The Parque Metropolitano at 100
A sustainable future for Santiago’s prize park
Santiago is a city famed for its dramatic skyline: a combination of a high-rise metropolis set against a backdrop of the snow-capped Andes. The simple geography of the city means that nature is built into its DNA – and this applies just as much to the city centre as it does its mountainous boundaries.
Indeed, there are 20 beautiful parks to be discovered inside Santiago, all maintained by the Chilean government’s Ministry of Housing and Urbanism. The jewel in the crown: the Parque Metropolitano (Parquemet). This is a 740-hectare green paradise, set atop a central peak, and offering views of the sprawling city below. It comes complete with a funicular, a cable-car line, a zoo, several swimming pools, cafés, themed gardens, and a statue of the Virgin Mary. It is no exaggeration to say that this is a truly special place.
Juan Ormazabal Goenaga, Head of Marketing and Communications at the Parque Metropolitano, sat down with me to discuss exactly what it is that makes this park so special.
Hi Juan, first things first, tell me a little bit about yourself
Hi. So I’ve been working at Parquemet for a few years now, and before that I worked in communications in the city. I’ve actually only lived in Chile for seven years – I’m originally from Spain, a long way from here!
At Parquemet, I’m responsible for a few different areas. Firstly, there’s the direct communication with park-users. We have to make sure the signage and wayfinding is working to keep people safe and help people get the most from the park.
As we’re a government-run organisation, I’m also responsible for communicating with government and social networks, and ensuring that we have complete public transparency. If the public want to know something about the way the park is run, we have a responsibility to tell them.
It’s a big park, and it sees around 6 million visits a year, so there’s always a lot to do!
So where does the history of Parquemet begin?
It starts exactly 100 years ago. Before 1922, this space was actually used just as a quarry for the city. There were no plants here, just rocks. That’s when a group of guys started to work on a vision for the place to become a park for the city.
At the beginning, the majority of the workers were just gardeners. All of the trees and plants you see today are no older than 100 years, because that’s when the gardeners came in and started planting.
And the funicular was built very early on as well – it is actually 96 years old this year!
How have things changed since then?
The core of what we deliver here is unchanged. Our mission with Parquemet today, as it’s always been, is to make people happy.
However, over the years, we’ve also developed ways of making sure the space is safe and accessible, as well as joyful.
The biggest and most recent change is that we’re not always looking for more sustainable ways of managing the park.
What does that involve?
Our biggest challenge here in Santiago is the water shortage. You may have noticed that levels on the river in the city centre are very low, and it’s been like that for a few years – we’re simply not getting enough rain over the winter months.
This means we’re starting to work out how to restrict our water usage. We have a lot of trees and plants to maintain in the park, and if we don’t water them, they’ll die. There are a few things we’re experimenting with to help with this challenge:
We now only water plants in the mornings and evenings, to minimise evaporation of the water we put down.
In our Japanese garden, we’re using cleansed and recycled water from the bathrooms to water the plants.
In some places, we’ve started replacing grass with other plants. Grass needs a lot of water to maintain, so we’re developing a planting strategy that is a bit a less thirsty.
That sounds very innovative. What about pollution – does that affect you here in Parquemet?
One of the great things about this park is you can feel like you’re completely outside of the city, even though the city is just there.
Something that’s definitely helped with that is banning cars. We actually only did this a year ago. Private cars used to be able to drive through the park to any garden they like, but now the roads are restricted to only cyclists, pedestrians, and park-owned vehicles.
Obviously, the park employees still need a way of travelling around – there are about 400 of us working all over the park – but we’re exploring using electric bicycles more often and cars less. Simply restricting private cars in the park has made a very big difference to quality of the air and the quality of the park experience.
How has the Pandemic impacted park management?
Well, during the height of the Pandemic, like everywhere else in the world, we were in quarantine. This actually had an interesting impact on Santiago – the streets were so quiet that pumas started to come down from the mountains and into the city. For a time, we were working with the animal control services to round up the pumas and take them back to their natural habitat.
Here in Parquemet, it was a very special day when the quarantine was lifted. For many people in the city, this park was the first place they wanted to come to, so on that day the park was very very busy. But it was a beautiful moment, welcoming everyone back.
Would you say there’s an emotional connection between the people of Santiago and Parquemet? If so, where does it come from?
Yes, definitely there’s an emotional connection. People come here to be close to nature and get away from the noise of the city. In some ways that’s a functional need, but I think it goes deeper.
Many people in Santiago grew up in this city, and many have happy childhood memories of spending time in this park. For lots of people, the bond they feel is in nostalgia; when they’re here they connect with a happy moment in their past. Our job in Parquemet is to help people keep making those moments.
And how about you? Do you have a connection with the park?
Before I started working here a few years ago, when was working in Santiago city centre, I remember looking down at my hands one day and seeing that they were dirty. I had an office job and my hands were dirty, just from the pollution!
That never happens here. The air is clean and it is just an amazing place to work.
For me and the whole team, the next big challenge is working out how we update the park without changing its core essence. It was created 100 years ago, and a lot needs to be reconsidered to make it work in a more sustainable world. But we mustn’t ever lose sight of our one main mission: to make people happy.
