Unfortunately, I've just now noticed that my original post, that happened at 2am Tuesday morning, did not post. 

My photo grid captures signage within Bryant Park. Signage that may have otherwise been overlooked. From warning signs, to directional signs, to activities and services offered at the park.

These signs assist in keeping order in a seemingly free-flowing, self organized landscape. It allows for leisure activities to take place at freewill, however there is still order to it all. 

This shows that even after the landscaping is done, work is always happening, and it is a living landscape. 

Walking Manhattan is astonishing experience to discover obscure phenomenon or objects. I focused on several objects which is installed in landscapes or stands on the street. Some of them was harmonized with landscape or total design color and materials, but some of them didn't. However, I figure out that even the minor scale of objects effects on people's behavior. Also, the design of them can cause different feeling about landscape.

Most common objects was warning sign or description panel. The sign prohibits people from destroying plants or natural environment. We can see those signs in the Time landscape, the Highline, the Bryant park and the Ford foundation garden. Interesting things was that their size or color is considered to not interrupt viewing, but it control people's experience simultaneously in a way. The barbed-wire fences also not  only protect nature but also restrict access.

One the other hands, even though the description sign has visible color or size, it makes people to stop and assists enjoying landscape. For instance, description about plants or design strategies of the Highline was helpful to understand the veiled meaning of design. Other interesting things were sculpture and flowerpot. Those make pause of people's flow and bring people together. Several sculptured in the Highline, the statue of William Bryant and Franklin Roosevelt, flowerpots on the Time square street and water fountain of 5 ave apple store square were objects which influenced on viewing.

Last fascinating thing which effected on people's behavior were chairs and shading devices. We can see many different shape, color and size of chairs in the Highline, the Bryant park, the Paley park and time square. Moreover, some stairs provide resting area. We can discover a lot of behaviors from that. People are just sitting and resting, eating and drinking, talking, reading or napping. Also, it is influenced on the circulation of pedestrian.

Observing cities by walk offers different feeling and experience from daily commute. Today, I discovered special meaning of small objects which influenced on people's behavior. And I want to scrutinize it's effect deeply.

For the first day of the course of 7 DAYS in NYC, although the weather is too “nice” to make a little bit tired for us, I think it is really a substantial and sunny day for the course to start. I deeply believe that walking through these places and the path moving from one site to another allows you to see a lot more detail and taste a more profound experience than using other forms of transportation.

In New York City, the big things, such as an avant-garde architecture or a fancy street graffiti, can jump out easily at you right away and call for attention, but there are also many little details to notice. As the knowledge I learned before in landscape architecture in university, I think it is important to pay attention to the small details.  Not only because they might have a big impact, but more important thing is, they could complete a successful design and activate a public space. We have been told many times already in our education to design to the last detail. During the tour today, I tried to pay attention to some of the things that other pedestrians may not notice.

When I was constructing the image grid below, I divided them roughly into two groups, which was according to the feature that they represent - paving patterns and plant pit. The elements referenced in the grid include the sites and the path we visited today, such as the High Line, Bryant Park, Paley Park, and the FDR Four Freedoms Park. The reason I pick up these features is because they are so obvious and not really hidden in any way, but most people do not pause to contemplate or even notice such things as the pavement or fence.

Therefore, as the grid below display, we can see how kaleidoscopic they are, regardless of color, size, type or even the function. Taking pavement for example, some of them combined with the drainage system to help the city to drain surface water; some of them united with different material that become as a kind of collage; some of them just identified themselves by unique color or facilities, such as fire hydrant, door; and some of them integrated with nature pretty well, especially in High Line, the grass, rail and concrete-like pavement are perfectly combine with each other. The rail disappeared naturally into grassland and the grass and pavement emerged gradually. On the other hand, in the second part of the grid, plant pit just shows how various could be. The important thing is, when plant pit and pavement combined together, the identification they created is so obvious and strong. They are seems trying to tell people where they are and which place they have already occupied.

All in all, it was a busy day, and I am looking forward to see what new experiences tomorrow will bring!

Yuchi Kuo

Interaction

 

New York City brings me something new and interesting to explore and to love with every time when I am here. Today’s trip brought me a new perspective of landscape designs, especially the relationship between the landscape and the architecture.

Besides the central park, every place else in Manhattan is almost stacked up by groups of the buildings, buildings, and buildings. With the limited size of land, a green space seems to be a little bit extravagant in this highly crowded island. On the other hand, some spaces in the architecture or of the land here were not well used, which became as the wasting of space. But in those landscape sites we visited today, the designer renovated the wasted or abandoned areas and the spaces within the architecture into the well-developed green spaces, which created this win-win situation. In this case, the architecture and the landscape are interacted with each other and affect each other in forms, circulations, and functional uses. For instance, the high line was a trail way for transporting the foods and products above of the “Death Ave”. It was a nasty meat fabrication factory for a long time, but now as the abandoned high line turns into an upper-level park, the whole community changed into a different atmosphere. The buildings surround it are making high line as part of the design element, so we can see in the pictures there are some buildings’ facades are curved out in order to make the architectural spaces have a broader view of the high line. Some buildings have the open space adjacent to the high line, some buildings’ roof level were built as the same as high line’s level. Those designs were all making high line as part of their green space and engaged with the circulation of high line. As I took some pictures of the window advertisements, I would consider the background decoration in the window is the landscape, and the logo and name of the brand is the architecture. One bouquet of flower cannot show the meaning, but a bunch of them could be organized into different schemes.

During today’s walk, another very interesting thing we discussed about is the “ground level”. The ground level of the High Line is above the street. The ground level of the midtown park is the ceiling level of the public library. The ground level of the water pools in the fifth Ave is the ceiling level of the apple store. The ground level of the artificial roof garden is the ceiling level of MOMA… etc. I really prefer this solution that using one element into different conditions and supporting different usage, which not only avoid the wasting of spaces but also created the relationship of the landscape. And also brings the feeling of changing situation.

First day in NYC, a little hot, a little tired, also a little gains.

Although the door of Walter De Maria’s The Earth Room is closed upon us, I recall the scene when I came in here in a studio field trip half a year ago, and the Prof. Bowne explained the project in terms of contemporary art (our studio project was an art museum) --- the feel of the soil’s smell and humidity when you’re approaching climbing the stair, approaching the earth. But today, Prof. Hogue explains it in terms of landscape --- the limited accessibility, the elevation anomaly, the controlled environment, etc. This reminds me I’m taking a landscape class now rather than an architectural one.

Compare two spots we visited today --- Time Landscape & Time Square --- although usually plays with grass, flowers and trees, landscape is not all about vegetation. From the seats (on the ground and on the roof), we can discover that landscape concerns human activities; from the variational pattern of pavement, we can discover that landscape respects historic context and urban evolution; from the boundary between vehicle and pedestrian, we can discover that landscape is a tool of defining (urban) space.

In terms of social responsibility, on the Highline park, it clearly shows that how landscape project activates stagnant community; and in the Bryant Park, it also illustrates that landscape is not an open space with nothing, civic activity is the essence of landscape at urban scale.
Artificial --- the other quality of some landscape projects --- indeed confuses me very much, e.g. MoMA Roof Garden, what kind of trait makes it a landscape project rather than a painting in three dimensions or a sculpture with colors? Just because it’s larger than normal paintings and sculptures?