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
| Sep 4, 2013
Augmented reality goes mainstream: 12 applications for design and construction firms
Thanks to inexpensive mobile devices and increasingly advanced software apps, Building Teams are finally able to bring their BIM models to life on the job site.
| Sep 4, 2013
K-12 school design that pays off for students
More and more educators are being influenced by the Reggio Emilia approach to pedagogy, with its mantra of “environment as the third teacher”—an approach that gives Building Teams a responsibility to pay even closer attention to the special needs of today’s schools.
| Sep 4, 2013
Smart building technology: Talking results at the BUILDINGChicago/ Greening the Heartland show
Recent advancements in technology are allowing owners to connect with facilities as never before, leveraging existing automation systems to achieve cost-effective energy improvements. This BUILDINGChicago presentation will feature Procter & Gamble’s smart building management program.
| Sep 4, 2013
Last chance to pre-register for BUILDINGChicago/Greening the Heartland Conference at 20% savings
Attendees of the BUILDINGChicago/Greening the Heartland Expo and Conference can still save 20% off the at-site registration fee by registering online in these final days before the event opens on September 9 and concludes on September 11.
| Sep 3, 2013
'School in a box' project will place school in San Diego public library
Thinking outside the box, LPA Inc. is designing a school inside a box. With an emphasis on three E’s—Engage, Educate, and Empower—e3 Civic High is now being constructed on the sixth and seventh floors of a public library in downtown San Diego. Library patrons will be able to see into the school via glass elevators, but will not have physical access to the school.
| Sep 3, 2013
Delinquency rate for commercial real estate loans at lowest level in three years
The delinquency rate for US commercial real estate loans in CMBS dropped for the third straight month to 8.38%. This represents a 10-basis-point drop since July's reading and a 175-basis-point improvement from a year ago.
| Sep 3, 2013
EDGE studio, GBBN announce merger
GBBN Architects and EDGE studio of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania are very pleased to announce the merger of their firms under GBBN Architects effective September 1, 2013.
| Sep 3, 2013
Jon Pettit (1952-2013) - DLR Group Managing Principal
Jonathan (Jon) E. Pettit, AIA, died August 19, 2013 in Seattle following treatment for cancer. He was 61. Pettit was a DLR Group managing principal and practiced for his entire professional career with DLR Group.
| Aug 30, 2013
Modular classrooms gaining strength with school boards
With budget, space needs, and speed-to-market pressures bearing down on school districts, modular classroom assemblies are often a go-to solution.
| Aug 30, 2013
Local Government Report [2013 Giants 300 Report]
Building Design+Construction's rankings of the nation's largest local government design and construction firms, as reported in the 2013 Giants 300 Report.