Mankato Landscape Analysis

At the beginning of the semester, I read Peirce F. Lewis’s “Axioms for Reading the Landscape.” Lewis interprets landscapes through a set of rules which he calls “axioms.” In weeks four and five, I was assigned to read Joshua Jelly-Schapiro’s “High-Tide, Low Ebb,” Rebecca Solnit’s “Little Pieces of Many Wars,” and Raymond Williams’s “Culture is Ordinary.” Within Jelly-Schapiro’s and Solnit’s articles, there are two different maps provided by Shizue Siegel and Ben Pease that illustrate and support both Jelly-Schapiro’s and Solnit’s arguments. Jelly-Schapiro focuses on the demographic and racial changes that transpired during and after World War II in San Francisco Bay, California. While Solnit, examines the historical landscape changes that took

If you ever come to the Twin Cities, like most sheep you're going to want to go to the Mall of America. This is fine and I understand this because 1) you've been programmed to and 2) there isn't much else to see in the Twin Cities. Oh yes, I'm sure they'll tell you to see either a Twins or Vikings game. Yes, I'm sure the locals will insist you check out our incredibly mediocre downtowns. And the truly delusional Twin Citians will perhaps fool you into going to the worthless and talentless Walker Art "Museum." But all in all the Twin Cities suck and I cannot recommend you come here for much of anything.

Once we have succeeded in our mission to promote shopping locally even more, “for rent/sale” signs and vacant buildings will be a scarcity. In their places will be store fronts with friendly faces there to greet you at the door and help you find just what you were looking for, whether it be for yourself or someone you love. Main Street will be buzzing with activity. Shoppers will be carrying around their purchases in colorful bags, enjoying a conversation with their close friends and family, and experiencing just what Pratt was missing; the feeling of community. And with all of the fun and exciting events, they will remember the joys of shopping rather than the hassle it can cause.

For years, the overriding hope for officials, business owners and many residents of the city of Seminole was for Seminole Mall to be rebuilt and bring with it a vibrant shopping destination that would usher in jobs and prosperity. That goal seems within grasp now that developers have proposed tearing down the existing structure and building a spiffy, more modern design with room for a 12-screen movie complex, a fitness center, retail shops and restaurants (Lindberg, July 31, 2014). In this section, the redevelopment of the Seminole Mall into the new Seminole City Center will be discussed; furthermore, the assessment and analysis of the effectiveness of the policy initiative, with regards to the economic foresight and in relation to other city improvements.

In today’s society the landscape of the city is constantly changing to accommodate for technological innovations, greater populations, and economic opportunity. As the skyline of cities across America are changing at a rate faster than ever seen before, one immense community is being left in the dust. The suburbs of America have refused to change, allowing a great resemblance of what they looked like 50 years ago. The stubbornness of the suburbs to change has led to many issues economically and environmentally. In her essay, “Seventy-Five Percent”, Ellen Dunham-Jones puts forth that 75% of construction in the past decade occurs in the suburban landscape. Yet, in today’s society much of the architectural community contains a strong bias against the suburbs. However, with over half the country’s

Woodlawn and Washington Park lack commercial vitality likely due to the low and declining residential density and the lack of disposable income needed to support retail development. Businesses in Woodlawn and Washington Park largely cluster along the neighborhoods’ commercial corridor with prime access to the CTA’s Green line Stations and are characterized by low sales volume and not much diversity. With large concentrations of vacant land and a lack of neighborhood amenities both neighborhoods will have an uphill struggle to start growing the residential base if done in isolation from UChicago and other non-profit and public partners.

Last year brought 100,000 new feet onto Colorado soil. Not far behind those feet, rolled an army of hungry bulldozers and cranes. Even in the suburbs, old walls crumbled to make way for sparkling new housing. People want to be here. Perhaps the only bearable part of living in Denver’s suburbs for me has been the gritty old farm houses tucked behind groves of mangled cottonwood trees. Haven’t you ever seen an old, abandoned building and wondered what it could tell you? This curiosity is the basis of urban exploration, or urbexing.

We need to be aware that by people leaving the rural areas the shops we love the most may not be there the next time we come back to that town. Comparing Buffalo’s downtown to where it is now to 10 years ago, its looks completely different. Due to the small business being foreclosed, we are not turning into very healthy downtown. But the stores that we still have we need to take advantage of them because you never know how long they will be there for.

"The City on Nicollet Mall", as they say, will be rebuilt this year and it will be transformed to more spacious and even greener with additional signature sidewalks cafes. This famous Mall is in the central business district caters a cultural and commercial center of Minneapolis.

Landscape, when applied to an urban context, no longer refers to prospects of a pastoral scene but rather becomes a mean of connecting objects and spaces around it, as well as accommodating the dynamic processes and events that move through it. These urban landscapes are not only defined by their form, but by the program that surrounds it, as well as its ability to connect with the user through its underlying function. The snow dump known as the Bayview yards, is an example of such urban landscape. Bayview Yards is a 16 acre piece of land that is currently home to a derelict city workshop and a massive area designated for a snow dump. Through the site’s history and function a new opportunity comes forward to redefine the landscape, extenuating

The Hudson’s Bay Company is higher end department store that offers high quality items. In Winnipeg, there are 3 locations; one in St. Vital which is known for their middle class shoppers. The second location is the Downtown location which is popular among the downtown workers who shop during their lunch break or after their work day is over. The downtown location was the largest location in Winnipeg, over the past few years, they have begun to diminution the size on their store, slowing decreasing the amount of floors they occupied. The third location is the Polo Park location which is located in an upper class shopping center. All of the three locations serve to a slightly different target market. The location that this paper will focus on is the Polo Park Hudson’s Bay. Polo Park Hudson’s Bay is located in an upper scale shopping mall. The shopping mall includes many upscale shopping stores. Polo Park Hudson’s Bay target is female shoppers with higher incomes. “The majority of our shoppers are females in who live in the River Heights area.”

I will be reviewing Edward Abbey’s memoir during his time spent in southern Utah. In his book, Desert Solitaire, Abbey illustrates how the Arches National Monument evolves throughout time and including the time he spends there working as a park ranger and observing the change throughout his adventures. The two thematic concepts I will be incorporating onto his memoir are the urbanization and development lenses. Throughout his memoir, Abbey ties in many thematic concepts to each other, but only addressing to these two lenses will give a better description. Thus both urbanization and development do play a role in the main point Abbey portrays in Desert Solitaire. In the beginning of his memoir, Abbey shares his own opinion, in which he uses to give a very descriptive explanation on why urbanization and development are both hazardous but also carry benefits to places like Arches Mountains. Abbey gets his point down and uses his time in Utah to back up his argument.

Valley West Landscapes is a landscape designer that is located in Troutdale, Oregon. They have been happily giving service to Portland, Gresham, Troutdale, Wood Village, West Linn, Tigard, Beaverton, Hillsboro, and beyond. Valley West Landscapes has been providing landscaping services in the Portland area since 1997. They specialize in landscape maintenance, tree care services, landscape cleanups, barkdust services, irrigation systems, flower program, and more. Valley West Landscapes offers free consultation.

Barry Lopez’s essay, “A Literature of Place,” describes the wonders that mesmerize people and make them feel “at home” or at peace. Debating the issue of the appreciation of earth’s fascinations, Lopez argues against capitalism and suggests natives appreciate nature much more

Steven Kellert, in his book Building for Life, starts off by echoing David Orr, saying that “the current environmental crisis is considered a design failure rather than an unavoidable aspect of modern life.” He continues on to identify his main point: “Our primary focus is how the experience of nature as a normal aspect of people’s everyday lives at home, work, or play, or in their neighborhoods and communities, affects their basic health and well-being.” Kellert establishes nature’s benefits to people’s daily lives. After explaining the benefits and shortcomings of various experiences of nature (direct, indirect and vicarious), Kellert describes how people can “harmonize…the natural and human built environments through changes in how we design and develop our increasingly urban world.” He describes this through the concept of restorative environmental design, which includes Low Environmental Impact Design and Biophilic Design. Low environmental impact design concerns the “avoiding, minimizing, and mitigating the adverse effects of building and landscape development on natural systems and human health.” Biophilic design, building upon the work done through low environmental impact design, “encompasses two basic dimensions: organic (or naturalistic) design and vernacular (or place-based) design.” Within architecture, Kellert defines organic design as “building shapes and forms that directly, indirectly, or symbolically elicit a human affinity for natural features and processes.” About vernacular design, Kellert writes that “a critical aspect of restorative environmental design is buildings and constructed landscapes that connect to the places they occur…vernacular design…[is] the tailoring of the built environment to the particular physical and cultural places where people live and work.” Kellert defends the need for placed-based architecture, writing that “without vernacular connections to the culture and ecology of place, buildings and