How to Define a River by Casey Willson 2020 Cohort

According to Wikipedia.com, the Great Miami River is “a tributary of the Ohio River, approximately 160 miles (260 km) long, in southwestern Ohio and Indiana in the United States. The Great Miami flows through Dayton, Piqua, Troy, Hamilton, and Sidney”. This definition is rather neat and tidy, not words normally associated with a river. More importantly though, this definition lacks a certain amount of emotion that patrons of the river have come to associate with it. So I’ve decided to create my own definition. One that truly only suits me and my experiences with the Great Miami River and one that I won’t share. I won’t share it because it won’t be useful to you. It’s based in experience and a bit difficult to put into words.

I spend a lot of time thinking about words, what they mean and why they mean it. I’m majoring in French and learning Spanish so words and their meanings take up a lot of space in my head. However, in truth I don’t think that words are the most important part of a language but rather the meaning behind the words are what’s important and rather telling of the culture which they are paired with. In fact, words themselves are only truly useful when attempting to communicate a thought or feeling to another person. They’re incredibly useful for that don’t get me wrong, but that’s not what we’re doing here. What we’re doing is creating a definition that’s just for you. You won’t need to be able to share it with anyone because it won’t apply to them and their experiences. It’s something for you to develop and enjoy for yourself, free of judgement from others.

So where do we find this definition? We go to the river. We sit there on the banks or we go out on a kayak and we close our eyes and we listen and we feel and from that experience we have found our definition. Its personal and its wonderful and it’s not something that can be expressed. Nor can it be replicated. Our definitions are abundant and malleable and in that is their truth. Because rivers are living things that grow and shrink and are constantly changing so why should our definitions of them remain the same?

Now you have all the tools you need so go on and find your definition and enjoy it because it will bring you greater understanding of the river and the world around it. Hold on to it while it lasts but don’t be afraid of the change, it’s inevitable and it’s good and we’re lucky to have it.

The Importance of Place in Public Space Design

The Importance of Place in Public Space Design

Rachel Carr, 2020 Cohort

 

Don’t get me wrong, the new main branch of the Dayton Metro Library is wonderful. It’s bright, innovative, and inviting. Mostly, it’s well suited for Dayton. This last aspect is something that I hadn’t felt until I visited another city’s new central library in Austin, Texas. It’s easy to see the beauty of the Austin Public Library, and want all of its features for the Dayton Public Library without much thought about the important differences between the cities.

The Austin Public Library Central Branch is more than bright. It’s a 6 story vibrant sanctuary, with a “technology petting zoo,” listening stations, and three outdoor decks. After my visit, I walked out wondering why Dayton Metro Library main branch didn’t also have a rooftop deck. The envy faded in a few days, and it became clear why these libraries are different and why they should be.

Often the solutions for creating long lasting, sustainable solutions to design are viewed as interchangeable, regardless of location and time. For example when cities look to implement more sustainable transportation solutions, they may find protected bike lanes are an effective, low cost solution. However, does that solution work in Cleveland? Similarly, I naively wished for outdoor decks and a solar paneled green roof. I am writing this back in Dayton, on a not so atypical morning that greeted me with brisk 27 degree winds; the fireplace on the second floor of Dayton’s library now feels like a much better way to bring people together than an outdoor deck.

Another aspect that I envied now standout in a similar way, like the diversity of media available. In the Austin Public Library there are “listening stations;” like a museum interactive panel, you can selected a radio station, podcast, or other selected form of audio from the menu, put on the attached headphones, and settle into the armchair. If you walk into the Dayton Public Library today, you’re not going to find this feature. But is that such a bad thing? This is not a piece of the infrastructure, it can be added, removed, and is a part the experimental design of Austin’s Library that could easily, in future years, be added to Dayton’s Library. Dayton in the future may have a “technology petting zoo,” too.
 

 

There is one feature that Dayton’s library is objectively missing: a connection to the river. Just as it’s vital that design acknowledges the constraints of place in terms of climate and geography, design should connect people to the environment and history of a place. Rivers tend to do both. An exhibit on the ground floor highlights the life and history of Shoal Creek, which runs through Austin’s downtown, and there are vistas on the upper floors that look out over the Colorado River, where the Shoal Creek meets it. Although the Dayton Public Library is nearly as close to its river, the Great Miami River, it does little to acknowledge its existence or highlight its history. As a place of learning, I believe Dayton Metro Library missed an opportunity to included the River in the design, in terms of physical orientation away from the river and lack of educational material on view about it.

 

The myriad features present in the Austin Public Library are stunning and appropriate for a central branch of a metro library system that serves the 2 million person metro area of Austin, the capital of Texas. However, we should hope that the central library of an 800,000 person metro area is very different. The role of each library is as different as it’s relationship to the space it is in, in terms of community and environment. As a Daytonian, it would be hard for me to be more proud of the beautiful main branch of the Dayton Metro Library. As an admirer of great public design, I am captivated by the Central Austin Public Library. But as a River Steward, I am left wondering why the connection to the river is lacking in the Dayton’s library and what can be done to change that. Austin’s overt efforts to connect to the river through the library creates a sense of shared identity and responsibility between those on the water, in the library, and across all public spaces.