Curiouser and Curiouser: Alice Garden in Hiroshima

Alice Garden on Streetview in 2017, when the two trees had railings for seating instead of platforms, and there was a coffee truck, and a tool shed. Kenzo Tange’s Peace Memorial Park is the largest and most significant architectural public space in Hiroshima, and it always will be. But on a recent visit my curiosity was piqued by a weirdly eccentric post-modernist confection of a public plaza in the messy center of the city’s central shopping district. Even in aging cities outside of Tokyo, teardowns are the norm; the new Hiroshima Gate Park Plaza, built across the street from the ruins of the Genbaku Dome, on the site of the city’s old baseball stadium, is slated for recycling in less than 20 years. So it seemed wild to me that a small park/event space named Alice Garden has survived, mostly intact, next to the department store Parco, for over 30 years. the Google Maps plan of Alice Garden shows the program—fanciful entrances to underground parking on the upper west and southwestern…