The Hill

There is a hill that rises above equator park. I think it used to be some kind of defense for the spanish and then the Chileans fighting the spanish. It has since become a natural park where you can hike, picnic, and get a pretty good view of the city. It fits good with the equator Park below because the hill has more of the natural side where as the equator park is more of a structured park with play equipment, tennis courts, grass areas and such. I liked the original design of the hill even though it seemed fairly run down. I find that this is a common problem with much of the parks here in chile where they have built something great but never thought of the upkeep of it. The other big problem I saw with the park was the plant selection. most of it is natural plantings but you can see near the trail they have added plants and they don't work on a couple of levels. They don't fit the style, they need more maintenance then they are getting, and even placement many times is not right for that plant. I did really love though the ramparts and the cobblestone street. It kind of took you to a different time in history and made you want to go and explore the whole hill looking for other old relics of the past. There were some great views of the city and for being a five min. walk from my apartment in downtown Concepcion I was able to feel like i was out in the country and not in a urban setting

This is the view from close to the top of the hill. You can see most of Concepcion, with San Pedro in the back ground.

This is how most of the hill is with just a natural pine forest that all this area was before Concepcion was developed.

There are ramparts all along the hill that you can take trails to. They are pretty cool and most of them have a pretty good view over the park below. The only problem is there really has not been much upkeep. nothing ruins a pretty space like graffiti.

You can kind of see the cobblestone street. I love the texture that come with a cobble stone street. I would suggest paving all street in it because it make quite a bumpy ride but it definitely fit this space.

The tennis court is actually a private club so thats why its so nicely up kept. I love the color of the clay court.

These two pictures are examples of what I was talking about before where they went wrong in integrating the natural with their design and a lack of upkeep. There is so much potential here just needs a better choice of plant material and also some maintenance and fix up.