Little Red Lighthouse

I am lucky enough that for my last studio class ever as a last semester senior I get to study and redesign the area beneath the George Washington Bridge near/around the Little Red Lighthouse. The area is called Fort Washington Park for the curious. It's going to be a fun project.

Not a Park

I just wanted to throw this post out there after visiting Atlantic City's Trump Taj Mahal for the past 2 days. Casinos of this caliber, or probably any caliber really, are in a lot of ways the antithesis of any sort of "natural" place I'd be writing about on this blog. They are noisy, distracting, can almost totally make you lose sense of day/time, and can seriously produce anxiety if you are losing your money in high-stakes games. There are only two ways I can see parks and casinos being similar.

For one, parks, particularly obviously designed ones, guide you using a series of tricks such as paths, signage, and strategic plantings to get you to go where the designer wants you to go. This could be a view or, depending on the priorities of the stakeholders, could be something like stores or a food court. Casinos seem to do this too, except, personally, it always seemed to end with me on the casino floor playing the slots, even though I wasn't necessarily there to gamble. (There is a good reason for this.) The second similarity is a stretch. Casino's are jam packed with color and lights. Parks, particularly ones that seem to be popular with a wide array of people (not just special groups like birdwatchers) are filled with a vibrant color and textural palette through extensive use of flowers, shrubs, and even sculptures. Really, though, that is about all I can think of at the moment for similarities of the two.

Between you and me, I'd take the park over a casino any day. Then again, I probably wouldn't end up $20 down from gambling in a park.

The Secret Forest

When I was 16, a boy I had a crush on friend of mine took me to this "secret forest." It had no name and no labels proclaiming it was a park of any sort. Besides the fact that I got to spend time with this friend (which was exciting in its own way), it was wonderfully intriguing to me that so much land (or so it seemed) was hidden away at the end of a pretty unremarkable road only for the privileged few to discover. He led me over a small bridge that went over a creek and explained to me that there used to be houses back here but they were knocked down. If we looked hard enough we'd be able to find the remnants of them. Traces of humanity in "natural" places have always fascinated me and still still do to this day. I was giddy at the thought of stumbling onto whatever might be left behind-- a foundation, rusting cars, whatever...though we never did really look.

Small and Mundane

Visiting Wood Dale County Park in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey, was a trip down memory lane. It is the suburbanite's classic park: water feature, walking paths, a playground for the kiddies, a picnic grove, and if you cross a little cement bridge you can access an off-leash dog park and tennis courts. I took the two family dogs to this little park yesterday, even though that wasn't my original intention. I wanted to go to "Pascack Brook County Park," but google navigation took me to some neighborhood with a dead end. Classic. Honestly, this has happened to me about 3 other times before where the navigation would take me to some dead-end street and direct me to off road through the woods. I might have a jeep, but I'm not that ballsy.

Kakiat Park

This time up: Kakiat Park! This one was a new one for me. It is located in Montebello, New York. It boasts 376 acres with a great dog park, 2 scenic lookouts, an old mill, a neat log cabin, and three specifically marked trails, one of which leads to Harriman State Park. Usually, when I go to a park that involves hiking trails I vaguely glance at the map, see if there is anything worth making sure I see and remember the color of the trail. That's about it. No carrying along trail maps or compasses or any of that jazz. If I end up on another trail accidentally, so be it. (So long as I don't get too lost.)

A Walk In the Park

So everyone has their thing. Your cousin is really into bodybuilding. Your best friend is really into finding a good deal (on things they don't even need but that doesn't stop them). Your roommate is into painting. We all have a thing. I guess mine has always been parks. Maybe a few other things too but mainly parks. I even decided to major in Landscape Architecture because I wanted to design parks that people could enjoy as much as I have enjoyed other parks. The jury is still out on whether or not I am actually that creative. Go figure.