| MILL CREEK: PROCESS, PLACE, AND PEOPLE
West Philadelphia is an American inner-city neighborhood with many social and environmental problems: poverty, unemployment, deteriorated public infrastructure, derelict housing and vacant land, subsidence and flooding over buried streams and floodplains. There is a dynamic, historical dimension to these problems. Natural processes and social forces transformed the landscape of West Philadelphia over several centuries: from wooded hills and valleys, to farms and estates, to residential suburb for working- and middle-class families, to inner-city neighborhood. In its broad outlines, the story of West Philadelphia is the story of many other urban neighborhoods, part of a larger picture of city, region, and nation. Today television and newspaper media focus mainly on the problems of neighborhoods like Mill Creek; outsiders often see only negative features, if they visit at all. To an insider, however, Mill Creek is a place to live, learn, work, and play. There are problems, but there are also many local resources: important historical landmarks; vital institutions; islands of renewal; bright, enthusiastic children; people with determination, energy, and vision working together to rebuild their community. How can this place be described, in context, to highlight opportunities and resources as well as problems? How can A expert@ knowledge and Alocal@ knowledge, together, contribute to a deeper understanding of place and lead to new visions for the neighborhood=s future? More specifically, how can such knowledge of process, people, and place contribute to your own designs for a landscape of learning, renewal, and identity.
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. You should include any graphic material necessary to convey the significance of the information your group has gathered. You may work in whatever medium you choose (digital, paper, etc.); ultimately, however, the information must be presented on a website Copies of all work must be pinned up by 12:30 on Monday, October 26. Websites for Process, People, and Place must be online by 12:00 midnight, Thursday, October 29.
Reading Background on Natural, Social, and Political Processes Kenneth Jackson, Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985). Anne Whiston Spirn, The Granite Garden: Urban Nature and Human Design (New York: Basic Books, 1984). Anne Whiston Spirn, The Language of Landscape (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998). Sam Bass Warner, The Private City (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press).
Visual Display of Information Edward Tufte, Envisioning Information (Cheshire, CT: Graphics Press, 1990). Edward Tufte, Visual Display of Quantitative Information (Cheshire, CT: Graphics Press, 1983).
West Philadelphia Landscape Project These publications of the West Philadelphia Landscape Plan contain more detailed information than the on-line versions. There are copies on reserve in the Fisher Fine Arts Library. 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.
Five publications were written by students in Anne Spirn =s Power of Place course in Spring 1997. There are copies on reserve in the Fisher Fine Arts Library.Cythia Ott, Pre-colonial, Colonial, and Early Industrial Eras in Mill Creek =s History (Spring 1997).Clayton Lane, Mill Creek History: Industrial and Modern Eras 1860-1930 (Spring 1997). Ben Seider, Census Summaries for West Philadelphia: 1860-1990 (Spring 1997). Heather Hillman, Urban Redevelopment and the Mill Creek Neighborhood 1830-1975 (Spring 1997). Paisarn Tepwongsirirat, Mill Creek in the Edge City Period (Spring 1997).
|
This site is maintained by the 601 Webmaster Last Update: December 10th 1998 |