Balboa Park’s Landscape History
Some of the first designers of San Diego’s City Park were Samuel Parsons Jr., his partner George Cooke, local horticulturalists Kate Sessions and T.S. Brandegee. Parsons 1903 plan for the park was picturesque, contouring with the natural design of the land, including open grassy areas for people to enjoy secluded picnics in the park. This vision changes over time, as other ideas about nature, people, and buildings take precedence over pastoral seclusion. The Cultural Landscape Foundation provides an overview of major changes in the park. Today there are seventeen museums, a zoo, and other leisurely activities throughout the park. Ideas about nature have influenced the way the landscape has been perceived and designed in Balboa Park over time. [2]
While the park has been designed according to landscape architects ideas about nature, visitors of the park connect with nature in their own way. In the book The Power of Place, Urban Landscapes as Public History, Dolores Hayden discusses layered memories of places and spaces. Throughout my research, conversations between peers, professors, advisors, and family members have inspired conversations about memories people hold of visiting Balboa Park over time. According to Hayden, “residents have the power to evoke visual, social conversation,” detailing the public memory of urban places and spaces. [1] Nature in the park may not be exactly as original designers sought to be secluded from city life, but it is still preserved and enjoyed in open areas surrounding the buildings in the park. The images presented in this Knightlab Timeline were taken on a recent trip during summer 2021 in Balboa Park. Throughout the park remnants of nature implemented by early landscape designers are intertwined with the park we enjoy today.
- Dolores Hayden, The Power of Place: Urban Landscapes as Public History (Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1995),47.
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San Diego Business Journal. “Balboa Park Beyond 1915: Legacy of the Exposition.” Special Supplemental of the San Diego Business Journal. (December 15, 2015).