Fort Baker at Cavallo Point, Sausalito, California.  Dec 8-12, 2008

The Present and Future of Park Planning and Design
 

Keynote Lecture and Reception
Monday, December 8 at The Presidio
 

All Day Hotel Check-in
Cavallo Point at Fort Baker
 

6:00 Keynote Lecture and Reception
The Presidio, The Officers’ Club
 

Transportation available from Fort Baker to the Presidio and return
beginning at 5:00 pm.
 

Milton Chen, Executive Director, The George Lucas Educational
Foundation
Open to Public & All Participants
 

Day 1 : Tuesday, December 9
 

7:30 Registration and Breakfast VERBENA ROOM
 

8:30 Welcoming Remarks CALLIPPE ROOM
Brian O’Neill, Superintendent, Golden Gate National Recreation Area
 

8:45 Laying the Groundwork – Designing Principles
and Vision for a Twenty-First Century Park
CALLIPPE ROOM
 

Jon Jarvis, Director, Pacific West Region, National Park Service
This session lays the groundwork for the three days and is designed to
ignite passion and imagination about creating principles that will guide
the course of future park planning and design. This session includes all
conference participants who are invited to explore, challenge, and
question park planning and design of today and envision the possibilities
for parks of the future.
 

9:15 Break
 

9:30 Workshop Process and Product Expectations
CALLIPPE ROOM
 

Tuesday Chair: Rodger Evans, Chief Design and Construction Western
Division, Denver Service Center
 

Charles Birnbaum, FASLA, FAAR, President, The Cultural Landscape
Foundation
 

10:00 Plenary Speaker and Work Session 1: Visitor
Experience CALLIPPE ROOM
Emilyn Sheffield, Professor and PhD
Department of Recreation and Parks Management
California State University, Chico
 

IYEL (Inspiring Young Emerging Leaders) Representatives
This session will explore in detail the interdependence of park design and
visitors. During the first 45 minutes, this Dr. Sheffield will energize the
session, set the challenge, and frame the topics that will be central to the
next days’ work sessions. Representatives from IYEL will also be present
to discuss their perspectives and thoughts on where the parks are now,
and how they should be designed in the future.
After the plenary talk, participants will explore, revisit and refine themes
related to Visitor Experience.
 

12:00 Lunch VERBENA ROOM & VERANDA
 

1:00 Plenary Speaker and Work Session 2:
Preservation and Environmental Stewardship
CALLIPPE ROOM
 

Laurie D. Olin, RLA,FASLA, Partner, Olin Partnership
 

This session will explore in detail the critical relationship between park
design, preservation, and environmental stewardship. Mr. Olin is a wellknown
landscape architect and experienced in modern preservation and
conservation challenges as they relate to park design. Mr. Olin will
explore the issues, set the challenge, and frame the topics that will be
central to the next days’ work sessions.
 

After the plenary talk, participants will explore, revisit and refine themes
related to Preservation and Environmental Stewardship that will provide
the framework for the subsequent days’ work sessions.
 

2:45 Break
 

3:00 Plenary Speaker 3: Design Imperatives CALLIPPE
ROOM
 

James Cutler, FAIA, Principal, Cutler Anderson Architects
 

This session will explore in detail the critical challenges of contemporary
design imperatives. Mr Cutler is well-known and experienced in park
planning and design and has used vision and creativity to ensure design
priorities are respected and observed throughout the process. Like
Plenary 1 and 2, Mr. Cutler will explore the issues, set the challenge, and
frame the topics that will be central to the next days’ work sessions.
After the plenary talk, participants will explore, revisit and refine themes
related to Design Imperatives that will provide the framework for the
subsequent days’ work sessions.
 

4:45 Towards a New Park Planning and Design Future
CALLIPPE ROOM
 

Dan Wenk, Deputy Director, National Park Service
 

Mr Wenk and plenary speakers explore possibilities for future park
planning and design.
 

6:00 Cash Bar CALLIPPE ROOM
 

7:00 Dinner CALLIPPE ROOM
 

8:00 "Learning From Larry" CALLIPPE ROOM
 

Moderator: Charles Birnbaum, FASLA, FAAR, President, The Cultural
Landscape Foundation
This specially produced video of Lawrence Halprin, FASLA taken just
days before the Designing the Parks conference will provide a
springboard for informal discussion about the past, present, and future of
park planning and design. Dessert and coffee will be served.
 

Day 2: Wednesday, December 10
Cavallo Point at Fort Baker
 

7:30-
8:30
Breakfast CALLIPPE ROOM
 

8:15 Welcome, Tuesday Recap, Wednesday Overview
CALLIPPE ROOM
 

Wednesday Chair: Stephanie Toothman, Chief , Cultural Resources,
Pacific West Region
8:30 Opening Plenary: Design Principles – Past,
 

Present and Future CALLIPPE ROOM
Ethan Carr, Associate Professor, University of of Virginia School of
Architecture
 

Professor Carr will look at the history of design principles and what we
have learned as we consider shaping park planning and design principles
for the 21st century.
 

9:00 Designing the Parks: Conference Track Small
Group Work Sessions
 

World Café Style Work Sessions – Participants to Track Rooms
Short Presentations followed by a brief question and answer panel of the
presenters.
 

:: Visitor Experience CALLIPPE ROOM
 

A 21st Century Call to Action: Engaging Younger Generations in
Public Parks
Gretchen Hilyard and David Roccosalva, Page & Turnbull, Inc
 

Present and Future Opportunities in Park Transportation Planning
Patricia Sacks, National Park Service
 

Contemporary Issues in Park Design: Brooklyn Bridge Park
Rachel Gleeson, Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates
 

:: Preservation and Environmental Stewardship VERBENA ROOM
 

Land Use Planning in Washington State Parks
Peter Herzog and Daniel Farber, Washington State Parks and Recreation
Commission
 

Partnership Efforts in Urban State Parks in New Jersey and Delaware:
Successes and Challenges
Eric Tamulonis, Wallace, Roberts, and Todd, LLC - Philadelphia
 

Designing For the Visitor: Providing Access and Protecting
Resources: A Case Study of Three Overlooks in Yosemite National
Park
Doug Nelson, Royston Hanamoto Alley & Abey
 

:: Design Imperatives VERBENA ROOM
 

Moving Beyond Olmsted: National Parks for the 21st Century
Alex Brash, National Parks Conservation Association
 

Enhancing the Visitor Experience in a National Historic Landmark
District: Paradise Area Case Study, Mount Rainier National Park
Barbara Clement, Fletcher Farr Ayotte, Inc
 

Case Studies in Modern Contextual Design: Homestead Heritage
Center, Fort McHenry Visitor Center, and Mount Vernon Visitor
Complex
Alan Reed, GWWO Architects
 

10:00 Break
 

10:15 Work Session Round One
 

Each theme and its associated topics will be explored in smaller groups in
world café style work sessions. Ideas generated from the previous day will
provide the discussion framework. The three tracks will be set up in three
different rooms and small round tables each holding up to six participants
will be assigned a single sub-theme. Each table will have a facilitator/
recorder. The table participants will work through why, what and how
interrogatives for each theme and begin to identify ideas, thoughts and
scenarios for guiding principles that address that particular subtheme.
 

11:00 Work Session Round Two
 

In tracks. Participants will be given the opportunity to move to a new
subtheme table within the track and build on the concepts and ideas
generated by the previous group.
 

11:45 Lunch and Presentation CALLIPPE ROOM
 

Three Parks
Mario Schjetnan, Grupo de Diseño Urbano (GDU), Mexico City
 

Mr. Schjetnan will discuss succesful interventions in three public parks: 1)
Xochimilco, Meixco City, 2) Chapultepec Park, Mexico City and 3) Union
Point Park, Oakland, CA.
 

12:45 Work Sessions Reconvene
 

Short Presentations followed by a brief question and answer panel of the
presenters.
 

:: Visitor Experience CALLIPPE ROOM
 

Tinner Hill: A New Park for Falls Church
Irene Chambers and Nikki Graves Henderson, Tinner Hill Heritage
Foundation
 

Beyond Recreation: Emerging Concepts of Nature and Public
Engagement in Art and Popular Media
 

Janette Kim, Urban Landscape Lab, Columbia University
Establishing, developing and sustaining successful, widely
accessible environmental education to non-traditional
constituencies in an inner city public park
 

Doug Campbell and Regula Campbell, Campbell & Campbell, USC
School of Architecture
 

:: Preservation and Environmental Stewardship VERBENA ROOM
 

Vicksburg National Military Park: Evolving American Icon Treatment
- the New Battleground
Liz Sargent, Historical Landscape Architecture
 

Visitor Access: The Critical Nexus Between the Visitor and Park
Resources
Kevin Percival, National Park Service
 

Case Studies in Preservation and Sustainability: Commonality and
Contrast
Stephen Farneth, FAIA, LEED, AP
 

:: Design Imperatives VERBENA ROOM
 

From Retreat to Catalyst. The Park as Precinct in the 21st Century.
Catherine Bull, University of Melbourne
 

Can Postwar Modernist Thinking Inform the Future of Our Parks?
JC Miller, University of California, Berkley Extension

Bringing Together Citizens and Design Resources: Engaging
Communities in Park Planning
Andrea Lavin, Community Design Center of Pittsburgh
 

1:30 Work Session Round 3
 

Participants will be given the opportunity to move to a new subtheme table
within the track and build on the concepts and ideas generated by the
previous group.
 

2:15 Break
 

2:30 –
5:30
 

Towards a New Park Planning and Design Future
CALLIPPE ROOM
T

rack participants will process concepts and ideas identified during the
day, provide further input and begin drafting potential design principles
that will form the basis of Thursday’s work sessions.
 

6:00 Cash Bar CALLIPPE ROOM
 

7:00 Dinner CALLIPPE ROOM
 

Day 3: Thursday, December 11
Cavallo Point at Fort Baker
 

7:30-
8:30
 

Breakfast CALLIPPE ROOM
 

8:30 Welcome, Wednesday Recap, Thursday Overview
CALLIPPE ROOM
 

Thursday Chair: Shaun Eyring, Chief, Resource Planning and
Compliance, National Park Service, Northeast Region
 

8:45 Opening Plenary: A New Design Future CALLIPPE
ROOM
 

Maurice Cox, Director of Design, National Endowment for the Arts
 

9:30 Track Report Out and Open Dialogue CALLIPPE ROOM
 

This session focuses on short, focused presentations by a representative
of each track summarizing the most important points developed during the
previous day This session provides all participants an opportunity to
comment on the findings and draft principles of all tracks. Each track will
briefly report out and leaders will then host stations where the results from
Day 2 are posted. Everyone is encouraged to provide input, refine,
challenge, or shift directions. Recorders will capture these ideas for
further discussion and participants will identify the most important
principles emerging from the sessions to develop further.
 

12:00 Lunch CALLIPPE ROOM
 

12:30 Fort Baker to Cavallo Point - Panel and Site Walk
CALLIPPE ROOM
 

Panel participants representing the key points of view that had to be
reconciled during the 8 year design process for Cavallo Point ---
Owner/Operator, NPS Cultural and Natural Resource Managers, SHPO,
the Community and the Designer --- will discuss their challenges and
successes. A brief site walk, illustrating built examples of the
collaboration, will cap this session.
Cheryl Barton, FASLA, FAAR, LEED AP, Office of Cheryl Barton
 

1:45 Envisioning the Future
 

Tracks reconvene and further refine prioritized principles from the morning
sessions. Participants will be asked to provide advice to the design
congress - who will be charged with refining the draft principles - and to
envision how a park of the future would look if the principles were
implemented.
 

:: Visitor Experience CALLIPPE ROOM
 

:: Preservation and Environmental Stewardship VERBENA ROOM
 

:: Design Imperatives VERBENA ROOM
 

3:30 Break
 

3:45 Closing Plenary Panel: Designing the Parks –
Principles into Practice CALLIPPE ROOM
 

Moderators:
Adi Shamir, Executive Director, Van Alen Institute: Projects in Public
Architecture
Alexander Brash, NE Regional Director National Parks Conservation
Association
 

Following an overview of the history of design excellence programs and
the influence that design competitions have had on public projects, Van
Alen Institute and the National Parks Conservation Association will
describe a planned initiative to field-test the draft principles developed at
the conference through a series of coordinated design studios and open
competitions. Several professor/practitioners involved in this initiative will
be on hand to reflect on what they’ve learned from the sessions, how the
principles might influence their professional work, and how they envision a
studio or competition program might be developed to provide substantive
assessment and feedback. The audience will be invited to provide input
on the structure and content of studios and competitions.
 

Panelists:
Ethan Carr, University of Virginia
Randy Mason, University of Pennsylvania
Linda Pollak, Marpillero Pollak Architects
Margie Ruddick, WRT
 

5:00 Closing Remarks CALLIPPE ROOM
Jon Jarvis, Director, Pacific West Region, National Park Service
 

6:00 Cash Bar CALLIPPE ROOM
 

7:00 Dinner CALLIPPE ROOM

Day 4: Friday, December 12
Cavallo Point at Fort Baker
 

8:00 –
3:00
 

Design Congress VERBENA ROOM
 

Refining Draft Design Principles
A small invited team selected from workshop participants will develop draft
principles based on the products developed from previous three days.
Draft principles will be posted on the web for review and comment.
 

8:00 -
noon
 

Optional Field Trips – Bay Area Park Design
Trip Hosts: Presidio Trust and Golden Gate National Parks
Conservancy
 

Conference participants may choose to take guided tours of selected
projects and sites in the Presidio and surrounding Bay Area. The sites will
provide many opportunities to explore first hand some of the key
opportunities and challenges of contemporary park design.