I Made That

Alyssa Gill, She/They, Master of Landscape Architecture, 2022

PROJECT OVERVIEW

I began this project as part of my master of landscape architecture water studio. The course challenged me to explore the intersections between water and race at the Mississippi River. Through my research I began creating a landscape for the Chinese Community in the Mississippi Delta. For my fnal project I proposed the creation of a walking path in Cleveland, Mississippi, that connects Delta State University, a proposed Cultural Heritage Center, and a park on the site of the former Chinese Mission School. As landscape architects we represent our designs through a series of diferent graphics, each showing a diferent view of our proposed space. I have detailed my process for creating a section diagram for this project.

MATERIALS / HARDWARE

Watercolor Paint, Guache Paint, Drawing Pencils and Photoshop

1 PROCESS

I used my own photos as well as reference imagery from Google Street View to locate my chosen site.

a. This section looks south from about midway through the park. From here a neighboring church and trees can be seen, so I knew I needed to show this in my section. b. Using watercolor paper and drawing pencils, I sketched out an outline of the topography and proposed ginkgo grove. The frst part of the section cuts through the topography, so you can see the soil beneath the created mound. I used watercolor and gouache paints to detail my design and identify its diferent elements.

I MADE THAT

I repeated the above process until I had several more sections that show the rest of the mound and grove, as well as layers of the pollinator garden. I scanned each of these layers to my computer.

Using Adobe Photoshop, I cut out each section as a .png fle with a transparent background. In a separate fle I began to align each .png on top of the others. When layered, the sections create a composite view of the park. From here I adjusted the brightness & contrast levels of each layer.

I added .png fgures to demonstrate a family enjoying the park, as well as another child playing in the pollinator garden. These fgures are important to give the section a sense of scale.

Throughout this process I attempted to keep each of these elements on separate layers so that I could easily edit them as needed. For example, I use a clipping mask and color adjustments to make sure I only change the color of my scale fgures without turning the entire section purple.

This fnal section is used in conjunction with my other drawings to communicate my overall design concept. While I presented a preliminary design at the end of the fall semester, I am still working with the community to create a fnal design that responds to their needs.