Technical Drawings

Tech 1 and Tech 3

Instructor: Joe Favour and Karen Lutsky

Fall 2021 and Fall 2022

These drawings were made for classes in the Tech sequence using AutoCAD. To the left is a layout plan for one of the Rapson Hall courtyards and to the right is a zoom in detail for a planting plan at Nolte Plaza on the University of Minnesota campus.

Queer Parks Like Loring

In researching parks with similar design and association with queer community and crusing to Loring Park, I encount ered both The Ramble, in New York's Central Park (top photo), and Hyde Park in London (bottom photo).

The Ramble and Hyde Park both have histories of being cruising spots for gay men, both in the same era as Loring Park, and much earlier in the case of Hyde Park since its creation dates back to the 16th century.

Each of these parks also have significant ties to Pride March's and Celebrations.

London Pride in Hyde Park began in 1972 and early New York Pride Marches either began or ended in Central Park in the early 1970's.

All three of these parks have traditionalist designs, with Loring and The Ramble both having Olmstead or Olmstead-like designs and Hyde Park having a classic rectilinear structure. Other design components that are similar between the parks are proximity to water features like ponds and lakes, and central locations within their respective cities.

Despite queerness being, in part, a rejection and subversion of formal and traditionalist values, queer communities found a place in each of these parks.