In mid-March, John and Jin traveled to Be’er Sheva Israel to meet with the Be’er Sheva Quarry Park design and client teams. We will be featuring a series of news posts about their trip. To kick-off the series, we are sharing some photos and notes from their visit to the project site to ground proof the design proposal and seek further inspiration.
The project transforms an Ottoman-era quarry at the heart of the Be’er Sheva into a dynamic and unique public park for the community at large. As the process of extracting and carving of stone has become are integral to the park’s design, the team studied existing geological features that could be further exposed, enhanced, or otherwise expanded upon. The team documented viewsheds and vantage points that revealed different strata of limestone or views to the city.
The team also documented the existing planting communities and studied ways to integrate seasonal interest into park design, and observed how the site is currently used to aid in developing a more robust programming strategy. This included an investigation of the interfaces with the adjacent communities to best suit their needs and plan for easy and flexible access to the proposed open spaces and park programs.
Stay tuned for part 2 of the series where we discuss the ground research that was conducted.