‘The Ruins of Detroit’ were once Motor City’s cathedrals

 By Claire Lambrecht

Detroit once served as a paragon of American ingenuity. Today, however, it’s a city that is easy to write off. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, between 2000 and 2010, 237,493 people left the Motor City. Over the same time period, just 140,845 people left New Orleans.
Detroit, however, can’t blame its vacant buildings and abandoned houses on the weather. Instead, it has become a favorite proxy for discussions about America as a whole: of Main Streets and blue collars, of outsourcing and free trade, of urban renewal and urban decay.
Yves Marchand and Romaine Meffre document this tension in their book The Ruins of Detroit. Their photographs — including “Michigan Central Station,” “Fisher Body 21,” “William Livingstone House,” and “Classroom, St Mary’s School” — tell a story beyond the political elections or theories of decline. Instead, Marchand and Meffre approach Detroit with the curiosity of one generation trying to decipher the one that came before.
“Even though the buildings are not religious,” Meffre said in the March/April issue of Intelligent Life, “they express a belief in the future and in the system. They are their cathedrals. They have a sort of naivety, a dream, an awareness of destiny that is a bit like religious belief.”
[via Intelligent Life]

Michigan Central Station, Detroit (Yves Marchand and Romaine Meffre/Reprinted with permission)

Fisher Body 21 (Yves Marchand and Romaine Meffre/Reprinted with permission)

William Livingstone House, Detroit (Yves Merchand and Romaine Meffre/Reprinted with permission)

Classroom, St Margaret Mary School (Yves Marchand and Romaine Meffre/Reprinted with permission)

Photos: Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre. Reprinted with permission.

Read More

The 10 best cities for parks in the world

 By Rachel James

As the earth’s population explodes at a barely comprehensible rate, cities are only going to get denser. This means more cars, more traffic, more noise, more neighbors above and below you, and more pollution of all kinds. In fact, as of 2008 for the first time in world history more people live in cities than in rural areas.
This is stressing a lot of people out. One quick fix? Go to the park. Parks are relaxing. Parks are like majestic clearings in the forest, only they are surrounded by amenities that help us survive now that we have almost no practical survival skills.
Thanks to Charis Atlas Heelan at Frommer’s here is a list of the world’s ten best cities for parks:

1. New York, New York

The setting for so many films and TV series, Manhattan’s Central Park is the city’s best known patch of green. A tourist attraction in its own right, the park stretches some 60 city blocks and covers close to 850 acres. Within the park, you’ll find a zoo, lakes, botanic gardens, ice-skating rinks, concert venues — and priceless views of the surrounding skyscrapers. Also in Manhattan is the lovely wooded Tryon Park, and if you are lucky enough to know someone with a key, take a stroll through the gated and private Gramercy Park. Venture into another borough to uncover the beauty of Brooklyn’s Prospect Park and Brooklyn Botanic Gardens or the stunning Pelham Bay Park in the Bronx.
Best Time to Visit: A park for all seasons — fall for the hues of red, orange, and yellow foliage; winter for snow-covered trees and ice-skating; spring for tulip bulbs and pink and white blossoming trees; summer for picnicking on Sheep Meadow and concerts on the Great Lawn.

2. Barcelona, Spain

Parc Güell is a visually stunning combination of park and innovative architectural and sculptural forms, courtesy of Barcelona native and design genius Antoní Gaudí. The largest of Barcelona’s parks is Parc de la Ciutadella, which has two museums, a zoo, and summer music festivals. The smaller but decorative Parc Laberint (Labyrinth Park) is an 18th-century maze of hedges, pavilions, ornamental railings, and statues of mythological figures. And on Montjuïc near the Olympic stadium, you’ll find Jardins Mossèn Costa i Llobera (home to hundreds of varieties of cacti) and the Jardins Mossèn Cinto Verdaguer (where 100,000 plants bloom throughout the year).
Best Time to Visit: Throughout the year, but in summer the parks host plenty of events, festivals, music, and other entertainment.

3. London, England

Hyde Park is the city’s largest, with 350-plus acres along a lake, boat rentals, horseback riding, Speakers’ Corner, and the Princess Diana Memorial. The 250-acre Kensington Gardens has majestic tree-lined promenades and views of Kensington Palace, while St. James’s Park is ostensibly Buckingham Palace’s “front yard.”
Best Time to Visit: Autumn is particularly colorful, spring sees an explosion of color and fragrance, and summer brings music, events, festivals and long days for relaxing walks. Check calendars for royal processions and other regal events in the parks.

4. Paris, France

Luxembourg Gardens is one of those quintessentially romantic Paris spots — Luxembourg Palace against a backdrop of a lake, fountains, and rows of imposing trees. Jardin des Tuileries, in the 1st arrondissement, is in an equally postcard-perfect location along the Right Bank of the Seine River. Its neo-classical gardens were laid out in the 17th century with a broad central avenue and geometric design topiary. The city’s largest park is Le Bois de Boulogne, an adaptation of London’s Hyde Park. On a sunny day, this 2,200-acre reserve in the 16th arrondissement is full of cyclists, picnickers, strolling couples, rowers, and pétanque players.

Best Time to Visit: Paris in springtime is famous with good reason.

5. Munich, Germany

Bare bottoms aside, the 18th-century English Garden (Englischer Garten) is a breathtaking sight. It was the first public garden on the European continent and is still considered the largest city-owned park in Europe. Sit on the lawns, stop for tea on the plaza near the Chinese pagoda, feed the ducks on the lake, or enjoy a pint at one of the beer gardens. The nearby Botanischer Garten (Botanic Garden) features 54 acres and 15,000 varieties of flora. Further away from the city center, the historic Hirschgarten is now known more for its massive beer garden than for its greenery, but deer still roam there.

Best Time to Visit: Parks are open throughout the year but are best enjoyed during the spring and summer months.

6. Chicago, Illinois

Fronting Lake Michigan, Grant Park is one of the city’s finest green spaces. The 300-acre park, which includes Buckingham Fountain, hosts a number of high-profile festivals and events (including U.S. President Barack Obama’s ground-breaking presidential acceptance speech). Adjoining Grant Park is the relatively new Millennium Park, which offers a Frank Gehry-designed outdoor music pavilion, the iconic Cloud Gate sculpture, and an ice-skating rink. Lincoln Park is another Chicago institution, with a lakefront theatre, a zoo, a bird sanctuary, and a lagoon with paddleboats.

Best Time to Visit: In summer, cool off and get wet under the fountains at Millennium Park and enjoy a slew of events and festivals in Chicago’s parks. In winter, bring your sled or skates to Lincoln Park to enjoy the best outdoor experiences.

7. San Francisco, California

Golden Gate Park covers more than 1,000 acres and has a Japanese Tea Garden, the Conservatory of Flowers, world-class museums, botanic gardens, and more. Leisure activities range from archery to golf, and everything in between. The Presidio — made up of 1,000 acres of wildflower meadows, gardens, and forest groves — offers incomparable views of the Golden Gate Bridge.
When: Throughout the year.

8. Melbourne, Australia

Visit the Royal Botanic Gardens for its 12,000-plus species of plants, trees and flowers, the romantic Treasury Gardens, the greenhouses of the Fitzroy Gardens, Birrarung Mar along the Yarra River, and Flagstaff Gardens. Spy black swans, and breathe in the scent of eucalyptus trees.
Best Time to Visit: Spring for the sight of dozens of brides in long flowing white dresses; summer for picnics and movies in the park.

9. Tokyo, Japan

Separated from the main gardens of the Imperial Palace by a moat, Hibiya Park is Tokyo’s premier “Western-style” park, with fountains, ponds, winding paths, flowerbeds, sculptures, and an open air-concert hall. For a more traditional garden, visit Hama-rikyu Gardens in the Shiodome area with its magnificent Edo-period tidal pond design; Kiyosumi Gardens, a typical Japanese feudal-lord garden with a pond, clock tower, artificial hills and rocks (Kiyosumi-shirakawa Station); and Mukojima-Hyakkaen Gardens, an early 19th-century design with a small temple, a shrine, and a playground (Higashi-mukojima Station).
Best Time to Visit: Spring for cherry blossom trees; fall for the changing autumn leaves.

10. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Highlights include Wissahickon Valley Park with 50 miles of rugged terrain for mountain bikers and hikers, plus trout fishing in Wissahickon creek; Pennypack Park along the Delaware River; the Azalea Garden; Boathouse Row; Batram’s Garden; the Japanese House and Garden; Franklin D. Roosevelt Park (”The Lakes”); and East and West Parks.
Best Time to Visit: Get the most out of Philly’s parks and outdoor spaces during the spring, summer, and early fall.

[Images via Frommer's]

Read More

Safe playgrounds now, more phobias later

By Rachel James

The debate about safety-first playgrounds rages on. But the hecklers of the 1990s now have a wealth of research to draw from. And nostalgia backed by science might be just the ticket needed to save the endangered parklands of the classic playground.


 
Rubberize the concrete? We might actually be asking for more injuries. Lower the the height of the jungle gym? Research shows we are raising future levels of psychopathology.
Last year, John Tierney of the New York Times asked, “Are playgrounds too safe?” According to the journal Evolutionary Psychology, Tierney reports “risky play mirrors effective cognitive behavioral therapy of anxiety.”
There is a reason children seek thrills - an evolutionary reason.
“While a youthful zest for exploring heights might not seem adaptive,” writes Tierney, “— why would natural selection favor children who risk death before they have a chance to reproduce? — the dangers seemed to be outweighed by the benefits of conquering fear and developing a sense of mastery.”
“Paradoxically,” the journal writes, “we posit that our fear of children being harmed by mostly harmless injuries may result in more fearful children and increased levels of psychopathology.”
Tierney further reports that the risk of some common injuries actually increases with the introduction of softer materials to playgrounds.
“There is no clear evidence that playground safety measures have lowered the average risk on playgrounds,” said David Ball, a professor of risk management at Middlesex University in London.
“This sounds counterintuitive, but it shouldn’t, because it is a common phenomenon,” Ball says, “If children and parents believe they are in an environment which is safer than it actually is, they will take more risks. An argument against softer surfacing is that children think it is safe, but because they don’t understand its properties, they overrate its performance.”
Could innovative design strategies balance the fears of the old and the blandness of the new? The fact is, safety-first playgrounds do not seem as fun. Would you look at a low rubber slope and say, “Whoa, I need to climb that!”
Maybe if more playgrounds appealed to our childlike sense of narrative wonder this fine balance could be struck. Beauty and grace would appear as oft overlooked design factors and we’d see more parks like The Blue Whale in Plikta park in Gothenburg, Sweden, and the The Forest of Cherry Blossoms at Moerenuma Park in Hokkaido, Japan.
Hopefully the following outstanding playgrounds - some dating back to the 1970s - will challenge debaters to take up design in a seriously playful way.
The Blue Whale in Plikta park in Gothenburg, Sweden. Designed by Monstrum:

The Brumleby playground, Copenhagen. Designed by Monstrum:

The Forest of Cherry Blossoms at Moerenuma Park, Hokkaido, Japan. Designed by Isamu Noguchi:

Toa Payoh Lorong 6 playground, Singapore. Designed in 1979 by Khor Ean Ghee:

[via The New York Times; Flavorwire]
Images: Flavorwire; creative commons

Read More