Valley Oasis
|I am building a park that can change the community we see in Las Vegas today. Many people are ignorant and blind to how truly beautiful the Mojave is, and a lot of it has to do with them being in a city. They are bound to seeing the endless roads and the sky-bound building on the strip, or the countless stucco houses that cover the valley like a moss. The truly saddest part to it all, is the only desert most people in the area ever see is the ugly weed infested compacted dirt, which is littered with empty cans and floating plastic bags. You can walk through the city and see sprinklers watering a dark green lawn that takes gallons upon gallons of water to keep that green. Or see the obsessive amounts of Palm Trees that shoot into the sky, or the large amounts of Weeping Willows and Oak Trees that clearly don't belong here. The only reason that any of these plants are here are because they are considered beautiful. Well, i sought out to change that belief.
I want my park to be an escape from that daily lie that the population see every day. I wanted my park to reflect the things you can truly see if you were to go out and explore the desert. I drew my inspiration from real places throughout the valley, but mostly from Ice Box Canyon. You can see this inspiration through my use of a rain garden waterfall. It is no mystery that in a desert, there isn't very much water. So in order to work my way around that was just like Ice Box Canyon, whenever it rains my waterfall has a purpose. There will be a special place where the water fall will collect as much water as it can so that the feature may last as long as it can. I also tried to add native plants to the park, therefor creating less water usage because the plants don't use that much water. Some of these plants are California Juniper, Desert Willows, and a Joshua Tree center peace.
Comments
Thanks for sharing your thoughtful park design. I appreciated your attention to detail both in your descriptions and in your sketches/drawings. It is easy to get a strong sense of your design intentions and aspirations for this project. You describe a park that would serve as an oasis for the city and a place that changes with the seasons and the water levels. It is a great idea to incorporate things like weather patterns into landscape design, you are outside so you should use the beauty and complexity of nature to your advantage. For example - could you capture the impact of the wind through chimes or other features. Vegetation is not your only tool when you step outside to design. Great work - I hope you will continue to explore design and grow your skills as a sketch artist.