Landscape Architecture Blog

I'm taking on some new interests by pursuing a degree in Landscape Architecture, with a concentration in Environmental Restoration, and in my first semester we started blogs for a landscape history class:

http://formsandlandscapes.wordpress.com/

The classes include drawing, native plant id, design, engineering, drafting and work outdoors, so it combines alot of my interests and I get to keep photographing and exploring (more excuses to travel!). Looking at the work of Frederick Law Olmstead makes me want to visit NYC in the near future to check out Central Park and Prospect Park with a new focus on design, as well as some of his parks in the Pacific Northwest and Louisville, KY.

Here is a basic graphics drawing assignment, actually one of the
short projects we did this semester, from start to finish:

Trouble the Water the Movie

Wow, what a powerful movie. I watched this last night and I was so amazed, not just by the fact that it's a true story, with actual first person video of the entire storm (Hurricane Katrina), but what really struck me was that it was from the point of view of a poor couple from the 9th ward who were struggling to survive before the storm but had the foresight to document the event and to seek out documentarians to get their story out there, never victims, but always strong and caring.

If I taught high school in the city, I would show this to my students in a heartbeat because it really gives voice to the voiceless and shows their experience is a shared experience and a valid experience, wherever you come from, you can be in charge of your choices and your future, no matter what life throws at you. The woman filmmaker, Kimberly Rivers Roberts decides to record her neighborhood and the storm, keeping her caring, sunny disposition throughout, later revealing a powerful rap persona, Black Kold Medina and we learn she has had a life no one would envy but has not let this keep her down.

Fairmount Park Home: Woodford House

Miniature china painting

Portrait

Kitchen Table

English pottery

Front Parlor

I was walking down the drive today to East Falls and back through Fairmount park when I noticed the Woodford House had an open flag hanging out front. I don't think I've ever saw the house before, even though I worked down the street at the recreation center one summer.

Second Story Addition Model

They charge $5 for a tour of the 11 rooms, but even though I had no cash, Bill, the guide was nice enough to give me a tour anyway (I'll send them a check). I've toured houses in Charleston, but this was my first Fairmount Park house tour.

I was particularly interested in the furniture and woodwork in the house. There's Georgian and Federal styles, depending on which wing of the house you are walking in. All of the furniture is period, non-reproduction.

The yellow pine floors had dowels inserted laterally to keep the wood in place, and the wood has worn away in heavily trafficed places to show the dowel.

Bench that converts into a Table

Miniature Boxes

Period Fake Mahogony Finish Applied to Woodwork

Flag Fest at the Betsy Ross House This Weekend!

Flag Fest
at the Betsy Ross House
Saturday, June 13th 10-7
Sunday June 14th 10-5
239 Arch Street

I will be selling Philadelphia Landmark photographs and cards including Christ Church, Independence Hall, Second Bank, City Hall, Philadelphia Zoo, the Art Museum, Reading Terminal Market, Italian Market, Eastern State Penitentiary, Murals, Franklin Fountain and more!

This event should be lots of fun with all day traditional craft demonstrations, people in Victorian costume, food, games, jugglers, magic shows, Punch and Judy plays, ragtime music, Vaudeville performances, dancers, big-wheeled bicycles, fortune-tellers and prizes.

http://www.betsyrosshouse.org/prog_flag_festival/