It has been an interesting week here in the Seattle area, thanks to Mother Nature’s blast of snow, ice, and rain that knocked out power, public transit, and shut down the University for three full days. Paired with the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday on Monday, we couldn’t meet as a class for an entire week! Our site at San Juan Island National Historical Park was also blanketed in snow.
Images: UW Campus, January 2012. Photo: University of Washington’s Facebook Album, “Huskies Take Winter 2012 by Storm!” , American Camp, January 2012. Photo: San Juan Island National Historical Park's Facebook Album, “Snow Squalls at American”
Despite not being able to make it to campus, students met virtually and over email in order to complete our second assignment. Our work built upon and delved deeper into the six design principles that we addressed last week. First, we synthesized our definitions and then explored ways that these principles have been implemented in three different settings: 1) San Juan Island National Historical Park (SJI-NHP), 2) another NPS unit, and 3) a site outside the NPS system, with a different interpretive agenda. What resulted was an exploration of a wide array of sites, sites that helped us gain an even broader understanding of our core principles.
Reverence for Place: We defined this design principle as the deep awe, respect, and connectedness by a place, experience, idea, or event that transcends a previous understanding. This group identified three “zones” in which people sense this profound comprehension: the root, the heart, and the head. The examination of this design principle in the case study sites (Devil’s Tower National Monument, SJI-NHP, and New Orleans’ Mardi Gras celebration) revealed both successful strategies and avoidable pitfalls.
Engagement of all People: This principle examines the act of inviting collaboration with individuals and stakeholders in order to represent the broad spectrum of Park qualities on a variety of levels. By looking at their selected sites The Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience (Seattle), People Make Parks (Seattle), Sand Dunes National Park, and Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, they found there are many ways that people can engage with a site, including on local, regional, and global scales, and across time. Each level of involvement engages different modes of learning, accessibility, and participatory experiences.
Advancement of Sustainability: This principle engaged sustainability (a broad term) through ecological literacy. This group found that the leadership of a site or organization directly influences different actions (or inaction) of sustainable practices, as evidenced by the study of The National Trust, Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park, and of course, SJI-NHP.
Expansion Beyond Traditional Boundaries
‘Expansion’ implies a singular manipulation of a boundary, and that the boundary will still exist. We chose to rephrase this design principle: redefining traditional boundaries. This change to the principle allows for a multi-modal approach to boundaries related to SJI-NHP, including actions such as expansion, reinforcement, blurring, breaking, contracting, or overlapping. Boundaries can be divided into two frameworks: social and spatial.
Sites: Alcatraz Island, The EMP Museum, Acadia National Park, and Everglades National Park
Informed Decision Making: As a principle, this process occurs in the understanding of the interests at stake; the hierarchy of information supporting a given course of action; and the processes that turn information into actionable strategies. This group found this to be true with Ebey’s Landing National Historic Reserve, Padilla Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, as well as our own Park of study.
Integrated Research, Planning, Design and Review Process: This process should be a collaborative and iterative process among NPS and the community to guide the evolution of SJI+NHP. An integrated approach will ensure that our developments are congruent with overarching design principles, as well as SJI+NHP’s foundation statements, cultural and geographic resources, and needs of stakeholders. The selected sites were specifically the San Juan Island Prairie Restoration, the Grand Teton National Park, Craig Thomas Discovery and Visitor Center, as well as Open Space Seattle 2100.
Visitor Experience: This design principle was added as a result of our discussion in Week 2, felt to be a necessary component of our design. This group found that choice is a key component of visitor experience. We will integrate this component by creating opportunities for active and passive enjoyment, engagement, and reflection on the park’s unique character, while allowing a range of choices that ultimately encourage the visitor to determine the nature of their own visit. The sites examined were the Grand Teton National Park Discovery and Visitor Center, Kolumba Museum, Cologne, Germany, Colonial National Historic Park, and the Louisiana Museum of Art, Denmark.
A Brief Literature Review
In addition to our examination of the design principles, our class read several selected readings to assist our discovery, specifically in the area of heritage and history. As a National Historical Park, history and our engagement with it, plays a large role in our process.
"Fabricating History" by David Lowenthal emphasizes the important differences between history and heritage:“…heritage should not be confused with history. History seeks to convince by truth, and succumbs to falsehood. Heritage exaggerates and omits, candidly invents and frankly forgets…Time and hindsight alter history, too…heritage not only tolerates but thrives on historical error. Falsified legacies are integral to group identity and uniqueness…”[1]
Albeit a pessimistic view that we often conveniently forget facets of history that are less than becoming, does this mean that we can never do the past justice? Not necessarily. Other historic sites like the Mount Rushmore National Memorial and the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument are taking active steps to tell a broader narrative across time and cultures. This article is an important reminder to us as we envision the future of San Juan Island Historical Park as one that includes the rich and diverse history and heritage of the site.
Other readings addressed the impacts of history and heritage on cultural and vernacular landscape.
The National Park Service defines a historic vernacular landscape as follows:
“a landscape that evolved through use by the people whose activities or occupancy shaped that landscape. Through social or cultural attitudes of an individual, family or a community, the landscape reflects the physical, biological, and cultural character of those everyday lives. Function plays a significant role in vernacular landscapes.” http://www.nps.gov/hps/tps/briefs/brief36.htm
Susan Carrette Boyle adds that vernacular landscapes illustrate “people’s values and attitudes toward the land, and reflect patterns of settlement, use and development.” She argues that including an understand of vernacular landscape adds an important level of nuance needed to protect and preserve landscapes.
We hope to build on this nuance in the week ahead, as we move ahead and begin considering the history and narratives that are visible at the San Juan Island National Historic Park.
[1] David Lowenthal, “Fabricating History,” History and Memory, vol. 10, no. 1 (Spring 1998): 5-24.
[2] Boyle, Susan C. "Natural and Cultural Resources: The Protection of Vernacular Landscapes." In Cultural Landscapes: Balancing Nature and Heritage in Preservation Practice, Richard Longstreth, 150-163. St. Paul: University of Minnesota Press, 2008.
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