I met G.B. Arrington in Portland, Oregon, when he worked for Parsons Brinckerhoff as a cofounder of their Placemaking Group, with a world-wide reputation as an innovator in Transit Oriented Development (TOD). Now in ‘retirement’, he’s the Principal at GB Place Making, LLC – and a resident of Barcelona.
His Facebook page provides a constant stream of images and observations from the Catalan city, most recently on the Festes de Gràcia – heaven for an urbanist with an appreciation of public spaces and how they can be used.
Here’s a selection of his posts (click on the title to see the images):
Festes de Gràcia is a little more than a week alway and the metamorphosis of the neighborhood is already underway. 22 Gràcia streets and plazas will be decorated by residents. I’m told the festival attracts over 1.5 million visitors. Yikes. This is what Carrer de Verdi looked like this afternoon – the street has been doing decorations since 1862 and remains one of the most famous of the Festes de Gràcia. The street just around the corner from us has also started decorating.
The real attraction of Fiesta Mayor de Gràcia are the creative spectacular transformations. The streets in the neighbourhood compete to win the prize of being the best decorated street. And the crowds come to ooh and aah. This block long suspended Viking ship would be an example.
Many of the Fiesta Mayor de Gràcia decorated streets successfully create an immersive experience at a grand scale – one moment you are on a normal street then you pass through into a tunnel of color seemingly reaching up into the sky. Where was this decorator for my senior prom?
Another view from the Fiesta Mayor de Gràcia – the transformations of the narrow historic streets using recycled materials into places of aaah is inspiring.
For many of the decorated streets in Fiesta Mayor de Gràcia making a big bold statement is part of the strategy. This towering electric guitar on Carrer de la Fraternitat certainly qualifies as a big bold statement.
These fish helped win the “El Centro” award in the street competition of Fiesta Mayor de Gràcia – best use of recycled materials. Recycling is one of the basics in the street decorations. Unfortunately after this picture was taken vandals burned down the decorations at the entrance of the street were set fire causing 5 people to be evacuated. A festival fueled by beer is not always a good thing.
