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Edge Circumstances:

A critical exploration of the built environment’s peripheries

2007 Edward L. Ryerson and George and Dorothy Fiel Traveling Fellowships

Kyle O’Connor

As I began to develop my thoughts on writing this proposal, I felt it would be best to begin by simply considering my own feelings on travel. At this point in my life, I am not so sure that there could be anything better than an opportunity to see the world. There are far too many places of which I have yet to experience. Voyaging to far away places provides unrivaled opportunities to broaden one’s knowledge and understanding of not only those distant locations, but of one’s own self as well. While my own take on travel entails learning and experience by means of exploration, I feel that far too many others deprive themselves of those opportunities. As John Stilgoe put it, “Not surprisingly, many landscapes now please simply because they resemble advertising landscapes seen so many times that viewers unwittingly accept them as ideal.”[1] For me, this statement conjures thoughts of an American consumer-culture traversing the globe in search of the perfect “Kodak Moment.” Signs and footpaths direct one toward picturesque views and famous landmarks to be visually consumed. As an avid photographer and future landscape architect, I can fully appreciate an attractive photograph or an awe-inspiring view across a captivating landscape. However, I do have issues with the marginalization of landscapes into packaged objects and destinations to simply be seen and photographed. Landscape is the very mechanism by which and on which our lives and cultures are carried out.[2]

My proposal is rooted in the idea of exploring landscapes, or places within landscapes, which normally go unexplored, unseen, and are unknown or disregarded by most. A great many sites, especially tourist destinations, possess some sort of landmark or focus, which provides the incentive to visit the place. While many of these places are indeed wonderful, I find myself lacking interest in a site that I have already seen and experienced through indirect sources of media. Now, there is the argument that one’s physical presence in a place is far more compelling, and therefore, should justify a desire to visit the location. I do agree that a direct experience is more compelling. Those places have become well known and sought after for a reason. Visiting them provides an opportunity to be able to say, “I did that, I was there.” Despite this, I do not share the desires possessed by others regarding visits to those landmark points. Nearly every experience of well-known places that I have winds up being passive, predictable, and banal. I find it much more fulfilling to explore, to notice details, and to be caught off guard by places and events that stir up the way I feel in a given landscape. Paths and nodes of interest limit the landscape to having a rather linear form that shapes experiences, while the greater landscape is indeed planar. When one’s experience of a landscape is that mediated, a plethora of other experiences and delights are missed out on, for “exploration encourages creativity, serendipity, invention.”[3]

I suppose this all begs the question, “so, what?” I believe that a critical exploration of the outer margins of a select few sites, namely public parks and plazas, focusing on, but not limited to those of The Museum of Modern Art’s 2005 Exhibition, Groundswell: Constructing the Contemporary Landscape, would result in a purposeful, enlightening voyage. Public open space design is often carried out with intentions of altering and improving the neighborhoods and districts which are directly adjacent to the spaces themselves. The term “improving” may refer to a number of issues regarding everyday urban life. Peter Reed of the Museum of Modern Art mentions that “because of the role public space plays as a catalyst for urban development and in the quality of civic life, how these palliative spaces are treated is ultimately a reflection of our culture.”[4] I propose to investigate and record not the contents of these landmark public spaces, but rather their outer boundaries in an effort to further understand the ways in which public space influences the greater landscape. Records would be taken in the form of sketches, photographs, and ultimately a set of maps. The maps would be realized as a critical visual analysis of the conditions and occurrences of the spaces surrounding the visited sites. This exploration could be extraordinarily relevant to the field of design, in that when a site is realized, it becomes so much more than what is going on within its own physical limits. Entire regions can be shaped and manipulated as a result of a single built landscape. If it can be better understood how and why certain things are happening as a result of our design decisions, then our landscapes can be greatly improved as a response to that understanding.

Notes

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[1] John R. Stilgoe, Landscape and Image (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2005), 3

[2] See James Corner, Taking Measures Across the American Landscape (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1996), 21

[3] Stilgoe, Outside Lies Magic: Regaining History and Awareness in Everyday Places (New York: Walker Publishing Company, Inc., 1998), 19

[4] Peter Reed, Groundswell: Constructing the Contemporary Landscape (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2005), 16

Possible Sites to Analyze:

Ryerson

Exchange Square, Manchester, England

Duisburg-Nord, Duisburg, Germany

Invalidenpark, Berlin, Germany

Parc André Citroën, Paris, France

Parc de la Cour du Maroc, Paris, France

Parc de la Villette, Paris, France

Piccadilly Gardens, Manchester, England

Schouwburgplein, Rotterdam, the Netherlands

Fiel

Crissy Field, San Francisco

Freeway Park, Seattle

Fresh Kills Landfill site, New York

Gasworks Park, Seattle

Olympic Sculpture Park, Seattle

Pershing Square, Los Angeles

Prospect Park, New York

Tanner Springs Park, Portland