Happy St. Patrick's Day

To celebrate, we are thought we should look at Ireland's two Cultural icons on the UNESCO World Heritage Site list. Since I haven't been to either, I'll add them to my life list of places to go see.

First is Skellig Michael, a monastic complex on a pyramidal rocky island. It's rocky paths and ruins look like settings from any number of movies, making me wonder if it has influenced those as well.

(Photo by GDR from the Wiki Commons)

The second is the Archaeological Ensemble of the Bend of the Boyne which is a series of prehistoric sites which combine to form "Europe's largest and most important concentration of prehistoric megalithic art."  The sites have a variety of henges and tombs, feature solar alignments, and predate the pyramids.

(Photo by Rodrigo y Pamela from Wikicommons)

Boundary Waters

Although I only mentioned it briefly in class, the Boundary Waters has been on my mind. For those less familiar here are a few sites from the National Geographic Society, Minnesota Public Radio, TrueColorEarth, and local outfitters. The official site is pretty much just for people ready to get a permit.

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A Shamrock special site

It is a great big world with a lot of places left to learn about. But for St. Patrick's Day I wanted to post one in Ireland that sounds worth getting to know better, The Burren. Burren is a limestone region recognized as an UNESCO World Heritage site where the geology is impressive both at the surface and underground. The site is not only a unique physiological landscape, but it is also a place of great history and archeology. It is one more thing that makes Ireland unlike any other island in the world. (This is a WikiCommons photo by HEireann at en.wikipedia through a very civilized GNU Free Documentation License.)

Beatrix Farrand's Last Garden

With Marc visiting Maine, I started thinking back to some of the great spots we've visited there. One that we haven't visited yet is Garland Farm, Beatrix Farrand's last garden. On the outskirts of Bar Harbor, it strikes me as a classic Farrand landscape with hints of Dumbarton Oaks but at a much smaller and simpler level. Now that it is getting some preservation attention, it should become a little better known. Definitely a place that I want to check out in person, and one that I have added to the Spaces and Places Map.

Donnell Garden party

This sounds like a great party. According to DIRT, the Cultural Landscape Foundation is holding a gala at Tommy Church's Dewey Donnell Garden. That is one of those places I have always wanted to see and this would be a pretty special opportunity that I will simply have to miss. It'll just have to stay on that list of places I long to visit someday.

Stourhead

As landscape architecture professors go, I haven't traveled all that much. So there are plenty of places I dream of going that are basic staples of landscape architecture that I have not yet visited. The other day I was checking out the LA History Map online for Dr. Goto's class and was quickly reminded of one particular one I want to visit, Stourhead. The official National Trust site makes it look great and easy to visit. I found a few photos on Wikipedia that don't capture it as well as I would like, but still make it seem better than most gardens. In movies, it stands out as a little too good for the characters in the movie.

Dry Tortugas

We were reading a tiny bit of Spanish animal names tonight and I was reminded of a place I have always wanted to go: the Dry Tortugas. Tortugas are turtles. Pretty soon I was looking around, reading their newsletter (pdf), and looking at photos. Definitely one for the life list, I hope I get there someday.

Korean landscape architecture

In an effort to connect the earlier post on World Heritage Sites and my recent meeting with the President of Sangmyung University, I will mention that Jongmyo Shrine is definitely a World Heritage Site that I want to see some day. More details here.

Will the Wonders never cease?

All of the major news outlets are anxiously reporting this non-news story: There is a new list of the 7 Wonders of the World. I've only been to one, so I can think of the others as all being on my lifelist of places to see.

Isfahan

Since yesterday's post about Persian gardens, I have been thinking about the great photos of Isfahan online. I realized that I definitely should be including it on my life list of places I want to visit someday. It is a World Heritage site. PPS has Isfahan's grand Imam Square highlighted on their list of 60 of the World's Great Places. The city, as a whole, is described as both historic and beautiful. One post I found described it as the most beautiful city in the world. I won't know until I see it (which will probably be a while).

I have also added it to my maps.

Crissy Field

Someone pointed out that my life list entries were antiquated sites thus far. Indeed. Let's fix that.

Designed by Hargreaves and Associates, Crissy Field was an ASLA Design Award winner back in 2002 and has become a Bay-area destination and a symbol of civic resuse of land. Originally the site was an airfield, but now this park has become an all-in-one sort of place. It is a beach and a windsurfing spot and a place for gatherings and a front yard for San Francisco. And, while the ASLA only gave it a Merit award, it was included in MoMA's prestigious Groundswell exhibit.

Life list: Temple of Karnak

I don't know why, but I have been thinking about Egypt some lately. In particular, the Temple of Karnak. It is definitely a place I hope to visit someday, but I don't imagine making it there for some time to come. Still, I found these photos to be quite distracting. The Wikipedia entry has some good photos, too. Few of the photos online seem to capture the scale but the air photos begin to.

Life list: Great Zimbabwe

There are going to be some sites on my life list (of places I want to go in my life) that I've been thinking about for much of my life. This isn't one of those.

The Great Zimbabwe National Monument is an impressive historic site that was recognized as an early entry on the UNESCO World Heritage Site list. Built between the 11th and 15th Centuries, the structure features some great craftsmanship that reminds me just a tiny bit of Peublo Bonita at Chaco Canyon. One difference here is that this one is enclosed in a very tall circular wall.

Life list: Woodland Cemetery

Birders keep life lists of birds they've seen. And I saw a great list of places that every geology fan should visit.

So I thought maybe I should start a personal list of great places I have left that I still want to go. Over the summer I hope to very occassionally post places I think are outstanding, but haven't yet verified on the ground.

The first one I'll list is Woodland Cemetery by Erik Gunnar Asplund. Unfortunately, Stockholm is just far enough out of the way that I doubt I'll be stopping by real soon. Still, the entire site looks so compelling that maybe we should rethink our plans. Woodland is on our 3 landscapes list and I've added it to the map.