Walking in Washington Square Park

Walking in Washington Square Park

Entering through the arched entrance was like stepping into a new world where all the industrial sounds of New York City became mute. Having the assignment of making observations of movement in dogs, people, bikes, etc., I just sat on a bench and just examined how everything that had life moved in relation to everything else.

Daniel Liebeskind's stance on how spaces should NOT follow a master plan, and that since we are a democracy, each person's idea of order should be able to exist in a city is shown through the quote on the arch, "ERECTED BY THE PEOPLE OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK." People know democracy as a government structure which the people have an equal saying and in which a man I interviewed said, "democracy is something by the people." Liebeskind too think that the allowing of different people's ideas to emerge over time is a way to help transform our cities, but that coming up with some master plan to transform a city is not going to work.

While walking through the park, I made various observations. From the multiple observations, I liked how there was a fountain in the center; but in addition to liking the fountain, I liked how it was round so that people can see one another possibly starting a conversation while enjoying the fountain. While I was sitting there drawing, I made eye contact with everyone. This showed me that everybody else would make eye contact with one another also. I feel like the fountain was built for a social purpose in that it had steps and it's said to have been a place for gatherings.

Along with the fountain, I liked the nature it was surrounded by with. One of the people I interviewed defined the word park with "beautifully planted area that is taken care of" and another "place for people to relax and where there's little concrete also surrounded by nature." In both of these people's definition of park has words that has to do with the greenness of nature. I loved how some areas of the park had shades created by the large trees. A group of trees can't be really seen anywhere except the parks.

Having been in New York for about 3 weeks, I see that there's not enough grass or green within the city except the few parks. A lot of people walk there dogs on the sidewalks which I'm not used to because down in Georgia, we just let them loose on the front yard that is filled with green grass. In the parks, there are dog parks for those dog owners who want to play with their dogs while they're not leashed but loose. Since there is no space within the city, the dog parks are places for dogs to actually round around and grab some fresh air away from the sidewalks they walk on everyday. The creation of dog parks values the life of dogs and understands the love for them.

Furthermore, there are so many characteristics and objects