Feb 3, 2005

Indian Graveyards

Our architecture project has become more elaborated and complex in Phase II. We're redesigning part of a cemetery in downtown phoenix, adding the massive wall which instead of being 64 feet long will be 170 feet long. And the wall is going to be a mausoleum.
We're also going to be redesiging the parking lot, adding paths, and landscaping the site as it is currently bare hardpan with river rocks marking the paths among the gravestones. The site with the project parameters and pictures of the site is here. I went to the library arizona historical collections building to see what I could dig up about the cemeteries past, as I could sense a kind of ancientness and mystery from the pictures. In the AZ Reading Room (No Backpacks, No Cellphones) I asked the woman at the desk if they had anything on this cemetery and she gives me a twenty minute lesson on how to look things up on the computer. There is no one else in there, and I doubt if anyone has been in all day. Anyway, I find some old tourist pamphlets with some general info like who's buried there (the "lost dutchman" is one of them) and a lot of civil war soldiers, spanish-american war veterens, and founding pioneers. I go next door and instead of making me fill out a requisition slip, the grad student on duty just takes my notebook with the call numbers and brings me out a report on the archeology of the site. Then it gets more interesting.
First of all, the cemetery extends far beyond the boundaries of the fence, with numerous unmarked graves; the result of epidemics in the emerging city. The cemetery was used from 1880-1910, although some bodies were rebuired from an earlier cemetary nearby which has been completely paved over. Going further back in time, they discovered the graveyard is on a prehistoric Hohokam villiage. The place where I am to be desinging was home to a trashmound and to a a few houses. Many of these houses were apparently "catastophically" burned, which archeologically means they were burned with everything in them, probably after the occupant died. A Hohokam canal also ran through through the site. Dialog from Pet Sematery kept running through my mind.
My creative writing class is really fun, I'm glad I decided to keep it. Mom would really like it. Last class we discussed setting and how the lens of character can distort setting. To warm up he gave us a list of random words and then we had to describe a city using words related to one of the words we picked.
Last night at Latin dance class we learned a few more Merengue steps. Merengue is kind of like salsa, but faster on a two step count and mas caliente. We learned how to twirl the girl around, spin her away and back, and to end with a dip. Jen is not thrilled with all the bodies touching, but it's just technical for me.
Got a lot of work to do today. I want to list dad's bike on ebay, take Jen to get a new bike from Target, urban planning class, and visit the cemetery to take pictures this afternoon. Two more friends from Athena have dropped architecture.

1 comment:

Nancy Case said...

How clever of you to do the extend research on the cemetary! I bet it will add a depth to your project no one else has. I'll be interested to hear if you are incorporating a Hohokam angle.

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