Final Remarks - Christian Freeman
Wow. How does someone process the amount of information we've taken in over the course of a week?
In terms of systematically attempting to interact with the knowledge gained from the trip and the sensory elements of each space and site, all i can say is IMPOSSIBLE. On the other hand, forgetting the awesome experience is just as impossible.
Wow. How does someone process the amount of information we've taken in over the course of a week?
In terms of systematically attempting to interact with the knowledge gained from the trip and the sensory elements of each space and site, all i can say is IMPOSSIBLE. On the other hand, forgetting the awesome experience is just as impossible.
In terms of my favorite spaces, I'd have to categorize the two elements: projects I had heard of, and those I hadn't. Teardrop Park is constantly talked about by professors at ESF and in the office I work at (KFA landscape architectural firm). The site was more than I was expecting and didn't disappoint (as i had hoped), proving that large scale doesn't necessarily mean more of an impact on a user. The Irish Potatoe Famine Memorial was another small space we looked at, except for this project was one I had never heard of. To be frank I loved it. The entire site looks as if God yanked a clump of earth from Ireland and bolted it to a plinth in New York City (so really freaking awesome).
While those two represented my favorites, other spaces I found stood out to me as particularly successful. As Martin said about Michael Van Valkenburgh's Brooklyn Bridge park, there's really no better place to play a game of soccer. Shout out to all my soccer playing friends: he's so right, this is the place to play! Featuring a direct view or the Statue of Liberty, Governor's Island, and the Manhattan skyline, the 'beautiful game' truly has not better setting.
I would just like to use this space to thank Martin (and Lori) for creating and maintaining a schedule in the mayhem of the city, granting us students a private tour of the closed Governor's Island, pushing us to interact with the spaces even as exhausted as we were, and finally giving us the chance to meet representatives from successful firms in the area.