ANDREWNEIGHBOUR
The park’s playground, above, includes a mini-merry-go-round, opposite.
market and embellished at intervals with benches and
tables, newly planted trees, and a round cedar water
tower. The tracks of a new commuter rail line run
down the center. The whole evokes railyards of the
past, minus the industrial harshness and softened by
adjoining narrow streets and sidewalks.
Where the Alameda leads into the broader park,
its sense of linearity dwindles and then vanishes,
inducing you to slow your pace, look around, and take
in the carefully thought-out native landscaping and
plantings. A flagstone-lined acequia niña, a baby ditch,
angles off from the deep cut of the Acequia Madre
toward community gardens and a “waffle” garden—
modeled on Native American farming practices and
named for the water-saving grid of plantings in which
each block can be watered separately. A footbridge crosses
a “pond” wittily filled with lumps of dark blue glass. These
and other circular structures in this section of the park
echo the forms of the round wooden water tower in the
Alameda and an elaborate circular play area designed by
landscape artist Mary Miss.
The waffle garden, the “pond” of rocks, the water
tower: all reference the importance of water in this
arid environment. Irrigation water for the park comes
