SEGD_Design - (Page 39) Coming to roost The project started back in 1992 when San Diego’s Centre City Development Corporation marked a series of Caltrans rights of way off Interstate 5 as the site for a park. “Our goal is to provide parks within a five to 10-minute walk of every neighborhood,” says John Anderson, CCDC project manager. “In this case we took a piece of land that was essentially unusable and turned it into a beautiful park space for one of our core neighborhoods.” In 2000, CCDC hooked up with local activist and graphic design instructor Candice Lopéz, who had led the Urban Art Trail project in the city’s East Village neighborhood. Lopéz turned to the local AIGA chapter and Levine, its then-president, to brainstorm theme ideas for the park. Lopéz and Levine orchestrated a competition inviting local artists, designers, and architects to submit their ideas for a series of “urban birdhouses.” The birdhouses were designed to the exact specifications of birds indigenous to the area, says Levine. “The holes were specific sizes, there were no perches that could attract predators, the houses had to be ventilated, and they had to be accessible for cleaning.” Ten birdhouses were ultimately chosen and the AIGA held several gallery exhibitions to show them off. But the park project was stalled from 2002 through 2006 while CCDC negotiated with Caltrans to lease the land back to the city for use as a park. Taking flight Above: The birdhouse-inspired interpretive kiosk features three conical aluminum panels, with graphics embedded in high-pressure laminate. Two of the three panels spin, but the third is stationery and embedded with Braille text. Below: Fabrication Arts created artist plaques waterjet-cut from 1/8-in. aluminum. The project finally got off the perch again in late 2006, when CCDC asked Visual Asylum to design a signage package and visual identity for the park. Estrada Land Planning was selected as the park’s landscape architects. With the whimsical birdhouses as a starting point, Levine’s first thought was that the park should be bright and colorful. “We really believed there needed to be more color and whimsy in San Diego, and especially in downtown San Diego,” says Levine. “Because we were primarily a military town for so long, everything was beige and white. We felt the park needed a feeling of life and energy that would better reflect the spirit of San Diego.” So Visual Asylum created a family of colorful bird “characters” that appear on aluminum banners, on sculptural elements atop banner poles, and on identity and interpretive signage. “You might not notice on the first visit that there are several different bird characters, but it’s a level of detail we think people will enjoy as they visit repeatedly, and it also alludes to the diversity of San Diego,” Levine explains. The signage program consists of nine banner poles with aluminum banners, identity signs at the park’s three entrances, artist identification plaques, and a circular, birdhouse-inspired interpretive kiosk. Visual Asylum also gets credit for the naming, visual identity, and various print collateral pieces for the park. 36 segdDESIGN
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