I have been to Tome a couple of times so it's about time that I write post about it. Tome is a smaller town on the coast north of Concepcion. It is a interesting town, in that it used to be built around a Textile mill that was built there, but it is shut down. A good part of the town died with it. But in the last 5 to 10 years it has come back to life as somewhat of tourist town due to the fact that its right on the coast and that it has some beaches that people like to come and visit. The plaza embodies this change in the town. The plaza was built when the city was formed and it's history is tied very much to the history of the town, but It was expanded a while ago. The older part very much has the colonial typical look that many of the other plazas that I have looked at have. There is a classical looking fountain with some old Araucana trees.
On the new expanded side there is another fountain that is has very modern design to it. There are many younger trees. The problem I see with both the town and the plaza is that there is not any connective elements or even any kind of transition from one design to the other. It's more like a fight between of the older part to maintain the history and the new part to be come hip and relevant for the tourist. You see this fight for dominance in the plaza. The two fountains are on either side of the plazas and instead of leading you from one to the other, it is more like a competition for attention.
It was interesting, I was talking to this man that is working with the city trying to restore some of the historic parts of the town that he thinks is being destroyed in the new developments I could see many of his points but he told me that the city was going to redo the plaza and he showed me the preposed plan. He then told me that they had successfully talked the city into keeping the plaza as it is. I didn't tell him at the time, because he felt pretty passionately about it, but I liked the new design a lot better then what is there right now. I felt like it retained a lot of the older elements but did a lot better job at combining the new style and the connectivity of the whole plaza.
On the new expanded side there is another fountain that is has very modern design to it. There are many younger trees. The problem I see with both the town and the plaza is that there is not any connective elements or even any kind of transition from one design to the other. It's more like a fight between of the older part to maintain the history and the new part to be come hip and relevant for the tourist. You see this fight for dominance in the plaza. The two fountains are on either side of the plazas and instead of leading you from one to the other, it is more like a competition for attention.
It was interesting, I was talking to this man that is working with the city trying to restore some of the historic parts of the town that he thinks is being destroyed in the new developments I could see many of his points but he told me that the city was going to redo the plaza and he showed me the preposed plan. He then told me that they had successfully talked the city into keeping the plaza as it is. I didn't tell him at the time, because he felt pretty passionately about it, but I liked the new design a lot better then what is there right now. I felt like it retained a lot of the older elements but did a lot better job at combining the new style and the connectivity of the whole plaza.
This is the proposed plaza:
The idea was to move the older fountain to the middle of the plaza to make it the focal point with all the paths crossing so that they all lead to the fountain. The idea was to also add a stage with a bathroom underneath. They also wanted to open up the one side and take out much of the grass and trees so that they could use the space for exhibits and activities. I don't agree with all of the ideas but I like it better then how it is right now.
This is kind of how the plaza is right now:
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