An urban beach, or urbeach,[1] is defined as a space that includes an intellectually, artistically, or culturally sophisticated water feature that is also an aquatic play area, and is located within a culturally or artistically significant area of a city. In this sense, urbeaches differ from the splash pads and "spraygrounds" that are also found in city centers, in the sense that the urbeach aquatic play area is designed to appeal to people of all ages, not just to children. In this sense, the urbeach has taken on a social function similar to the village well, pump, or the social dynamics of the watercooler. Typically urbeaches are important architectural landmarks that run 24 hours per day, for most or all of the year, not merely playgrounds that run only during the day.[2]
Many cities include more than one urbeach. For example, Toronto has five urbeaches: a rooftop urbeach on the roof of the Existential Technology Research Center (ETRC);[3] Dundas Square; The Teluscape Hydraulophone facility and water maze; the HTO project; and, most recently, Sugar Beach.
Urbeaches may include sand, but many do not include sand, since urbeaches are often in civic spaces where large numbers of people pass through or where sand would otherwise cause problems. Urbeaches may be used for beach-like activities in a city space that would not usually allow for those activities. Urbeaches need not be built close to a natural body of water but almost always consist of some water feature that is suitable for aquatic play as at least one of its uses.[2]
Differently from a waterpark where people go mainly for aquatic play, an urban beach is a multi-use space where people can engange in several activities such as sunbathing, relaxation, reading, aquatic play (to swim or to frolic in a water feature), walking, or jogging. An urban beach is a playful and relaxing place in the inner city where people can wear beach attire and splash around without being in violation of the laws and standards of appropriateness that otherwise may exist within the formal downtown setting.
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Perhaps the first large urban beach was created in North Adams, Massachusetts by artist Eric Rudd. In July 1999, 250,000 pounds of sand were brought in to a narrow historic street, curb to curb, for the entire block for the first Eagle Street Beach event. Hundreds of families came out to make sand sculptures, and prizes were handed out. Many regional newspapers wrote about the event. This one-day urban beach event has continued for ten years and is an annual event in the city of North Adams.
An important seminal work in urbeach culture was that of William Masie, associate professor of Architecture at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, who created an exhibit at New York's Museum of Modern Art PS1 space, entitled "Playa Urbana", which explored the sensuality of "surf" and "surface".[4] Masie's work builds upon a tradition at MoMA's PS1 space of challenging the traditional boundary between the formalism of a gallery/museum and the playfulness of a beachlike space in the museum in which shirts and shoes are not required.
MoMA is largely responsible for the introduction of the concept of blending beach culture with formal "high culture" by introducing a number of courtyard exhibits in 2000, 2001, and 2002, of which Masie's work is one example.
An important philosophical dimension of the urban beach is to challenge the pre-conceived notion that formal civic life/work and play should be separated. Whereas traditionally playgrounds are relegated to areas apart from the more formal cultural, civic, and business core of a city, urbeaches like Playa Urbana, Dundas Square, and Teluscape break down this boundary by thrusting aquatic play right into the epicenter of formal civic life.
The use of silicon instead of sand was explored as an artistic design element and architectural concept in which an urban beach has recently been reported in the literature, in which flexible photovoltaic roof membranes provide electricity from building "skin". Since silicon and sand are related, silicon provides the clean grit-free medium for the beach surface.[3]
Some urban beaches consist of an area of beach sand and beach furniture with a park and grass area adjacent to them in order to recreate a beachlike environment similar to a natural beach.
However, many urbeaches are instead surfaced in specially textured and easy-to-clean granite, crumb rubber, or other materials that provide a clean grit-free and grime-free alternative to beach sand. Therefore they can be used without necessarily needing to clean oneself afterwards. These "clean" (sand-free) urban beaches can be enjoyed spontaneously for a few minutes, unlike natural beaches or oceans, lakes, pools and waterparks that usually involve planning a day trip. For example, a trip to an urban beach might be as short as a minute or two when people run through the sprinklers to cool off, and then proceed on to another activity. Urbeaches have the unique attribute of facilitating visits as short as a minute or two as people walk through the space as they take a short-cut through a part of a city. Because urbeaches are often located in a civic center or as part of the main entrance to a building, many see continuous traffic. For example, the main architectural centerpiece of the Teluscape urban beach is an aquatic play feature that is located right in the center of the main walkway leading into one of Canada's landmark architecture sites, the Ontario Science Centre. Because of the high foot traffic right through the center of this urban beach, the introduction of sand is not practical.
Urban beaches provide an urban oasis that is often incorporated directly into what is known colloquially as the city's "concrete jungle". Urbeaches afford places to relax, contemplate and congregate. Ideally they are located within walking distance of workplaces, so that users can spend their lunch hour there to enjoy a break from the city. Typically water features also create white noise that masks the sounds of traffic and other city noises.
Urbeaches can also have spray features such as fine mist, which are designed to be moderate enough for young children to play in. Other urban beaches have more vigorous splash fountains designed for older children and adults, e.g. for joggers or concert goers to cool off. The splash fountain in Toronto's city center, Dundas Square, features 600 spray nozzles that shoot water straight up through stainless steel grilles set right in the middle of the main walkway. The nozzles rise and fall in unison, like the waves on a beach, so there are times when the water level is low enough for children to also play in the water. The heights of all the fountains rise and fall in unison, in a sinusoidally time varying manner, so that users can wait for the fountains to reach a desired height before passing through them.
The Dundas Square fountains are maintained to a high quality of cleanliness ("pool water or better" standards, according to the maintainers of the facility) because, unlike most city center fountains, these were designed for waterplay, in addition to their excellent architectural beauty and effect (soothing city noise-masking). Special nonslip granite slabs were installed to ensure the safety of children and adults alike who splash in the water.
Urbeach culture often challenges the formalism of the city, and the traditional "separation of work and play" ideal (i.e. that work/business areas and playground/waterplay areas should be separated). One common concern is that people in beach attire (i.e. people in swimsuits or their underwear) might not be in keeping with the implicit formal dress code of the urban space in which the urbeach is located. However, current trends are toward making the city fun, rather than formal. In the past, there has also been a common belief that architectural landmark fountains are to be seen but not played in. Dundas Square, for example, underwent an adjustment period in which the security staff thought that the fountains were only decorative and thus kept people from playing in them, when in fact the space was originally designed and envisioned by Brown and Storey Architects and artist Dan Euser as an urbeach.[5]
Recently, amid plans to upgrade the fountain in Washington Square Park, City Councilmember Alan Gerson threatened to withdraw $16 million dollars in funding if any restrictions were made that would prohibit people from continuing the age-old tradition of playing in the fountain, or if any changes were made to the fountain that would make it less desirable, safe, or suitable to play in.[6]
Natural beaches provide some measure of privacy in the sense that, although crowded, an individual bather (sunbather or person swimming or frolicking in the water) is afforded some form of symmetrical privacy in the sense that most of the others present are also bathers. The culture at natural beaches tends to have a negative view of both surveillance[7] and sousveillance (i.e. those who come only to watch or take pictures).[8]
Video surveillance on natural beaches has been a controversial topic, as natural beaches have often offered some seclusion and a sense of privacy outside the urban core. However, urbeaches fall more within the surveillance-based tradition of city centers, where sousveillance is mostly unstoppable.
Misunderstandings often create strange rules on certain urbeaches that do not normally apply on natural beaches or in waterparks. For example, at PPG Place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania , swimwear is not allowed: