Brownfields to Art Parks

When is a brownfield not a brownfield? When it's transformed by art works, as in two U.S. cities.

1 minute read

June 6, 2006, 1:00 PM PDT

"One art installation is opening next year and will be permanent; the other was temporary while officials worked out final plans for a park on the site. Both examples show that wonderful things can happen when a formerly contaminated industrial site is cleaned up and rededicated to public use.

Sculpture in Seattle

With the city's real estate market red hot at the height of the dot-com boom, there was no lack of potential buyers. (One developer had completed preliminary designs for a hotel, 800 housing units, and 250,000 square feet of office space.) But others believed that the land's best use was as a much-needed park linking downtown to the waterfront. At the same time, the Seattle Art Museum was looking for an outdoor space downtown in which to display sculpture.

LA's Not A Cornfield

When is a cornfield not a cornfield? In one of the most unusual art projects ever to come out of Los Angeles-and certainly one of the biggest-a team directed by Los Angeles artist Lauren Bon planted one million corn seeds in a 32-acre site in the heart of downtown in the spring of 2005. The project was funded by the Annenberg Foundation, of which Bon is a trustee."

FULL STORY: Brownfields to Art Parks

Thursday, June 1, 2006 in The Trust for Public Land

Community / Economic Development Environment Landscape Architecture California Washington

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