For Yasemin, Arif & Omer: Fairmount Public Greenspace

Here are all the lovely places that are within Fairmount Park!! There are some very beautiful properties around :)

 

 

Bartram's Garden

 

 

 

Centennial Arboretum

 

Philadelphia Horticulture Center

Japanese House and Garden (Shofuso)

Waterworks



Shofuso: Japanese House and Garden

Heizaemon Ito, appointed to oversee the construction in Nagoya, Japan in January 1953 and pre-assembles it in preparation for its journey to New York.  Before Shofuso (Japanese House and Garden) made its appearance on the western banks of Fairmount Park, it was the publics favorite "House in the Garden" exhibition featured at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. 



The arrival of the Japanese House at the MoMA 

 

The Japanese House

 

The "Japanese House in the Garden" at the MoMA was officially open to the public June 19th 1954.  After attracting a quarter of a million viewers within 2 seasons (almost 3 times the amount of visitors of the other two houses that were featured), it was closed on October 16th 1955.  There were many offers as to the permanent relocation of Shofuso, but after much time and consideration Fairmount Park was finally appointed as its new home.

 

 

 

The Nio-mon Gate, also known as 'The Japanese Pagota' stood in the exact location where Shofuso stands today.  It was originally shown at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St Louis in 1904, but was relocated to Philadelphia 1908.  Funded by John T. Morris, a traditional Japanese style garden was built around it, which included a lotus pond in 1909.  After thriving for over 4 decades, a fire burnt down the actual Nio-mon Gate structure on October 19th 1958, leaving the surrounding gardens to be the perfect home for Shofuso.

 

 

 

The master minds behind Shofuso are Junzo Yoshimura being the main architect, Tansai Sano who was responsible for landscaping and garden design, and finally the master carpenter Heizaemon Ito building the original structure in Nagoya in 1949.  With the 17th century Shoin-Zukuri inspired design, the Japanese-American Society was able to raise about $51,000 to represent the classic architecture as precisely as you would see it in Japan.  This included the use of "hinoki" (cypress wood) that was specially harvested by The National Forestry Agency of Japan for this project.

 

Shofuso Interiors

 

 

Here is a map of Fairmout Park where you can see all the hot spots.

 





 











In the mind of a Serial Killer

Apart from my very strong desire of not wanting to follow someone, I was "inspired" after watching the movie The Lovely Bones.  The distorted thinking of a serial killer is almost frighteningly clever and but mostly disturbing.  I realized it takes a great deal of time and tracking of a single person before a serial killer attacks its prey.  Based off of this idea I decided to take a series of pictures of myself from a stalkers point of view. 



Cosmopolitan

Google/Oxford Dictionaries

Adjective

familiar with and at ease in many different countries and cultures.

 

The Free Dictionary.com

adj.

1. Pertinent or common to the whole world

2. Having constituent elements from all over the world or from many different parts of the world

3. So sophisticated as to be at home in all parts of the world or conversant with many spheres of interest

4. Ecology Growing or occurring in many parts of the world; widely distributed.

 

Macmillan Dictionary:

1.      used about a place where people from many different countries and cultures live
2.      used about someone who has traveled a lot and knows about different societies and cultures

Collins Dictionary:

noun
a person who has lived and travelled in many countries, esp one who is free of national prejudices

adjective

having interest in or familiar with many parts of the world

sophisticated or urbane

composed of people or elements from all parts of the world or from many different spheres

My Opinion:

I’ve never taken the time to look  up the actual definition of what Cosmopolitan actually means.  Up until the moment that I researched the meaning of the word, I had a completely different understanding and definition of the word.  I thought it referred only to urban environments and city life (best example, New York city is a cosmopolitan city), but I see now that I was concentrated on the wrong aspect of the definition.  Cosmopolitan has maybe become my new favorite word J

Democracy

Merriam-Webster

 noun \di-ˈmä-krə-sē\

: a form of government in which people choose leaders by voting

The Free Dictionary:

n. pl.de·moc·ra·cies

1. Government by the people, exercised either directly or through elected representatives.

2. A political or social unit that has such a government.

3. The common people, considered as the primary source of political power.

4. Majority rule.

5. The principles of social equality and respect for the individual within a community.

 

Dictionary.com:

noun, plural de·moc·ra·cies.

1. government by the people; a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system.  

3.a state of society characterized by formal equality of rights and privileges.

4. political or social equality; democratic spirit.

5. the common people of a community as distinguished from any privileged class; the common people with respect to their political power.

 

The United Nations:

Democracy provides an environment for the protection and effective realization of human rights. These values are embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and further developed in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which enshrines a host of political rights and civil liberties underpinning meaningful democracies.

 

The US Department of State

Democracy and respect for human rights have long been central components of U.S. foreign policy. Supporting democracy not only promotes such fundamental American values as religious freedom and worker rights, but also helps create a more secure, stable, and prosperous global arena in which the United States can advance its national interests. In addition, democracy is the one national interest that helps to secure all the others. Democratically governed nations are more likely to secure the peace, deter aggression, expand open markets, promote economic development, protect American citizens, combat international terrorism and crime, uphold human and worker rights, avoid humanitarian crises and refugee flows, improve the global environment, and protect human health.

My Opinion:

I find it interesting that all the definitions state “social and political equality” but from what I can observe in our society today, though we have a governmental system that allows the sovereign of the people to choose their candidates to represent our voice, our individual voices aren’t heard.  Social equality is still an issue and still practiced by those who we hold as "valuable".  In my opinion, we haven’t 100% accomplished what we promised the people as a nation.

 

Manyunk Walk

~Cross the street and turn right

~Go into Meadowsweet Mercantile

 

 

~Leave and continue in same direction

~Once you see Reichert co. Printers (antique painted sign

 

enter parklet and turn left onto toe path

 

once you see a painted wall, walk up stairs on the right.  cross the street and go back to yogurt place

 

(I thought it was interesting to see a mural of nature mixed with actual nature.  Although it's only a synthetic and representative image of the essence of nature, you still feel a little more connected and could certainly be considered green public space)

Nature: Green Public Space

 

The choice of green pblic space that I chose to photograph were the ones that represented the unconventional and overlooked green public space.  Though humans will continue to demolish and take of nature with cement, bricks, metal and industrialization,  nature is still stronger in that it will always find a way to flourish.  No matter the conditions, in time nature will reclaim its position.