Client: Arlington County Public Art
Location: Arlington, VA, United States
Completion date: 2022
Project Team
Landscape Architect of Record/Design Artist
Walter Hood
Hood Design Studio
Principal
Paul Peters
Hood Design Studio
Engineer of Record
Chelsea Bishop
A Morton Thomas, Inc. (AMT)
Neighborhood Services Division Chief/ Project Manager
Chikwe Njoku
Arlington County – Community Planning of Housing and Development (CPHD)
Design Project Manager
Kathy Von Bredow
Arlington Department of Parks & Recreation - DPR
Project Officer/Construction Manager
Carlos Cordova Alvira
Arlington Department of Environmental Services – DES Engineering
General Contractor
Vivek Thukral
Ardent Company, LLC
General Contractor
Bijay Subedi
Ardent Company, LLC
Overview
Artist and designer Walter Hood took inspiration for the design of the John Robinson, Jr. Town Square and sculpture FREED from the history and community of Historically Black Green Valley’s tie to Freedman’s Village.
The park is composed of two juxtaposed geometries: a set of diagonal walkways laid over the street grid establishing a site that allows for a variety of activities including community programs and festivals, markets, and daily leisure. A green swath bisects the ground creating a sinuous swale that references the topography of Green Valley and includes a lush planting palette comprised of native plants that also function to mitigate the site’s stormwater runoff. Along the banks of the swale, benches are interspersed, allowing quiet places for seating. A plaza marks the origins of the swale at a high point of the site with a stage overlooking river birches.
The primary design feature of the Town Square is the FREED sculpture, a 30-foot-tall beacon that pays homage to the notion of freedom, whether experienced as a historical or contemporary and personal or collective condition. Each letter of the golden sculpture incorporates laser-cut patterns featuring the names of historic subdivisions of Green Valley and Ghanaian Adinkra symbols.
Goals
John Robinson, Jr. Town Square was developed as the anchor for the Green Valley Village Center, in parallel with the Four Mile Run Valley initiative. The goals for the Town Square (which is itself considered to be the artwork) are to provide a community gathering place for events where visitors can learn about the neighborhood’s rich cultural heritage, as expressed through design enhancements and public art. Amenities include green space and a plaza, a sculptural element, neighborhood history/community information, undergrounded utilities, new sidewalks and other pedestrian improvements, streetlights, on-street parking, and seating and tables.
Hood’s design was influenced by the historical ties between the Green Valley neighborhood and Freedman’s Village, a community for escaped enslaved African Americans and freepersons established at the end of the Civil War on property which later became home to the Pentagon and Arlington Cemetery.
Process
Supported in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts’ Our Town program, this project took nearly a decade to complete. Artist and designer Walter Hood and Hood Studio directly engaged residents and community leaders of the Green Valley Civic Association in the design process for more than five years. Arlington County’s Neighborhood Services Division of Community, Planning, Housing and Development managed the project in partnership with the Department of Parks and Recreation, the Department of Environmental Services, and Arlington Economic Development’s Public Art Program. Other partners include the Arlington Community Foundation.
Prior to the commencement of the design of the Town Square, Arlington Cultural Affairs and Arlington Neighborhood Services collaborated on the Nauck Community Heritage Project, which employed folklorist Harold Anderson to document the oral histories of residents in the Green Valley (formerly known as Nauck) community. This project was initiated to provide a context for the eventual design of the Town Square based on the cultural and historical identity of the community.