Final Project Discussions

On Monday, December 1, instead of meeting as a group, we will meet individually to discuss your final projects. A schedule will be e-mailed to the class.

Assignment for Urban Outback Final Project: Wild NYC Maps

Time Line
Friday, November 21—turn in your proposed topic, including a brief description
Tuesday, December 2—turn in a section of your script in a Word document
Monday, December 8—turn in a draft of your final script in a Word document
Monday, December 15—turn in the URL for your finished map

Description
For your final project, you will create an online narrative map on a topic relating to the natural history or environment of New York City. The content you create—text, photographs, and/or video—will be integrated into Google Maps and be viewable over the Internet.

For this project, please select a topic, such as:
--the story of NYC’s drinking water
--the role of wildlife in the city’s history
--how geology and ecosystems influence the city’s architecture and layout
--alternative energy in NYC
--urban nature writing/literature (including poetry, nonfiction, historical documents)
--how Native Americans and early New Yorkers related to and used their natural environment as demonstrated through archaeological sites

Once your topic has been finalized, continue to do research and identify approximately 8 locations in the city through which you can tell your topic’s story. (For example, if your topic was “NYC’s Drinking Water,” one location might be Foley Square in downtown Manhattan, the former site of Collect Pond, where early residents drew fresh water.)

The narrative that accompanies your series of locations may be conceived of as a historical tour or a journalistic endeavor. The locations will be numbered—meaning that there is a beginning and an end to the “tour” or “story.” If your topic has a historical component, the locations can be sequenced as an informal time line. Otherwise, the locations can be tied together, using a loose narrative—similar to a news-feature story.

Once you have done your research and selected the locations, write a script. Write an introduction, setting up the overall subject. Then write an entry for each “stop” on the map. Each entry should be about 150 to 200 words.

Each stop on the map should also be accompanied by a visual component. These could include:
-- an original or historical video of the location;
-- an original photo of the location;
-- a historical illustration or photo;
--OR instead of text plus an audio-free visual, you could make a short video of you reading your script at the location

Here is an example of a Wild NYC GoogleMap in progress (there are only 2 locations shown), featuring simple text and images. (Click on the placemarkers to see the text and images.)

A few more overall parameters:
--This project requires thinking spatially and emphasizing place. The locations on your map may be restricted to a relatively small area—such as the confines of Central Park. Or they may span the five boroughs.
--Information should be factual and accurate, and it should be placed in a geographic and historical context whenever possible.
--Data and statistics are welcome.
--Feel free to collaborate—and let us know if you need help.
--Keep track of your sources: books, articles, web sites, personal interviews, etc. Although this project does not require footnoting, you need to know where your information came from if queried.

Once you’ve created your script and content, you’re ready to upload it and create your final map.

Here is a short video tutorial, showing how to put content into your own Google Map

And here are the basic steps for putting your content into a personalized Google Map:

1. Sign up for a Gmail account if you don’t already have one: After you create your account, don’t forget to write down your login name and password.

2. Go to Google Maps. Sign in, using your Gmail login and password.

3. Click on “My Maps”

4. Click “Create a New Map”

5. Give your map a title, and use the description section to write an introduction to your map project.

6. Use the zoom and navigation functions in the upper left-hand corner of the map to zero in on New York City and the site of your first location.

7. Use the “Add a Placemark” feature to put a placemark in your first location. (The placemark control looks like a little blue balloon; it’s located at the top left of the map next to the navigation controls. Click the blue balloon once, drag the placemark onto the map, and click again to drop it in the appropriate location.)

8. When the information window opens above the new placemark, give your first location a title (e.g., “1. My First Location”). Then insert the text for that location from your script into the description field.

9. To add photos, illustrations, or other images to the information windows, your images first must be uploaded to a web site such as Google Picasa Web.

Then, follow these steps to add your photos to Google Maps:
a. Click the appropriate placemark/location. The info window appears.
b. Click Edit.
c. Choose Edit HTML.
d. In another window, find the photo you want on Google Picasa Web. Copy the snippet of code that lets you embed the photo into a web site or blog.
e. Paste the embed code into the description field of your placemark/location.
f. Click OK to save your changes.

10. To add videos to the information windows, your videos must first be uploaded to YouTube. (You will need to create a YouTube account if you don’t already have one.)

To add your videos to Google Maps:
a. Click the appropriate placemark/location. The info window appears.
b. Click Edit.
c. Choose Edit HTML.
d. In another window, find the video you want on YouTube. Copy the snippet of code that lets you embed the video into a web site or blog.
e. Paste the embed code into the description field of your placemark/location.
f. Click OK to save your changes.

Note: At first, using Google Maps may seem glitchy. But it gets easier. Play around with the Google Maps application before working on your final map: Get familiar with the navigation controls. Experiment with adding placemarks, loading in content, saving content, and editing it.

For more details, visit the Google Maps User Guide.

Tenth Class: The Bronx Zoo a.k.a. the Wildlife Conservation Society

Please rendezvous on Monday, November 17, at 9:50 am at the Asia Gate of the Bronx Zoo at the intersection of Boston Road and Bronx Park South.

To get there, take the #5 subway from Grand Central station to the West Farms Square/East Tremont Avenue station. When you exit the subway, walk north on Boston Road for about 4 blocks to reach the zoo entrance.

At 11 am, we will meet with Eric Sanderson, a landscape ecologist in charge of the Wildlife Conservation Society's Mannahatta Project. The goal of the project is to use old maps and geographical clues to create an accurate picture of Manhattan's biota and habitats at the time of European colonization.

Times Square area as it might have looked in 1609 vs. today

(images from the New Yorker)

Ninth Class: Energy Production and NYC's Carbon Footprint

Class meets on Monday, November 10, at 9:40 am at the entrance to the Roosevelt Island tramway on 2nd Avenue between 59th and 60th streets in Manhattan.

(To get there, you can take the 4 or 5 train from Grand Central to 59th Street, and then walk east from the station to 2nd Avenue. If you end up walking to the tram from the Williams Club, be sure to bring your Metrocards, which you will need to board the tram.)

We will be taking the 9:45 am tram to Roosevelt Island and using the local Starbucks as our classroom for about half an hour. Then we will walk north along the East River to meet a guest speaker, hydrodynamic engineer Jonathan Colby from Verdant Power, who will be talking to the class about alternative energy generated by the tides in the East River.

Eighth Class: Manhattan's Last Forest

On Monday, November 3, the class will head uptown for a tour of Inwood Hill Park--home to Manhattan's last forest, numerous Native American archaeological sites, and a human-made nesting platform for bald eagles. Please rendezvous at the park at 9:45 am.

To get there:
--Head over to the 42nd Street/Times Square subway station and take the uptown #1 train to 215th St.

--After you exit the train, walk north to 218th Street.

--Turn left on 218th street, and walk a few blocks to the entrance of Inwood Hill Park. Then walk into the park and meet at the benches alongside the lagoon.

If you depart from the Williams Club around 9 or a little before, you should arrive at approximately 9:45 am. Be sure to wear good walking shoes (sneakers are fine), as this trip will involve a significant amount of walking and hiking.

Third Assignment: Water & Newtown Creek

Note: This assignment is due on Friday, October 31.

1. Look at this interactive video for an explanation of New York City’s water supply and wastewater disposal system.

Question: Compare the water system in your hometown to the system in New York City. How is it similar? How is it different? (For example, what is the source of the water—and how does it get to your tap? How is wastewater and sewage disposed of?)

2. Newtown Creek is a 3.5-mile-long tidal estuary. Once fed by freshwater creeks (now paved over) in Brooklyn and Queens, it is now one of the most polluted waterways in the nation.

The wastewater treatment plant on Newtown Creek is the city's largest. It processes sewage for 1 million residents, mainly from the east side of Manhattan below 72nd Street—including the Williams Club. Although the plant was recently upgraded and can handle 50 percent more volume than in the past, “combined sewage overflows” (CSOs) cause untreated sewage to spill over into Newtown Creek after heavy rain.

When we pulled a cup of water from Newtown Creek on Monday, it looked surprisingly clear. But was it clean? Please view these statistics and note how the water quality changes dramatically following rain events at the location our class visited and even more so further up the creek and farther from the tidal action of the East River.

Now watch this PBS presentation on Newtown Creek. (Click “watch and listen on the right-hand side of the web page).

Questions:

a. About three weeks before we visited Newtown Creek, the water in the creek was tested (see here and here). What were the findings?

b. Did anything in the PBS presentation alter your perception of your field experience at Newtown Creek?

c. Why do you think people care about this profoundly polluted waterway?

3. The nature walk at the Newtown Creek wastewater treatment plant took 9 years and $3.2 million to complete. It uses motifs that are seen at many riverside parks in New York—erratic boulders, native plants, Native American words etched into stone steps, and nautical themes. It also provides public access to the creek’s waterfront for the first time in decades.

Questions:

a. How would you describe the park and its surroundings? (Feel free to use comparison, metaphor, and your own personal response. But also include details of what you saw, heard, and smelled.)

b. What did you think of the idea of a park/nature walk in this location?

Seventh Class: Fresh Kills Landfill

On Saturday, October 25, we're heading to the Fresh Kills landfill with the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.

Please rendezvous at 11:15 am at the main entrance to the Staten Island Ferry terminal in lower Manhattan.

--To get there, you should leave the Williams Club at about 10:45 am.

--Head over to Grand Central station and take the downtown 4 or 5 subway to Bowling Green.

--Then walk three blocks south on State Street to the Staten Island Ferry Terminal.

--We will catch the 11:30 am ferry to Staten Island to meet up with the Parks Department bus on the other side. (The ferry ride is about 25 minutes and we're meeting the bus at noon on the "taxi" level of the terminal in Staten Island.)

The bus tour will last about two hours, so we should get back into Manhattan at 2:30 or 3 pm.

Sixth Class: Newtown Creek

View Larger Map

It's a Gritty City . . .
We are meeting Monday, October 20, in Greenpoint at 10 am—and we’d like you to take a particular route to get there (see below), which will involve about 20-25 minutes of walking. You’ll be taking the subway to Queens and walking across the Pulaski Bridge into Greenpoint, Brooklyn, where you’ll meet us at the Ashbox Café at 1154 Manhattan Ave. We’ll talk a bit there and then head over to a “nature walk” alongside Newtown Creek, one of the most polluted waterways in the nation.

If you leave the Williams Club a little after 9 am, you should get to the Ashbox around 10 am.

Here are the specific directions.

--Head over to Grand Central Station.

--Take the Flushing-bound #7 subway to the Vernon Blvd./Jackson Ave. stop in Queens. (This is a very short ride—just one stop.)

--Exit the subway station on Jackson Ave. and walk up Jackson toward the blue Citi skyscraper.

--Very soon, you should see the entrance ramp for pedestrians to the Pulaski Bridge (at the intersection of Jackson Ave., 11th St., and 49th Ave.).

--Walk across the Pulaski Bridge until you reach the second set of stairs.

--Walk down the stairs above Ash Street (above the sign for Continental Auto Parts).

--Walk west down Ash Street to Manhattan Ave., turn left, and meet us at the Ashbox café, between Ash and Box on Manhattan Ave.

Second Assignment Part I: Rats

Here is your second assignment:

1. The rat has been called Homo sapiens’ doppelganger—a dark twin that shadows humanity wherever it goes. But not everyone has the same view of the genus Rattus.

Watch the following 4 videos on YouTube and then answer the questions:

Rats invade KFC/Taco Bell in NYC. Fox News reacts:


On the Travel Channel’s “Culture Shock,” Shenaz Treasurywala journeys to the Karni Mata temple in India, where rats are revered, not reviled:


Accompanied by a rat puppet named “Brownie,” Filipino journalist Howie Severino arrives in New York to explore the Year of the Rat. (This year—2008—is the Year of the Rat in the Chinese zodiac). Note: The narration is in Tagalog—but most of these 2 segments are in English. Part 1 (Celebrating the Year of the Rat in Chinatown):


Part 4 (Howie Visits with Rat Lovers):


Question: How are rats portrayed in the different videos, and how do you think the different narrators’ and newscasters’ feelings about rats might influence those portrayals? What is your own response? Do any of the videos alter your ideas or feelings about rats?

2. Why do you think that rats are frequently used as a motif in literature, art, and film? And as a metaphor in everyday language, e.g. “He ratted on me” and “You can’t escape the rat race”?

For examples, you might consider:

--this excerpt from George Orwell’s 1984

--Robert Sullivan’s nonfiction work Rats from the assigned reading

--this recently completed mural at Grand and Wooster in SoHo by the street artist, Banksy

--the following teaser for the animated film Ratatouille


3. Name 3 characteristics of urban inquilines (rats, feral pigeons, cockroaches and other creatures that share the human “nest”).

4. What were the 2 most significant things you learned from Randy Dupree, the former director of New York City’s rat control unit, when he came to speak to the class on September 22?

Second Assignment Part II: Pigeons

5. Reflecting on the class's visit to Anthony and Tony’s pigeon loft in Coney Island:

a. What fact or statement about pigeons, the sport, the loft, or the owners on the visit struck you as most surprising?

b. Was there anything you learned or saw that disturbed or bothered you?

c. Anything that impressed you?

d. What is your overall reaction to the sport of pigeon racing?

6. Read this New York Times article (written by your instructors) about pigeon racing, entitled an “Odyssey of Homing.”

a. How is the chico used in the race?

b. In a pigeon race, there are 3 important sites: the home loft, the club house, and one other. What is the third site, and what happens there?

c. In this article, the pigeon racers use a clocking method that is different from the one you saw at Tony and Anthony’s loft. Very briefly, what is different about it?

d. Why do you think the number of participants in the sport of pigeon racing is on the decline in New York City?

Second Assignment Part III: Jamaica Bay

7. Describe Jamaica Bay as you saw it from the water. (This can be a snapshot look at one area, or an overview.) Use detailed descriptions of both natural and human-made features. What was your reaction to this scene? How does it fit into your ideas about the city?

8. Jamaica Bay is home to both JFK Airport and a wildlife refuge. At times, bird strikes have posed a danger to aircraft. In fact, an Air France Concorde jet once “ingested” some Canada geese as it was landing at JFK, causing two of the engines to blow out. Although the plane landed safely, the incident caused $7 million in damage.
Question: What are some things that Don Riepe (the Jamaica Bay guardian) described that have been done at the airport to reduce the possibility of bird strikes? Does this dramatic clash between nature and the city remind you of anything?

9. New York City was once surrounded by salt marshes like the ones you saw in Jamaica Bay---emerald green patches of cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora) underlain by peat. The early Dutch colonists called cordgrass “salt hay” and used it as feed for their cows on farms in Brooklyn and Queens. Since colonial times, the area of salt marsh in New York City has declined by nearly 90 percent—largely due to urban development and landfilling. The story is similar up and down the East Coast: Boston has lost more than 80 percent of its salt marshes, whereas New England overall has lost nearly 40 percent. It is only in recent decades that the biological value of salt marshes has been recognized.

Some of these values were outlined in a report issued in 2007 by the Jamaica Bay Watershed Protection Plan Advisory Committee:

--Jamaica Bay’s marshes provide critical wildlife habitat for more than 80 fish species and for nearly 20 percent of the continent’s species of birds that visit the bay every year as they traverse the Eastern Flyway migration route to their breeding grounds further north. Saltwater marshes not only serve as nursery sites for finfish and shellfish, but also for feeding, spawning, and refuge from predators.

--Endangered and threatened species like peregrine falcons, piping plovers, and the Atlantic Ridley sea turtle reside in or visit the bay, along with more than 325 kinds of waterfowl and shorebirds (62 of which are confirmed to breed in the bay).

--Jamaica Bay’s wetlands mitigate flooding and provide shoreline erosion control for homes and businesses in Brooklyn and Queens. The neighborhoods surrounding Jamaica Bay are home to more than 500,000 New Yorkers and the marshes serve as coastline buffers from waves, tides, winds, and floods, and can help reduce coastline erosion and property damage during storm events. Marsh grass can decrease wave energy 10-fold and, due to its unique properties, even trap sediment instead of eroding during storm events.

--The bay’s wetlands act as the ecosystem’s kidneys to filter out pollutants in the water. Wetlands act as nutrient buffers for coastal waters, capable of transforming large quantities of organic pollutants, suspended solids, and metals from runoff and wastewater effluent into organic matter, and thus act as sinks as organic matter is buried through marsh accretion and as bacterial denitrification releases nitrogen gas into the air. This cycling is important because overabundance of nitrogen and organic matter spurs the growth of algae blooms that turn the bay’s waters murky. As the algae die, sink to the bottom, and decompose, the water’s oxygen levels drop, killing any aquatic life unable to swim away.

--The four city sewage treatment plants that surround the bay discharge more than 250 million gallons of treated wastewater containing 30,000 to 40,000 pounds of nitrogen into the bay every day. This is far too much nitrogen for the bay’s current wetlands to assimilate – one estimate puts the removal capacity of existing marshes somewhere between a tenth and a fifth of the total nitrogen inputs.

--Salt marshes have the highest primary productivity of any floral community; moreover, the algal and phytoplankton communities they support significantly contribute to overall rates of carbon fixation, which helps reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Each acre of Spartina grass produces ten tons of organic matter annually, which then enters the food chain to provide fuel for higher orders of organisms.

--The marshes serve as a recreational haven and living laboratory . . . Groups like the American Littoral Society provide educational programs about the bay’s resources to schools and civic groups.

The report went on to say:

For at least a decade, it has been recognized that Jamaica Bay’s tidal wetlands are rapidly disappearing. In 2001, analysis conducted by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) showed that between 1924 and 1999, half of the bay’s vegetated marsh islands disappeared.

Even more alarmingly, DEC determined that the rate of loss had been increasing over time.

Between 1994 and 1999, for example, the rate of loss had nearly doubled from that of 1974-1994; assuming that rate of loss continued baywide into the future, it was calculated that the marsh islands would completely vanish by 2024.

Please read "Nitrogen and the Rapidly Dwindling Jamaica Bay Marshes" from the New York Times and then answer the following questions.

Question A: Compared to rain forests and coral reefs, the ecology of salt marshes is not widely known. In fact, most New Yorkers are not even aware that salt marshes exist here, let alone the threats they face. Why do you think that is? Based on your trip through the bay (and any other experience you have), what might you tell people about salt marshes to explain their significance?

Question B: On the surface, the article from the New York Times describes a debate about the causes of the salt marsh decline, but there is also an underlying debate about resources—for example, how much money can or should be spent to keep the bay clean. What is your take on this? Can the conflicting demands on Jamaica Bay be reconciled? How definitive do you think research on the causes of marsh decline should be before action is taken?

Fifth Class: Jamaica Bay

We are meeting in the field and traveling via boat through the Jamaica Bay ecosystem. Please plan to meet us on Monday, October 6, at 9:30 am in Queens at the Broad Channel station on the A train line.

To get there, take the F train to Jay Street/Borough Hall and switch to the A train on the same platform. (Note: Before you board the A train, make sure the signs say it's going to Rockaway, not to Lefferts Blvd./Ozone Park.) If you leave at 8 am from the Williams Club, you should arrive at Broad Channel around 9:30.

See you then!

Fourth Class: Flying the Coop

On Monday, September 29, we will be meeting in the field and visiting a pigeon racer's coop in Coney Island. Please meet us at 9:30 am at the Coney Island/Stillwell Avenue station in Brooklyn. (Take the F subway line from midtown Manhattan.)

Note: This excursion is somewhat weather dependent. So far the forecast looks good for Monday, but if there is any change, we will let you know.

Third Class: Rats and Other Inquilines

Class meets at the Williams Club in the Garfield Room from 9 am to 12 noon on Monday, September 22.

For those who haven't turned it in yet, don't forget the Central Park assignment is due on Monday as well.

Second Class: Prospect Park . . . and First Assignment: Central Park

The second "Explorations of the Urban Outback" class will meet in the field on Monday morning, September 15. Here are the details:

PLACE: Grand Army Plaza subway station in Park Slope, Brooklyn. (We will meet by the token booth.)

TIME: 9 am

APPAREL: Remember to wear sneakers, hiking boots, or other shoes good for walking.

WEATHER: If class must be cancelled/rescheduled due to bad weather, we will contact you via cell phone BEFORE 8 am on Monday morning.

DIRECTIONS: Take the 4 or 5 subway train (Lexington Ave. Express) downtown (toward Brooklyn) from 42nd Street/Grand Central Station. Get off at the Nevins Street Station in Brooklyn and switch to the 2 or 3 train across the platform. Take the Brooklyn-bound 2 or 3 train three stops to Grand Army Plaza. The trip should take about 50 minutes, so leaving from the Williams Club at 8 am will allow you enough time.

LUNCH: You will be back on the F train to return to Manhattan no later than 12 noon. You can either bring a packed lunch, or arrange lunch for when you get back to the Williams Club.

Also note: Please start reading the assigned book Rats: Observations on the History and Habitat of the City’s Most Unwanted Inhabitants by Robert Sullivan, which will be the subject of our September 22 class.

Assignment #1: Central Park




1. Reading
Read all four pages of this short history of Central Park from The Encyclopedia of New York and this excerpt from J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye. Then make sure to read the entire assignment below and to look over the Central Park map before embarking on your field study.


2. Field Study

• Enter Central Park at 59th Street and Fifth Avenue.
  
• Using the map, follow the walkways (use pedestrian paths rather than roads) along the eastern edge of the Pond and make your way to the Mall.


• Walk through the Mall to Bethesda Terrace and the Lake.


• If you’re feeling adventurous (that means that this part is not required), navigate through the Ramble (a woodsy tangle of paths that’s easy to get lost in) to Belvedere Castle.

3. Questions to Answer
Write your responses to the following 5 questions on fauna, rocks, trees, architecture, and the park as artwork. There is one bonus question.

4. Due Date
Please complete and return this assignment via e-mail by Monday, September 22.

Here are the questions:

1. Fauna

The Pond in the park’s southeast corner is the lagoon that Holden Caulfield refers to in The Catcher in the Rye. Although the mallard ducks in the pond usually migrate south for the winter, many other species of waterfowl spend their winters in the waterways around New York City.

Name 3 animals you see during your walk; briefly describe what each of the animals is doing; and mention the location where it was observed.

2. Geology

The rock outcrops dotting the park are part of the bedrock of New York City. Formed an estimated 400-450 million years old, the rocks are metamorphic and are the eroded remains of an ancient mountain range.

In some cases, these rock outcrops presented obstacles during the park’s construction—having to be blasted away to make room for roads and other design elements. However, many rock outcrops were left as is and incorporated into the earthwork design for the park—making them the park’s only truly wild design features. But even here, artifice was used: the ground around the outcrops was carefully sculpted; sometimes soil and plants were added atop the rocks, and sometimes soil was removed to expose a deeper section of an outcrop.

Design note: Olmsted and Vaux, the park’s designers, intended the park to inspire emotions and sensations. Part of the trick of engendering such responses was the development of contrasts—for example, as you walk into and through Central Park, the scene shifts, sometimes abruptly, from one environment to another.

a. Briefly, how would you describe the rock outcrops?


b. What might have been Olmsted and Vaux’s intent in leaving these outcrops and working them into the landscape?


c. What emotions, if any, do you think the rock outcrops might evoke in park-goers, who leave the surrounding city environment for the park environment?

d. In a more utilitarian sense, how do you see the rock outcrops being “used” by park-goers?

(Your response to this section should be 1 to 2 typed pages.)

3. The Mall—Trees

Olmsted and Vaux were not fans of straight lines in their landscape designs—but the Mall breaks that pattern and extends in a straight line for six full blocks. This austerity is mitigated by an allée of trees that shade the promenade.

Once common in the wild and very popular as a street tree, the species of North American tree that lines the Mall is now rare—due to a killer fungus brought over from Europe in the 1930s. To keep the allée alive, the trees in the Mall regularly receive limb-by-limb inspections and injections of fungicide. However, several of the Mall’s trees succumb to the disease every year.

The author Michael Pollan wrote the following about the Mall's dominant tree species in a 1993 New York Times article. Please fill in the blanks with the tree’s name.

There is something about the very form of these trees that seems to imply public space, in the same way that a weeping willow implies water, or a great, old gnarled oak seems to uphold the authority of tradition. If this sounds sentimental, consider that long before we embraced the _______, the Indians favored its shade for tribal councils. No doubt the unusually high canopy has something to do with the tree’s exalted civic status: an ______ commits to a branching pattern much later than most trees, with the result that the vault formed beneath its canopy is as grand as a train station’s, more conducive to encounters with strangers than intimates.

4. Bethesda Terrace: Art, nature, and architecture

Overlooking the Lake, Bethesda Terrace was designed by Calvert Vaux, with the assistance of architect/sculptor Jacob Wrey Mould, as were numerous other architectural features in the park. Before Bethesda Terrace was built, Vaux said the structure was meant to blend into the naturalistic landscape, not dominate it.

“Nature first, second, and third -- architecture after awhile,” Vaux said.

Briefly describe some features of Bethesda Terrace that suggest a tribute to nature.

5. Overview

Frederick Law Olmsted called Central Park “a single unified work of art.” He and his partner, Calvert Vaux, wanted their work to be identified with art—particularly the art of landscape painters. It has been said the Olmsted painted with trees, water, lights, and shadow.

In the 1860s, New York City had a population of about 1 million. Today, the city has approximately 8 million residents. Olmsted and Vaux foresaw these future crowds, and the park was designed as a respite from the physical crush of the city. Today, people—musicians, film crews, the homeless, tourists, birdwatchers, cyclists, etc.—are inextricably part of the park’s landscape. And the sights and sounds in the 21st-century park are beyond anything the Victorian-era Olmsted and Vaux could have imagined.

--Thinking about these ideas—that the park might be considered an artwork and that its audience (park-goers) constantly transforms it—what section of the park that you walked through worked best for you personally?

--Which was your least favorite area?

--What sensations, if any, did you experience—positive and/or negative?

(Your response to this section should be 1 to 2 typed pages.)

6. Bonus question

What was the strangest/most unusual thing you saw, heard, or experienced in the park?

First Class: The East River

We have a schedule change for the first "Explorations of the Urban Outback" class on Monday, September 8. Instead of meeting in the morning, our class will be meeting in the late afternoon/early evening after your film class.

Please rendezvous in Manhattan at the E. 35th Street Pier (between 34th and 35th Sts.on the FDR Drive) at 5:10-5:15 pm on Monday. We'll be taking the New York Water Taxi to Brooklyn Bridge/Fulton Ferry Park. In addition to discussing the natural history of NYC's waterways and seeing some large-scale liquid art, we'll be having dinner on the Brooklyn waterfront--so no worries about getting back to the Williams Club to get your feed on.

Welcome to NYC!

This blog is where you will receive information about class field trips, reading assignments, and writing assignments.

Required Reading
--Weekly readings from Reader Packets (to be supplied)
--Rats: Observations on the History and Habitat of the City’s Most Unwanted Inhabitants by Robert Sullivan
--The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell by Mark Kurlansky
--The Ghost Map: The Story of London’s Most Terrifying Epidemic—and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World by Steven Johnson

Supplies
--New York City Subway Map
--Field Notebook(s)