7 Days in NYC: Exploring Contemporary Landscapes
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Yichao Kang & Shuai Yan

5/14/2014

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the_gantry_plaza_state_park.m4a
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nature_walk.m4a
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The trip today is pretty special. We visit the Landscapes which is located at industrial site in Brooklyn. The most impressive projects for us are Gantry Plaza State Park and Newtown Creek Wastewater. Both of them keep the original industrial nature, but have a different methods to mix the industrial elements and landscape to be a whole part. The gantry plaza state park keep the elements of the industry. The Newtown Creek Waste water does not change anything of the industrial nature, but try to find the balance.


The gantry plaza state park is my favorite park. I couldn’t agree with the designer any more When I saw the skyline of Manhattan: this park will be a popular place as the highline park. Standing on the passage ways, we can hearing the voice of the floating plate, the birds and the wave. The noise of the factories were very small. When we sitting near the sea, everything become more peaceful. The decrease progress of the voice can make people calmness. It’s a really good place to have a deep thought or a lunch. The steel frame of the factories near the sea make a huge contrast with the skyline of the Manhattan. It makes people thinking about the urbanization and the obsolescence of factories. Walking to the west of this park, dogs are permitted in this part. It makes people which living around this park could play and know more about each other.

The second park we want to talk about is Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant/Nature Walk which is located at 329 Greenpoint Ave. From the audio clip capturing sounds of this landscape, we are easy to hear the wind, the water and the machine at the same time. All the elements in the sound are the evidence for this re-imagined industrial park. Actually, this site is not a good choice for building a park. It is surrounded by the factory, noisy and the water that is not so clean. How to make a balance between the original environment and the new park is the biggest problem which should be solved I think. The Nature Walk doesn’t try to change the environment. What the designer did is make a narrow path that is surrounded the site. The concrete wall or the green plant is like a boundary which is between the transparency and the closed. The environment in the park and out the park is able to communicate by this way, but both of them are in two space at the same time. It really appreciate the balance the park has. This balance is the unique element that these re-imaged industrial park hold.

The Van Alen Institute, on the other hand is another example to mix the industrial elements and the landscape. Based on the original industrial building, it makes it into another function. All the elements seems to be reborn, and have a band-new and unique style to fit the industrial environment.    

ps: the voice file is still uploading.
1 Comment
mh
5/15/2014 09:02:45 pm

i can remember very well the second sound clip walking along the long street leading to the nature walk entrance. amazing how sound can place you into a site very effectively. the first clip is was less sure of- it sounds almost like cables tightening and loosening, but that can't be it, right?

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    Industrial Landscapes Reclaimed

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