Ground Reconsidered’s Julie Bush, along with Joe Sikora of Sikora Well Appel and David Fierabend of Groundswell, presented “Public Space Prototypes: Temporary Parks Transform the City”, at the annual ASLA convention in Chicago. Inga Saffron, architectural critic for the Philadelphia Inquirer, moderated the event about the pop-up phenomenon and the design of temporary places.

Pop-up parks (which use simple, inexpensive elements to activate public spaces temporarily) have recently become a staple of summer in Philadelphia and are attracting attention nationwide. The three case studies presented by the panel were: Ground Reconsidered’s Evolution of the Oval, Spruce Street Harbor Park by Groundswell, and Roosevelt Plaza Park and the Pop-up Pool Project by Sikora Wells Appel.