Studio Projects
Describing the Place
- Mill Creek is a neighborhood plagued by social and environmental
problems: poverty, unemployment, deteriorated public
infrastructure, derelict housing and vacant land, subsidence and
flooding over buried streams and floodplains. Outsiders and
first-time visitors tend to see only these negative qualities. To
an insider, however, the picture is not uniformly bleak. There
are islands of renewal and people with determination, energy, and
vision working together to rebuild their community. There are
bright, enthusiastic children and dedicated teachers. How can
this place be described, in context, to highlight opportunities
and resources as well as problems? How can "expert" knowledge and
"local" knowledge, together, contribute to a deeper understanding
of place and lead to new visions for the neighborhood's future?
- What you learn about the place, the information you compile and
present, will comprise an online database (Place)to be used by the
whole studio in successive projects: Landscape, Community, and
Education; Cultivating the Urban Forest; and Revealing and
Restoring Urban Waters.
Reading
- The following publications provide an essential background for
the studio. If you have not already read them, please do so now.
Anne Whiston Spirn, The Granite Garden: Urban Nature and
Human Design. New York: Basic Books, 1984.
_______________, "The Poetics of City and Nature: Toward a
New Aesthetic For Urban Design." Landscape Journal (Fall
1988).
- This required text may be purchased at the Pennsylvania Book
Center on Walnut and 38th Streets (in section of texts for LARP
601):
- Edward Tufte, Envisioning Information. Cheshire, CT:Graphics
Press, 1990. A classic: read and browse right away.
- These publications of the West Philadelphia Landscape Plan
contain more detailed information than the on-line versions.
Read all of them by the end of September. There are copies on
reserve in the Fisher Fine Arts Library and in studio.
The West Philadelphia Landscape Plan: A Framework for
Action. Graduate School of Fine Arts, University of
Pennsylvania, l991.
"This Garden is a Town". Graduate School of Fine Arts,
University of Pennsylvania, l990.
Models of Success: Landscape Improvement and Community
Development. Graduate School of Fine Arts, University of
Pennsylvania, l991.
Shaping the Block. Graduate School of Fine Arts, University
of Pennsylvania, l991.
Vacant Land: A Resource for Reshaping Urban Neighborhoods.
Graduate School of Fine Arts, University of Pennsylvania,
l991.
The West Philadelphia Digital Database: An Atlas and Guide.
Graduate School of Fine Arts, University of Pennsylvania,
l996.
Requirements
- Text describing your group's topic, the information you have
assembled, and its significance.
- Graphic display of the information you have assembled: maps,
diagrams, drawings, photographs. Include graphic material
necessary to convey the significance of the information your group
has gathered and presented. Remember: the largest drawing,
photograph, or map which the scanner in the computer lab can scan
is 8 1/2" x 14".
A self evaluation (use self-evaluation form to email a copy to AWS
and yourself) must be submitted with your group's work.
- Pin up copies of all work by 11AM, Wednesday, September 25.
- Critique the work of another group between 11AM and 2PM,
Wednesday, September 25. Plan to spend at least an hour reviewing
their work in order to give constructive feedback. Please use the
guidelines in the group-evaluation form in reviewing and
responding (use form to email a copy of your comments to AWS and the rest of the studio).
- Post the work of your group online by Monday, September 30 at 8AM.
Review
- Reviews of work will take place in four stages: self evaluation;
peer review of another group's work; studio-wide review and
discussion; and assessing its usefulness after using it.
- Self evaluation: each student must complete a self evaluation
which will be read by others and guide peer review.
- Peer review: each group will review the work of another group.
- Studio-wide review/discussion on Wednesday, September 25 from 2-6
PM.
- The work of each group will be posted on the LARP 601 website
(Place), where it will be available for everyone's use for the
rest of the semester.
Designing the Place Web Pages
- Each group will be responsible for designing, authoring, and posting the material pertaining to their topic.
Skills
- Reading the landscape
- Working with information: deciding what is relevant; finding,
combining, and displaying information; seeing larger patterns;
understanding context
- Using a digital database: accessing West Philadelphia Digital
Database; creating new maps by overlaying and adding data;
printing maps
- Web authoring: HTML (Hypertext Markup Language); scanning slides;
capturing and saving digital images; designing a web site
- Working in groups
- E-mail: participating in on-line discussion
- Reflective practice: self-evaluation; peer review
Self Evaluation Form
Group Evaluation Form
Back to Course Gateway Page
Last Update: 8 January 1997
URL: http://www.upenn.edu/gsfa/wplp/course/describe.htm
