CHRISTOPHER HICKIN
My first visit was on September 21 at 5:30...I went with Matt, Jin and Tom in Jen's car...we drove around and walked around Aspen Farm to get the leaf samples...
The view I got from our talks in class was that I would see a lot more open space...but it was a pretty dense urban area...plants spilling out of yards...people...vibrant...I expected it to be more dead... more W.W.II-looking...
There were some people who stared...asked why we were looking at the trees...we told her it's a school project...she lived across from Aspen Farm...leaning out the window and talking on a cordless phone...in her fifties... other people looked at us... maybe wanting to say something obnoxious...we avoided the eye contact ...pulling up at the stop sign..young teenagers...lots of people socializing in front of stores or in open spaces...
I felt like an outsider...a tourist..with a specific mission and leave...very aware of depending on Tom's car...sure to get out before dark...didn't want to start anything with anyone...if the car had broken down...but it didn't...if we needed help...on some blocks people were more approachable...less hostile...
The environment was cool...unusual...the physical layer bizarre... strong contrast between the vertical and rigid and the power of the vegetation...large trees over buildings...plants growing in cracks...Ailanthus...vacant spots with tall vegetation and then others with short weeds...the jarring impact of absence...lack of things...
Comparable only to Camden in my experience...the worst parts of foreign cities I've seen look better than West Philly...Rome, London, Cologne, for example all were in better shape...here, a lot more chain link fences and barbed wire...really tall project buildings-- a whole side of it covered with chain linked fence!...to keep the kids from falling out?... tension between man-made and the natural...it looks like it's on the edge of the jungle...like vegetation is trying to get out but is being held back....
This studio is not just an academic exercise for landscape architecture students...not abstract...there is less opportunity to make it your ego thing than to experiment with ideas that serve other people...in terms of the general program at Penn it's really awesome...worthwhile...this site is really in need of solutions!...
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