private hotels in denver colorado investors who have their own agendas, now dominate the public arena. Areas the public consider public space often aren t. Shopping malls, civic plazas, and parks are under varying degrees of private hotels in denver colorado control. And the rules for how the public may use those spaces are often not what we think they might be. The park that was home to Occupy Wall Street in 2011, for example, was a private hotels in denver colorado park, operating under the rules of its owners.
The designers adopted a "toolkit" process in their planning.   They looked to investors, existing neighborhood residents, and a host of other interested hotels in denver colorado parties to participate in their Civic Park Workshop Toolkit experiment.  They planned to crowdsource the hopes and needs of the park's constituents in order to design a space that would maximize utility and welcome Angelenos.
Using models and drawings, the Workshop-ers manipulated hotels in denver colorado layouts and features, transforming the formerly fragmented space.  In groups of six to eight, they created "design boards," which were then digested and incorporated by Rios Clementi Hale Studios for their final plan.
Los Angeles is characterized by its horizontal spread, and the park  occupies a mere 12 acres of this sprawling city tough to lay claim as a town square or attract hotels in denver colorado residents from the city's far-flung disparate neighborhoods?
"I appreciate it and enjoy being here," says Satenik Adamyan, visiting the park  during her lunch break.  She works at the L.A. County hotels in denver colorado Assessors Office, a department housed in the Park-adjacent Hahn Hall of Administration.  On weekdays, Ms. Adamyan values the convenience of this centrally located park.  On weekends, she has already begun a habit of driving in from Glendale with three generations of family in tow.  She even prefers Grand Park as a weekend destination to the beach; "the children can't drown" in the Arthur J. Mill Fountain's "Splash hotels in denver colorado Pad."  For Ms. Adamyan, the physical distance of the park does not keep her from driving in during hotels in denver colorado her leisure time.
Park designers also hoped to spark interest with their movable furniture.  It is solid magenta, the same hue, as pointed out by one park user, as T-Mobile branding, and is designed to—well, to have no design.  Users are allowed to move it at will to create their perfect conversation circle or give them just the view they want.
As for the challenging hotels in denver colorado slope of the park, Diamond reports that walking groups have begun using it for exercise. hotels in denver colorado Lina Park, owner of the nearby Royal Deli Market, has already incorporated the park into her exercise routine.  Three times per week, she leaves work to trek up and down the hilly pedestrian loop.
Sean Plunkett, hotels in denver colorado who works in the adjacent Courthouse, also became acquainted with the park thanks to his day job.  And although he appreciates Grand Park as a convenient place to spend his weekday lunches, he would never, he says, come in to the park on weekends.  The space, for him, is "so associated with work." One of Grand Park's primary challenges is winning hotels in denver colorado over those with Plunkett's Civic Center associations.
Highlands + Railroads came to Grand Park on November 4. The park was filled hotels in denver colorado with families enjoying free—or almost free—art projects hotels in denver colorado and taking hotels in denver colorado part in group dance lessons. Does this November buzz paint the picture of Grand Park s future?
Park management are trying to win over this with work associations hotels in denver colorado by programming  the space. Programmers hope that unexpected performances will draw in those for whom the adjacent Arts Pavilion holds little appeal, that they will gather a diverse and L.A.-representative group.
Management hopes the park will attract first-time visitors from far-flung suburbs who will travel in, curious about what they characterize as avant-garde" programming.  Are visitors so affected by performances that they return home and ask for more?  Moreover, hotels in denver colorado does Grand Park have the capacity to help facilitate city-wide shared experiences?
It s an ambitious goal.  Chicago s Millennium Park transformed the city center and quickly becoming the public square the it had lacked. New York s Central Park is a very different idea of what a park can be and functions as a front yard for residents hotels in denver colorado who primarily reside in apartment buildings. Whether Grand Park establishes itself as an important civic gathering place remains to be seen, but at least it is attempting to define the park in a uniquely LA way, trying hotels in denver colorado to appeal to residents across this city's disparate regions.  And it is embracing the cultural transformations born of the Internet age: the do-it-yourself drive of bloggers, the crowd-sourcing power of social media. park not just as physical space, but as idea with the power to connect and extend far beyond the physical space.
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