Just for the sake of argument, imagine a very different street-level downtown than the one we have in San Jose today, one designed for lingering rather than quick passage.

As you stroll underneath Highway 280 on First Street, you look up and see an underpass decorated like Lego bricks. On Almaden Boulevard, you see people stopping at exercise hubs, roller-skating, or biking on green lanes.

At the corner of San Carlos and Market streets, you spot a two-story mural designed to resemble a forest. You stop to plug your laptop into a mobile solar energy post. Then you cross the street on a blue crosswalk etched with markings that resemble teeth.

A new plan for downtown by CMG Landscape Architecture suggests brightly colored sidewalks and murals. ( CMG Landscape Architecture )

When you finally turn left on Santa Clara Street toward the SAP Center, you see a huge sculpture in the middle of the street, maybe even a shark crushing a hockey stick.

If there's one word to describe all this, it might be playfulness. The notion is to infuse life into downtown's streets by giving people things to do and see and enjoy.

A 191-page booklet prepared by San Francisco landscape architectural firm of CMG, the guys who were also picked to help Facebook, turns San Jose's conventions on their head.

The original planners of downtown's rebirth 30 years ago wanted a well-mannered center city. These guys embrace thoughtful clutter (see the plan at http://sjdowntown.com/groundwerx)

Filling space

At a recent meeting of the San Jose Downtown Association, which commissioned the study, landscape architect Willett Moss, a likeable man in his early 40s, explained that the idea, in its most basic sense, was to fill up San Jose's empty spaces.

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A plan to transform downtown San Jose's street life with mural, huge sculpture, exercise hubs

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Dyffryn Gardens from the air. F450 FPV flight - Video

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It #39;s (not) about landscape architecture: Mary Scipioni at TEDxRochester
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It's (not) about landscape architecture: Mary Scipioni at TEDxRochester - Video

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Landscape architect Renny Reynolds and horticulturist, author and historian Jack Staub will discuss classic English garden design Thursday at the annual Garden Club of Palm Beach lecture, presented at The Society of the Four Arts.

Reynolds and Staub were inspired by historic gardens in Britain during the 35-year course of creating Hortulus Farm, a 100-acre property they own and maintain in Wrightstown, Pa.

We have always admired the English style of gardening and landscaping, said Reynolds, who has traveled with Staub to Britain to experience many gardens throughout that country during the past decades.

The pair split their time between two homes: the Bucks County, Pa., farm and their Point Manalapan home, where they have spent winters for the past several years.

The English perfected the principles of landscape design, such as vista, axis, enclosure, kitchen and herb gardens, water features and follies, Reynolds said. And we found that English gardening translates well to the American vernacular, especially in the case of our farm, which was created around a stone farmhouse dating from 1723.

We are fascinated with the English manner of landscape design and were influenced by specific gardens we have visited, many of which are not on the typical English garden-tour circuit, he said.

They will share images of specific British gardens and show how their features were brought to the Pennsylvania property, which consists of 22 distinctive and authentic landscaped areas.

Renny and Jack are the dynamic duo of garden history and design, and their Pennsylvania farmstead is simply magnificent, said Vicky Hunt, Garden Club president. Their knowledge about English-style gardens is deep and impressive, and their lecture should be inspiring to all of us interested in landscape design and horticulture.

Hunt hopes that the lecture, The Art of English Gardening, will inspire people to visit Hortulus Farm, which was placed on the U.S. Register of Historic Places in 2004 and is an affiliate of the Garden Conservancy, with its gardens open to the public.

This annual lecture is our clubs gift to the town of Palm Beach, Hunt said.

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Garden Club speakers to focus on creating English-style landscapes

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Photo by Jim Tetro

Park amenities include a rain garden, pavilions, an ice-skating rink and a cafe.

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The team transformed a parking lot for Washington D.C. school buses on the Anacostia Waterfront into a three-acre park that offers aboveground recreational amenities and a belowground stormwater sewer system. Runoff from seven city blocks is diverted to the system, which includes two underground 40,000-gallon cisterns; tree pits also collect runoff. The reused water provides nearly 95% of the park's needs, saving an estimated 1.5 million gallons of potable water annually. Park amenities include a rain garden, pavilions, an ice-skating rink and a cafeas well as interactive water fountains and interactive sculptures.

Project Team

Owner: Canal Park Development Association; Housing Authority of the District of Columbia

Architect: Studios Architecture

General Contractor: James G. Davis Construction Corp., Rockville, Md.

Engineers: Loring; Vika, Germantown, Md.

Landscape Architect: The Olin Studio, Philadelphia

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Landscape, Urban Development: Washington Canal Park

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