Recently opened in February 2018, Helen Diller Civic Center Playgrounds is the result of a design collaboration between Andrea Cochran Landscape Architects (ACLA), Endrestudio | Architects & Engineers, Anticlockwise Arts, and Kompan Incorporated. The project scope included two parks that symmetrically flank the plaza entry to San Francisco’s City Hall, the landscape for which ACLA was the project leader and Landscape Architect.
Working closely with ACLA, Endrestudio designed the structure and aesthetics for the three primary play structures Sky Punch, Lenticular Cloud, and Fog Valley. Named after weather patterns, these structures show a combination of parametric form generation with basic geometric principles. For instance, “Sky Punch”, the largest of the three structures, has three layers of play nets that are interconnected through punched funnels and ringed with a walkway and cable net railing. “Lenticular Cloud” is an open helix form that maintains a continuously rising net surface, which - due to its continuity – also limits the fall height to less than two feet throughout the rise. Fog Valley is the smallest of the play structures and is a simple play of circular curvature about an axis with netting stretching between. The other structures within Endrestudio’s structural design scope include the 52 pixel poles that were a collaboration with ACLA and Anticlockwise Arts, the swings, the concrete formwork for Cumulus City, the gate, fencing and berms.
Structurally, the ideal geometry for each play structure was found using parametric software which was then exported as a centerline model and brought into Risa 3D for analysis. This process was reiterated until the most materially efficient form and cross-section found.
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