An Au Naturale Story
Vanessa Rogan
The Jungle
Last semester after a study session I left the campus library using the doors that faced upper campus, an unusual change in my predictable schedule. What I hadn’t expected was the new landscape on the other side of the four double doors. Instead of the skyline of mountains that are characteristically the university’s backdrop, there was a building in the next phase of completion with a sign in front stating that “excitement is building”.
Another tree in a jungle of concrete. This is the nature of a university “modernizing” their buildings as well as a push to expand their student body. Just like deforestation, this new development comes at a high price. There are monetary issues, such as whether the funds come from tuition or taxpayer dollars but there are also issues that stem from demolishing an old building. How can the materials of the old building be best recycled; can they be incorporated in the new structure? What is the significance and purpose of building a building that replaces a building that serves the exact same purpose? The birth of new buildings come after the death of older buildings that were seen as disposable. Along with the physical structures, there is the passing of the history within the walls, the name, which is often the legacy of a generous donor, and evidence of the passing of time shown by aging brick. But the transition won’t be remembered in textbooks, only in the memories of those who had classes in it.
The building will be everything the building before it was not. It is expected to be designed with environmental sustainability in mind. A push for a greener campus – to be “LEED certified”. This rating system designed by the United States Green Building Council encourages and supports the building of sustainable projects by requiring the reuse of materials, methods to optimize energy performance, and quality control for stormwater and other utility systems. ("LEED"). Even though sustainability is beneficial and imperative for institutions like the university to support, do all those improvements justify the seemingly never ending construction? Why not spend the money allocated to demolishing and rebuilding toward improving the standing structures?
The new building will be bigger, built to accommodate the growing student body. But this building on the north side of the Marriott Library is not the only hard hat zone on campus. There are at least four other active construction sites currently, quite a few for a university that isn’t the largest institution in the state of Utah. The continuous rebuilding adds to to many other recent additions to the campus in the past decade including the Marriott Honors College Dorms, Lassonde Studios, Spencer Fox Eccles Business Building, and the George S. Eccles Student Life Center to name a few. While the new buildings are built to accommodate larger class sizes, not increasing enrollment caps creates a new issue. Many students of all classes and disciplines won’t be able to take advantage of all the improvements that the new structures supposedly offer them if they simply can’t get into the classes they desire to. If planners insist on making bigger and better learning facilities for the increase in students, the university needs to start hiring more professors to fill the unused spaces. Otherwise the demolishing of older buildings can hardly be justified.
The university is a microcosm of the valley it is in. Forbes listed Salt Lake City as the fifth fastest growing city in America. (Carlyle). The city itself is under much construction that supports the claim. Housing such as apartment complexes, condominiums, and senior citizen homes are being built at an alarming rate, also to accommodate the projected increase in the city’s population. The building that changed the landscape students see exiting the library is not the only building to block the mountains. It seemingly happens with every new complex that changes the landscape. Westminster’s newer building across from Sugarhouse park is yet another complex that has blocked a mountain view. At first it’s hard to imagine what scenery without the rolling hills in the background, but a year or so later, it’s hard to remember what the landscape was like without the cement building that isn’t quite used fully anyway. That is one of the dangers of obstructing views of the gorgeous mountains that surround the valley – people forget what the scenery was like without the concrete in the landscape soon after construction is complete. The manufactured red rocks that have been continuously installed near Westminster's building and across the street to Sugarhouse Park are a poor replacement for the natural beauty that is slowly being chipped away. The transition from a small town to an urban bustling city has happened continuously over Salt Lake’s expansion. The LDS temple is one testament to the change this town has seen in just over a century. If one were to look out at the valley nowadays, it is hard to imagine a settlement where the LDS temple was the largest structure. ("List of Tallest").
The wave of technology has made us mechanized. As Lewis Mumford argues the most noteworthy machine of the modern industrial age is the clock. Perhaps the significance of the machine is where the idiom of “like clockwork” gets its origin from. He claims that “Western peoples are so thoroughly regimented by the clock that it is ‘second nature’ and they look upon its observance as a fact of nature.” (Mumford, n.d.). Traditional wall clocks have become increasingly obsolete with the ubiquity of mobile devices that display time digitally. It is through this technology of mobile devices that society has been influenced to stay within artificial settings, because like relying on clocks, the use and dependence on technological gadgets has become second nature to many.
The question then becomes how should society work toward not being completely enveloped in technology and in man-made structures? Going back to the jungle metaphor, at what point in the course of urban advancement does society reach a point of no return? Where will we become so lost in the surroundings of artificial habitats that we cannot escape?
Kaplan’s attention restoration theory provides a possible solution to this urgent problem. The theory states that mental fatigue and concentration can be improved by time spent in or looking at nature. What is considered the operational definition of natural environment then? “According to Kaplan, [the natural environment] must have four properties in order to provide this restorative effect”. (Garside). The properties are the extent of which one feels immersed in the environment, being away: the breaking of habitual activities, soft fascination which are the aspects of the environment that captures attention, and compatibility which is used to describe an individual’s desire to be exposed to and appreciate the environment. Perhaps more simply put, to be engaged in the restorative effect, one needs to break the clockwork of their routine schedule outside four walls of concrete. A convenient way to achieve this in an urban setting is by spending time in a city’s green space.
Benefits of Green Spaces
What places qualify as green spaces? According to the Oxford dictionary, green spaces are “area(s) of grass, trees, or other vegetation set apart for recreational or aesthetic purposes in an otherwise urban environment.” ("Green Space"). In Salt Lake City, the most well known and largest green spaces are Sugarhouse and Liberty Park. Here families in the community gather for a variety of different recreational activities such as swimming, tennis, running and hammocking. All of which have been proven to have positive effects on overall health and stress levels. ("Dr. Health," n.d.).
The blocks that the city have set aside for its residents offer similar benefits to being in nature, though the scenery is sculpted by man. Within the 110 acres that make up Sugarhouse Park, residents can feel immersed in a natural environment and find joy in the people they cross paths with who are also taking time to get some fresh air. (“Sugarhouse”). Appreciation of the environment might stem from many aspects that the park provides from the clusters of trees to multiple mini parks with pavilions which offers a place to have gathers and create memories. Liberty Park, on the other hand, is slightly smaller at 80 acres. (“Liberty Park”). However, this green space offers the community a little more structured recreational activities because of its tennis facility as well as pool and aviary. Not only are those aspects of the park beneficial to the city economically, but also people can learn and develop skills in a pocket away from traditional urban spaces. Many factors indicate that green spaces such as these parks offer restorative effects to those who frequent them.
What else sets these green spaces apart from smaller parks throughout the valley? The large plots of land allowed the developers of the parks to include ponds and creeks. While the ponds get pretty unsanitary, they provide a habitat for ducks and geese – animals that would not typically be seen in the urban landscape otherwise. Creeks provide the sounds of running water, identical to the sounds of water making its way down a mountain. The flow of water is a sound that can subconsciously evoke the thought of nature as “we evolved where trees met savannahs and where fresh water sources were present.” ("Why Is the Sound," 2014).
While up to this point in Salt Lake City development, the need for green space hasn’t been pressing; the need to establish more green spaces as the valley continues to see an increase in population and urban development will become more pertinent. Perhaps the reason why the city has been able to expand with no additional major green spaces, like Sugarhouse and Liberty Park, is due in part that true natural environments are less than an hour’s drive away.
To Tell a Story
I have a special place in my heart for what I refer to as “Desert Days”. These are the days that are…well…spent in the desert. These are days that are well spent and etched into my memory unlike most other days. There’s nothing like the sun beating down on my naturally tinted skin, sweat dripping from my hairline, and knowing that a good shower is a few days away. A far cry from civilization, far from the jungle. There are situations that you’d never expect to happen and do – like my friend having to be piggy-backed out of Moe’s Valley in Southern Utah by another friend after she broke her ankle and needed emergency surgery. There’s that one time that I slept in a van off a dirt road in the middle of nowhere with my favorite person. The memories include my dirty, rusty necklace that I got in the desert and I make sure it returns there with me every time I find myself there. To put it simply, I am a desert rat.
Through this setting I have found unparalleled happiness. Or maybe it’s not the setting. Perhaps it’s the people, the adventure, and the stories I gain and create in the desert that make a seemingly unpleasant landscape to the inexperienced person my favorite place on this planet. Actually, it’s just that. Nothing makes me feel more human than experiencing a few days in the desert with a group of people.
Up until earlier this month, I have really only experienced desert days with my group of friends. Our overall goals always run along the lines of – climbing certain climbs, hiking certain trails, and having nights that typically aren’t sober around a campfire. But this trip was different. Routes became the mokki steps, hikes ended at Fremont and Anasazi ruins, and campfire talks were sober.
So what is storytelling? Oxford’s definition of storytelling is “the activity of telling or writing stories. (“Storytelling”). The trip down to Bluff was a trip of a lifetime for many of us in part because of the stories we shared and created. From the awkward dynamic we all felt while packing up the cars to head down to our last days in class full of laughter and tears, there are countless stories we will remember for years to come.
Going into the trip, the only thing that broadly connected us was the anticipation of our ten minute presentations. As we worked our way through the presentations, we came to really enjoy them and I’d even say I’d look forward to them. To say we remember everyone else’s topic and what they had to say would be an overstatement, but there are some stories that became weaved with our own. While I don’t want to speak for anyone else, I think Mike’s was the one we will remember when we think back on our presentations. To be that vulnerable with people who were nearly strangers days before, that is a type of courage and bravery that is hard to come by. But in many ways, we all revealed ourselves in ways that we typically don’t back in the real world.
For every story that was told through each person’s presentation, there were ten more stories that we experienced together. There was Hunter’s presentation about protecting lands through the lense of Ed Abbey, and the roaring wind seemed to be nature’s way of agreeing with what he was saying. If his emphasis of yelling into the wind wasn’t so funny, we would’ve all been miserable. There was the lunch we spent at long finger cave where there was the nascent of Jerry and where Mirinda, Maxton, Dave, Gus, and I climbed to the ledge above the cave to see more ruins. That was also the lunch were Mike and Nate went off to explore and we didn’t know where they were for an hour, but we weren’t too worried because everything always seems to work out just fine in the desert. There was the night were Cory and I heard Jill call into the darkness for help and we thought someone else helped her because we didn’t hear her for long, but woke up the next day to find out she spent the night out by the campfire alone. I don’t think we ever felt or took part in the bystander effect more. There was the time that when we had lunch on Comb Ridge Savannah got over her fear of heights because she was preoccupied with the excitement of being higher than a bird. And finally, there was the last night around the campfire where Kyh and Maxton made us all smile watching their dynamic and personalities; and Baylie proved herself to be the pyrotechnic of the group.
All these mini stories that no other people will find as funny or incredible as we do. My friend travelled to Thailand this past summer, and when I asked her how it was, she said something to the extent of: you know, it’s funny. People keep asking me that question, and I don’t know what to tell them other than it was amazing. I can try to tell them some things, but they’ll never know. I realized how true that statement was following my trip to Patagonia, but I was reminded of that once again with this trip. We all were.
To me, nature is what brought us – a diverse group of about 25 – together and what has brought me to my other friends and what continues to bind us. The campfire conversations are ones that only happen when everyone is relaxed and in a natural state of mind and free of the notion of time and modern society. Perhaps that’s why those conversations don’t happen during 15 minute car rides, between class, after work, or in cement buildings. The conversations can’t be contained within man-made walls. They are as open and as free as our spirits out in the desert. It’s funny how even when time marches on and we all go back to our clockwork like schedules, we return to stressed out college students who mainly talk about lack of funds, doing well on the next assignment, and parties – but underneath all that, the person and the experience shared in the middle of nowhere resides not far out of sight or mind. To know that once the next wave of stressors is through, we will all somehow find our way back to a campground, whether that is next month, next season, next year, or years in the future – because it’s in the fabric of our beings.
Walking around campus there are countless signs, but there are a few permanent ones on the walls of the underground walkway from the stadium parking lot to the law and chemistry area of campus. Some say “Go Respect ”, “Go Culture”, “Go Tradition”, and “Go Utes”. They are nearly the extent of the reminders of the history of the land upon which the city and University of Utah campus was built. It is both comforting to know we do keep the memory of that culture alive through the brief exposure and inclusivity during events and the signs that thousands of students walk by daily. But after walking through the tunnel, the sound of construction fills the silence and the the appearance of the new buildings become more frequent as one walks up campus. Urbanization is inevitable. Growth is inevitable. The politics and finances that are behind the scenes of all of it is inevitable. But what isn’t inevitable is our reaction to the ever increasing jungle of cement. We can still get out into nature and weave adventures in busy schedules. All before it’s too late. The world is not made to consist solely of what man keeps engineering to use on the newest buildings. Ones landscape should always include nature’s colors. One's clock should always take time to synchronize with the rise and fall of the moon. Put down the technology and learn to explore and live life the way Mother Earth intended.
References
Carlyle, E. (n.d.). America’s Fastest Growing Cities 2016. Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.deseretnews.com/article/865638489/New-enrollment-numbers-show-UVU-now-the-largest-public-university-in-Utah.html
Dr. Health Benefits. (n.d.). Retrieved April 11, 2018, from https://drhealthbenefits.com/lifestyle/healthy/healthy-activities/benefits-recreational-activities-mental-health
Garside, R., Dr. (n.d.). Attention Restoration Theory: A systematic review. Retrieved from http://www.ecehh.org/research-projects/attention-restoration-theory-a-systematic-review/
Green space. (n.d.). Retrieved April 27, 2018, from https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/green_space
LEED. (n.d.). Retrieved April 19, 2018, from https://new.usgbc.org/leed
Liberty Park. (n.d.). Retrieved April 29, 2017, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_Park
Mumford, L. (n.d.). Technics and Civilization [Blog post]. Retrieved from Blogspot website: http://ahistoryofthepresentananthology.blogspot.com/2016/08/technics-and-civilization-by-lewis.html
Storytelling. (n.d.). Retrieved April 20, 2018, from https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/storytelling
Sugarhouse Park. (n.d.). Retrieved April 29, 2018, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar_House_Park
Why is the sound of running water soothing? [Online forum post]. (2014). Retrieved from https://cogsci.stackexchange.com/questions/5973/why-is-the-sound-of-running-water-soothing