F. Philip Barash
F. Philip Barash
Title: Creative Director, Sasaki Assoc.
Age: 36
Experience: 15 years
Philip Barash works with developers and the community to design spaces where people want to linger. In March, Barash was selected to lead Watertown-based Sasaki Assoc.’s new “Sasaki Identity” division. The interdisciplinary practice works with clients to give their projects a “sense of place” through designs for public spaces and cultural venues. Before joining Sasaki, Barash was design editor of alternative weekly Newcity, worked on marketing campaigns for the Chicago Loop Alliance and was head of strategic partnerships for the Chicago Architectural Foundation.
Q: How familiar were you with Sasaki before this opportunity presented itself?
A: I’ve known Sasaki by reputation a very long time. But I first encountered real “Sasakians” about a year ago. In Chicago I was pretty civically involved and lived downtown and was a super-user of public space, walking, biking. We lived in a 640-square-foot apartment so most of my life took place in the public realm. I was invited to be part of a design review committee for the Chicago Riverwalk. Sasaki is the principal urban designer so I attended the meetings and reviewed the drawings. I was what you would call a vocal participant. That just means I was loud. I got to know Gina Ford, who is one of the principals here, and so over the year we’ve talked. I got a chance to visit this office and as cheesy as it may sound, I fell in love with it here.
Q: What did Sasaki tell you of their expectations for the new practice?
A: Sasaki has been in the business of making vibrant public spaces for a long time and we’ve spoken about how this entire industry of planning and urban design is reorienting itself. The traditional approach might have been top-down planning, where a bunch of smart people in bow-ties get together and draw something up – Sasaki more and more is in the business of engagement: of listening, of collecting data and evidence, partnering with civic officials, with programmers, neighborhood residents and others to create space. That’s completely consistent with how I work. I’m not a planner. I don’t have a degree in this stuff. But I care about spaces.
Q: What projects have you started on in Boston?
A: Maybe the most visible project so far has been the Boston City Hall “Plaza Plus.” It’s taken me a while to catch up to all the city hall plaza politics. I gather that space has been contentious since it was put in place and there’s a lot of embedded emotion there. People get riled up. Nobody’s neutral on the project. There have been all kinds of plans, and yet when the mayor put out the request for ideas, we sensed there was an opportunity to think about it differently, to think more nimbly about the design of the physical space and the patterns of use. We just thought: what would be cool? The other thought we had was: what do people want? That’s how we start all our exploration, by engaging the users. We went out in the plaza, printed up some postcards, said, “What would you add here?” and put them in the hands of people. We followed that up with a social media campaign that solicited suggestions, and we collected an amazing amount of feedback.
Q: Was there a common theme in the public response?
A: There were those who suggested we tear the whole thing down and start over. And there were those who seemed to already participate in activity on the plaza. Some of them were quirky and enterprising and funny. When we talk about placemaking strategy, that’s how it begins.
Q: What makes a good public space?
A: I feel like the answer is in the question. A good public space is a space used by the public. That definition has never changed since we invented the public, since the Agora in Athens. What has changed is the way we define public participation, how to make them the most inclusive and diverse and vibrant. And that’s what we struggle with.
Q: How have clients’ attitudes toward public space changed?
A: There’s greater awareness that a great public realm brings greater value to whatever their project is. Since the time that I’ve practiced, a lot of terms that used to be exotic have become commonplace. “Creative placemaking,” “storytelling,” “branding,” “activation.” And in a way these are all buzzwords, but they point toward something important: there is a trend toward viewing spaces not just as an environment but an experience. A lot of it has to do with my generation and the Millennials that follow it. We use space differently. Our parents’ generation valued the nuclear family unit, safety, privacy, autonomy, which roughly maps into something like a suburb. If you’re into family and privacy you have a backyard. My generation and certainly the Millennials are valuing things like community, connection, shared resources. We know this because of the emergence of the sharing economy. And that looks more like city living. That looks more like density. Developers have certainly caught onto this. Suddenly we’re designing communities that are amenity-heavy, that have all of these semi-private, semi-public spaces for residents to use, that have fewer parking spots and more shared cars that are transit-oriented. We see the shift happening in a very real way.
Q: Since you moved to Boston, what public spaces have stood out in a good or bad way?
A: Oh, dude. Boston has absolutely sublime public space moments. My walks on Commonwealth Avenue mall, the Common, the Public Garden, my daily bike rides along the Charles River path. These are moments that not many cities can boast, and what I love about them is they’re so simple. There’s no fancy bouncy playgrounds.
Q: Except the Lawn on D inflatable maze.
A: Yes. Love the Lawn on D. What makes these places special is that people treat them as their own. Could Boston do more? From what I’ve seen we could do better to connect neighborhoods to another. We could treat edge conditions a little bit better. And of course, the greatest example of that on a massive scale is the Greenway which reconnects the city to itself.
Barash’s Top 5 Best Things About Moving To Boston:
- Enjoying an active public realm, such as the Esplanade and Emerald Necklace
- Encountering wicked smart people
- Wearing loafers un-ironically
- Having hair styled by
a briny ocean breeze - Enjoying mountains of mollusks and crustaceans
