The design of the public park can go in any direction and your entry can be as simple or elaborate as you would like.  Some students with more understanding of the design process and experience with CAD or presentation software might submit detailed drafted drawings modeled in three dimensions.  While others might prefer free hand sketches, conveying the essence of their house in a poetic way.  Regardless of how you plan to approach the competition, here is a brief outline of my own process to designing, to help you get started.

1. Clear your mind of all preconceived notions about a park, to free your imagination to wander.

2. Research the context, the existing conditions of the site and surrounding features.  Consider how the park design can take advantage of the existing setting, the sightlines from different positions in the park, the grade changes entering and within the park.  How will the various spaces of the park relate to the adjacent building on the four side of the park?  Will the style of your park compliment or contrast with the environment?  What influence will the kinetic sculpture (Cloud Arbor by Ned Kahn)?

3. Ask yourself questions, to provide insight into a direction.  How do you use a park differently than other people?  What will make your park special?  What would you like to see in a park that has never been done before?  Question everything, the things in a convential park that make sense and work can remain, but the things that don't work should be improved or removed.  What are the reasons most parks are created the way they are?  More importantly, how would it change the feel, perception or use of a park if it was built differently.  Think of something that interests you or an oddity you find curious.  Then question it, to discover the true nature in more depth.

4. Focus on a single idea, the one with the most meaning to you, from the questions you asked.  Simplify the idea to the heart of the matter, eliminating the extraneous elements, reducing to the minimum elements necessary to preserve the essence of that idea.  In design, often the best work comes from editing, stripping away all the elements that are not necessary to define the true nature of a thing.  What is left will be clearer with greater ephasis on a few key elements.

5. Develop the central idea to greater depth, by carrying it through other aspects of the park design.  For example,  unique design for a water fountain could be enlarged and referenced in the design of a central fountain.  Or maybe decorative detailing of a park bench could be duplicated in a path light.   Layer the park with multiple interpretations of the idea, to strengthen its meaning.  Research green landscaping methods, native plants or conservation practices to find ways to reinforce and support your idea.

6. Put pencil to paper, to illustrate all of the ways you have incorporated your original idea.  Sketch in plan or perspective, or maybe just a simple detail, such as a stepping stone pattern.  Develop the park design as a whole, relating and balancing different spaces with each other.  Define the spaces by examining the retaining walls, plant groupings, walking paths, along with colors and textures from various finish materials.  Use every design decision as an opportunity to reinforce your idea, to unify the design.

7. Refine the design, by re-working it over and over.  Consider other ways to illustrate and express your idea.  Compare multiple variations side by side to determine which one conveys the idea best, the most clearly.  Work it over, trying to express the idea with as few maneuvers as possible, to make those gestures more powerful.   Continue back and forth, between the big picture for the entire park and the finer details of how the park comes together.  The design will begin to solidify as you feel you have exhausted possibilities and the current design works better than all others.

8. Organize your thoughts by writing them down.  Try to express your idea in words, summarizing how your house design achieved your idea in different ways.  Once they are identified, prioritize them, giving more weight to the ones that have more meaning for you.  Examine your drawings, to identify which drawings express your written ideas best.  Arrange those drawings on the presentation sheets to reflect it, by placing the ones with more importance in the center of the page or by enlarging them in scale to dominate attention.  Finally, use the style and character of the drawings to accentuate the idea.  Maya Lin's design submission for the Vietnam Memorial competition is an example I frequently use, to demonstrate a central idea conveyed very effectively in written and visual form, with the presentation technique becoming poetic, expressing the idea as simply and clearly as possible.