Unique Projects of a Universal ‘Public Park Making’ Trend Viewed on the Example of Four Global Cities

Abstract

From a social perspective, successful cities compete with other cities and with each other for residents, resources, and economic power. The important characteristic of that is the number of outdoor social activities (events, festivals, forums, etc.) held in cities that are included in several cities’ evaluation indexes. Attempting to analyze the urban environment features that foster a productive ground for social activities, this paper correlates the number of social activities with the recent ‘public park-making’ urban regeneration trend. It considers four unique project case studies in New York, Tokyo, Seoul, and Moscow in the 2016–2018 years, with outstanding and ambitious designs selected to represent the trend. This paper analyzes the global ‘public park making’ trend for city’s urban regeneration with different scales of project interventions viewed through qualitative case studies. This paper puts forward a question of global features of a public park and continues the discussion on keeping a balance between local architecture and the global public park making trend, as well as public facilities and profit, and a role of nature as a universal remedy and tool in reshaping the image of cities.

1. Introduction

An urban environment of cities serves as a daily space for various activities, from casual residents’ interactions to organized events. A city needs to provide a safe, livable, diverse, and comfortable environment for residents, and many cities strive to enhance their built environment. At the same time, if to take a man as a starting point of a coordinate system, a human’s individual feelings and behavior, along with the ways, frequency, quality, and amount of interaction with other people are the most important [1,2]. To rephrase one of the many sayings about a people and city, the city in which you feel unlucky, seems boring in architecture [3]. Therefore, the urban environment of a city and social interactions among residents are closely interrelated.

In the situation of global competitiveness, successful cities compete with other cities and with each other for residents, resources, and economic power. The important characteristic of the city’s attractiveness can be defined with social interactions. In a direct way, it can be presented and estimated as a number of outdoor social activities (events, festivals, forums, etc.) that are hosted in the city. Outdoor social activities are measured and are included in various cities’ evaluation indexes [4,5,6,7].

The following chart shows various existing evaluation indexes for cities and specifies wherever they have a criterion describing social interactions, for example, outdoor social activities, or criteria that indicates similar features (see

Table 1. City evaluation indexes and criteria for ‘Social Interactions’ (e.g., number of outdoor social activities).

City Evaluation Index	‘Social Interactions’ Related Criteria	How It Is Measured?	Leading City
Global Cities Index [4]	‘Cultural experience’ (one of 5 criteria), can refer to ‘social interactions’	Cultural experience: Museums, visual and performing arts, sport events, international travelers, culinary offerings, sister cities	1-New York
Social City Ranking [5]	‘Social activity’, ‘Attitude to socializing’, and ‘Social milieu’ (3 criteria out of 3)	Social activity: How often residents see friends, go out to with friends, use social media. Attitude to socializing: Value placed on face-to-face interactions, entertaining at home, sociable vs selfish values. Social milieu: How often residents party, how open and tolerant they are	1-Gothenburg, Sweden
Global Power City Index [6]	‘Cultural interaction’ (one of 6 criteria), can refer to ‘social interactions’	Cultural interaction: Trendsetting Potential, Cultural Resources, Facilities for Visitors, Attractiveness to Visitors, International Interaction	1-London
Time Out’s City Index [7]	‘Sociability’ criteria (one of 6 criteria), can refer to ‘social interactions’	Sociability: “Whether the city felt welcoming or isolating”	1-Chicago

Sources: [4,5,6,7].

). For example, the ‘Global Power City Index’ [6] defines a city’s ‘magnetism’ as a “perceived power to attract creative people and businesses from across the globe” and, therefore, has social interactions as one of the criteria.

As it can be seen, social interactions constitute an important characteristic of cities. The problem is that social interactions present an ambiguous phenomenon that cannot be easily simplified by summarizing the number of social and cultural facilities, or the number of open public spaces and events (held in the built environment of a city). Peters et al. [8] showed that city urban parks generally promote social cohesion and social interactions, although they have different roles for different social groups.

Therefore, as it is useful to analyze the performance of certain design approaches in creating space to enhance the urban environment, social interactions will be regarded in relation with an increasing number and variety of outdoor social activities (events, festivals, forums, etc.) held in the designed spaces (Figure 1). City urban green spaces and parks (as regeneration projects) have to satisfy complex requirements of developers, residents, municipality, non-government organizations (NGO), and the professional community, and need to give priority to social interactions of their users in order to create comfortable and human-centered environments. Figure 1 presents the important factors in making a park design (as regeneration projects) and shows outdoor social activities that appear in city parks and are generally included in regeneration projects.

City green spaces (such as city parks) are usually considered to be one of the relevant spaces for social interactions; they have an impact on an individual person as long as they contribute to a social resilience in general [9,10]. Chiesura [11] points out that “an amount of public green spaces per inhabitant”, “public parks”, and “recreation areas” are frequently used as factors of making a city attractive to people. Many cities recently use these green landscape-driven approaches to renovate the city center and thereby to promote the image of the city. With that, the problem is that recent globalization dynamics and the focus on attracting growth have led to more and more standardized and replaceable forms of urbanism.

This paper aims to analyze the global ‘public park making’ trend for a city’s urban regeneration with different scales of project interventions. In particular, it examines the role of nature in redefining the urban environment on the examples of international case studies in four cities (New York, Tokyo, Seoul, and Moscow). Therefore, the objective of this paper is to figure out the landscape-driven design approaches implemented in projects, to review the change in social interactions stimulated by regeneration projects, and to analyze their role in the surrounding urban context. This paper puts forward a question of global features of a public park and continues the discussion on keeping a balance between local architecture and the global ‘public park making’ trend.

2. Literature Review: Relation between Urban Regeneration Approaches for Public Parks and Social Interaction

This section views the existing recent literature on the relation between urban regeneration approaches for city public parks and social interaction. Some literature reviews on this issue are presented in

Table 2. Literature review.

Author	Year	Subject of Analysis	Main Methods or Instruments
Cattell, Dines, Gesler & Curtis [12]	2008	The beneficial properties of public spaces are not reducible to natural or aesthetic criteria; it also includes social interaction and well-being	Literature review and qualitative research on multi-ethnic area of East London
Wolch, Byrne, & Newell [13]	2014	Existing and potential social and therapeutic properties of public open space; concept of ‘well-being’ in public space	Literature review and case studies Hangzhou, China
Xiao, Wang, Li, & Tang [14]	2017	Equality of access of public parks in Shanghai viewed through 3 dimensions: Demographic characteristics, social economic status of visitors, and social spatial structure	Case study of Shanghai (spatial clustering method)
Sasaki [15]	2010	Connects urban regeneration processes in Japan with cultural creativity and social inclusion, concept of ‘culture-based production system’	Literature review and case studies of Kanazawa and Yokohama, and Osaka
Tonkiss [16]	2005	Examines different aspects related to city and social theory, including social relations and city, social movements and public spaces, subjectivity of city	Theoretical and literature review, case studies
Waldheim [17]	2016	Examines theories related to landscape design, viewing landscape as urbanism and as architecture	Theoretical and literature review, case studies

Sources: [12,13,14,15,16,17].

. The valuable impact of city green spaces (such as city parks) on the community and residents, including ecological, sustainable, social aspects, and well-being, has been noted by Cattell et al. [12], Wolch et al. [13], and Xiao et al. [14]. Sasaki [15] described specific social characteristics of urban regeneration case studies, such as cultural creativity, social inclusion, and ‘culture-based production system’. Tonkiss [16] empathized a link between the city and social relations, considering social relations and the city, social movements and public spaces, and subjectivity of the city. Waldheim [17] pointed out the emerging features and approaches to landscape as architecture and to landscape as urbanism.

However, the way that urban regeneration projects for city public parks and green spaces affects social interactions remains a relevant topic, and the significance of contemporary landscape urbanism in the cities is changing. As Waldheim [17] claims “landscape practices accelerated ecological thinking across the urban arts, and the landscape urbanism emerged to occupy a void created by urban planning’s shift away from design culture in favor of social science.”

The appearance of ambitious landscape-driven regeneration projects in the global city centers can be, in some way, explained by the wiliness of city’s municipalities to promote the image of cities in the international arena. They appear as a response to the global competitive spirit of cities. The flagship iconic regeneration projects are used to reshape the city identity. For instance, it is described by Miles [18], focusing on the impact of flagship regeneration projects for identity in Newcastle Gateshead. Smith [19] presents the case study of ‘re-imaging’ Barcelona initiatives performed in order to appeal to tourists and an external audience.

Therefore, the relationship between urban regeneration approaches for city public parks and social interactions is understood not only as a number of social activities, but also as a quality of social interactions and their perception. It is a topic that requires further research.

3. Materials and Methods for the Selected Case Studies

Recently, more cities choose landscape-driven designs as an approach to promote the city. This paper focuses on several large cities (in particular, New York, Tokyo, Seoul, and Moscow) that recently (2016~2018 years) implemented unique landscape-driven regeneration projects confined to some famous international sports and cultural events (for example, Olympic Games or Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup), and aimed to internationally promote the image of the city.

A qualitative case study analysis was used as the method of research. The selected projects are as follows:

• ‘The Hills’ on Governors Island, New York, USA;
• ‘Ginza Sony Park’, Tokyo, Japan;
• ‘Seoullo 7017 Skypark’, Seoul, South Korea; and
• ‘Zaryadye Park’, Moscow, Russia.

These four renovated places of the cities are viewed in terms of implemented design approaches, social activities that are held in new spaces (according to local sources, such as websites, journal articles, and newspapers), and their role in the surrounding urban context (role in revitalization of surrounding area, relationship with local business, attracting visitors, etc.) viewed through local sources of information (such as websites, journal articles, and newspapers).

This paper performs a comparative analysis of the selected case studies, seeking to reveal the characteristics of the ‘public park making’ trend for the city center, where the economic profit from land use (from commercial and retail functions) and walkability and enjoying greenery in parks has to be combined in balance. The relation to the existing context and preserving the historical environment of the city center neighboring a unique park’s architecture is another consideration side of these case studies.

The urban regeneration projects for public park creation selected as a case study in this paper are presented in

Table 3. Urban park regeneration project case studies.

Public Park: Regeneration Project	Location in the City, Area, and Main Programs	Year of Construction	Company (Architectural Project/Design)	Image
① ‘The Hills’ on Governors Island, New York	Governors Island, Area: 133,546 m2 of new development space, 4 themed hills. Main programs: Art and culture, new development, and over 50 historic buildings [20]	2016 completed	West 8
② ‘Ginza Sony Park,’ Tokyo	Central, Area: 707 m2 above-ground section (vertical park) Main programs: Art scape Game and parking Sony Aquarium 2018 Shop and eat, Sony street [21]	2018 (1st phase) Park/Lower park	Announced by Sony
③ Seoullo 7017 ‘Skypark,’ Seoul	Central, Area: 9.661 m2, which is a 938 m long overpass transformed into an elevated public garden, the minimum path width is 2.5 m Main programs: Small exhibitions, cafe, and shops, new bridges and stairs connect the viaduct with hotels and shops [22]	2017 completed	MVRDV
④ ‘Zaryadye’ Park, Moscow	Central, Area: 78,000 m2 Main programs: Floating bridge, concert hall, media center, ice cave, amphitheater, “Flight over Russia” [23]	2017 completed	Diller Scofidio + Renfro

Sources: [20,21,22,23].

.

Interestingly, three of these places have been selected by ‘Time’ (2018) as ‘the greatest places to visit’ (Ginza Sony Park was under construction at that time) [24].

Figure 2 shows the locations and scale of the case studies in cities. The central locations in the cities have determined the reconstruction approaches, such as conversion and re-programming of territory (case ①, island location), removal of existing outdated buildings (cases ② and ④, both located in the city centers), and the re-use of existing high-way structure (case ③, city center).

The case ① (‘the Hills’ on Governors Island in New York) has the largest scale among these regeneration projects. The case ④ also redesigns a quite large site in Moscow, with access to Moscow river and the closest proximity to the Kremlin and city center. Overcoming the miniature scale of landscape regeneration projects, case ② emphasizes publicity and green space (Tokyo), and case ③ emphasizes the improvement of pedestrian movement and walkability (Seoul), in line with the recently appeared ‘walkable urbanism’ campaign supported by Seoul Metropolitan Government [25].

It seems that a common approach for these projects is to use nature elements and unique landscape design themes to create a green public space with special programs and valuable meaning for cities. According to Schuetze et al. [26], recently, the success and assessment for urban regeneration projects for city centers’ downtown areas has become an important topic. They claim that the assessment criteria are complex and include environmental quality, economical quality, sociocultural and functional quality, technical quality, and process quality [26]. For example, for case ③, Hong [27] argues that the success of the project requires an extended period of time, and it cannot be measured within the short period.

The next section reviews the selected case studies in terms of their design approaches, social interactions achieved through the project and by holding social events, and their role for surrounding urban contexts.

4. Case Studies: Balance in Local Context and the Global ‘Park-Making’ Trend

This section considers the four renovated places of the cities in terms of their design approaches, social interactions (held social events), and their role in the surrounding urban context (role in revitalization of surrounding area, relationship with local business, attracting visitors, etc.) viewed through local sources of information (such as websites, journal articles, and newspapers).

4.1. ‘The Hills’ on Governors Island, New York, USA

• Design approaches

The Governors Island is a 70 ha island that is located within the ‘gold stroke of Brooklyn’, that four million tourists annually pass through while they visit the Statue of Liberty, according to Fitzpatrick [28]. It is a part of the borough of Manhattan in New York.

The Hills are designed by West 8 as a part of the Governors Island Park and Public Scape Master plan [29]. The Hills have been constructed from recycled demolition debris, general fill, and lightweight pumice and its first 30 acres opened to the public in 2014 and includes recreational fields, food concessions, seating, a public plaza, a hammock zone, a hedge maze, and more. With the opening of the Hills, visitors can now access the entire 3.5-km promenade encircling the island and Picnic Point [20].

The four Hills embody ‘all that makes Governors Island unique: art, play, nature, relaxation, and views.’ The Hills consist of Grassy Hill, Slide Hill, Discovery Hill, and Outlook Hill [29].

The case study ① views are presented in Figure 3.

The design approaches used for landscape design include the use of natural and artificial topography, creating accessible pedestrian and cycling paths, creating viewpoints, use of site-specific sculpture, and others. It sets an intuitive and high-level approach to nature in a regeneration project, characterized as ‘wild by design’ in [30].

• Social interactions

At the opening in 2016, the Hills were characterized as ‘the newest green space in New York’ and ‘the sprawling public park’ [31,32]. The landscape was designed in order to give people ‘feelings of exploration and fun’, as well as a ‘moment of journey, of being reborn’ [32].

Local concerts, jazz festivals, educational exhibitions, and other events are held in the Hills of Governors Island in the summer season and all year round that attract many residents from the city and tourists [33]. Governors Island Alliance began sponsoring art and sports programs and facilities as part of the effort to encourage public activity and build a constituency for the island [34].

• Role in the surrounding urban context

The Hills are located on the Governors Island close to New York city. The Landscape design provides a new relationship with the sea and viewpoints to the Statue of Liberty, New York Harbor, and the city skyline. The regeneration of an abandoned former military base to a new place of recreation and culture was completed. With that, with the end of military operations at the former military base, the idea of the use and official status of Governors Island was being negotiated with the urban design community [34].

4.2. ‘Ginza Sony Park’, Tokyo, Japan

• Design approaches

Considering the high land cost of Tokyo, many existing public spaces are occupied by retail and commercial functions. “For a city of Tokyo’s size, there are few public spaces where people can relax for free, though of course there are some major exceptions such as Yoyogi park. If you want to sit down for a while, that usually means a cafe or restaurant.” [35]

Ginza is an upscale area of Central Tokyo. Japan attracts almost 30 million international and domestic tourists and visitors annually, and many of them visit urban shopping areas, such as Ginza in Tokyo [36]. The regeneration project, ‘Ginza Sony Park’, is a new initiative of Sony to replace their own flagship store building (demolish an old Sony building) to a public park. The project will include two phases: First phase (park/lower park, 2018–2020) and second phase (upper park/ park/ lower park, 2020~) to create a ‘three-dimensional park structure’ [21]. The new facilities, images and diagrams about their design can be found at [37,38].

The case study ② views are presented in Figure 4.

The design approaches used for landscape design are going to include ‘delivering Kando and excitement’, making an open green space, creating more ‘inviting and open’ building, and applying a concept of ‘taking a vertical stroll in Ginza’ [21,39].

Currently, the building consists of a ground level (a landscape park) and of an underground level with free space, retail, and other programs for social interactions and for hanging out [40].

• Social interactions

The ground and underground spaces are designed to foster people’s interactions and to let people hang out freely [40]. The article [35] claims that “the problem is public space in Japan has become all about retail” and “it is primarily an interior experience–public space is indoors in Japan.” In this way, in Tokyo, generally “space for public good almost always loses out to utilitarian aesthetics and construction.” Therefore, applying a new approach to redesigning a building to a Ginza Sony Park can set a new standard of green space in the city.

• Role in the surrounding urban context

The article [35] argues that the creation of an ‘urban oasis’ could help Tokyo as it currently lacks green public space, although demolishing a previous building (a modernism history heritage) characterizes a city’s twofold situation of constant demolishing and rebuilding, ‘wiping out its architectural heritage.’

The Ginza Sony Park phase 1 is going to be completed for the Olympic Games in 2020 that is planned to take place in Tokyo.

4.3. Seoullo 7017 ‘Skypark’, Seoul, South Korea

• Design approaches

With the “Welfare Forest Project” in Seoul started in 2008 (as previously, Seoul heavily lacked urban green spaces), there are many recent initiatives to make social welfare centers “green” [41]. For example, the website [41] summarizes all the parks in Seoul, their facilities, and ongoing program schedules in each park. According to Jung et al. [42], currently, urban regeneration projects are very important for Seoul and other regional cities in South Korea.

The place nearby Seoul Station is a busy transportation hub and commercial and historical area of the downtown area. Seoullo 7017 Skypark regeneration project has transformed the inner city elevated high-way to a public 983-metre long park, gathering 50 families of plants, including trees, shrubs, and flowers, displayed in 645 tree pots, collecting around 228 species and sub-species [22]. Seoullo 7017 aims to regenerate and connect places nearby Seoul Station (main railway station) that have been fragmented by roads and railway tracks [25]. Images showing new design can be found at [43,44].

The case study ③ views are presented in Figure 5.

The design approaches used for landscape design include the placement of ‘biggest diversity of flora into a strictly urban condition,’ according to the MVRDV Seoullo 7017 Skygarden official website [22], creating the pedestrian network system connecting park with surroundings, and recovering disconnected city roads, and implementing concepts of ‘urban nursey’ and ‘satellite gardens’ [22].

• Social interactions

The Seoullo 7017 Skypark has been actively promoted in mass media (including posters and advertisements in the subway), and it was visited by many visitors and tourists during the Olympic Games in 2018. As a part of the local activities and events, a ‘Cool cool walking campaign’, puppet show, etc. are held in the park.

This project is mentioned as an important urban restoration project for Seoul (as another well-known Cheonggyecheon Stream Restoration Project completed in 2005) that has a significant impact for the city’s central business district (CBD) area’s renewal by Bell and de Kerret [45] and Pedrabissi [46]. Hong [27] empathized that the citizen’s satisfaction with urban renewal depends on their participation in urban regeneration projects. Hong [27] also argues that several points in improving the pedestrian environment were not achieved yet.

• Role in the surrounding urban context

Schmidt [47] considers the Seoullo 7017 Skypark project as a part of ‘Industrial Heritage’ within the ‘Seoul Future Heritage Program’ that was selected as a policy and approach to a built environment by a City Municipality and City Major. The project was designed to attract daily citizens and tourists to engage with ‘Industrial Heritage’ and create a playful walkable environment.

4.4. ‘Zaryadye Park’, Moscow, Russia

• Design approaches

The project emphasized the role of landscape as “all the attractions and new technology are delicately integrated into the landscape” [23]. Besides, the park is covered by tundra, forest, steppe, and water meadows, which represents the diversity of nature in all climatic zones of Russia. The Zaryadye project is designed for site in Moscow (site of former hotel) by Diller Scofidio + Renfro and an international team of architects, engineers, landscape designers, and other experts (Zaryadye Park, [48]).

Zaryadye Park includes the Philharmonic Concert Hall, Ice Cave, Amphitheater, and other cultural and entertainment facilities [49].

The case study ④ views are presented in Figure 6.

The design approaches used for landscape design include the concept of merging nature and technology, education and entertainment, history, and modernity. The viewpoints (a 70-metre-long concrete cantilever bridge) present a panoramic outlook view of the Moscow river and its surroundings. The keywords that describe the design according to its creators are openness, inclusiveness, initiative, and a sense of social consciousness [23].

• Social interactions

The Zaryadye park was visited by many visitors and tourists during FIFA in 2018, which was held in Russia, and it was actively discussed in the professional community and mass media [50]. Zaryadye also hosted some events of the National Urban Forum in 2018. It is opened for public use as a city public park.

• Role in the surrounding urban context

The [49] emphasizes the appearance of the park at the place of a former hotel, as the location of the site in the center of Moscow has high attraction to real estate developers and high land cost. Atrepjev and Illarionova [51] suggest Zaryadye park to be one of the important cultural objects and the first large-scale public park built in Moscow for over 50 years. Ivanov [52] argues on the lack of residents’ participation during the park design and construction process; however, positively characterizes the project as a ‘solution for a new pedestrian fragment of the Moskva River embankment.’

Kasyanov [53] indicates that the idea of creating ‘an islet of nature in the middle of a metropolis’ corresponds with global trends and evaluates it as a ‘landscape architectural object of world level.’

The next section puts forward a question of the global features of a public park, and continues the discussion on keeping a balance between local architecture and the global public park making trend.

5. Conclusions and Discussion: Defining Global ‘Public Park Making’ Trend

Recently, many cities have utilized green landscape-driven approaches to renovate the city center. By running regeneration projects, cities also aim to boost and foster social interactions, make a more comfortable living environment, and re-approach existing problems with new ideas. This help to promote the image of a city in the situation of global competitiveness, focuses on continuing and attracting growth.

As could be seen in the particular examples of four case studies (case ①—‘The Hills’ on Governors Island, New York, USA, case ②—‘Ginza Sony Park’, Tokyo, Japan, case ③—Seoullo 7017 ‘Skypark,’ Seoul, South Korea, and case ④—‘Zaryadye Park’, Moscow, Russia), the regeneration projects have been actively using landscape architecture, and emphasizing pedestrian access and the public character of space, as well as green, sustainable orientation of projects. The location of sites for all projects is characterized by high land cost and high attractiveness for real estate development, and the projects have been used to promote the image of cities. The projects can be defined as unique and outstanding, although they follow the global trend of nature-driven urban regeneration.

With that, the main aspects can be summarized as follows:

• The start of a “public park-making” trend with the specific purpose of promoting the image of the city;
• the global features of a public park that involve landscape and specific programs in order to show the city context experience, visual experience (viewpoints), and cultural experience. The commercial components (retail, commercial facilities) and non-commercial components (park space, leisure space, free space, etc.) of projects are re-purposed;
• hiding physical/material with the landscape; and
• redefying and strengthening the role of nature in the urban environment.

The four cities for case studies have been selected because recently (2016~2018 years), they implemented unique landscape-driven regeneration projects confined to some popular international sports and cultural events (for example, the Olympic Games or FIFA) and aimed to internationally promote the image of the city. The cities are very different, and the understanding of social cohesion, social separation, and social interaction in large cities is difficult, even though we have various cities’ evaluation indexes.

Social interactions constitute an important characteristic of cities because it is the way to describe and understand people’s life in cities. Still, the problem is that social interactions present an ambiguous phenomenon that cannot be easily simplified by summarizing the number of social and cultural facilities, open public spaces, or events (held in the built environment of a city). However, the number of various events (at international and national levels) is increasing in large cities as they keep accumulating talents, creativity, and capital, and this requires different open playgrounds and venues that are multifunctional and can accommodate many people.

Another question lies in understating the ways of spaces’ perception by people and space characters’ influence on social interaction within the cities. Generally, designers and architects genuinely believe that the quality of people’s lives should be increased through the space, not only by the space appearance. Additionally, architecture needs to be human-centered.

One of the purposes of making the city green spaces as urban regeneration projects (as can be seen through case studies) is to enrich the life of citizens with more friendly, accessible, culturally enriched, and playful environments. Each of these cases has special features defined by various circumstances, cultural and mentality settings, financial agendas, and with design concepts.

The global landscape-driven regeneration projects can be described having the following features:

• Landscape and nature as a key tool of urbanism/ architecture (diverse flora and fauna species, natural topography, and morphology of objects);
• context viewpoints and experience of surroundings (renewed place as a ‘miniature world’ and its relationship with other built environments);
• cultural experience (for example, project as ‘an amusement park’ or ‘an experimental park’); and
• commercial facilities are given a supporting role (enriching the time spent in a park, and creating various scenarios for hanging out in a park).

Certainly, large-scale regeneration projects affect the city’s life and even can change the perception of the city district or overall city. They are not only urban jewelry, but also affect the daily life of city residents.

Among the selected case studies, case ① (‘Hills’ on Governors Island in New York) has the largest scale and can be considered as a park. Case ④ (‘Zaryadye park’ in Moscow) is a large scale urban park project. Cases ② (‘Ginza Sony Park’ in Tokyo) and ③ (‘Seoullo 7017 Skypark’ in Seoul) have a miniature scale and can be regarded as an urban green space and urban garden accordingly. However, cases ② and ③ also use a word ‘park’ in the project title, which describes a character of the space. Cases ② and ③ overcome the miniature scale of the site by emphasizing publicity and green space (Tokyo) and by emphasizing the improvement of pedestrian movement and walkability (Seoul). A common approach for these projects is to use nature elements and unique landscape design themes in order to create a green public space with special programs and valuable meaning for a city’s representation.

Further research directions can include:

• Understanding the relation between local architecture with preserving heritage and new development; and
• finding balance between public facilities and commercial facilities for urban park and urban green space projects.

Overall, in recent years, globally, nature is used as a universal tool in reshaping the image of cities with the landscape-driven regeneration projects. These projects also affect social interactions and changing the environment of cities. This paper puts forward a question of global features of a public park and urban green space in the city center and continues the discussion on urban regeneration trends for large global cities.