The Dog Park Pavilion We Lost

In September we entered a competition to design a shade pavilion for the Sycamore Fields dog park. Our submission was a masterwork: a cardboard dome with 61 portholes, a sliding hatch, and a rooftop for loitering above the dogs.

The jury, composed entirely of dogs, awarded the commission to a competitor who proposed ‘a tree.’ We have studied the winning scheme closely. It is, indeed, a tree. We concede its structural advantages and its good smell, but note, with some bitterness, that it has no mezzanine. We have petitioned for a rematch. The dogs have replied by barking at the envelope.