Multiple Levels of Meaning

Through design, we try to create places with beauty and function, where people can be comfortable and have fun. Much of this is through simple "common sense" types of things like good stairs, making it accessible, providing seating, et cetera. One of the harder things is to get people to use your space. If there's a use or recreation resource built into it, then people will come specifically for that. A bigger challenge is how you make people fall in love with spaces? How do you set things up to have people invest their heart in something? This can be easy, or much harder... but the chances for this are greatly improved through events and community use. People love Kincaid for ski trails and recreational resources. Flat Top is a great hike. You probably know a great place downtown to sit and enjoy a bagged lunch. But, I also identify Peratrovich Park (4th and E) with the summer music scheduling they have. The parking lot at 3rd and E is really where the Saturday Market happens. These places begin to have a meta-identity that is beyond design, an identity that comes through use.
We went to Cuddy Family Midtown Park yesterday for their Summer Festival in the Park. A climbing wall, sand castles, print-making, motorized sailboats, music, food and a bunch of people. With the recent construction at the park, there's now a solid backbone for events. With the open-space, the plaza, the amphitheatre and all of the little spaces here and there, it provides a good venue for community events. I've been out there a few times recently, and it's getting used. In particular, people seem to be on the steps and ramp that lead to the water. Who doesn't love it when you can get down and touch the water? When a plaza invites you to do that? Yesterday, other than the programmed activities, people just seemed to be enjoying being in a park that allows (and encourages) unprogrammed enjoyment. The sunshine certainly didn't hurt...

I think I look forward to hearing about more and more events happening at Cuddy Family Midtown Park... I think that Anchorage may have found a place that provides our kind of 'Town Square'?