Resident and arts advocate Carol Tuynman has been talking up James Corner Field Operations’ credentials for months, telling us that the company would have a vision for our waterfront that would inspire us.
The landscape design company’s presentation in Haines Wednesday night did not disappoint.
Presenter Tatiana Choulika did not come with pictures or drawings of a renovated Portage Cove. She did not provide funding strategies or political advice. Instead, Choulika showed how her company has transformed blighted urban landscapes into places of inspiring beauty, recreation and art.
And she explained how this was done, and how it could likewise be done here, by tackling big dreams with small steps, by listening to all voices and melding many interests.
The borough has a plan for a waterfront trail, designed recently by proHns and by Corvus Design, an Alaskan company that builds attractive waterfront trails. It appears that James Corner Field Operations takes a broader approach, designing landscapes.
Landscaping isn’t something we do much in Haines. We clear land and put in our houses and driveways. We put in a flower bed here or leave a tree there. In downtown we’ve put in trails and green spaces like we put salt and pepper on food, sprinkling them here and there to add a little flavor.
Landscaping is something bigger. It involves understanding contours of land and making areas flow seamlessly, what nature does naturally. “Landscape is the weave that pulls it all together,” Choulika explained. I’m certainly no expert, but it appears to me that landscaping is to trail-building what art is to decoration – its highest form.
Why landscaping is important is why design is important. It’s why Notre Dame Cathedral is a World Heritage Site and why the Astrodome became an afterthought and was torn down. It’s why a child from a blue-collar family in Haines couldn’t leave our library in the weeks after it was built, because she said, it made her feel good.
Alaskans tend to be plain and practical people. We don’t put on airs. We drive muddy pickups and wear ballcaps and blue jeans, and the world of finery be damned. And that’s good and right. But the natural landscape of our town is neither plain nor practical. It’s rugged, spectacular and imposing all at the same time. The sight of it stops newcomers in their tracks.
With a few exceptions, our town’s physical development has not come close to matching its natural beauty. That’s understandable. Haines is a very young town without deep pockets, that has been scratched together as opportunity has allowed. For inspiration, we look up toward the mountains or out over the water, not at the places we’ve built.
But our town doesn’t have to be that way, and neither does its waterfront. Choulika explained that her company’s landmark project – New York City’s High Line, started as the dream of a small group of people. The city itself initially opposed the project. There was no funding. Supporters, however, kept at it. “They fought and fought and fought for it, because they had a vision,” Choulika said. The elevated park built on an old train line was constructed in sections, as funding and permitting allowed. And as sections were built, and residents could see for themselves the designer’s vision, more supporters and funding came forward.
History tells us that this is how many of the world’s great monuments were built, incrementally, over time. The pyramids weren’t built in a day and construction of Notre Dame took 200 years. Is anyone complaining that those took too long?
Here in Haines, there were many concerns about – and even some opposition to – our incredible public library before it was built. I questioned it myself. Building great things has always been something of a crusade, requiring courage, vision, commitment and perseverance.
The bigger question posed by James Corner Field Operations isn’t whether we’d like to have a world-class waterfront that comes close to matching the natural landscape. That could be done here, and it would be a tribute to us and a great gift to the world and to future Haines residents.
The question is whether we, as a community, have the courage, vision, commitment and perseverance to set out on such a quest, understanding the project may not be complete until years after we are gone.
(The Haines-based Alaska Arts Confluence hosted James Corner Field Operations’ visit here, using grant money the nonprofit group secured from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Alaska State Council on the Arts.)