Experimenting first hand great aspects of place is crucial in order to be able to design great public spaces. During four days in Boston, MA we explored, sometimes on our own, sometimes guided, invited and uninvited: Cambridge, the Kennedy Greenway beginning at Chinatown Park, Land Wave, The Children’s Museum by MVVA, Fan Pier, Moakley Courthouse’s grounds, The New England Holocaust Memorial, the North Bank Bridge Parks & Open Space System and some sites still under construction. 

Upon returning to Syracuse, NY students analyzed what their eyes saw and their camera captured revealing the thread that tied their images. Some sorted through their Boston photos and others through more personal ones. All 22 class members synthesized their images in two ways: via a three-minute short film and via still strips of paper. These all depict a level of interconnectedness narrating a cohesive story as seen uniquely through their eyes. 

JUXTAPOSITIONS

The following
looks at juxtapositions
of materials of
building and of the
landscapes of the
built environment in
the cities of Boston
and Cambridge, USA.

SARA M. AGUDELO

THE INDUSTRIAL AESTHETIC

Brick buildings, steel expanses, concrete masses.  they stand strong and powerful, woven into the fabric of old cities. the aesthetic, either real or imitated, denotes power, permanence, and historic identity.  as cities continue to grow, the adaptive reuse of such structures is important in  preserving historic character.  Boston perfectly integrates the new with the old, exposing both tourists and residents to it’s rich past.  the industrial aesthetic is copied in modern works, adding to the rough, yet elegant character of the city.
     Song:  Alvin Risk: Cities

amsterdam skies

The red thread connecting these images is not the landscape, but the sky. My strongest memories of my time in Amsterdam are related to the atmosphere of the city, mainly the intense light and rich blue skies. Maybe it was the low elevation or the lack of topographic change that caused the sky to rule the landscape. Whatever the reason was, I found myself looking up over the cities historic canal houses more than looking down at the brick covered landscape. Even when looking down, you often saw the sky in reflections from the cities countless canals, window fronts, and puddles. 

material

With every new place I visit my mind becomes engrossed in the materials of that place and how they contribute to the character of both the site and in the larger realm, the entire city. The most prominent material is clay pavers which were used in the majority of the city architecture. Materials create a city identity. The further into the trip the more I became focused on these elements alone and all my pictures became strictly material shots with my camera aimed directly at the ground. The context became irrelevant. I noticed the process of rusting and aging. For example diamond plated steel gets a rusty shade of red reminiscent of the clay pavers from all the buildings. The weathering process adds character to the place.  

Kristy Pedersen

PEOPLE

My Red Thread was not initially clear to me. After screening through each photograph, I tried to recollect why I took each shot. While composition, color, and other different elements factored into the overall result, there was a major unifying theme. It became clear to me only after I had highlighted the major element which provoked me to take the photograph --- and that was us! This is not to undermine the significance of place but rather, I was more interested in exploring the relationship between people and their environment. Overall, the red thread in my photographs was not a mentally deliberate action and instead, was a result of an innate fascination with people. Simply put, pictures without people are boring.

Jin Huang

A DAY ON THE RIVER

A Day On The River, reminds me of those hot summer months, with days that seem to last forever. As I’ve grown up in the Hudson Valley I have come to know and love my own little section of the Hudson River. I can remember floating in my boat, drifting south on the shore current, and then drifting back north on the channel current. Before it was the Hudson, the Indians called it Mahicantuck, which means “river that flows both ways”. A day might start with a hike to the summit of Storm King Mountain. Vincent Scully, a Yale history professor, describes Storm King as what makes “the city dweller aware of what he needs to know; that nature still exists, with its own laws, rhythms, and powers, separate from human desires.” The hot humid days are spent on the water, drinking, floating, cruising, and enjoying the sublime and seemingly primitive landscape. Cold Spring for some ice cream, West Point for fire works at night, the cliffs for some swimming, or just sitting by the water with friends, while watching the day’s slow retreat across the Cornwall Bay towards Moodna Creek. These are just a small sampling of what could be done in A Day On The River. 

Kyle Buser

DON'T . THE RIGHT TO USE

Moving through Boston, I was drawn to the unintended uses of public space. Some were being actively used, while others were empty, but showed evidence of unintended use. In some places measures were taken to prevent it, while others embraced it, adapting the new use into their identity. 

Nick Imperial

interests

My photographs from Boston revealed two prominent threads that highlight perceptual differences from person to person. The horizontal alignment of the photos represents a rough timeline of our Friday afternoon in downtown Boston meaning photos that are aligned vertically are from approximately the same place. The majority of Jin’s red thread is focused close at hand with attention to the construction and materiality of the environment. On the other hand, my pictures in blue try to capture as much area as possible in a single image and seek to articulate the environment at a larger scale.

Dan Arseneau

The Grand Canyon is a place of wonder and unparalleled beauty as it meanders through the     landscape. While working with the National Park service in 2008, I joined a group of                  volunteers that I was working with on a hike that would bring us to the base of the canyon and back. Ten hours and twenty six miles later, we completed the journey. Later on as I reflected on my experience, I thought about how each perspective of the canyon was more spectacular than the last. As we made our way down, plants that appeared to be surviving on the rim were thriving at the bottom along with plants that just disappeared. The canyon walls also changed colors as we moved lower in elevation, providing us with a geologic timeline of some of the oldest rock that you will ever see. Geology, ecosystems, temperature all changed as we navigated the trails telling a story of how this landscape came to be and how it functions. If you ever go to the canyon I suggest taking a hike and experiencing the many different views the canyon has to offer...

Tom Christianson

transitions
connecting boston's materials

The following video and film strip provides examples of how the city of Boston has chosen to connect the different materials that come together to form their contemporary urban public spaces.  The connections are outlined by a faint burgundy line to highlight the importance of properly planning and implementing the connection of materials in design.

Mackenzie Piggott

Zooming-In

VIEWING A LANDSCAPE THROUGH A LENS: FOCUSING ON ONE DETAIL AFTER ANOTHER WITHOUT GETTING THE WHOLE PICTURE. THIS IS HOW I OFTEN FIND MYSELF VIEWING LANDSCAPES I VISIT. EACH DETAIL OF A SPACE THAT I CAPTURED THROUGHOUT BOSTON IS REPRESENTED WITHIN THE LENS OF A CAMERA, DEPICTING THE FOCUS ON CERTAIN OBJECTS AND NOT THE ENTIRE PICTURE. I BELIEVE TOURISM TODAY IS VIEWED THROUGH A LENS. FIRST TIME VISITORS TO A SPACE SPEND ALL THEIR TIME TAKING PICTURES AND CAPTURING A SNIPIT OF A SMALL MOMENT; NOT STOPPING TO TAKE IN THE WHOLE PICTURE. THE RED THREAD IS A CONNECTION OF DETAILS. DETAILS THAT EXPLAIN MY VIEW OF THE LANDSCAPES WE VISIT IN BOSTON. A REFLECTION OF THE “SNIPITS” I CAME TO ENJOY, AND CAN IMPLEMENT IN MY FUTURE DESIGNS.

BEN BOISCLAIR

perspective

One of the most incredible ways to express and share space is through the perspective. I am constantly taking photos  of materials, people, structures, and places, to add to my own image library. In my journey through Boston I collected the images that create the perspective here. They are scenes re-imagined and recombined.

Chelsea Andersson

Ari Muca

Before going to Boston our class did a lot of different readings. The term "undesirables" came up often and with a range of meanings. In some instances it meant the homeless, certain ethnicities or skateboarders. While walking through Boston our tour guides took the time to point out features in benches or curbs that tried to prevent "undesirables" from utilizing the space. My red thread is where skateboarding was prevented in the space by designers. I also showed spaces where skateboarding was permitted and sometimes even embraced. Starting at Chinatown Park, going through the Green Way and finally ending at Zakim Bridge. There was a range of prevention designs. A lot of the seating had metal grooves so a skateboarder could not grid along it: certain brick paving with large spaces between the bricks make it difficult for skateboarders to travel, and finally seeing signs that said NO SKATEBOARDING. Design firms like Carol Johnson embraced the cultural of skateboarding and decided to not use any guards while designing the park under the Zakim Bridge. It was interesting to see how many spaces tried to control the type of of park visitors and almost every park we visited in Boston tried to isolate common threads such as skateboarding. 
ARI MUCA

A Thread of Perspective 

The Red Thread throughout my photos taken in Boston seemed to be pretty apparent to myself.  Most of my photos were taken where there is some extension of an object which is used to relay the feeling of depth within the photograph.  The presence of a foreground, midground and background were often times the conditions which needed to be present for myself the take the photo.  Most of my photos also focus on extreme light differences; having extreme black and bright whites in the same photo.  And finally many of my photos were taken as panorama's in order to relay the entire feel of a space when just a single photo was not sufficient.

SEAN P. KERNAN

Finer Details

The red thread linking these images together is the level of detail that can be found in the landscape. These fine details are found in a wide array of applications such as art, paving, signage, and working systems.  With details, the combination of aesthetics and functionality of the material makeup the quality of that detail. In the end, the best details take time to construct and are designed with “attention to detail”

Derek DeFazio      

EYES DOWN, BOSTON MASS.

It is easy to focus on the bells and whistles that make a space enjoyable to be in. I spent some time, while in Boston, documenting things on the ground plane. I think that there is often a better story to be found when investigating what lies beneath your feet.

Joshua Thayer

Red thread

Nathan LaPierre

This series of photographs represents the abandonment and change within the American landscape. Each picture tells a story of what use to be, and all are interconnected through a common narrative. At one time this area was a highly productive agricultural landscape. Since then the land has been sold to the state of New York, and all that remains are remnants of past agricultural use.

blinded by the blue | zach kalette

Polar contrasts 
by luke mancuso

Using black and white photography to emphasize the way I capture the world around me, the red thread that links these photos represents varying contrasting perspectives experienced in that particular moment in time and space. The use of a limited color spectrum highlights my intended focus within the image leaving the viewer to place his or her shoes within the framed moment. 
While exploring a landscape, the views, places, and intentions of the architect often serve as the greatest inspiration for my photography. Imagining how he or she would have imagined people viewing their building or experiencing their landscape at street level promotes my personal exploration of the site. My personal curiosity in an unknown site prompts the camera lens to look at all angles of the space around me and to ask questions through the use of this widely used medium.  
“Architects live and die by the images that are taken of their work” a quote by architectural photographer Julian Shulman exemplifies the way I hope to capture a landscape and bring attention to our profession and the people around us.