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Red Square, the sole location providing for a plaza-like assembly on-campus, is dated, worn, functionally idiosyncratic, and is generally lacking the understated grandeur that so permeates much of the remainder of the campus. Collectively, these faults dissuade Red Square successfully becoming a much needed third place—that is—an area of informal social interaction separate from home and work; fortunately redesign and consequent renovation of the area would mitigate these dilemmas.
I plan to address the constraints of cost and perhaps historical preservation if applicable. Trigger points include, seating, water feature, and unattractive concrete stairs leading to the place.
The most recent readings are applicable: "Third Place," "The Experience Architect," "City," and "Principles of Marketing," perhaps with an excerpt or two from "Main Street."
The following passages from Ray Oldenberg (Third Place) are relevant:
“Most needed are those ‘third places’ which lend a public balance to the increased privatization of home life. Third places are nothing more than informal public gathering places. The phrase ‘third places’ derives from considering our homes to be the ‘first’ places in our lives, and our work places the ‘second.’” "The character of a third place is determined most of all by its regular clientele and is marked by a playful mood, which contrasts with people's more serious involvement in other spheres. Though a radically different kind of setting for a home, the third place is remarkably similar to a good home in the psychological comfort and support that it extends…They are the heart of a community's social vitality, the grassroots of democracy, but sadly, they constitute a diminishing aspect of the American social landscape."
Red square, the plaza-like location nestled between Mandelle and Dewing, was subject of observation on the afternoon of 11.13.08. With the exception of the red brick paving, which I assume the name "Red Square" was derived, the area is generally dated, worn, tired, and doesn't mesh well with its surroundings. The seating is bench-like and very much reminiscent of what one will find in some dated pavilion of some park; I observed no persons seated on them, probably for this reason. The several people I did observe quietly passed right through the square with little to no interaction; this leads one to believe the location to be mostly a kind of pass-through area, connecting central campus to the library and proximal buildings.
Red Square projects the image most analogous to that of an everyday dated park, I have observed similarly designed components in these places. I do not feel Kalamazoo College wishes to project such an image, an image so contradictory to the understated elegance that permeates much of the rest of the campus.
I found it interesting that the college chose messy crab apple trees to flank the water feature. I observed several rotten fruits from these trees in the fountain!
