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Conceived as a stroll garden, Bowden Park's primary organizing element is a paved circuit set within the rectangular boundaries of the property. Seating areas are located along the circuit, offset from each other in areas defined by planting and low hedges. The park entry, a point just out of the view depicted on the preceding page, connects to a pedestrain underpass for a commuter station serving the train to San Francisco. Royston envisioned the park as a place for wives to meet their commuting husbands as they returned from work. It would provide them with an opportunity to slow down and enjoy the garden and each other's company on their walk home. Using such a personal, and now quaint, idea as a form generator is charactersitic of his best work and reflects a primary element of design ethic - that the built landscape, whether public or private, is for the enrichment of people's daily lives. It is likely that he developed this point of view while working for Thomas Church. Church's book, Gardens are for People, epitomized this philosophy. |
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