One of my favorite things from this course was The Devil in a White City book. This was by far the biggest thing that captured my attention. I loved learning about not only architecture but also our history. Not to mention, I am a criminal justice major so the juicer the better, I love reading about crime. I think that I enjoyed this the most because its something that we actually got to take our time on and enjoy. I didn’t feel rushed or have 5-7 days to complete this, I was able to enjoy it. I actually did not want to quit reading this book and I am not a reader what so ever. I would have liked to do my own assignment on this rather than work with a group just because I wanted to express my own feelings on this subject and reflect on what I got out of it not what everyone else did. I felt as though I was more worried about my group agreeing with my thoughts and reasonings on this subject than how I really felt. I would have liked to put my own words in more and not have to have them checked by others. Overall I really liked everything that we did in this course I just think that this book was my favorite. It told a good story and it was very interesting on how the two different stories were tied together. Overall the only thing that I would suggest for this class is maybe to allow more individual work on big projects like the readings. I am not sure everyone even really read the book and I would hate for that the effect my grade when I could have read the book over and over again.
Two Perfect Pages
We all know that water does a lot for us, and has for a very long time. What many don’t know is how it all started and how far our water system has come. Although many people do not have a clear understanding of how important it is and it’s taken for granted. There are still big controversies over water rights today, just as there were 100 years ago. Our water system has come a long way. When I say that, I mean the different methods of irrigations, recycling, replenishing, and filtering that we have today. Except we could be putting this resource is a lot of harm just by the way we are using it. We do not realize the amount of water that we are wasting and what it is doing to us. That long hot shower that many have to have effects farmers’ and ranchers’ water rights that put food on their table.
If I could turn back time I would offer some good advice that I learned while reading these articles and gaining a lot of knowledge about the past of water. I would first start by telling Turkey, Iraq, and Syria that by cutting water and resources off from one another, will not solve anything at all. From reading these articles it seemed as though they were too busy fighting with one another over water that they just kept making the situation worse. Some good advice for them would be better management. Stop, think, and manage would have been a lot more useful during these tough times. Management will do wonders when one actually sits down and analyze a situation and take action on it. By recycling their water they would not have had the conflict of sucking their aquifers dry. Aquifers are non-replenish able, that seems very scary. Although with proper action this issue could be reduced.
Turkey went through a long dispute about their river water system a while ago. Tukey, Syria, and Iraq all share the Twin Rivers. Turkey was known for many different things, one of them was their strong military power. They were well known for their forces and equipment which helped aid them in water controversies because often times no one wanted to go face to face with them. Another thing that they were known for was being “water rich” which actually is a false perception on Turkey. It wasn’t until 1953 that Turkey really became water rich, this was because of their new Directorate of State Hydraulic Works. This system of water works helped them so much that they became hated even more than they were before. While other areas used up almost all their water supply, Turkey wouldn’t even use half of their supply. This was possible because of their hydraulic water basins. One can see that if people really go the extra mile to conserve and replenish something. It really can make a huge different. Turkey was taking huge steps into making things easier for them and their citizens, and they accomplished that.
I do think that leaders would view my suggestions of better management, and recycling worth implementing. It’s amazing how much easier and rational things can be when everyone quits fighting and puts their heads together, I understand this was a time of war but they did more than just kill people, they killed their water supply at their own fault.
Some pieces of information that I would need that I did not get while reading these articles would be their global warming and climate conditions during this time. Today this type of information comes in very handy when deciding how they will manage their water. Also things such as rainfall are very important to know. What were their water laws? Who made the decisions and why? Did they have any actual knowledge of the system or were they just born into the position?
Planners
Holmes was a man who was solely power hungry. He would throw anyone under the bus if it meant he would benefit from the action. Through this story he caused a lot of issues and kept getting away with it constantly. He would find new people as his victims and all he cared about was succeeding and being better than everyone else, he tried doing these things by being very hurtful to others.
John Root was a very creative man, he had many wonderful and artistic ideas up his sleeve. He was well known for his keen eye when it came to design, he had the magic touch and was full of creativity. He was very helpful in the building processes through this book, he came across to readers as a sharp witted man.
Fredrick Olmsted was also a man of great work. He enjoyed working and creating things, but he was a man of his own stamp. He wanted to make sure that people knew him and knew him for his work and not others. When Olmsted was not getting the credit he deserved it ruffled his feathers. He was a good man but somewhat had the same kind of attitude when it came to his work as Holmes but in a good way. He made good actions but wanted to be known for every little thing. “Throughout his career he had struggled, with little success, to dispel the perception that landscape architecture was simply an ambitious sort of gardening..” (page 50). This passage shows part of the reasoning behind why he may have been so strict on representing his work, it didn’t come easy to him.
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