PLATFORM PARK

Downtown Garden Stroll

SLC Downtown Alliance
Wood, Dirt, Grass, Flowers
6’x8’x18’
Salt Lake City, Utah | 2015

Photography by Trevor Muhler

Downtown SLC Presents was looking to create temporary “pop-up” parks that would bring “the colors of spring” into the city. Platform Park was designed to bring the program of a public park to a smaller scale. In many ways the function of a park is in contrast to the rush of cars and people downtown, often in parks there is a sense of leisure and connection to nature. Platform Park built from a grid of planters of varying height. Each planter was 4’x4’ walkable platform and was either filled with an array of blooming annual flowers or grass.

The park drew in people who were shopping, working, or just looking for somewhere to stop to take quick break. Most of the heavy usage was climbing and jumping from platform to platform by children playing. The idea behind the seating areas being grass was to allow people to physically touch something natural and living rather than just making benches for people to sit on. It was meant to welcome people to play in the park, giving people a soft spot to sit and read. The slated guard railing acts as screen giving the park a sense privacy and place allowing for people to slow down for a moment in their busy day.

Being a temporary project, Platform Park was built off site as separate planters allowing the project to be disassembled and moved to and from the site with more ease. The planters themselves were simply a 4’x4’ platform built from standard dimensional lumber and framed out similar to a floor set on 6”x6” wood posts. Above the framed floor was a shallow dirt planting area that had been framed in and detailed similar to a green roof to allow the flower and grass to grow for the duration of the project.