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In Mill Creek, the interment of the creek and its
use as a sewer represent a failure to acknowledge the importance of water
to human life. The story of the golf course is the story of how water has
been used locally in Mill Creek .
Nomadic people such as the Lenape Indians who once
lived in the Mill Creek area relied on water for navigation. To find water
was to find a place of dwelling, an end to barren wanderings. In this golf
course, the loss of water in the area will be emphasized through its containment
to one small area. |
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In this way, the absence of water is felt more than
its presence: the lack of fresh flowing water in Mill Creek is coupled with
the history of the site. It was once a place of healing, a hospital and
groves within the site recall water as the purifying, healing substance
of fountains, of fountains of youth, of life. Topography may cradle puddles
of rain water or create soothing cool, damp enclaves. |
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The rhythmic beat of Mill wheels also marked
the passage of the Creek and the idea of water used in work, as a powerful
force will be expressed in the overall hydraulic system of the site. A clear
relationship will be made between the collection of water and the golf course's
exclusive dependence on it for its aesthetic. As well, part of the golf
course will periodically become submerged by floods and serve as a palimpsest
of the movement of the water in Mill Creek. |
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The site is thus a place of memory, of recalling
how water has been used in the neighborhood. The design will take advantage
of the capacity of water, to intensify scent. memory's most visceral catalyst.
Shade, sun and conditions of climate will also distinguish each place on
the course. |
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Murmuring waters teach birds and men to sing,
speak recount. Within the golf course it will ulimately
be sound that becomes most evocative of water for the ripples, rivulets
and plonks of water unseen will serve to tantalize, to become a means of
teasing and testing expectations. The sound of water and its movement through
the site will become a means of stitching spaces together and provide a
ground for gathering speaking and telling tales. |
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The middle of
the site, the apex of its descent is a watering hole, where the game of
golf is forgotten and the murmers of water is replaced by the murmer of
voices, the gentle creaking of chairs.The collection and recollection of
water on the site becomes the collection and recollection s of players of
the game.
If you were to put a golf course here, I would
want to watch, but that's all
a resident, sitting on
a chair, outside of the door, facing south, on Friday September 29.1997 |