My Notes:
- National Land Survey 1787, Jefferson, divide land, each a square mile (640 acres). Created a landscape. Did not take into account/make adjustments for rivers, hills, marshland. .
- The grid a way to organize, not live by. When it was planned, a view from above was not possible.
- America had acquired a vast amount of space - needed to organize it. This space was free of factories and cities - romance of open space. We took the land - driven by desire/romance of space/freedom - which turned to greed.
- Roads not part of plan. Pioneers - wheeled transportation rare, followed Indian trails by foot or horseback. Eventually roads outline the grid - rough, unkept.
- "…the road is a very powerful space; and unless it is handled very carefully and constantly watched, it can undermine and destroy the existing order." Roads could lead people with ill intentions to a place.
- 17th century - increase in wagons/carriages - new type of road to accommodate. Also, new farming methods and urban sprawl - travel to get food to people.
- Archetypal road - serves daily needs and preserves ethical values of community. Territorial instinct.
- New roads disrespect the grid. Sinuous layout. Eliminates right of passage.
- "…the gradual but total destruction of the distinction between the life of the street and the life behind the facade. What has taken place is the elimination of those immemorial rites of passage that were once the hallmarks of our culture. Those architectural monuments - the church, the university, the office or place of work, the public building, the restricted residential area, all once characterized by a degree of isolation and internal privacy, are now wide open and accessible to the street."
- "For what makes the landscape so impressive and beautiful is that the it teaches no copybook moral, no ecological or social lesson. It simply tells us that there is another of of measuring time." p. 17
- "They knew their landscape by heart." p. 20
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