WEEK 4: HISTORY, HERITAGE & TOURISM

Let's give 'em something to talk about!

Each week one of our instructors hosts a seminar to “deepen the understanding and discover why where are doing [this studio]” – (Ken Yocom). During these seminars, students are encouraged to freely discuss theories and ideas presented in a set of assigned readings. Apparently we had all had a lot of time to read during last week’s “snow-apocalypse” because the discussion was livelier than ever before! We crammed two huge topics into the hour and a half, touching on Tourism and the difference between History and Heritage.

PhD student and studio instructor, Tyler Sprague, summarized our first set of readings using TIME as the unifying element that ties history together. To illustrate how this can be applied to our site(s), he pointed out that the San Juan Island National Historic Park was founded in 1963 when the Cold War was still fresh in Americans’ minds and the US government was preparing for the Vietnam War. This is an interesting observation considering the mission statement for the park is to “commemorate the historic events associated with the final settlement and peaceful arbitration…” As a class we began theorizing the intentions of the policy makers in creating this park and promoting the idea of peace at that time. We wonder if this drive to highlight on peacefulness is just as pertinent today, with a main park goal being to infuse visitors with a sense of pride, or at least respect, by having a stake in some positive aspect of U.S. history.

Image:This image sparked a discussion about the history of our country and comparing these historical events to the formulatoin of the National Historic Park. We are finding that deciding which histories to reveal while providing an educational and enjoyable park experience, is a tricky balance.

The discussion shifted and we focused on Lowenthal’s article, Fabricating Heritage, and his definition of ‘history’ as an objective truth compared to ‘heritage’ that is understood as a cultural construct merely rooted in history (1). This might first appear too theoretical but museology students chimed in to say that the NPS, and our class, has the opportunity to bind community together by developing a new heritage by pulling out forgotten or ignored information. We continued to admit to ourselves that, although we would like to reveal all of the hidden stories and perspectives of the San Juan Islands, nobody will have “the time, money, or resources to share it all,” (Manish Chalana) – we will have to choose an interpretive theme. And choosing will be yet another puzzle… good thing we have so many minds at work!

Image: San Juan is potent and impressing as both vernacular landscape and a historic site.

As a whole, it seemed that we began to understand the necessity to distill the most pertinent events to comprise this heritage-to-be. We know it will require the cooperation of stakeholders in this land, in giving us their opinions surrounding what theysee as most important to reveal (or not to reveal). This competition project is not solely about what we see as the most pressing details of SJI-NHP, or any National Park for that matter. It is about what the visitors and stakeholders of today and in future generations will be able to effectively apply to their lives. Without a sense of pride in our National Parks, the parks may cease to exist as constructive Heritage Landscapes, which (to quote from one of our previous weekly readings) are “important indicators in the restless search for identity that characterizes Americans as they make the transition from the twentieth to the twenty-first century.” - Richard Francaviglia (2).

1. Lowenthal, David. "Fabricating Heritage." History & Memory: Studies in Representations of the Past. 10.1 (1998): 5-24. Print.

2. Alanen, Arnold R, and Robert Melnick. Preserving Cultural Landscapes in America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000. Print.

WEEK 3: EXAMINATION OF DESIGN PRINCIPLES

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.

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[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.

WEEK 2: THE POWER OF PLACE



What is a National Park? And what is this National Park?

In week 1 we reviewed pages and pages of NPS literature, including the General Management plan for San Juan Island National Historical Park. We understood the Park Service’s definition of this place, as a site that “commemorate[s] the historic events associated with the final settlement and peaceful arbitration of the Oregon boundary dispute,” where the NPS “protects natural resources and provides compatible recreational and educational opportunities.”

Once on San Juan Island, however, we learned that the Park embodies many definitions. Its meanings are as varied as the individuals who hold them. The Park is deeply imbued with thousands of years of history, revealing a rich tradition of human interaction with the land. Only part of this story is currently being told.

The Imagery of Place

The Park evoked vivid associations in the minds of many of us, illustrating the importance of place as an imaginative and emotional, as well as a physical, space. Though our site is deeply grounded in its Pacific Northwest context, we were amazed that the images, words, and concepts it inspired came from many different cultures and many different places. Below are a few selections:

Explorations of Place

When we returned to Seattle we explored ways we might engage these additional—and vital—aspects of our site to resonate with today’s visitors. The National Park Service has set forth a preliminary set of design principles to guide parks in the 21^st century, and in small groups we examined how these principles currently operate and how they might operate in our park in the future. These principles are:

· Reverence for place

· Engagement of all people

· Expansion beyond traditional boundaries

· Advancement of sustainability

· Informed decision-making

· An integrated research, planning, design, and review process

We shared our explorations through slide presentations. One of the most compelling ideas presented was a vision of interpretive stewardship for the park, which links cultural history and ecological literacy. For example, the practice of controlled burning is a way for the NPS to ensure a rich and varied ecosystem in the Park and maintain the threatened Garry oak woodland at English Camp. This practice was also employed by the Native Americans who originally inhabited the islands and might be a fascinating lens through which to interpret historical and current management of the land.

Other groups suggested that a reverence for place can take all forms, and that it would be powerful to capture living histories of the Park and of the Island as part of an expanded interpretation program for the site. We were also reminded of J. B. Jackson’s definition of a cultural landscape as “infrastructure or background for our collective existence . . . which underscores . . . our identity and presence.”

This, then, is our design challenge at San Juan Island National Historical Park: the infrastructure is there, but we need to frame it in such a way that it is meaningful to all. In other words, we need to draw these many threads of meaning together into a resilient, multivalent experience of place.

WEEK 1: ORIENTATION AND DISCOVERY

Getting to Know San Juan Island National Historical Park

Our design studio is underway! We are all back from winter break, ready to get started in our re examination of the San Juan Island National Historic Park. On Wednesday, January 3^rd, we met for the first time as a group. After general introductions, we discovered that we are made up of 7 different disciplines: Landscape Architecture, Urban Design + Planning, Environmental Studies, Quantitative Ecology and Resource Management, Forestry, Museology and Architecture. Such a diverse group is full of potential!

In our first seminar session, we met 3 park staff members who provided background on the NPS, their roles within the organization, and introduced us to the site from their perspective. Park staff included Steve Gibbons - Acting Superintendent of the SJI-NHP, Mike Vouri - Chief of Interpretation, and Jerald Weaver - Chief of Integrated Resources. After a lively presentation session about the park's history, ecology, and the local community, we discussed a number of park priorities. Among the identified priorities were:

-- to provide opportunities for people of all ages to reach their own intellectual and emotional meaning while experiencing park resources

-- to emphasis the story of peaceful conflict resolution of the northwest boundary dispute

-- to address current and future natural resource needs

-- to consider the park's context through time and history

-- conservation and restoration of the historic structures including the earthworks

-- outreach and education to each generation, with a focus on stewardship

-- collaborating with the local community to achieve common goals

Our first week continued on Friday, with discussion of logistics for our first site visit! As we started our discussions, questions began to emerge from the previous presentation:

How can we understand the blurred boundaries between ideas of a neighborhood park and a national park? When and how are interventions appropriate when managing natural resources? How does the idea of “Deep Time” help negotiate historical and contemporary period? What sort of narrative and interpretive priorities are important for today and in the future? Beginning to understand the specific layout of the park, how do we reconcile the physical separation between the two halves of the park? What kinds of facilities are and will be necessary? And how can park experience become more legible and accessible for all?

After the discussions we went back to the studio and received our first assignment. We broke up into smaller groups and considered what the six preliminary design principles meant to us. We would further refine these definitions after our weekend visit to the park leaving at 6:45am the next day!

Finally, we were off to San Juan Island National Historic Park!

Orcas leapt on the horizon as we boarded the ferry, cappuccinos in hand, or so we imagined as we bundled into university vans at 6:45 Saturday morning to make the 9am ferry crossing to the island. Upon arrival, we dropped our gear off at Friday Harbor and headed out for American Camp at the south end of the island. We were greeted once again by Mike Vouri and Jerald Weaver and together we headed out into the rain for our first glimpse of the park.

An intense weekend of discovering the park unfolded, as we were able to experience the beauty of it first-hand. Our visit to the SJI-NHP this past weekend was breathtaking. Everyone was amazed by the wealth of natural beauty at each site, as well as by the simple remnants of the historic military buildings. We were all struck by the difference in physical character and feeling between the two sites. American Camp is seated in an expansive prairie, with open vistas that sweep across the grass, over the Puget Sound, and beyond towards the mountains on the Olympic Peninsula. There was a certain loneliness in the midst of this raw, stark landscape - but also a sense of immense possibility. How did the soldiers stationed at this site during their years of service experience it? And what about the experience of the Coast Salish people before them - what did they think of this immense landscape?

English camp had an entirely different location and feel at the North end of the island. It was wooded, enclosed, and protected in its primly neat cove. While we felt the wind and the open horizon at American Camp, at English Camp we walked through tall, dark Douglas firs and brilliantly colored Pacific Madrone trees. Finally the woodland opened onto a formal garden, neat white buildings and stately old maples. This site had a more established feeling - like a small village or community in comparison to the hard frontier of American Camp. The immense difference in topography, microclimate, and general character between the two sites was far more dramatic than we anticipated - opening up rich possibilities for exploration.

Having the privilege of Mike and Jerald’s personal tour of both American and English Camps (even on their days off) really gave us a rich understanding of the place and commitments people have here. With our initial first impressions, questions related to that unique experience have settled in which we’ll continue to explore through the quarter. Having the variety of disciplines to discuss these questions has made for some really interesting conversations and we are all looking forward to more of it.