Race and the Control of Public Parks
Honor Award
Research
Dallas, Texas, United States
Isaac Cohen
buildingcommunityWORKSHOP
This is a powerful historical and critical study of racialized design of public parks that makes important statements about not being able to achieve a just public realm without understanding the past mistakes.
- 2024 Awards Jury
Project Credits
Camilo Manosalvas Travez, Graduate Research Assistant
Lizzie MacWillie, Graduate Research Assistant
Thomas Simpson, Graduate Research Assistant
Project Statement
This research uses a century long historical analysis of the public park system in Dallas, Texas, USA to uncover the physical and psychological ways in which public landscapes and the works of landscape architects have segregated urban spaces and how we might fight against these design practices. Through reframing past practice this work seeks to create a method for informing design thought and practices that seek to create a more just built environment. Overlaying the mapping of demographic data with the development of the public park system and incidents of segregation and violence; the research creates a clear link between the social and economic process of racial injustice and the process of park design and urban development.
Project Narrative
In the wake of our national reckoning with a history of racial injustice and violence, we must grapple with the ongoing role of designed landscapes in perpetuating the segregation of “public” spaces. It is undoubtably true that landscape architecture can produce works that create unbounded joy, support health, and regenerate damaged ecologies; as a profession we must also learn to recognize the ways that we have contributed to the systems that perpetuate racial and economic violence evident across the urban landscape. This research project uses a century long historical analysis of the public park system in Dallas, TX to uncover the many ways in which the works of landscape architects have segregated urban spaces and how we might fight against these systems and design practices.
To do this we must learn to identify the ways that parks serve to separate people and reinforce divisions in public. This knowledge is an essential step in developing strategies to counteract these separations and redesign sites and systems to serve a broad public. By developing the skills to uncover and articulate uncomfortable histories, landscape architects can frame design projects with a truthful recognition of a community’s trauma. Learning to do this while acknowledging our role in a painful past will position the profession to not only rebuild trust but to also be the designers of a more just built environment.
A pubic park is commonly viewed as a resource for all citizens to engage in the life of the city. This view, while technically accurate, does not reflect the more nuanced reality of public parks. The idea that all are welcome in a public park ignores the ways in which the design, construction, and use of a space can reinforce divisions, both physical and perceived, between populations. The development and design of parks are one type of space that can be used to bring people together or keep them apart. This research interrogates the physical city and reveals the multiple ways in which we plan, build, and interact with it, through the lens of public parks and residential racial segregation.
This project overlays the mapping of 110 years of census data and the growth of the public park system, with acts of racialized violence, policy, and design across the city. In addition, an analysis of park planning documents and archives led to the development of seven supporting spatial studies of specific sites of racialized design and violence. Through reframing past and current practice this work is part of informing design that seeks to create a more just built environment.
The work challenges the belief of many landscape architects that our public works are good for and accessible to all. This is a call to action to review work for its negative impacts on communities and to create a framework to evaluate the potential future impacts of parks. The work presents a valuable way to evaluate design from a social perspective, that draws on real world examples. While there is extensive research on and understanding of the segregating impacts of large-scale planning; from the history of urban renewal to contemporary infrastructure, and in educational institutions, the mechanisms and impacts of segregation within the design of public parks is little understood. How can we achieve an ideal of a just public realm and parks that serve “all” if we do not understand the ways in which they enforce and perpetuate structures of racial and socio-economic division.