A Walk around the Block

The essay as written by Kevin Lynch and Malcolm Rivkin presented the physical experience of 27 people as they walked around and through a block in Boston. It was interesting that they chose the block that they did because it seemed to have a lot of things going on all at once. The location of the church, the park and the Ritz Carlton allowed this block to seem inclusive of the general ideas about the city, at least in my opinion. The main focus of the reading was on the physical descriptions that people commented on while they made their walk. It was interesting to see the different opinions people had of the same thing such as the New England Mutual building. Though some of the comments were rather description, there weren't as many comments about what all the people were doing. I felt like leaving people out of the situation makes it difficult to describe a place. A place is not a place without people acting on. In the essay, they discuss the area around the Ritz Carlton as an epitome of Boston, but its the patrons that have caused it to be this way. There were lots of comments also made on the bright looking things and also the lack of bright pretty things in the alley. People tended to focus on the two ends of the desirable spectrum while ignoring what was happening in between.

In relation to my experience observing pike place market with Shirley, I feel that though we really tried to observe the people, we became easily side-tracked by standstill observations. It's really difficult to observe interpersonal relationships when walking through a really crowded walkway. One of the comments from the reading that resonated in my mind while reviewing the article, was about the way that two worlds come together by the presence of the park and the city. I kind of saw that in the market, but in a more general way. It was interesting to see how everyone was able to come together to join something so simple. I wish the reading had included more descriptions of what people had been doing so that to understand how the different parts of the block were affected by the people, or what kind of people you would find where. Overall, I feel that though the reading gave me more insight on the need to pay close attention to observing the landscape, it does nothing for me when it comes to observing people. This is very evident especially when people have to tell about their experience after several days, and how they mostly discuss structural sights but include very little about the sounds or smells. This just shows how little people really remember about experiences.