Flowing Cityscapes
Our group chose the Burke Gilman Trail to explore the idea of city sharing. On the day we walked the trail, it was overcast and bitterly cold. We started out at the corner of 15th Ave and Pacific Street and walked to Gasworks Park. The trail offered different views, people’s activities, buildings, animals and vegetation all coalescing and intersecting along the sequence.
Generally the trail has blurry boundaries, fusing the natural environment and people, with an indistinct line between public and private land. The trail abuts apartment homes, street intersections, public art, views of the city and pocket parks. There was a portion of the trail where the boundary was not blurred, and compressed as we passed a construction site, and under a bridge next to the Wall of Death.
The trail also incorporates a multi-sensory experience. Overall the path offers beautiful views and a connection to the environment, which is both psychologically healing and visually pleasing. The site encourages people who are out exercising and experiencing the beauty that the city and the trail have to offer. The views of the city and green vegetation are relaxing. Everyone who passed the construction site shared the overwhelming acrid odor. People hear the noise of traffic passing under the bridge. The space compresses under a blanket in shadows, the art suggests a darker side to the sequence.
For us the Burke Gilman trail connects the diverse character of the city with the people in the city. At the end of our sequence, Gasworks Park stood as a landmark connecting the trail with culture, history, ecology and cityscape.
By: Gabriel Cash, Guanyi Gao, Zhehang Lin
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