Looking at a Growing City
In her lecture, Ms. Gretchen Schneider gave an in depth study of the changing uses of space in the development of the city of Boston. Her study involved a look at the history and land of the city and how they informed the decisions made regarding development and change in the city. In Jack Ahern’s lecture, he discussed landscape scenarios, which included a look at the different spatial concepts of landscape planning. Both lectures included information that could be extracted and applied when analyzing the development of any city. In this paper, I will be applying the ideas they presented in my own brief analysis of the development of my hometown, Nashua, NH.
Nashua, New Hampshire is a small city of 175,000 people that lies on the border of Massachusetts. It began as an Indian fishing village along the Nashua River and with time and the construction of the Daniel Webster (Main) street, it grew to be a small factory town. Around the civil war times, Main Street became the main retail district as it was close to the textile factories that ran along the river. Small neighborhoods developed at either end of Main Street along with a railroad station west of the center of town. At this stage of Nashua’s development, it most closely resembled a contained interdigitation. The community and buildings were located in the central part of town, with a few neighborhoods that ran outside the boundaries.
By about 1900, the city had begun to expand in all four directions, still fairly contained by the wilderness and the outskirts still resembled the interdigitation. BY the 1940, main other main roads were built, stemming from Main Street, and there was a great expansion, and the fingers of the interdigitation grew long, stretching into more of the wild land. Owners of the farms near town sold their land and moved to these areas on the western part of town, cleared the woods and built them selves huge farms and orchards. The neighborhoods north and south of the town got larger and expanded to east some. The growth of the city was becoming fast and town officials decided to begin claiming public grounds and building parks. It was at this time that Greeley Park was built that contained about a square quarter mile of land and Holman stadium was built at the northern part of town.
Gentrification is defined as the process by which the wealthy or upper middle class uproot poorer individuals through the renovation and rebuilding of poor neighborhoods. Many long-term residents find themselves no longer able to afford to live in an area, where the rent and property values are increasing. Gentrification is a very controversial topic, revealing both the positive and negative aspects of the process. Some of the more desirable outcomes include reduced crime rate, increased economic activity, and the building of new infrastructures. However, it is debated whether the negatives overwhelm the positive. An increase in the number of evictions of low-income families, often racial minorities can lead to a decline of diversity
The arrival of immigrants triggered a rapid urbanization of the major cities in the United States. New buildings were built to keep up with the city’s population increase, new modes of transportation were built in order to get across the city faster, and settlement house were created The immigrants rushed into cities causing skyscrapers and tenements to be build. As a result of limited land, businesses decide to build the business up instead of out. In addition, many of the immigrants were poor, so the tenement was invented. A tenement is a building full of small apartments that would house many families. Document two shows an immigrant family living in one of these tenements. In addition, to changes in building there were also changes
"Magic, Mystery, and Mayhem: An Interview with J.K. Rowling." Interview by Amazon.co.uk. Amazon.com Message. Amazon.com, Inc. or Its Affiliates, n.d. Web. 12 Mar. 2014.
Because of the amount of overdeveloped areas that are now vacant, the desire to renovate old vacant properties and land plots has all but disappeared. What if there was a beneficial solution to unused land plots in need of rehab and redesign? What if, instead of paving over every leftover inch of grass and dirt in urban areas to make room for more parking for our daily commuting polluters, we instead reinvent that land for a purpose that is both beneficial to our
After reading both, “Nashville Skyline: Searching for the heart of the country,” by Chet Flippo, and, “Music is worthless,” by Steve Lawson. It is clear that although they bear some minor differences, the similarities between both articles are pronounced. For example, in Music is worthless, Steve Lawson presents the idea that the financial value of music is entirely based on the listener’s sense of gratitude for that certain type of music. In comparison, in searching for the heart of country Flippo says, “It is ultimately in the listeners’ hands. It’s the fans, the true believers, who will choose their music. Each person’s country is in the heart.”
For this project I chose the book written by Jane Goodall called Harvest for Hope: A Guide to Mindful Eating. Being a very big animal lover I was excited to see her name on the list of book choices so I can further invest my time into getting to know her ideology that goes beyond the world of chimpanzees. I had first seen her inside a documentary I found on Netflix when I had the flu a few years ago. I had never heard of this book and never been familiar with a lot of her views and opinions surrounding human health. Although not surprising, her views surrounded itself with a high awareness for the environment, animals, and long lasting happy health for you and your family. The healthy alternatives she is proposing inside this book, like choosing to eat organic foods for example, goes beyond a temporary suggestion and reaches into the realm of helping the reader change their lifestyle for the better. This interesting book surrounds itself in her personal health and food advice supported with evidential facts. The strongest points that I personally found the most refreshing were her ideas on alternative ways to consume more healthy foods.
Those few words of wisdom come from the book Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. The Harry Potter books are works of art, written by J.K Rowling; a woman with an impressive life that greatly influenced her writings, especially those of the Potter series.
To appreciate a row house neighborhood, one must first look at the plan as a whole before looking at the individual blocks and houses. The city’s goal to build a neighborhood that can be seen as a singular unit is made clear in plan, at both a larger scale (the entire urban plan) and a smaller scale (the scheme of the individual houses). Around 1850, the city began to carve out blocks and streets, with the idea of orienting them around squares and small residential parks. This Victorian style plan organized rectangular blocks around rounded gardens and squares that separated the row houses from major streets. The emphasis on public spaces and gardens to provide relief from the ene...
Those born between the years of 1982 and 2004, became known as The Millennials, however, this generation has been redefining traditional standards set by previous generations. By this generation's standards, they want to achieve higher education and travel, things that will set them back financially which has been made as a point to their change in the expected time for adulthood. One that is willing the delay the previous generation's’ dream of marriage and family to reach their more modern take on the American Dream. Millennials have many differences from them and previous generations, they were able to look more towards “who they were” than “what needs to get done”.
How to create an environment suitable for human living when resources are limited is a challenging problem for modern society. My strong interest in photography and art has compelled me to become especially observant toward the relationship between human beings and the environment. I have come to realize that the environment we live in has suffered much damage from pollution and lacks competent planning, making it difficult to find beautiful scenery to photograph or sketch. I began to think that I could make use of my artistic gift, concern about, and interest in the environment by entering the field of landscape design and putting my effort into beautifying our surroundings. Therefore, after graduating from high school, I entered the Department of Landscape Architecture at ABC University.
Again, this section will give a working definition of the “urban question’. To fully compare the political economy and ecological perspectives a description of the “urban question” allows the reader to better understand the divergent schools of thought. For Social Science scholars, from a variety of disciplines, the “urban question” asks how space and the urban or city are related (The City Reader, 2009). The perspective that guides the ecological and the social spatial-dialect schools of thought asks the “urban question” in separate distinct terminology. Respected scholars from the ecological mode of thinking, like Burgess, Wirth and others view society and space from the rationale that geographical scope determines society (The City Reader, 2009). The “urban question” that results from the ecological paradigm sees the relationship between the city (space) as influencing the behaviors of individuals or society in the city. On the other hand...
One most know of J.K Rowling’s famous series Harry Potter. But what was her inspiration to come up with such a fantasy that every kid loves to read? The “Harry Potter” series is a coming of age novel that every child wishes to grow up that way. J.K Rowling first got her inspiration from a couple reasons that all connect in a certain way. J.K Rowling had a tough childhood, lost her mother and had severe depression. The idea for Harry Potter came while she was waiting for a delayed train. She had the idea before her mother’s death but the loss of her mother just made the book darker. The purpose of this paper to find out J.K Rowling’s inspirations for her wildly famous Harry Potter series. A series that changed that world and many people’s lives.
In Ernest W. Burgess’s “The Growth of the City: An Introduction to a Research Project,” (1925), the author delves deep into the processes that go into the construction of a modern city or urban environment. Burgess lists its following qualities: skyscrapers, the department store, the newspaper, shopping malls, etc. (p. 154). Burgess also includes social work as being part of a modern urban environment. This is supported by his construction model based on concentric circles that divided Chicago into five zones. The first was called a center loop meant for a business district. Secondly, there was an area for business and light manufacture. Third, there was a “zone for working men’s homes” (p. 156). The fourth is the residential area of high-class apartment buildings. The fifth is where suburban houses are located.
Hirsch, E. 1995. “Introduction, Landscape: between place and space” in Hirsch, E. (ed.) The Anthropology of Landscape: Perspectives on Place and Space. Oxford : New York: Clarendon Press.
A city has to be beautiful, though the definition of “beauty” is so vague. The beauty can be physical, such as enjoyable parks, streetscapes, architectural facades, the sky fragment through freeways and trees; or it can be the beauty of livelihood, people, and history. As landscape architects, we are creating beautiful things or turning the unpleasant memorial.