A new spot to park your arts in Fort Lauderdale

The concept and amenity of public spaces is evolving and we particularly like this melding of art and public space. Hollywood (Florida) residents now have access to a fascinating new public art/recreation area, built on the concept of integrating landscape and art. Glavovic Studio recently unveiled the ArtsPark at Young Circle, a new public art project that takes the form of a ten-acre circular park.

Located at Young Circle, which has long been a recreational space for Hollywood, FL residents, the new ArtsPark provides daily, interactive, family-oriented cultural experiences for the general public. The design, led by Project Designer Margi Nothard, includes site-specific artworks blended with unique natural aspects of the South Florida landscape.

The ArtsPark is a civic landmark that was created through strong female leadership; many women contributed to the realization of the project including Mara Giulianti, Mayor of Hollywood, FL; Mary Becht, Director of the Broward County Cultural Division; Cynthia Berman-Miller, former director of the Hollywood Arts and Culture Center and Nothard.

“The concept of the ArtsPark is the integration of landscape and art through human discovery,” explains Nothard, Principal of Glavovic Studio, Inc. “It was conceived as an integrated artwork that transforms from an organic landscape into a constructed landscape; ultimately, the ArtsPark is architecture as landscape and as sculpture.”

The design of the ArtsPark is scaled to the urban space it occupies and links the surrounding neighborhoods in which it sits at the intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and Federal Highway 1. Nothard’s design evokes Frederick Law Olmsted, America’s foremost landscape architect of the nineteenth century, in the layering of spaces and different heights that she created within the park. The ArtsPark comprises multiple activity spaces without walls designed for the activities that occur within them including the Grove, a place designed for sedate activity, and a highly interactive Children’s Play Area.

Special events and festivals that do not require full staging will be held in the Center Court and Plaza. A Visual Arts Pavilion, also designed by Nothard, is currently under construction and is slated for completion this fall. It will have studios where professional artists will create their art, places for people to watch and learn how art is made and participatory art classes. Groundbreaking for a Performing Arts Pavilion that will replace the former bandstands and amphitheatres located in Young Circle has not yet been determined. Until the new building is constructed, a temporary stage will sit on the footprint of the future amphitheatre.

One integrated design element of the ArtsPark is a site-specific artwork created by internationally renowned Japanese artist Ritsuko Taho in collaboration with Nothard. Entitled Millennium Springs, the piece consists of a long, narrow fountain with jets of water that shoot into the air in concert with the life energy wave patterns measured in one of five massive baobob trees located in Young Circle and striped walkway designs that link the fountain to the baobob tree.