Miramare Square

Description:
The site of the "Miramare" square is specific because it includes part of the former Art Nouveau park, the square in front of the newly opened hotel and one of the city's main roads. The task was to encompass the three mentioned entities with a comprehensive solution and to achieve that the square functions as a single entity while making sure that each stakeholder can function independently: city promenade, city park, car traffic, vehicular access to the hotel and the hotel terrace itself. The square is located at the northern end of Strossmayer's Promenade – a beautiful green promenade with deep shade that many people pass by. On the eastern side, there are public and private buildings, while on the western edge there is a thin stretch of beach with a view of the sea and the island of Krk. Part of it includes the rest of the former Art Nouveau park with high-quality high greenery, while the part closer to the hotel functioned as a parking lot. The two entities are crossed by a road that had to be adapted in terms of shape and safety to the large number of pedestrians who pass from the city beaches to the city center and vice versa. The solution interprets a recognizable horticultural element from Strossmayer's promenade - the so-called green islands or "pills" that are uniformly applied to both parts: the square in front of the hotel as well as the contact area of the park where the new fountain takes the same form. By positioning the benches as part of the green "pills", new square becomes a place of gathering and thus ceases to be just a passing point in the city promenade. In order to ensure occasional car access to the hotel entrance for guests, the route of the vehicle itself is decently emphasized with a different type and direction of paving. The road that cuts through the square is lined with stone cubes to visually match the rest of the square and has a cross section in the form of waves, in order to further slow down traffic. The undulating road has already entered the memory of the people of Crikvenica as part of the Stjepan Radić Square solution, so that now the "undulating road" marks the beginning and end of the strict center of Crikvenica. In order to further enrich the square with pedestrian routes, the western stretch of greenery towards the beaches is additionally paved and secondary routes are created from the hotel and other buildings towards the beach. As a reference to the former Art Nouveau park that contained exotic plants from all over the world, species such as Ligustrum Japonicum, Sophora Japonica, Magnolia grandiflora were used in the square, and the existing park is complemented by Cedrus Atlantica and Quercux Ilex.

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