WEEK 11: FINAL PRESENTATION

After nine weeks of preparation, the day of our final review finally arrived. With late nights leading up to this date, our studio wore the remains of our left over sketches, base maps and other images as we gathered in the atrium below, assembling two areas for our presentations. We greeted our guest reviewers who came from multiple fields of design and management in both the public and private realm and from our College of Built Environments. We were fortunate to have a discerning group of Landscape Architects from the National Park Service and from private firms in Seattle. Several professors of Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning were also part of the team of reviewers.

Our presentation began with greetings, acknowledgement of people who offered support, and a review of our team process by our two professors, Ken Yocom and Manish Chalana.

This was followed by a presentation by students of Museum studies, Museology, who gave an overview of the four groups within our student team and the ideas we had brought forward together. The four groups consisted of between three and six students each and represented scales or areas of focus. The Technology Group looked at the use of technology through the journey to the park and at the park; the Island as Park group looked at re-describing the Park’s position; the Site group focused on design on the site and the Structure Group looked at structural form within the site.

The Museology group introduced the team concept of “Common Ground”, an idea that wove through our design interventions and our process of collaboration and integration of community. Four main Narratives were introduced as common within all four groups: the Park’s mandate, ecology, Native American, and local industry.

After an introduction to the history and place of our site, San Juan Island National Historical Park, we had a few minutes to talk with our guests over some snacks and refreshments while viewing the striking black and white photography of John Stamets, Professor of Photography, who has spent considerable time on San Juan Island, at our park site. Our group presentations then began in the Gould Hall Atrium, a wonderful expanse of light on the first floor of our four story building that houses the College of Built Environments.

Two groups presented their projects in each of the two locations followed by a break. The reviewers switched locations and the teams presented a second time, enabling the reviewers to hear all four presentations. Each group presented for fifteen minutes, followed by fifteen minutes of response by the reviewers.

The response by the reviewers was insightful and strong, pointing out the need for more integration among the groups and clarity of the design principles. In the coming weeks a smaller group of student's representing the larger group will pull together those loose threads spotted by the reviewers and channel all our collective efforts into a seamless package.

Congratulations everyone for a job well done! Go out and enjoy a well deserved spring break!!

WEEK 7: STAKEHOLDER SYNTHESIS + DESIGN DIRECTIONS

This polar bear tells a personal story

On Monday, we began the our weekly seminar session with an enlivening presentation and discussion with Kris Morrissey, Director of the Museology Department, Curator of Interpretation. She emphasized that interpretation is the bridge between the visitor and the information. While objects provoke stories, only people can “tell” stories. This is important, as Kris stated that the story is what forges emotional and intellectual connections between the interests of the audience and the meaning inherent in the resources. Her expertise on interpretation is certainly an invaluable resource, and the timing of her visit couldn’t have been more perfect as we begin to consolidate our ideas concerning specific areas and modes of telling stories.

Kris Morrissey from the Museology Department



New groups

After Kris’ time with us, we were tasked with self-aligning into groups based on our 3 new focus themes: Density, Dispersal, and Connections. Within these newly formed groups, our directive was to synthesize what we heard from the visiting jurors at the mid-review and the stakeholders and bring that into a still conceptual framework for moving forward.

Students' designs - NEW or modified NPS logo

Following class Monday, we all pinned up our designs for a new NPS logo, which had been a fun part of our weekend assignment to get our creative sense awakened.


Wednesday began with a class visit to the UW’s Burke Museum where Julia Stein, Curator of the Burke, gave us an amazing presentation. We heard about the museum’s collections related the Park and the work she and her students have done on the sites, which include archeological digs done in the area of the parade ground at English Camp. 

Julia Stein, Curator of the Burke Museum

There was also an informative exhibit entitled: Hungry Planet: What the World Eats. Included in this exhibit was a very thorough and beautiful explanation of the seasonally and geographically varied diet of the Coast Salish People, who have inhabited the San Juan Islanda for thousands of years. We continued studio in work sessions within our new groups, with collaborations and ideas exchanges occurring between groups.

Julia Stein showed us her work and artifacts found on the San Juan Island

On Friday, we had the pleasure to have Keith Dunbar, retired head of the NPS Planning for the Western Region and coauthor of the SJI-NHP general management plan come and give us a presentation on the history and evolution of park planning and policy. Keith stayed to observe and provide feedback on our pin-up session, where our groups presented to the class our ideas for design directions. Many of our creative ideas and potentials for implementation saw similarities and parallels which will inform our direction toward synthesis, editing and clarification in moving forward. 

Keith Dunbar, Retired Head of NPS Planning of our region

The Connection Group presenting their design directions

STAR your favorite "Big Ideas"

WEEK 6: MID-REVIEW + STAKEHOLDER MEETING

This week for the studio began with late nights spent feverish polishing our mid-review presentations, and ended with another site visit to bucolic San Juan Island.  While I believe we all preferred the latter, our mid-reviews came off grandly nonetheless. 

We further distilled our working themes to four groups:  Community + Stakeholders, Site + Program, Heritage + Program, and Setting + Environment.  These groups were, as our professors tasked us, an effort to "move into a more directed apprach for developing strategies to apply the design guidelines to our site and examine their applicability to the larger NPS system."  While moving forward in examining their individual theme, the groups also worked together, sharing ideas and information to devise a framework for decision-making in our design thinking.

Here are a few examples of our work (please note, more examples will be posted in the coming days):



We were fortunate to have as our reviewers both SJI-NHP core staff and high level decision-makers with the Designing the Parks competition.  After a short introduction to our work and process, the four groups presented their boards detailing thoughts and proposals.  A final synthesis presentation discussed overall conclusions, and clued the reviewers in to our direction moving forward.

A fertile discussion followed, with the reviewers urging us to continue pushing and scrutinizing the boundaries of the Park, both physical and metaphorical.  They appreciated all of the data and analysis that was presented, and all - reviewers, students, and professors - agreed that it is now time to bring focus to form. 

After the buzz of mid-review dissipated for a day, we had a second chance to present our work - this time on the Island.  We invited community stakeholders to a public meeting as a way to see what we have been working on, and more importantly to get input from those who have the Park as their local park.  We were all very excited, after working with GIS, historical research, maps, et al. for weeks, to have a chance to have tangible encounters with island residents. 

Steve, Acting Superintendent of SJI-NHP introducing the group

There was a short presentation, and we then broke out into small groups to discuss our work and the residents' thoughts.

At the end of the long week, we blew off some steam in Friday Habor at the Rumor Mill, a live music venue and restaurant.  As the band was backed by a large mural of the windswept prairie at American Camp, we considered our dancing and revelry as research related to the studio.

At the Rumor Mill - with American Camp prairie mural backdrop

The next day, we further explored the Island and the two park sites.  With fresh ideas from our presentations and conversations, the group homed in on how to bring these concepts to spatial reality.  A subset was able to examine the old military road in further detail, and more specifically toured the island with the San Juan Island Trails Committee.

English Camp

English Camp

English Camp

American Camp

American Camp

American Camp

Jakle's Lagoon - American Camp

American Camp

With the quarter a bit more than halfway over, we look forward to focusing more on specific proposals and interventions built upon the base of thorough site analysis and data.