Sunday, June 25, 2006
field trip #2: belle isle
I am ashamed to admit it, but in the fourteen years that I have called Detroit home I have never been to Belle Isle, our equivalent of New York's Central Park. After all the drama surrounding the city's recent decision to close the island's aquarium it seemed more and more important to go and see it before future cuts force more and more of our landmarks to become unavailable to me.
A visit to Belle Isle became even more appealing to me after I learned that it was designed by Frederick Olmsted, the same man who designed the landscape of Central Park and the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. It just so happens that I'm currently reading (and very much enjoying) The Devil in the White City, which chronicles the story of the Chicago World's Fair by telling the stories of two of the most famous men connected to the fair: Daniel Burnham the head architect, and H.H. Holmes, America's first serial killer. Olmsted is a key figure in this novel which has, inexplicably, made landscape architecture sound interesting to me. From what I've read of Olmsted I can be certain that he wouldn't approve of the unkempt state of much of the park, but it was nevertheless lovely despite the general need for some upkeep.

Of course I took a ton of pictures and I've posted some of my favorites below. The rest are in the flickr photostream if you are interested.

If you look close, there is a bride and groom embracing on the fountain. What a lovely place for a wedding!

This shot is unabashedly plagiarised from dETROITfUNK, who captured it better than I could. Nonetheless, I love the ivy growing over Poseidon's face. What a shame that the aquarium he keeps watch over is now yet another abandoned structure in the city of Detroit.


I don't care what anyone says, Detroit can be a very pretty city. (Of course, most places are pretty when you look at them from far away.)


1 Comments:

Blogger Carrie said...

I went to Belle Isle on a 4th grade field trip. Me and a couple other girls "pretended" to get lost for some ridiculous reason, and our chaperone was rightfully pissed/worried. Anyway, I got in serious trouble. And that's my one memory of Belle Isle. Looks nice- I should head back!

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