Our visit to the New York Public Library was really instructive because it put all the students in contact with physical maps of the Vinegar Hill area. (Before, we were mainly looking on digital versions of maps of that region). We had access to entire books of maps so,  just by flipping a couple of pages,  we also saw many maps from adjacent areas and maps from different decades. It was interesting to learn that those map books used to be updated just by gluing paper with the new information on top of the old maps. Also, it was really fun checking Google Maps and  contrasting it with the books, comparing what was like in the past and how it is right now.

Our visit to the NYPL turned out even better than i expected. Like i said in the pre-site reflection, I have never been to a library bigger than the one at City Tech. The amount of information I was able to collect in that one hour was amazing. My research topic is the built environment of the area, specifically what was there before the Farragut Houses. In the one map book alone, I was able to record with great detail what each building was at the site in 1941. These maps also told us what the buildings were made of, and if there were any commercial spaces in the building. This was exactly what we needed, since the demolition of this area occurred only a few years later. I hope to have the opportunity to go back to the NYPL and look at other maps and resources to further help our research.

This visit was well worth the short trip to the Voorhees building. Our class did plenty of research on the Farragut houses and it’s surrounding areas, documenting our finding on its safety, crime, demographics and so on. It was interesting to see another class who did similar research and used said research to devise a way to better the community. All three groups that presented their findings and solutions to use recognized the desolate nature of the area and realized that focusing on correcting that was key. Some ideas were to try to up the safety factor of the area with wider streets and shorter blocks and to add more commerce buildings, and some wanted to diversify the area into multiple forms of Commerce and residential buildings to try and create an atmosphere of camaraderie amongst community members. I thought all the presentations were well thought out and interesting

Monday’s class visit to the 4th year architecture studio was insightful and impactful It was a great to have the two classes come together to share different projects within a similar topic. I would love to have more opportunities for co-learning environments like this.

A couple interesting pointers:

Professor Duddy pointed out a brilliant idea for additional future collaborations between the two sets of students. What if all the research the students from the ‘Learning places’ course collected of the history to the demographic to the real estate factors of the Farragut Housing from this semester with is shared with next semester’s architecture students who will work on creating a master plan for the area around Farragut Housing, wouldn’t the exchange of information there be extremely helpful in adding to the architecture students’ designs.

Another interesting finding were the solar sun path diagrams one group included in their master plan. They included the Sun’s path it travels from East to West throughout the day and how that factors into where specific buildings are positioned and the type of design to the type of material used for the design. This ties back to what we learned about in our site-visit: sun patterns was one of the reasons behind the architects’ intent when designing the Farragut Housing complex’s star-like shape.

What is most rewarding about interactive learning is regardless of what disciplinary study anyone may be in- how similar or different, we can all take away something new each time when information and ideas are shared. I have definitely gained new perspectives since day one and now I am starting to “see” what seems as everyday objects in an more analytical manner.

I thought the visit to the students of the Urban Design Studio was very interesting and informative. Seeing the different ways that the NYCHA grounds at the Farragut Houses can be better utilized, was an eye opener. I really liked aspects of each teams ideas, in what I would think would be an improvement to the area.