Art in the Service of Peace: The Pacific Rim Parks, 1992-2013
November 16, 2013
James Hubbell is an artist who is connected to nature and his inner dreams, expressing the combination in architecture and art. He sculpts one-of-a-kind living environments from natural materials that provide shelter and inspiration for those who wish to live in harmony with nature. For more than 50 years he has given the world an inspiring vision of nature as expressed in mosaic, stained glass, wood carving, metal shapes, sculpted concrete, patterned brickwork and stone. His art and architecture has been embodied in homes, schools, gardens, pavilions, nature centers, monasteries, museums, and peace parks around the world. He is the founder and guiding light of the Ilan-Lael Foundation. The Hubbell & Hubbell Architects team creates places that heal the soul and renew the spirit. Jim’s son, Architect Drew Hubbell, has pioneered the permitting of straw bales as a building material in the city and county of San Diego. Drew is committed to extending his father’s artistic respect for nature into the practicalities of building materials, practices and processes. Beginning in 1994, James Hubbell led the building of four parks in “sister cities” in Pacific Rim nations around the world. These include Vladivostok, Russia; Yantai, China; Tijuana, Mexico; and Puerto Princessa, the Philippines. These community parks, including Pearl of the Pacific on Shelter Island in San Diego, built with the help of hundreds of international colleagues and architecture students from around the world, are situated facing the ocean. Hubbell’s intent is for visitors to look out on the Pacific and consider it as a shared resource that connects us rather than a barrier that divides us. Jim is the co-founder of the Pacific Rims Parks Organization, a non-profit foundation that sees the Pacific as a catalyst and symbol for an emerging world culture that values diversity, beauty, and respect for all people and all cultures, as well as the natural world.
Photos by Hubbell and Hubbell