Spring temperatures and sunshine have arrived (or are coming soon, depending on where you are), and many can’t wait to enjoy the outdoors again or head out on a spring break trip. Professional Practice Network (PPN) members’ responses to the question what is your favorite place that may not be familiar to others? might give you a few new places to explore.
Given that we were looking for less well-known places, there were very few answers that appeared more than once. Here are the handful of locations that appeared twice:
Charleston, South Carolina and Charleston’s Waterfront Park
JC Raulston Arboretum in Raleigh, North Carolina
The Bold Coast, Maine
North Germany, on the Baltic Sea (Schleswig-Holstein) – “Everyone goes to South Germany but the North is very beautiful.”
A few members were less forthcoming than others (“I’m not saying – why spoil it?”), while others responded with general types of places that are often overlooked rather than specific locations, including:
A highway underpass
Any field or prairie
Any secluded place in the mountains
My family’s back 40
My vegetable garden in summer
My yard
Swamps
The edge between forest and meadow
The ocean
The skate park – “a dreamscape of contours”
Many other responses highlighted spots around the world. Here are a few international, unheralded places:
Bamboo forest – Kyoto, Japan
Bernese Oberland – Switzerland
Giardino Giusti – Verona, Italy
Havana, Cuba
Kejimkujik Lake – Nova Scotia, Canada
Luxembourg Gardens – Paris, France
Many Persian Gardens – Iran
Pok Fu Lam Reservoir – Hong Kong
Rose Spit, Haida Gwaii – British Columbia, Canada
Sardis, Turkey
Stockholm, Sweden – “Stockholm is a much greater city than most people realize who have not been there!”
The waterfront in San Sebastián, Spain
Vals Spa – Vals, Switzerland
Villa Doria Pamphili‘s grove of umbrella pines – Rome, Italy
In the next post based on the 2015 PPN Survey results, we’ll break down the responses located in the United States, covering the East and West coasts and many places in between. We hope you’ll discover a few spots you’ve never heard of before, and maybe find a new favorite place.
At the start of 2015, a questionnaire was sent out to members of ASLA’s Professional Practice Networks (PPNs). The theme: creativity and inspired design. As you can imagine, responses were varied, and included many insightful comments and suggestions. Synopses of the survey results were originally shared in LAND over the course of 2015, and we are now re-posting this information here on The Field. For the latest updates on the results of the annual PPN Survey, see LAND’s PPN News section.