The Monument and the Bungalow

As I began to read the first few pages of Pierce Lewis’s, “The Monument and the Bungalow” the first idea or phrase that correlated was the concept of “street smarts”. To be honest, truly analyzing a landscape involves more than just “street smarts”, which to me only covers a portion of what is truly evident in the landscape spectrum. Street smarts fail to touch on association with history, definition, and context. To me street smarts, is the experience portion of landscaping but fails to reach into the history of what, and why it came to be. The essay was an amazing an eye opening experience, one in which makes you walk outside and look at objects with greater respect and perspective.

Lewis at the end of his essay speaks about the countless number of examples or “samples” as he puts it, in which exist all around us. With thoughts rambling thru my mind about other samples which held vast content, I came upon the importance of food in our landscape. Food has the ability to tell us so much more than what lies on the surface. If you obtain the right knowledge of a particular food one can tell everything from the origin to the political atmosphere that might have existed during that particular time. I find it amazing that the landscape can be as broad as outside landmarks or as refined personal items. The limits seem to be endless.