Park planning is an art -- the space must be designed to reflect trends of users, a park should have personality, beauty and aesthetics are intrinsic to park creation, and the field involves the subjective process of placemaking.
Park planning is also a science -- you need to work within the geology, ecology, and geography of the land to create a park, infrastructure must be engineered properly, and organizing the layouts and arrangements of amenities involves some precise calculations.
The two (art and science) are both heavily part of park planning, though. The various activities we did over this semester about designing parks confirmed this, where "before & after" examples demonstrated "good" versus "ineffective" layouts of amenities, or where various options of a park plan reflected different priorities and ways of approaching the design. Park planning isn't so much a science where the same formula can be applied for every type of park in whatever space; the artistry and context needs to come into play to plan for biophilic and natural-feeling parks.
I will apply these lessons to planning in general by always trying to reference the "science" of planning (theory, best practices, industry standards) and incorporating the "art" of planning (using creativity and intuition, involving many perspectives and voices) as I move forward in my career.
The below photo, taken by Arnie Stolberg for the news article linked in the caption, captures the blend of 'science' and 'art' in park planning perfectly -- this structural and artistic installation, within a green park space outside the Science Museum, invites visitors to appreciate nature, art, and science together.
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| Source: https://www.wric.com/news/local-news/richmond/new-richmond-community-greenspace-science-museum-of-virginia-opens-the-green/ |
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