Journal 12
5/2/2015
It should be interesting to see what the discussion looks like next week. I found myself thinking of trends and patterns I wanted to write about in the final paper, but didn't really fit. This is perhaps exemplified by our conversation after class on Monday. I had a pretty firm idea of what I wanted to write about, but when putting the pen to paper, I found it only loosely related to these artifacts and trends. It's not as if my observations were totally unrelated to the artifacts, because in reading the city, it seems as though everything is an artifact, but rather these observations were unrelated to the bulk of the ``story'' of my site thus far. I hope that the discussion next week brings us to the present and beyond because these observations seem to be less related to the past and more towards the future.
I am also curious to see what we will talk about in relation to our group site. I was walking around campus the other day and smiled to myself as I thought about how the campus has changed over the years. Though, I just realized that I don't really know that much about the more recent years. I remember when MIT moved and maybe once when it expanded, but I was hoping for much more, though I'm not really sure when we will have time if student presentations will take up most of the next few classes.
Journal 11
4/25/2015
Working towards the final paper, I am having difficulty finding significance in the artifacts and traces I find. Yes, I see locations where different time periods mix, but why should I (and more importantly) my reader, care about this? Usually, I find the thesis to be the answer to this question, but I am struggling to find a good message to frame my paper around.
My strongest argument currently is to identify what things seem to stick around, and what things don't. From here, the big reveal would be that the future of cities is largely influenced and determined by some things, and is left unchanged by others. An extremely profound series of patterns has yet to reveal itself, but hopefully another trip to my site will help fill in some gaps.
I have also enjoyed reading through the architectural guide. I was really hoping that this class would introduce me to architecture as a field, something I have always been interested in, but have not had any formal training. In the third paper, I made some comments and observations about the size of land parcels, types of houses, and landowners, but upon receiving my paper and comments, discovered that I was painfully wrong on many accounts. It is nice to get some more detail with the guide.
Journal 10
4/18/2015
In reading the texts for this assignment and beginning to think about how to approach the final paper, I am noticing that I have acquired a bit of intuition. While on the first few assignments I was pretty lost as to where I should look for natural processes or old map trends, I finally feel as though I know what kind of things will stick around. I know why the tree died, and why the road is named Mill Creek. I'm no longer aimlessly wandering my site, but rather am able to focus in on those locations that I think will likely show a juxtaposition of different times. It's a cool change.
The class field trip was pretty interesting. It was neat to see a few examples from my site and be able to connect the history with the observations you pointed out. Probably the coolest observation though was when Josh pointed out the street sign that said ``One Way'' in the middle of the road.
I am hoping that I find a place on my site that can very solidly connect all of the assignments. Perhaps something where I can read the modern day evidence in nature, yet form my hypothesis with a combination of knowledge of my site, and knowledge of the larger trends of urbanization. I have a few ideas for where I might find this and I am excited to go investigate on the long weekend.
Journal 9
4/11/2015
The third assignment was quite different than the second in that I found it much easier to establish a thesis. Claiming that transportation has been the driving force behind the rise and fall of my site, and the city at large, is a much more definitive and satisfying thesis than simply affirming that natural processes influence urban development.
Reflecting more on this assignment, it was often difficult to feel entirely satisfied with my observations. With the natural processes, I could simply look closer, examine more around the detail of interest, or find other examples to help my understanding. With this assignment, there were several times when comparing maps that I saw a slight change that could have several explanations. Of course, it was frustrating when no maps existed in between the dates to help substantiate my hypothesis.
While this was frustrating at times, I did find it much easier to make the observations overall. I really enjoyed looking through the maps. It was as if someone had come through and done all of the hard work of making the observations and laying them out on a piece of paper. It was much harder to narrow down which of my observations to include. It was nice to have so many observations that I was able to focus one one area that specifically interested me, transportation.
Journal 8
4/4/2015
In looking through the maps for this assignment, I have found the most difficulty in dealing with the inconsistency between different maps. Initially, this was not an issue because I was only looking at the maps broadly, though as I zoom in and really focus in on some of the smaller details, it has been annoying, and frustrating, that some maps include details such as the land owners, and some don't. This has really made this kind of analysis tedious and sometimes leaky in that I'm rather sure that patterns have fallen through my analysis, or have been lost from the maps entirely. I think these lost details hold the answers to some of my questions for class on Monday.
An exciting and interesting part of this assignment has been the historical investigation. Though I don't quite have the time, it would be interesting to see how other historical pieces may hold interesting details about the development of this area. Thinking back to the class exercise in analysis of the current MIT site, it would be interesting to look at some newspaper articles published around the times of major development. I think that it would be cool to see the papers for when Charles River Road became Memorial Drive, or when the garages started popping up.
One cool discovery I made this week is that Google Street View has old imagery still available for viewing. That means that for many locations, you can enter street view and then scroll back in time to see how the location has changed. For example, when I visit 77 Massachusetts Avenue on Google Street View, I am able to see imagery for this location all the way back to September of 2008! I think the abundance of data will drastically change the way we perform research like this in the future. How cool would it be to simply drop a cursor at a location in your site and watch as time rolled back, seeing the buildings raised, the infrastructure laid, and the earth filled.
Journal 7
3/21/2015
These last two weeks have introduced me to a new side of site research. For the first assignment, almost all of the information came directly from my firsthand observations and then interpretation in context of the readings and lectures. For this assignment, most of the research information is from sources that already exist and were created long ago. I have found myself asking questions that can't really be answered until I find a particular map that may or may not exist. In the last assignment, if I was curious for more detail, I could simply walk closer, and it was easy to know where to look, whereas in this assignment, I can only hope that an appropriate map exists somewhere online and is available for access.
As with the last assignment, it has been a bit difficult to interpret my observations. I'm not quite sure what to look for on maps, and what to think when I find patterns or anomalies. As I work through the Crabgrass Frontier and as we talk more in class, this has become easier, but I still have much to learn about this kind of analysis.
The last thought that I hope to one day explore, though probably not during this semester, is the contrast between the development of Boston and other cities. One thing that drew me to take this class was to better understand how social and human factors influence the development of cities. As we discuss patterns and the sources for these patterns, I have become curious to see how differently things may have turned out given a new location with new people in, perhaps, a new time period.
Journal 5
3/7/2015
While preparing for and writing the assignment on natural processes, I kept butting heads with time.
During the writing session, Peter made several comments emphasizing the distinction between our assignment to describe the natural processes and how the next assignment asks for a description of the site through time. While in the classroom, and during the writing session, I didn't think too much about this distinction, yet when I was writing, I kept wanting to discuss observations I made and inferences I had about how my site has been changing over time.
While walking around doing primary research, and while looking at maps of my site, I began to see the interplay between these two forces. Natural processes are evident while walking in my site in that I can feel the wind, see the sunlight, and touch the trees. Yet, the basis for most of my observations in the paper came from observations of my site simply because these observations were less transient. It is only through time that these processes erode buildings, influence the growth of trees, and uproot sidewalks.
In the case of natural processes, I found the lectures and the shorter readings especially enlightening. I think that a small push in the right direction, which will hopefully come as I dig into the Crabgrass Frontier and the Warner piece, will really tie things together and help me put the influence of natural processes into context.
This context is especially important in light of the writing assignments. It was easy to make observations and hypothesize as to their origins, but putting the observations together into the larger picture was more difficult. I don't think that I have a complex enough understanding of natural processes in the context of "urban development" to make the nuanced connections that I think lie beneath the surface.
Journal 4
2/28/2015
This week I started understanding what is meant by natural processes. When I thought of natural processes before, I always would imagine something like a mountain range rising up over a long period of time due to plate movement or something of that magnitude. This was kind of reinforced with the discussion of all of the East Coast cities located on the fall line.
Things changed, however, with the field trip on Monday and the readings over the weekend. I now see that evidence of Mother Nature can be found nearly everywhere. I had always noticed cracks in the sidewalk, but I never thought of these details as telling to the story of the particular location.
Especially interesting to me was the discussion of urban trees in class and in the Granite Garden. As I have been walking around, I am noticing the trees more, and also how they are struggling. Within my site, it has been interesting to see how differently the trees are able to survive based on location to resources. It is also interesting to guess as to why the tree is even there. In some areas, it seems as though the tree was there from long before and has a plot of land which was built around.
In other cases, the tree seems to be purely for decoration, as discussed in the section on "an expensive aesthetic". This creates an interesting conflict for me because I really like having trees in cities, but it is weird to think of these trees as almost being domesticated. It kind of feels wrong to plant a tree somewhere where it will survive. Likewise, something kind of feels dirty about planting invasive species in an attempt to ensure the tree survives and offers the green aesthetic to the location.
Journal 3
2/21/2015
I found How to Use Your Eyes to be extremely interesting. It reminded me of the first reading in that it packed a lot of information into just a few pages. Equipped with the knowledge from Grady Clay, I immediately looked at cities differently. This week's reading was very similar. It was fairly short, but has changed the way I, well, use my eyes.
I have always had an "engineer's" mind. I look at things and deconstruct them. I wonder what the designer was thinking when he (or she) made the decision to round this corner, or to connect the components in this particular way. For example, a few weeks ago, I got coffee at a small coffee shop in Rockport, MA. The lid on my coffee looked a little funny, and I wondered why the lid had a large indent opposite the drinking hole. It doesn't make sense! It is much more expensive to produce this cup than if the indent wasn't there. Then it hit me. The indent is for your nose. This discovery made me very happy because I really enjoy good design. It pleases me to no end to see that someone really invested time and thought into a product.
I now see some more ways that I can "look into the mind of the designer" when examining my site. It is easy for me to ask questions about the coffee lid because I know a little bit about what forces influence design decisions. I knew something was wrong because someone decided to make the lid more expensive to produce. But it is hard for me to think about the design of a culvert if I don't know what factors the designer is trying to balance. Now I can see the influence of the flow of the stream, the type of stream bed, the expected maximum rainfall, the location of the stream relative to highlands that may drain into this stream, and many other factors.
Of course, the culverts are just the tip of the iceberg. I am excited to see how the state of the roads varies from Main St. to the small one way streets in the more residential section of my site. Additionally, I am curious to see how old the park in my site is, and which trees are older than others.
Journal 2
2/14/2015
This week I really enjoyed the Philadelphia case study. It was interesting to see the effect of the physical land on the development of the city. I was surprised by how dramatically the building materials changed within such a small area, and also by how the macro-topography influenced the locations of many cities on the eastern seaboard. I'm sure that this is common in other regions of the world and I am looking forward to spending some time looking for more of these macro-trends.
Selecting a site was a tough decision, but I finally settled on a small area at the intersection of Main St. and Massachusetts Ave. This site interests me because of the interesting shape of the intersection, the square that is formed by the intersection, the juxtaposition of commercial land use on Main St. and the residences immediately behind, and the existence of a park on the northern corner.
I am looking forward to learning more about the history of the area, as well as digging deeper and finding "evidence" like what we have been discussing in class. As I learn more about how to read the site, I hope to also be able to see how the location, weather, and people have influenced the region's development.
Attending the writing small group was helpful for my brainstorming process. Keeping in mind how questions, answers, and observations are all related will help me keep an open mind when walking around the area. Traditionally I think that I am good at making observations, but do not often ask myself followup questions. I will be sure to be conscious of this while familiarizing myself with the site.
Journal 1
2/7/2015
One of the most important factors in choosing a site is ensuring that I select one with an interesting history. I want a site that has layers of time and development that have melded together to create a fascinating story. While I'm sure it will not be a problem to find interesting details about the site, regardless of where I eventually choose, I do want to set myself up for success. It is with this mind set that I approached the Grady Clay reading.
The introduction was interesting, but the real meat began with the descriptions of the Epitome Districts. While reading, I could truly connect with the passage when Clay mentioned the importance of rituals and symbolic activities in the identification of the Epitome Districts. Continuing with Breaks and Venturi paths, I was thinking back to my own hometown and it was at this point that I truly understood what to look for. Let me quickly share my "reading" of Main Street in my hometown as I walk the same street in my memory, but with a whole new lens.
Firstly, why examine this location? Apart from the general guess resulting from the name Main Street, it is also important to note that the largest festival, the Beer Cheese Festival, is held on Main Street every year. Additionally, the street is lined with City Hall, the courthouse, and most of the small shops and family-owned businesses that the town is able to support.
What bounds the area of importance? The roads form a grid that runs at an angle from the typical north-south. Bounding on the north is the railway, the old grain depot, and the post office. To the south, Main Street's commercial district ends when the roads begin to meander up and around the rolling hills that form the oldest residential area in the town. Both of these bounding lines make sense in the context of the breaks Clay discusses in the reading.
With regard to the Venturi paths, it is not difficult to see based on the architecture that City Hall used to be surrounded by banks and law offices. I'm sure that back in the day, the wheeling and dealing between the bankers, lawyers, city officials, and the farmers who sold their crops via the rail lines took place on these very sidewalks.
Of course, this would not be an Epitome District if there wasn't more to the story. The bank next to City Hall is now a national chain sandwich shop. The grain depot is now a screen printing operation. Only one law office remains as such; most are nearly vacant or offering services of last decade like a vacuum cleaner store and a records shop.
With even just this small excerpt, I feel as though my eyes have been opened to the factors that shape my hometown. I am excited to go out into Cambridge and Boston with this new lens and have the opportunity to really dig deep into my site.
One question I have is about barber shops. I feel as though a barber shop is a very specific size, and that it would be difficult for a shop to be converted into something else. Additionally, I feel as though barber shops must somehow be correlated with these Venturi paths, but I am not sure if this is true. I would like to do a bit more investigation about this. Perhaps I will even be able to find a site that includes a barber shop.