Children's Pond and Park, MLK Jr. Promenade

Children's Pond and Park, Martin Luther King Jr. Promenade

LOCATION
San Diego, CA

CLIENT
Centre City Development Corporation, City of San Diego

Completion Date
1988, 1997

TypE
Parks and Gardens
Civic Landscapes
Transportation

Description
In 1987 PWP won a competition for a 10-acre linear park along the old Embarcadero; flatness and linearity are emphasized through a series of stripes perpendicular to the light-rail tracks, the Santa Fe Railroad, and lines of automobile, bicycle, roller-skating, pedestrian, and bus circulation. In 1995 PWP designed the centerpiece of the promenade, a large circular reflecting pool that resolves the conflicting geometry of the Embarcadero and the grid of the city to the north. Front Street and First Avenue are lined with rows of Italian cypress. Mounds of ice plant separate the train tracks from the boulevard. The park behind the pool with its geometric grass mounds within a grove of pine can also be seen as a whimsical abstraction of traditional park elements. 

Collaborators
Urban Design: Austin, Hansen, Fehlman Group
Artists: Martha Schwartz, Dennis Adams, Andrea Blum
Engineers: Church Engineering