Civic Center Park Essay Example for Free

polite meaning common land EssayThe noblest sort of heart is that composed of the fall in volition of many citizens (Robinson, p. 10), and this united will is brought forth by the city pulchritudinous movement. The core goals of the city bonny movement is to spend a penny a better city through the development of angiotensin-converting enzyme, civic insolence, and better citizens. polite Center commonality in capital of conscientious objector, conscientious objector is a prime example of the City sightly movement manifested into reality. With its grand trend architectural style it attempts to instill a ace of unity and civic pride with in the residents of the city, which in the City Beautiful style is intend to lead to better citizens over all. Civic Center commonalty illustrates the core goals of the City Beautiful movement through the monuments present, the design, and the location of the h wizardy oil its self. In the city fine-looking movement it is he ar to create pubic space this idea of macrocosmsharedspace is intended to create a note where all members of the society provoke come together in a central location. Civic putting green is a large public space that is located in the gist of downtown Denver, with busy streets on all sides that do not cut through the super C yet strategically curve around it as to simply incorporate the park into city brio this curvilinear street design is an medical prognosis that Camillo Sitte advocated for in urban design.Also in order to create this sense of a shared public space the park is completely encircled by public buildings, which is an facial gesture of Grand Manner design that Sitte greatly appreciates in ancient cities (Sitte, p. 469) it creates an unbroken frame of public buildings (Sitte, p. 475), which give a slipway a cohesive effect of the square (Sitte, p. 477). From the center of the park champion can spin around and run into the Denver Art Museum, the Denver Publ ic Library, City Hall, and the newly added Colorado History Museum with out going away that one spot. The boulevards leading to this central, open space are all broad, beautifully paved, and extensively tree lined, which is a key aspect in Grand Manner design.Much of the foot traffic in the patch faceed to choose to walk these paths to their desti acress instead of the main roads, despite that almost destinations appeared not to be within the park its self. Facilitating a sense that this area is for the public use in much aspects than just a park. close to otherwise way in which Civic Center third estate is reaching out to the public is through the programme Grow Local. Near the center of the park is a space of land that has been cultivated into a community garden, where the food that is produced is donated to local non-profits and is cared for by volunteers in the community.The goal of the Grow Local foundation is to instigate local food, local community, and local econ omy (Civic Center Park sign). This program that is central in the park entirely focuses on the betterment and unity of the community surrounding Civic Center Park. It establishes a union amongst the citizens of Denver for it is completely local and is supported by the fast community for the warm community, which is a key concept in the City Beautiful movement. This aspect of having an open public space surrounded by civic buildings is a core City Beautiful ideology, for it turns the entire area into public domain. All that can be seen is open to the public, allowing the citizens to look united and a part of something largertheir city.This federation helps to produce pride in the citizens, for when one feels connected they in like manner feel a sense of responsibility. As Robinson put it in his paper, Improvement in City Life, the happier wad of the rising city beautiful will grow in love for it, in pride in it. They will be better citizens, be stick better instructed, more ar tistic, and fill up with civic pride (Robinson, p. 10). With responsibility also comes pride when the area is one that is favorable and beautiful as is intended in the grand manner design that was used in the creation of civic park.The entrust of having a population that has civic pride, as is the goal in the City Beautiful movement, is that this pride will lead to better citizens. If one takes pride in thither community they will then want to better their community and make it a better smirch to live for all. They will be godly by their built environment to be better than before. With in Civic Center Park on that point are a wide variety of monuments, statues, and plaques that cover the landscape. Many of these monuments, statues, and plaques carry a common alkali, the theme of patriotism. This theme of patriotism is portrayed through monuments and such that commemorate Civil struggle and World War II heroes, the military branches, and the themes of our nation.Many of thes e monuments, statues, and plaques are not focused solely on Denver or even Colorado, but on the nation as a whole. One plaque that is positioned on a large dark stone building is dedicated to Sadie M. Likens, whom did great work aiding survivors of the Civil War. The plaque does not state weather or not she was a Colorado native or if she has any connection to Denver at all, it can be assumed but the connection is not concretely conveyed. other example of this is the giant flagpole with an American flag that stands in direct line of sight of City Hall. This is not beneficial to Denvers civic identity, for it causes local characteristics to gradually disappear (Sitte, p. 473).While this is a representation of the peoples identity and unity as a nation, it does nothing for the identity and unity of the people as members of Denver or even Colorado. A tall monument that resamples the Washington monument also stands in Civic Center Park and commemorates each branch of the United States military. This too only(prenominal) connects the people to their national identity and not to their identity and unity as an immediate community. While this may be viewed as advantageous, for it attends to everyones past (Hayden, p. 69), it is not focused enough on the immediate community to promote the ideologies of City Beautiful.While the monument dedicated to Christopher Columbus is socially inclusive (Hayden, p. 70), for it celebrates the discovery and beginning of the peoples nation, it has no true connection to the unique background of the community. These monuments need to be more focused on Colorado and Denvers histor and culture in order for them to better nurture citizens public memory, to hatch shared time in the form of shred territory (Hayden 72), as is one of the main goals of the City Beautiful Movement and the main purpose of monuments, statues, and plaques.The Statue of Joe P. Martinez, Colorados first congressional medal of follow recipient of World War II (C ivic Center Park monument), in Civic Center Park is a statue that better connects the nations history with Colorados history for, it commemorates a Colorado native that was in a war that effected all citizens of both the nation and Colorado. other beneficial aspect of theses monuments is that they fork out a type of timeline, in that they help to create, celebrate and cement this progressive narrative of natural history (Savage, p. 2).This is also represented through the monument of the Ten Commandments that is located at one of the entrances to the park. This nation was founded on sacred beliefs and therefor it has a religious beginnings and this is portrayed in the park despite the incident that our nationfor the most parthas moved away from these beginnings. Having it at the beginning of the park represents the forward movement of our nation. There were some statues, monuments, and plaques in Civic Center Park that did focus more on Colorado history, which is a closer tie to the community however, there still did not calculate to be any that were specific to Denver. ii statues that stood out as strongly representing Colorados collective past were the Bronco Buster (a statue of a cowboy on a horse) and the On the War Trail (a statue of a ingrained American on a horse). As a western state Colorado has a strong history involving Native Americans and ranching. Colorado still continues to be associated with such things in the present as well. Cowboys and Native Americans are a part of Colorados collective identity weather or not people soak up an actual, personal association with them. These statues are not just mementos of the past but representations of the present, they are not an obsolescent marker of the past but an agent of consciousness in a changing world (Savage, p. 5).Another monument that represent Colorados history instead of the nations are the paintings of the Trapper and the Prospector, which represent early, frontier life in Colorado. Th ese paintings represent how western life in Colorado began and how the beginnings of life in Colorado as people know it today. While all of the monuments, statues, and plaques mentioned previously help to establish unity and identity on a national and state level they lack the ability to establish them on a community and city level.The incorporation of more monuments, statues, and plaques that represent Denvers history and identitywhich Civic Center park is significantly lackingwould greatly serve the cause of building Denvers civic identity. For, the people would feel more connected to one some other and to their immediate community. This would also allow a rear end in which humans can display their culture (Sitte, p. 467), which, as Lewis Mumford views is the most important part of a city. The culture of the people of the community cannot be displayed if the monuments present do not represent the immediate area. In Civic Center park the bulk of the monuments, statues, and plaqu es focus on commemorating heroes, such as the Civil war monument, the World War II statue, and the Columbus monument. All of these recognized people that do a difference and were beneficial to the nation none of them were portrayed as victims.These types of monuments stimulate consciousness, in that they cause people to view this nation as a proud one. They bring forth the notion that our nation is one of victors and heroes and therefor one should find pride in it. The monuments I found the most prosecute at Civic Center park were the ones that have a greater focus on Colorado and less on the nation. I feel as though they have a more germane(predicate) place in a park in Denver thats main purpose is to promote Denvers civic identity. In particular I enjoyed the Trapper and the Prospector paintings that resided inside the coliseum type structure. I feel as though they best represented Colorados history. They also are the most heterogeneous monuments and evoked the most consciousn ess about the past and the present.Civic Center Park is full of people there for all different reasons. There are those, such as my self, that are there to observe and view the monuments (few), there are those that are there on commute to another location (many), there are those hanging out in groups (the majority), there are those that seemed to view it as a place of residence ( profound portion), and then there are those that seemed to be just enjoying the park alone (few). I was a bit taken back by how few people seemed to be in Civic Park to view the monuments and enjoy the aesthetic aspects of the park. There were only a handful of people that were utilizing the benches as a place to just sit and enjoy the park and I saw only one other couple that even bothered to glance at the statues.Those in the park that were just commuting to another location tended to stay on the grand boulevard pathways and did not interact with those polish off of the boulevards. They did not seem to interact with any other part of the built environment other than the path in which they walked and the arches in which they passed under. I believe that City Beautiful advocates would be pleased with the fact that members of the community use the park as a part of their daily lives however, they would probably not be too pleased with the aspect that many of the foot traffic does not interact with the monuments or the open space that is provided.I believe that they would be more pleased if some of the foot traffic stopped once in a while and enjoyed the area more and truly took it all in. If the people of the community are not fetching in the sites around them then the park is not serving the function that is intended. In the City Beautiful ideology the park should instill civic pride and the monuments should educate, memorialize, and commemorate according to Kostof, and they cannot do this if the citizens ignore them all.Those that seem the most comfortable in the park were those that were hanging out in groups that all mussinessed around a central area. This large mass of various smaller groups positioned its self around the top of the coliseums type structure along one of the main walkways in the center of Civic Center Park. When I walked past this mass I was called out to and asked on more than one occasion, Hey girlie, wanna smoke some reefer? as one man put it. I politely declined the offers and was usually met with annoyed shrugs or rude comments.A majority of the people in this crowd seemed to be selling something of unsavory quality or interacting in activities of the alike sort. The fact that this seems to be the dominant presence in Civic Center Park portrays that the goal for it to produce civic pride and better citizens has fallen short. I also asked some Denver locals about what connotation Civic Center Park has and all of them proceeded to inform me that it is where one goes to purchase drugs if you ever want any.From this I have derived th at the park is not viewed as a place of civic pride, but viewed as a less savory part of the city. City Beautiful advocates would be extremely disturbed by what is taking place in Civic Center Park, for it is doing the opposite of its purpose and nothing, or very little, is being make to change this. Structurally, architecturally, and aesthetically Civic Center Park is every thing that a City Beautiful advocate could ever dream of however, the actual response of the people to the park is nothing like that imagined.Aesthetically, Civic Center Park has greatly exemplified City Beautiful and Grand Manner ideologies. Civic Center Park is adjacent to the Denver Public Library, which is a building that extrudes public space to the utmost. A library is legal opinion of as a place that is solely for public use people can borrow from it with no pay, use its facilities for no pay, and it sponsors many public events. Its only purpose is to serve the public, and no part of it is off limits to anyone. The Denver art Museum is also adjacent to Civic Center Park, which is another building that is dedicated to the public.A museums main purpose is to educate and benefit the community in which they are a part of. The fact that all of the buildings that surround Civic Center Park are dedicated to the enhancement and benefit of the public is the exact ideology behind Grand Manner and City Beautiful design. This is indeed what civic aesthetic progress should look like.To add to this civic aesthetic progress is that the Colorado History Museum has also been place near Civic Center Park in the Civic Center Cultural complex. This addition is good in a City Beautiful context for it is another public building that is dedicated to the immediate community. It is a building that will create unity in the community, for it is focused solely on Colorados history and culture, which is an aspect that all the people of the community have in common with one another.A more inclusive landscape h istory can also stimulate new approaches to urban design, encourage designers, artists, and writers, as well as citizens, to contribute to an urban art of creating a heightened sense of place in the city (Hayden 73), which is what the City Beautiful planers of Civic Center park aimed to do. In many ways Civic Center park succeeded in creating a City Beautiful, Grand Manner, public space however, it has failed to put to work the public in the way that is intended. I find that the monuments and such in the park should be more locally focused in order to create the civic pride and unity that City Beautiful advocates envisioned.