Splash Pad Park, completed in 2003, is a rehabilitated traffic island in the shadow of the I-580 freeway in Oakland, but it's also the vibrant social center of Grand Lake -- the kind of area that sees gentrification as an occasion for collective soul searching. One hundred and fifty people showed up for the first public meeting about the park in 2001, a huge number for what is essentially a neighborhood project. The dog people wanted it to be a dog park, others wanted it to be like Times Square with a big media billboard, and some wanted to open up an underground creek. "you could see the schisms," Hood says. "So we convinced them that it should be a little bit of everything -- a hybrid."

Hood designed narrow sidewalks that crisscross the park, establishing an overall structure that is rooted in the freeway pylons. A previously existing street becomes a narrow roadway that forms the spine for an enormously popular weekly farmers market. There's a long arcing bench surrounding a paved plaza, with sand underneath so water can seep through -- in recognition that historically this was an estuary connected the Lake Merritt. And the original palm trees are there, along with a small grassy mound. It's a lot of moves, creating a multitude of distinct places in a relatively small space. But the design is also open-ended, even a bit confusing and messy. No one would mistake it for minimalism -- and no one would say people's behavior here is minimized. While some high school kids toss the football, the rest settle down on the grassy mound to watch and chat. They yell and cajole. They inhabit the space fully, bringing life to it so palpably that Hood smiles, "this is what I love about public space, and I can see designing this so it couldn't happen."