Paige Buzard
Sound has had an important role in our observations of place throughout our long walks in the city. I feel the incorporation of all the senses is something that is not often considered in our designs or while in landscape settings. Granted, you may not always find a reason to use taste and that is okay, but the emotions you experience in a place is much stronger when you don't just see the landscape, but you feel it, hear it, and smell it. On occasion, sound was definitely incorporated into the design plan through the addition of elements that highlight a specific sound. Paley Park is a great example, and even though we didn't see it today, I think that it is a nice example of how sound enriches a place.
The sounds of the waterfall blocked out city street noises and made it a calming place to relax where you didn't notice you were in the middle of busy New York City.
The sounds of the waterfall blocked out city street noises and made it a calming place to relax where you didn't notice you were in the middle of busy New York City.
At the Newtown Creek Nature Walk, sound was also an integral part of the experience. As soon as you began to walk the site you could hear industrial sounds and city sounds. The tall concrete walls encouraged you to walk further and discover what it was you were meant to see and holes in the wall along the way gave you peeks at the areas beyond. The design of the Newtown Creek Nature Walk tries to tie the new and the old of the site together; revisiting the areas extensive and varied past and the new rehabilitation that is currently being improved upon. This area was put on the National Superfund Act in 2010 where it's cleanup as a toxic and harmful location would be given top priority.
I felt the industrial noises complemented the simple and contemporary design by adding the existing business and human activity to the views of this site. You didn't just look out at the water, you looked over the water at a scrap metal plant crushing cars and at enormous digester 'eggs' breaking down toxic sludge from the water into useable plant fertilizer and you heard the work being done. While we were there, a car was being crushed and machines were beeping, metal was scraping. As the group walked out a barge loaded with garbage was floating by.
The sounds of this site in particular are a constant reminder to the parks location and its standing as a Superfund site. When you approach the seven stones with the Native American inscriptions or the vegetation along the trail, you can't forget where you are. You don't have a chance to block out the city or the surrounding industrialization and I think that that was key in the design of Newtown Creek Nature Walk. The designer wanted to create awareness of the history that the location had seen. It had once been a flowing, tidal creek surrounded by a woodland habitat. Native American tribes inhabited the area, and the Dutch arrived here on their first explorations. Human consumption and industrialization poisoned the area, especially the water. Even though the water still rises and falls with the tides, it no longer flows. You can't go fishing because even if fish did exist in the waters, touching the water or the fish for that matter, would get you sick due to all the toxins. I think the simplicity of design, with its reminders of the past and present, the views of the digester eggs and the promise of a better future, and sounds of the continued industrial practices that have become a norm of the area all contribute to the way you feel in this space: that harm has been done to a beautiful landscape, and that it will take years of proactive efforts to create enough change to fully rehabilitate polluted/Superfund sites.
I felt the industrial noises complemented the simple and contemporary design by adding the existing business and human activity to the views of this site. You didn't just look out at the water, you looked over the water at a scrap metal plant crushing cars and at enormous digester 'eggs' breaking down toxic sludge from the water into useable plant fertilizer and you heard the work being done. While we were there, a car was being crushed and machines were beeping, metal was scraping. As the group walked out a barge loaded with garbage was floating by.
The sounds of this site in particular are a constant reminder to the parks location and its standing as a Superfund site. When you approach the seven stones with the Native American inscriptions or the vegetation along the trail, you can't forget where you are. You don't have a chance to block out the city or the surrounding industrialization and I think that that was key in the design of Newtown Creek Nature Walk. The designer wanted to create awareness of the history that the location had seen. It had once been a flowing, tidal creek surrounded by a woodland habitat. Native American tribes inhabited the area, and the Dutch arrived here on their first explorations. Human consumption and industrialization poisoned the area, especially the water. Even though the water still rises and falls with the tides, it no longer flows. You can't go fishing because even if fish did exist in the waters, touching the water or the fish for that matter, would get you sick due to all the toxins. I think the simplicity of design, with its reminders of the past and present, the views of the digester eggs and the promise of a better future, and sounds of the continued industrial practices that have become a norm of the area all contribute to the way you feel in this space: that harm has been done to a beautiful landscape, and that it will take years of proactive efforts to create enough change to fully rehabilitate polluted/Superfund sites.
p.s. I couldn't get the video with my sound to upload :(
