One of the requirements for my History of Planning class is to visit specific areas of Philadelphia and relate what we see to what we've learned about in class, in the form of a blog post. (Oh hey, how convenient!) The assignments are always due on the weekend so Katie and I have started a roomie-ritual of exploring the city Sunday afternoons. I'm becoming quite the tour guide, full of fun facts and scandalous stories about the City of Brotherly Love (or at least the planning of it). Our first destination was the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, the Philadelphia Art Museum and the Philadelphia Water Works -- all designed during the City Beautiful Movement at the turn of the twentieth century. Next was Penn's Landing and Race Street Pier along the Delaware River and the Schuykill River Trail, examples of large public spaces in downtown areas.
Art Museum and the Water Works behind it
Most recently my class learned about the urban renewal movement and slum clearance. Sunday Katie and I walked to Society Hill, a historic neighborhood by the Old City and the site of a major renewal project where Ed Bacon and other planners cleared out blighted areas and replaced them with tower-in-a-park and 1970s Bauhaus-style structures. This is one of the few urban renewal projects in the U.S. where parts of the condemned neighborhood were still preserved, so these newer buildings were mixed in with the original Colonial era houses. Katie explained to me the different architectural styles and once I knew what we were looking for, it was like a bell that couldn't be un-rung.
Pictured: ugly.
The one good part about our foray into the Old City was that we discovered the Headhouse Farmers' Market, built in 1804. People still come to sell fresh produce and crafts every Saturday and Sunday during the warmer months. We'll definitely be coming back here often!
Lately Katie and I have also started connecting with our inner-chefs, staying in most nights and cooking dinner together. Sometimes we go all out with salmon from Trader Joe's; other nights it's back to basics with sautéed vegetables on a bed of couscous (the food so nice they named it twice!). I've been perfecting a black bean soup recipe for the crock pot, in preparation for the cold winter we both know is just around the corner.
om nom nom
Earlier tonight Katie also introduced me to the wonder-veggie that is spaghetti squash. It's pretty much the coolest thing I've ever seen. You should google it. The end.
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