Beyond the Brass Plaque: Reinterpreting Rock Creek
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BEYOND THE BRASS PLAQUE: REINTERPRETING ROCK CREEK PARK by MELISSA ANNE KNAUER (Under the Direction of Marianne Cramer) ABSTRACT This thesis is a study of an urban, wilderness park, the National Park Service’s Rock Creek Park in Washington, DC and the ways this park is interpreted. The first part of this thesis discusses landscape interpretation in general and specifically investigates the manifestation of interpretation in Rock Creek Park. It analyzes and discusses the existing interpretation methods the National Park Service uses in the park. Next, it explores new or different methods of interpreting by examining related examples, from art installations, other landscape architecture projects, museum exhibits and land art, that help to expand traditional interpretation. Finally, using the broader ideas about interpretation, it develops schematic design examples of new and creative ways to reinterpret Rock Creek Park. The end goal of this thesis is to develop new methods of interpretation in hopes of reaching more of the variety of users in the Park, giving them a broader understanding of the Park and its resources. INDEX WORDS: Interpretation, Rock Creek Park, National Park Service, Urban Parks BEYOND THE BRASS PLAQUE: REINTERPRETING ROCK CREEK PARK by MELISSA ANNE KNAUER B.A., Randolph-Macon Woman’s College, 1992 A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree MASTER OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE ATHENS, GEORGIA 2004 © 2004 Melissa A. Knauer All Rights Reserved BEYOND THE BRASS PLAQUE: REINTERPRETING ROCK CREEK PARK by MELISSA ANNE KNAUER Major Professor: Marianne Cramer Committee: Brian LaHaie Carter Betz Ian Firth Electronic Version Approved: Maureen Grasso Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia May 2004 DEDICATION This thesis is dedicated to Thomas Rainer, my fiancé. In many ways, this was a team project. Without his love, encouragement (and editing skills!) I might still be revising my outline. A simple thank you does not seem to do it justice. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my parents who supported my decision to pursue landscape architecture since I first mentioned it to them on the shore of Lake Tahoe. Without their love and help, in all of life’s big projects, I don’t know where I would be. My Major Professor, Marianne Cramer provided wonderful support, assistance and the pressure I needed to finish on time. I am very grateful to my classmate and friend Laura Hoffman. I cannot imagine what these three years would have been like without her. Pratt Cassity, Eleonora Machado and the rest of the staff in Public Service and Outreach, thank you for keeping me sane with all the insanity in the office. There were many people who encouraged me as I pursued this degree and profession, Karlyn Bowman, Tracy Thomas, Karen Makkreel and Jim Ludes have free landscape architecture services for life. To the rest of my family and friends that have helped me make it this far, can you believe it? I made it! Thank you so much! v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.............................................................................................................v LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................................... ix CHAPTER 1 SEARCHING FOR PHOSPHORESCENCE................................................................1 2 INTERPRETING INTERPRETATION........................................................................5 DEFINING THE CONCEPT ....................................................................................6 INTERPRETATION INSTITUTIONALIZED BY THE NATIONAL PARK SERVICE ..................................................................................................................7 IS INTERPRETATION STILL RELEVANT?.......................................................11 INTERPRETATION IN TODAY’S NATIONAL PARK SERVICE ....................15 3 INTERPRETATION IN ROCK CREEK PARK ........................................................20 ROCK CREEK PARK CHARACTER DESCRIPTION........................................21 HISTORICAL CONTEXT OF ROCK CREEK PARK..........................................28 VISITORS TO ROCK CREEK PARK...................................................................31 EXISTING INTERPRETATION IN ROCK CREEK PARK ................................34 EVALUATION OF INTERPRETATION IN ROCK CREEK PARK...................52 4 NEW INTERPRETIVE PARADIGMS.......................................................................57 INTERRUPTION....................................................................................................58 Case Study One: Stolpersteine (Stumbling Blocks)..........................................58 vi Case Study Two: Time Landscape....................................................................60 ILLUMINATION....................................................................................................62 Case Study Three: Four Letters Home.............................................................63 Case Study Four: Shore View Points and Voice Library.................................65 Case Study Five: Buttermilk Bottom.................................................................67 IMAGINING...........................................................................................................70 Case Study Six: Kelly Ingram Park..................................................................70 Case Study Seven: The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Exhibits .73 INVOLVEMENT....................................................................................................75 Case Study Eight: Flow City ............................................................................76 Case Study Nine: ‘Marking Places That Matter’ Competition ........................79 5 APPLIED DESIGN STUDIES....................................................................................85 INTERRUPTION Litter Luminaries, Interrupting a Journey .........................................................86 ILLUMINATION Casting Light on Rock Creek Park’s Bridges ....................................................90 IMAGINING (Almost) History of the Park ..............................................................................93 INVOLVEMENT Invasive Involvement ..........................................................................................98 6 CONCLUSION..........................................................................................................104 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................108 APPENDICES .............................................................................................................................113 vii A FREEMAN TILDEN’S SIX GUIDING PRINCIPLES ............................................113 B ADDITIONAL EXAMPLES OF INTERPRETATION DEFINITIONS..................114 C LEGISLATIVE LANGUAGE ESTABLISHING ROCK CREEK PARK & ROCK CREEK AND POTOMAC PARKWAY...................................................................115 FIGURE SOURCES ....................................................................................................................119 viii LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 3.1: View of Rock Creek Park from Taft Bridge ............................................................20 Figure 3.2: Map of the region of Rock Creek Park and Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway.....22 Figure 3.3: Scenes from the park: on a stroll and a community garden in winter.....................23 Figure 3.4: Views of Rock Creek ...............................................................................................24 Figure 3.5: Iconic Boulder Bridge in winter...............................................................................25 Figure 3.6.1: Pebble Dash Bridge, replaced in the 1960’s.............................................................26 Figure 3.6.2: New Massachusetts Avenue bridge and old culvert, 1941.......................................26 Figure 3.6.3: Cast-iron Pennsylvania Avenue aqueduct bridge, rebuilt in 1916 ...........................26 Figure 3.6.4: Iron truss Calvert Street bridge for streetcars on the Rock Creek railway line, replaced in 1935 .......................................................................................................26 Figure 3.7: Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway in 1933 .............................................................27 Figure 3.8: Parkway south of Massachusetts Avenue, circa 1937..............................................28 Figure 3.9: Crossing the creek at Klingle Ford, an early 20th-century photograph ....................32 Figure 3.10: 1957 guided walk in Rock Creek Park.....................................................................36 Figure 3.11: Map of Existing Conditions .....................................................................................39 Figure 3.12: Future Management Plan..........................................................................................40 Figure 3.13: Watershed Map for Rock Creek Park.......................................................................41 Figure 3.14: Average Traffic Volumes (Weekday, 1990) ............................................................42 Figure 3.15: Interpretive Centers & Adjacent Neighborhoods.....................................................43 ix Figure 3.16: Interpretive