Sanayeh Park: A Landscaping Challenge



Nature is a master architect and its resources and power are infinitely vast and renewable, and yet a drop-in-the-ocean of human ugliness will always stand out and it can be annoying.

Even in a city like Beirut where concrete edifices abound, nature creeps through the cracks in the asphalt, literally. Sanayeh Park is a people’s park, where the old and the young seek refuge from the dizzying pace of urban life in a city that still stubbornly clings to and worships at the alter of dirty fossil fuels.

Children run and play in the park, yet sadly not on finely cut grass but on hard asphalt. A handful of cars, probably belonging to park keepers and guards, are seen being driven around the asphalted surface of the park. This should not be acceptable.

Call me an extremist environmentalist if you will, but I believe a park should be like a house of worship, a sanctuary from our daily troubles, a place to commune with nature, a break from our daily routine.

If park keepers must use transportation to get around the park then they should use electric cars and park their cars outside the gates. Maybe the municipality can set aside four parking spaces just for them in front of the park’s main gate.

By re-designing the park to modern standards it will directly impact the quality of the experience park goers have, adding to their enjoyment of this public facility. Giving this park a face lift will also vastly improve the overall aesthetics of the area and its real estate potential.

The already small surface area of the park, to put it simply, is not being exploited fully or efficiently. There is a need to maximize green spaces and minimize paved surfaces.

Removing the asphalt and replacing it with brick paths and walkways and finely cut, thick grass would be a vast improvement. There is nothing like the smell of soil after rain or freshly cut grass on a crisp, clear January morning!

Planting seasonal flowers would also add some color to the park. The impressively large trees in this park need to be impressively and beautifully framed.

Sanayeh maybe a small park but it’s an important park, at least to the community, to people who live and work in the area.

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