I supervised nine students who were interested in my project on Urban Natures. I organised a day of tours with local experts and then oversaw their personal research projects through the rest of the week.
Ultimately they got more "nature" than they bargained for. The white stuff on the Highline below is snow. And this a day after sunburns. That's NYC in March for ya.
We looked at three urban parks: The Highline (an elevated rail line recreated as an urban park using native planting), Inwood Hill Park (the last "natural" forest on Manhattan), and Central Park (a major social and physical engineering project), to question the urban/nature binary, to see how the idea of "nature" is constructed in these places, and to consider how these parks can be seen as artefacts of social and political currents.
Here we are with Central Park's Senior Landscape Architect.
And by Bethesda Fountain in the Park.
And here we are with very wet feet at Inwood Hill with the Deputy Director of Natural Resources from NYC Parks & Rec and the Admin of Northern Manhattan Parks.
My students were real troopers -- virtually no complaints and a number of very interesting projects.
My Roommate Graca and I also braved blizzards for our staff meetings sans complaint.
