The landscape of Cheney/EWU reveals a lot about the cultural, geographic and demographic setting upon which it’s part of. It provides a lot of information, therefore, when observed closely.
The landscape features observed are varied, from the imposing buildings in campus, to the harmonious blend with the green countryside, an observation of the landscape in and around Cheney campus is quite telling. The campus portrays a conscious effort at erecting an institution that is in synch with its surroundings. The effort taken to plant a blend of trees, punctuating the buildings in Cheney helps in merging the modern architecture with the immediate surroundings, which appear to be less developed and covered in more vegetation thus signaling a farming community around Cheney. The campus is therefore not a sore sight striking in its uniqueness from the surroundings, rather, a part of it. Its size also represents the demographics of the surrounding community as well. The campus is small, and proportionately so, as Cheney is a small town too.
Cheney/EWU can be taken as a habitat (Meinig, 1979). In this regard, the campus is the harmonious blends of human effort with nature to create a place for human colonization. In this regard, man, being a part of nature, utilizes what is provided naturally to create a place of functional utility for his benefit; place of human education and residence. Further, the landscape can be seen in terms of wealth. The campus is more than sufficient for the education of the residents of Cheney, and often takes in students from other parts of the country and globe. In this view then, Cheney/EWU is a representation of a community that is well able to fend for itself, not in extravagance, but in means sufficient to keep them from lack. Different views of the landscape are occasioned by the different points of observation. A different observer might be looking for different information. These multiple interpretations thus provide different views.
An observation of Cheney by an outsider might very much match my knowledge of the place provided that they look in the same view point as I do. The landscape imprints made upon the place are enduring and what they represent doesn’t change over time.
A first time visitor to Cheney will fall in love with place as it carefully balances functionality with nature, the result is a relaxed place to reside in and study. The level of the common unpleasant pollutants of living areas such as smells, noise are absent from Cheney/EWU, thus making for pleasant living.
The local culture is not representative of the rest of the country as the different towns and cities have different dependencies. Scale is important in this matter as the small the community, the more closely knit and thus the more culturally preserved they are. Cheney exhibits a cultural preservation of reasonable admiration, mainly aided by its small size.
Works Cited
Lewis, Peirce K. "Axioms for Reading the Landscape Some Guides to the American Scene." (0): Print.
Meinig, D W, and John B. Jackson. The Interpretation of Ordinary Landscapes: Geographical Essays. New York: Oxford University Press, 1979. Print.
