Sukhpreet Singh's American Landscape and Sights

So this weekend I ended up heading back to Levittown, my cousin was getting married and it was an event that I couldn't miss. So I decided to use the opportunity to reexamine Levittown with the a different perspective and perhaps try to keep my first experience with Levittown from coloring this evaluation.  So starting off in the area that I live there is one particular house design that is most prevalent. The majority of the other houses are mostly a variation of this design in one way or another. For example My home pictured below is also variation of the same design as well, The exterior in particular was completely renovated. Just looking down the street there are at least three houses lined up that are also a variation of the same design. But I will say that looking at these houses now compared to when my family first moved here that the variation has grown more distinctive. Different kinds of windows, sidings, doors, some houses have awnings, oth

This song is in someways very similar to my thought process when my family moved Levittown. We moved to Levittown around the time I started high school and I still remember the eerie feeling of discomfort I had when my parents drove me and my little brother to our new home. The two of us had not once seen the house or the neighborhood, the only thing we knew was that we were moving to Levittown and that was it. So when our parents drove us through this neighborhood the only thing that came to my mind was why do these houses all look the same? They were just this surreal nature to the neighborhood that I couldn't place. Now the houses weren't all the same they were variations in small details and there was the occasional house that had been remodeled and stood out from the crowd of sameyness but wow I will probably never forget that feeling and the song sort resonated with me because of that. So in many ways this post may be a little bias because the song's criticism feel

The garage feels like such an integral part of car culture, but is something I have personally never really experienced. Growing up I lived in an apartment complex in Queens, New York and when my family moved to Levittown we moved into a home that did not have a garage, it used to, but the garage was actually converted into an extension of the house and was basically turned into a family room. And surprisingly this is the case for many of the houses on the block that I lived on, but in general the typical Levittown home is a two floor house with an attached garage, and the second floor generally does not extend over the garage. These are the garages that I have been exposed to the most, attached one car garages. Some people used these garages as purely for storage electing to leave their cars parked in the driveways, some actually used their garages as a place to park their cars and some like the previous owners of the house that my family moved into elected to close the garage off

After reading through Kasson and then looking through the videos and the guided map, the Pan-American Exposition seems to be a blend of both White City and Midway. Both White City and Pan-Am have very beautiful and old world architectural design. The images of White City screams classical Roman Empire style of architecture to me. Especially this image: Meanwhile the Pan American's architectural style reminds me of Renaissance era buildings, that's the first comparison that pops into my head when looking at the pictures and videos. And then there are the videos of the acts that went on at the Pan-Am, they seem very similar to what was happening at Midway, the carnival, almost circus like feel to them. (By the way the illustrations of the faces of the men who had gone to see the belly dancers in the Kasson article was hilarious). But Pan-Am also had this massive arena, where it looks like they staged battle reenactments, which was fascinating to look at in the vide

Delaware Park is a very beautiful and picturesque park, it is a very peaceful and enjoyable place to walk through. And from one casual stroll alone I can immediately understand exactly what Olmstead was going for with the concept of his parks. Even today years after the park was designed it stills manages to retain a surprisingly peaceful atmosphere despite the fact that it now has a freeway running through it. One can see the exit signs just behind the trees, and yet the park retains it sense tranquility. Beyond that there are signs of Olmstead's manufactured natural beauty everywhere you look. Curving and winding footpaths, hand picked trees that generally do not grow in the same area located right next to each other, a very handcrafted feel to the over all area in general. Large swaths of open space and and trees growing along the side of paths is certainly not truly natural. This is my favorite picture, kinda feels like it captures what Olmstead was going

I've never walked around Hertel Avenue in the two years I've been living in Buffalo, I have driven through numerous times but never walked around the area. And for the sake of this particular assignment I did an initial drive on Hertel Avenue before parking and taking a walk around the area. The first impression I had was amazement at how many stores one could miss because they are in a car. I took note of multiple stores that I have never noticed because the are located on the side streets rather than Hertel Avenue proper. Places like this Clam Bar, martial arts dojo and dance studio.       The martial arts dojo is particularly significant because just a few weeks ago I was looking for one to join and it would have been nice to know this place existed. Another thing I noticed is that it looks like the dance studio is located in the upper stories. Unlike many of the other stores along Hertel Avenue that don't seem to make use of their upper stories. In fact