Public Comment

When Willard Park was cleared of buildings, the plan was to put a field house in the middle of the new open space. The neighbors killed that plan and interviewed ten or twelve landscape firms in the middle of summer in a very hot room. The candidate firms' slide shows were long and boring; pictures of gazebos, hardscape, playgrounds and other construction. 

My partner and I were interviewed last and the ten person selection committee was half asleep. We brought only three color slides (greenswards, no construction), and talked about Francis Willard and Ho Chi Minh. We also mentioned the group of architects who ganged up on Frederick Law Olmsted and got the Park Commission’s approval to strangle New York's Central Park with a series of large monumental arches around its perimeter. Olmsted immediately resigned and left for Boston. 

The arches were never built and the Parks Commission begged Olmsted to come back when the whole project fell apart. After our very short presentation my partner was asked what we planned to do with the park. He said, “nothing.” After a stunned silence someone said, “you mean no construction in the open space?" He said, “no construction in the open space.” 

We were hired on the spot. Willard park, like Ohlone Park and the Civic Center park are well used open spaces, as is People’s Park. People’s Park is a beautifully designed park----a masterpiece created by many brilliant volunteers, and while its native plant garden needs attention and some trees have been destroyed, it is a classic example of cooperative open space design awaiting the good maintenance and management enjoyed by Willard Park, Ohlone Park, Civic Center Park (now Martin Luther King, Jr. Civic Center Park), and dozens of other Berkeley parks.