Sitephocus November 09 update...

It's been busy of late and didn't realize I missed throwing images of the October update Los Angeles onto the blog. You can check those out on our Flickr page here. November's update is courtesy of Brian and his trip to Barcelona. Next month look for photos from New Town at St. Charles TND near St. Louis.


Miscellaneous street/alley with retail
Parc del Centre del Poblenou plaza
Parc del Centre del Poblenou bike rack (we think)
Parc del Centre del Poblenou trees trained into a series of arbors
Biomedical Research Park (Parc Recerca Biomedica) courtyard

Bicing bike sharing system
Fountain at the Hotel Arts
Waterfront promenade at Carrer de Marina
Mixed use building featuring heavily planted balconies (featured on Veg.itecture)
Torre de Gas Natural headquarters

Mural Paving and Sculptural Bench At Parque de la Paz

While visiting Escofet's website, I was reminded of the Parque de la Paz in Barcelona (see map). The mural paving and xurret system "bench" from Escofet have always intrigued me. The "bench" is definitely crazy looking. It probably is considered more of a landscape sculpture than a bench. However, for the right space, it could provide a dramatic addition. I am sure the mosaic paving wasn't cheap nor easy to do. I would love to know more about it. Every since seeing it, I have wondered if the quilting software Photo Xpress software could be used to facilitate the same effect. I hope to try it someday.

Parc Central of Nou Barris Wins Urban Landscape Award

Parc Central Nou Barris, one of my favorite parks in Barcelona, recently won the 2007 Urban Landscape Award. The park was designed by Andreu Arriola Madorell and Carmen Fiol Costa. Their inspiration for it is described as:

"the park design came from the early cubist and very colourful pictures of Pablo Picasso, which the young artist painted in 1909 at La Horta de San Juan (in Catalonia). The triangle was chosen as the creative guiding theme of the park because it is the most flexible of the geometric forms. Triangular wooden structures resembling artificial palms are therefore also the symbols of the park. They stand – singly or in groups – at key locations, giving shade during the day and illuminating the park at night."
(Source: Eurohypo AG Website)

I never knew it was Barcelona's second largest park. The award was sponsored by Eurohypo AG, a leading specialist bank for real estate and public finance. The project is sited on a steep sloping site adjacent to Barcelona's La Guineueta neighborhood (see map). My favorite features (photos above) are the old bridge (I am not sure it was originally a bridge or if it was another type of structure that was reused) and the large jet fountains. It offers a wide variety of spaces throughout the design and successfully integrates the park into the difficult topography.

Barcelona + Vancouver Exhibition

The Nashville Civic Design Center is holding an exhibition of selected photos of Barcelona and Vancouver from sitephocus' image library. The show began December 1st and will continue until the end of January. The Design Center is open Monday through Friday from 9:00 am– 5:00pm. The exhibit includes fifteen photographs of each city. They were chosen for their distinctly different approaches to urban design. The selected photos capture Vancouver's use of tall slender residential towers on residential podiums often referred to as "The Vancouver Model" and Barcelona's defining l'Eixample repeating grid of mixed use mid-rise blocks. I have put together a companion photo book with over 50 photographs. I will be receiving a proof copy of it in the next week. If everything goes right, it should be available around the first of the year.