The United States has 401 national parks, which are visited by over 275 million people every year. As the National Park Service (NPS) approaches its centennial anniversary in 2016, the agency is reevaluating how parks are used and maintained, Arch Daily reports.
To this end, NPS has joined with the Van Alen Institute and created the National Parks Now competition. This competition fits into the Institute's existing initiative, Elsewhere: Escape and the Urban Landscape, to investigate how built environments create a need for escape. The National Parks Now competition seeks to make parks relevant for a wider audience, especially smaller national parks near urban areas.
Four parks in the Northeast have been chosen as case studies for the competition:
- Sagamore Hill National Historic Site (Oyster Bay, NY) – President Theodore Roosevelt’s estate
- Steamtown National Historic Site (Scranton, PA) – a monument to the steam locomotive
- Paterson Great Falls National Historic Park (Paterson, NJ) – birthplace of American textile manufacturing
- Weir Farm National Historic Site (Ridgefield, CT) – summer estate of artist Julien Alden Weir
National Parks Now asks entrants to propose all types of interventions for these parks, including interactive installations, site-specific education and leisure opportunities, outreach and engagement campaigns, and self-led tours. Any ideas to expand the park-going public, especially those that can be used as a model for other parks, are welcome.
The competition is open to architects, designers, historians, communications professionals, and others.
After an initial phase of competition, four teams, one for each park site, will be selected to participate in a six-month, collaborative research and design process, and will receive $15,000.
A winning team will be chosen after this period and a prototype of their work will be implemented at their site in 2015. See more about the competition here.
Related Stories
Architects | Feb 28, 2022
JLL continues expansion in Southwest with acquisition of San Diego’s Gilliland Construction Management
JLL announced that it has completed the acquisition of Gilliland Construction Management, a leader in project and construction management services for life sciences, lab, retail, hospitality, industrial, multifamily, and office properties.
Codes and Standards | Feb 24, 2022
Most owners adapting digital workflows on projects
Owners are more deeply engaged with digital workflows than other project team members, according to a new report released by Trimble and Dodge Data & Analytics.
Multifamily Housing | Feb 24, 2022
First new, mixed-use high-rise in Detroit’s central business district in nearly 30 years opens
City Club Apartments completed two multifamily projects in 2021 in downtown Detroit including the first new, mixed-use high-rise in Detroit’s central business district in nearly 30 years.
| Feb 24, 2022
Signs of ‘Antiwork’ appear in the architecture industry
Reddit's r/Antiwork forum highlights the mounting pressures everyday workers face in a purely capitalistic society. AEC industry professionals are not immune to these pressures.
Office Buildings | Feb 23, 2022
The Beam on Farmer, Arizona’s first mass timber, multi-story office building tops out
The Beam on Farmer, Arizona’s first mass timber, multi-story office building, topped out on Feb. 10, 2022.
Codes and Standards | Feb 21, 2022
More bad news on sea level rise for U.S. coastal areas
A new government report predicts sea levels in the U.S. of 10 to 12 inches higher by 2050, with some major cities on the East and Gulf coasts experiencing damaging floods even on sunny days.
Wood | Feb 18, 2022
$2 million mass timber design competition: Building to Net-Zero Carbon (entries due March 30!)
To promote construction of tall mass timber buildings in the U.S., the Softwood Lumber Board (SLB) and USDA Forest Service (USDA) have joined forces on a competition to showcase mass timber’s application, commercial viability, and role as a natural climate solution.
University Buildings | Feb 18, 2022
On-campus performing arts centers and museums can be talent magnets for universities
Cultural facilities are changing the way prospective students and parents view higher education campuses.
University Buildings | Feb 17, 2022
A vacated school in St. Louis is turned into a center where suppliers exchange ideas
In 1871, The Carondelet School, designed by Frederick William Raeder, opened to educate more than 400 children of laborers and manufacturers in St. Louis. The building is getting a second lease on life, as it has undergone a $2 million renovation by goBRANDgo!, a marketing firm for the manufacturing and industrial sectors.
Data Centers | Feb 15, 2022
Data center boom: How two AEC firms plan to meet unprecedented demand for data center facilities
Ramboll's Jim Fox and EYP Mission Critical Facilities' Rick Einhorn discuss the recent joining of their companies at a time of unprecedented data center demand. BD+C's John Caulfield leads the discussion with Fox, Ramboll's Managing Director for the Americas, and Einhorn, EYP Mission Critical Facilities' Managing Director.
