Week 4

The first thing that I absolutely must say about this week is this; landscape architects (NOT architects) figure out curb cuts. Also, landscape archs design the ramps that get you to the building. Sometimes architects do, but usually not well (see: example in the lecture). Aside from that, I thought the ADA lecture was pretty interesting. We deal with ADA restrictions all the time in landscape arch, but until now, I was unaware of how ADA plays a part in other design fields. I think that universal design is a really great concept. I hate seeing places and things that were clearly not designed to be universal that were later adapted to fit the needs of disabled individuals. It seems a bit irresponsible to be a designer without thinking about the needs of every possible user and figuring out how to accommodate them. Granted, this is rarely easy and sometimes impossible. For example, no one will ever design a bicycle for paraplegics. As far as the scavenger hunt, it was interesting to learn about some of the buildings on campus. I grew up in Clintonville and spent a lot of time on campus in high school, so I'm already familiar with how to get around, which definitely made things easier. Also, I spend a lot of time in Knowlton, which made a couple of the clues really easy.