Landscape Architecture Essay

For many, Fresh Kills conjures up images of the “World’s Largest Landfill” - bulldozers pushing mountains of trash, flocks of seagulls fighting over table scraps, and plastic bags fluttering in the wind. After the closure of the landfill, many hope that this image will be replaced by Fresh Kills as a public park. The international design competition, Fresh Kills: Landfill to Landscape was the first step in transforming this image. Six finalists suggested six different visions of how Fresh Kills could be re-imagined. The winner of the competition, Lifescape by the landscape architecture firm Field Operations, proposes a design that focuses on nature not only as the antithesis of landfill, but as an agent of cultural change. James Corner, founder and director of Field Operations, first asked how might landscape architecture be a force that enriches and informs people’s perception of nature in his 1997 essay Ecology and Landscape as Agents of Creativity. Through Lifescape, Corner proposes an answer to his own question, and the resulting design responds to Fresh Kills landfill past, and it’s post-industrial future as a park.

Environmental scanning can be viewed as a way of acquiring information about outside events that can aid organizations in first identifying potential trends, then interpreting them

Aesthetic distance refers to the mental and physical distance an audience member has from the fictional reality that a play may present. Aesthetic distance is important because it allows the audience to get a full observational view of the story at hand rather than to be completely engrossed in the fictional reality of the story as the performers are. However, performances can play on this by choosing how closely to involve it's audience in a story's fictional

In chapters two and three titled “Sites” and “Movements” respectively, Howard makes the case that there is a “dialectical” relationship between the subject and the landscape (both social and physical) and

This declaration focuses on cultural landscapes in terms of the ' interaction of people and nature over time' .3 The majority of World Heritage listed cultural landscapes are ' evolved continuing landscapes, where people and nature dwell together' . Most cultural landscapes fit into this category: they are living landscapes, changing as the culture, climate and natural surroundings change within and around them. The character of the landscape thus reflects the values of the people who have shaped it, and who continue to live in it. The culture itself is the shaping force. Landscape is a cultural expression that does not happen by chance but is created informally or by

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

In 1970, Webb participated in the first ever Earth Day to show solidarity for the environment. Through the lenses of an architect he also gained further respect for the landscape. While studying architecture at UPenn, Webb was introduced to Ian McHarg. McHarg was one of the founders of ecological planning and author of “Design with Nature”. Webb really identified with McHarg’s book and explained how the book opened, “The possibilities to protecting and living within the landscape around us.” Reading “Design with Nature” helped Webb further understand how fragile nature was and how much people that live within nature depended on it. The book put further emphasis on protecting and caring for nature which is something Webb has remembered to this day and continues to act upon through his own projects and

Over the past 20 years the 100 largest US urbanized areas have sprawled an additional 14,545 square miles according to the US Bureau of Census on Urbanized Areas. That was more than 9 million acres of natural habitats, farmland and other rural space that were covered over by asphalt, buildings and housing of suburbia. A major controversy in the efforts to halt the rural land loss is whether land-use and consumption decisions are the primary engines of urban sprawl, or whether it is the nation’s growing population boom that is providing the driving expansion. A good example of this rapid sprawl is the city of Chicago. It has had astonishing growth in the past years bringing about

I’m from Mankato, Minnesota and grew up watching the entire landscape of the city grow and change. The area in downtown Mankato has a very interesting landscape and has undergone transformational change. I have found it very valuable and interesting to look at the landscape and try to decipher it. I have figured out that in order to properly understand this landscape, I must be aware and critical of its contents. To paint a more specific picture, I will spend some time describing the areas of downtown Mankato. It is also very important to think about the axioms for reading the landscape and the things these axioms work to get us to look for when we’re analyzing the landscape. Once these things are done are we? Of course not! This is when the

Influences of planning theorists are evident in The Lawn at the University of Virginia and IX Art Park in downtown Charlottesville by examining the sites’ designs, activities, and users.

According to Tilley (1994; 1996) landscapes are experienced and known through the movement of the human body in space and time. Because landscape plays such an important role in the constitution of self-identity, controlling knowledge of it may become a primary resource in the creation and reproduction of repressive power or structures of social dominance. This control could be expressed in one way, through the symbolically effective placing of monuments in the landscape.

The location that will be analyzed the University Boulevard at The University of Arizona. University Blvd has an enormous amount activity everyday, that includes people, cars, music from stores also created by people and more. University Blvd has a lot to offer, in the sense of connecting events to events and the possibility to connect culture with music to various types environments and agricultures. The diverse environment and agriculture of the buildings is the beginning of how University Blvd is a great example to decipher the many parts of music as a piece and or whole in relation to humans and life.

The vast green lawn makes the crowded town of Ames feel much more like an uncongested state park. The great layout and landscaping design was reinforced and commended in 1999. The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) recognized the ISU central campus as a national landmark for the outstanding landscape architecture. This prestigious award was given to thirteen college campus sites however only three were central campus sites, those being the University of Virginia, Yale University, and Iowa State University. According to Thomas Dunbar who was the president of the ASLA in 1997-1998, “The sites were selected because they represented places where landscape and architecture had something to do with making them what they are. The grandness of the space created by structures, places and plant material has been a special place for Iowa State Students.” I feel that Mr. Dunbar’s thoughts on Iowa State campus directly align with mine, central campus will always have a special place in my heart and I knew it would since my first visit to Iowa

Three years ago, if someone asks me if I want to be a Landscape Architect, I would say No, I don’t even know what Landscape Architecture is. If anyone asks me the same question today, my answer is I don’t know what else I can be, other than a Landscape Architect.

In Nature & Landscape: An Introduction to Environmental Aesthetics, Allen Carlson proposes that scientific knowledge can enhance our aesthetic appreciation of the natural world. He draws a connection between technical know-how used in the context of natural landscapes and art history or criticism in the context of conventional art forms. In either case, the viewer would find relatively more meaningful experiences of aesthetic appreciation than if one looked at a painting or landscape without any prior knowledge about it. Carlson endorses this point within his larger Natural Environmental Model, which asserts that though the environment is not entirely of our creation, it does not mean that we have to approach it without any prior understanding.