DUE Friday, November 21, 2008
We've visited numerous parks: Freeway Park, Volunteer Park, Westlake Center Park, Seattle Times Park, Cascade Neighborhood Park, and (soon) Denny Park.
Synthesizing your readings on parks (including Calvino, deBotton, and others), William Whyte's research models in The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces, our collaborative work with Erica Howard's class, and our own navigation through those diverse spaces, how can a writing tie together you diverse experiences in these locations? Do the parks all share common attributes? How are the bordered by and linked to their surroundings?
Do parks offer a comfort and diversion from the pressures of the city, or are they something else entirely?
In a significant writing (let's say maybe 1000 words or so), describe and explain what our explorations through the green spaces of Seattle have made you consider about the changing roles of parks in our city. Are they being used in the ways that you expected? Do they remind you of other similar spaces you have explored on your own; a park where you grew up? Which communities are activating (enacting) these sites? What draws us to a park?
In this writing (like much of the work we've done), don't feel compelled to write an essay. Rather, consider this as a platform or question in terms of the form of the writing. Do you write about all parks the same way, or does each park offer it's own voice? We've explored these disparate spaces by different prompts-- overheard conversations, found writing, lists of resources. Is there a hybrid of writings that you can assemble to give a rich portrait of our parks?
In line with this, please include a list of Works Cited, identifying any quotes or citations that you reference in your work. For assistance with formatting, please see the Cornish Library website here
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Park Comparisons
You Belong to the City
Stella Brier
11-17-08
A place to get away to relax or to play. A sanctuary in a busy swirling world. This is what a park is most often viewed as. In a city such as Seattle the parks are many and diverse. In almost any neighborhood you can most certainly find some area that has been set aside for the enjoyment of the community. Even if you are in the most commercial based retail district of downtown here too you can find a plot of land dedicated to the enjoyment of the people. From Capitol Hill to 5th Avenue, are an array of unique parks, no two even similar in form but all the same in function.
The definition of a park is; an area of land for the enjoyment of the public, having facilities for rest and recreation. Of the four parks that I have attended with the class all of them have these attributes even though none of them have had similar character.
The first park was the Freeway park located at 700 Seneca street over interstate 5. This park featured a sprawling tangle of paths, fountains, gardens, and benches, suspended over Seattle's main interstate. This park even though in the middle of Seattle had a natural feel to it. It was a place where you could get lost in and feel like you weren't in a city. There were plenty of places to run or walk and many more where you could just sit and watch the world moving around you. At this park there was also public art displayed and various fountains. The only thing that could have been said to be missing was an area for the children, even though there certainly was plenty of space to play there was no designated area such as a playground for them to spend their time.
The second park that we attended as a class was the Westlake park located at 401 Pine street. This park had none of the openness and natural feel that Freeway park had. Instead this park was located on the corner of two very busy streets in a retail district and was made primarily out of cement, with some scattered trees and planters. Even though this may not sound like a park where you would want to spend your time it still had it's own charm and fit into the definition of a "park". It did have rows of benches for people to sit on as well as various other structures where one could rest. It also had water, a huge fountain of falling water with a path through the center where one could walk if it struck their fancy. So even though this park may not have had the natural beauty of plant life it still worked very nicely as a sanctuary from the crowds in the middle of Seattle.
The next park that we attended was volunteer park located on capitol hill at 1247 15th Avenue east. This park was located in the center of a very nice residential area and probably was the closest in the traditional sense of what a park should be. It had large areas of grass, as well as a museum and arboretum. It also had various sculptures and statues as well historic exhibits. But possibly most importantly it had a playground and various bodies of water, one of which you could actually play in. This park possessed the relaxation and comfort that anybody may want as well as many other activities for people of any age.
The final park that we attended as a class was Denny park located at 1000 Dexter avenue north. This was Seattle's first city park, named such in 1884. Denny park is surrounded by busy streets and constant traffic and noise and yet is still a very peaceful place within the city. It is mainly grassy areas with a few paths leading to a central circle where benches are arranged. The park is planted with a variety of plants and has the additional wonder of large trees, which cast shade over the park at all times. Even though this park does not obtain the dense vegetation of Freeway park or the community that Volunteer park has, it still possesses the comforts and relaxing qualities that are needed to qualify this island in the middle of the city as another park.
Of course with all of these parks a different emotion was brought up. This emotion effects not only the way that you view the park but also the way that respond to and move through the park.
Inside of Freeway park I found myself moving cautiously through the space around me. It was hard to navigate even with a map and the dense foliage which added a more natural feel to urban environment some how made me feel threatened. I found that within this park the only area that I felt completely comfortable in, with or without people, was the main gathering area which was large and well lit.
This of course differed with Westlake park where we were constantly surrounded by people and there was no where you actually could be, where someone wouldn't see you. Here I again found myself a little uncomfortable but on more of a social level, I felt that the way that I communicated physically with my surroundings was being watched by everyone around me. I understand that the environment in this location was probably already tense to start off with. Due to man different types of exchanges going on already, between different social classes, age groups and purposes for being in this area. But in this park the idea of relaxation was not the first thought I had.
In volunteer park I found myself the most comfortable at one point in time I was lying next between sam and carla and felt that at that moment in time I could have just become part of the earth and stayed there forever just watching the way that the environment as long as the people reacted to and around me. In this park it was more of an observation I made from the parks point of view than my own. I felt alive there, and a part of everything around me, so in this manner the way I navigated through this park was more of an observation of the class and the other people and things in the park rather than my experience or feelings toward the environment.
Denny park had it's own feeling as well, even though I was not able to attend with the class I have been there many times and always find that I feel that this park is in fact a sanctuary. Its old trees and lush plants in the midsts of the city always bring me back to the way i felt when I was in Central Park in NYC one night in july. Even though the parks are no where met on scale I got the same feeling from both of them, a feeling that everything is going on around you but you could easily ignore it all and just sink into the moment.
I believe that all four of these parks as well as the way that I responded and moved through each of them, is not only a direct reflection on myself but also a better definition for what a park is or what it can be. A park is a place defined by the person inside of it, even though certain aspects may shape that persons awareness or perception, the park is purely a space for a person to find themselves in.
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