This final week of classes has been dedicated to synthesizing and refining our work, looking at the larger implications for NPS, and producing our final presentations. We have spent many a long hour in studio, collaborating within our teams and with other teams to focus our work, identifying overlaps and gaps.
Our studio has settled into five major groups, with some students moving among groups (learning from our design principles - expanding beyond traditional boundaries!).
Team Museology has synthesized a narrative framework, using feedback from the groups, to highlight four narratives: the Pig War, indigenous peoples, land based stories, and island industry. They use the story of the Pig War and the resolution through peaceful arbitration to interpret these histories, and working with the other groups, identified places in the park where these under-represented stories could be told. They framed their vision for the Park and NPS as a whole to be that "By holistically and critically looking to the past, we can inform and enrich our collective future." This has helped to inform their "Big Idea", or the main message they want visitors to leave with: "San Juan Island is common ground for a multitude of stories."
Team Island as Park has concentrated on clarifying the structure of their presentation, and creating diagrams that convey their large concept in a straightforward way. They want to emphasize the reach that NPS could have through enhanced partnerships, and show how that could be played out on San Juan Island. San Juan Island National Historical Park could play a pivotal role in re-imagining what collaborative partnerships could look like to create a mutually beneficial future.
Team Digital has been thinking about it means to visit National Park Service Sites in the 21st century, and what it means to be a visitor at these magnificent places. This means extending the visitor experience beyond simply being at the site, to include their experience learning about and getting to the site, as well as the return back to their homes. They see digital technology as a means to enhance their journey as well as provide access to those who might not otherwise be able to visit. At the same time, there is a recognition that there needs to be an appropriate application of digital technology, one that instills a reverence for place, rather than diminish it.
Team Site has been dedicated to creating vignettes and diagrams that evoke a sense of place, and help to illustrate, through a variety of ideas, how interpretation on the site can be enhanced and create a more vibrant visitor experience.
Team Structure has spent some time using the competition design principles to re-examine precedent and the history of architecture in NPS. In doing this, they have created their own set of design principles for building in NPS small parks, and applied those to San Juan Island National Historical Park to create a conceptual design for a visitor’s center on American Camp.
Tomorrow will be the final studio presentation to a jury of design and planning professionals, NPS staff, and professors. Their feedback will guide the development of the final competition submittal to the Van Alen Institute and NPS.
And now, back to the grindstone to perfect our designs, and tweak our presentations!
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