Originally completed in 1972, this vestige of IM Pei’s urban renewal plan was built when the street was seen as a menace and parks turned inward. Rolling berms surrounded the edges and the sunken middle areas were filled with concrete retaining walls. After years of decline, Thomas Balsley Associates’ designed a plan to reunite the community with its park. The “forest and meadow” concept preserves the park’s strong points—mature shade trees and the liminal mounds—and replaces the central sink hole with a wide, sunny lawn on which daily urban life unfolds. On the north side are intimate seating areas among a grove of existing honey locusts which cast dappled shade on a floor of crushed stone. Oval mounds provide topographic relief, their gentle swellings contrasting with a grid of 20-foot-tall light wands that provide night-time drama. A corner food kiosk and trellised cafe terraces activate the park. Perimeter garden beds and distinctive seating flank the perimeter path embedded with light strips. The lawn’s formality has been interrupted by a large oval mound on which children play and adults view daily impromptu city life and staged performances. Clear lines of sight replace huddled bunkers. Choices that range between sanctuary and urban social interaction abound. Perk Park embodies the untapped potential of small urban public spaces: A public waste ground has been transformed into a common ground inspiring pride and enjoyment; it serves as an example of a collective civic will’s vision and fortitude, and the power of design.
Riverside Park South
Located on the West Side of Manhattan on the scenic Hudson River shoreline, Riverside Park South is a massive, multiphase project of sweeping ambition and historic scope. Combining new green space, new infrastructure, and the renovation of landmark industrial buildings, the plan – originally devised by Thomas Balsley Associates in 1991 – is an extension of Fre...
Hill at Sims
Set along Sims Bayou in Sunnyside, one of Houston’s oldest historically Black communities, Hill at Sims transforms a 106-acre stormwater detention basin into a regional park that pairs flood protection with public access, ecological restoration, and everyday recreation. Built around a four-story mound of earth created during the basin’s excavation in 2005, the...
Dubai Expo 2020
From October 2021 to April 2022, the City of Dubai hosted the World Expo: a large-scale International Registered Exhibition that brings nations together with universal themes and immersive experiences. It comprises an entirely new city, built on a 1,083-acre site between Dubai and Abu Dhabi. The Expo site is organized around a central plaza linked to three mai...
Sanshan Hillside Park
The Pearl River Delta has undergone a dramatic transformation over the past four decades, evolving from farmland to a global manufacturing and technology powerhouse. Amid the frenetic pulse of this sprawling megalopolis of 86 million people, Sanshan Hillside Park stands as a mountaintop oasis.
Envisioned as New Town’s Central Park, the design embr...