Excursion Recap Park it Like It's Hot: Langston Williams

An excursion is defined as a deviation from a regular path or pattern, and every late February, our school proves why that deviation is needed. For two weeks, classrooms are traded for real world experiences which can range from jogging the BeltLine to stepping foot inside the Coliseum. Each trip leads somewhere different and offers every student an unforgettable experience, but we often don’t hear those stories or multiples from every excursion. Until now, in this first fully collaborative article, students will share their individual experiences and reflect on what they have learned. 

Park it Like it’s Hot: Langston Williams

In the Park it Like it’s Hot excursion, we visited multiple parks and observed how people were using them and what the purpose of each was. We went to Piedmont Park, Mason Mill, the Belt Line, and Autrey Mill. At Piedmont Park, we played games like cornhole, and even learned some new games like croquette and kan jam. The next day we had a SCAD representative come and talk to us about the architectural side of the park and buildings. We learned how to draw out our own site plan of different buildings and park designs. We also learned how to do GIS mapping of the Atlanta area. This is how we looked at the population and statistics of different things, like what mode of transportation people use and the average age of people that live in certain areas. At Mason Mill and the Belt Line we walked around and saw many interesting pieces of art like the Railroad Workers. The Railroad Workers is an art piece that includes three men made out of old railroad parts from the beltline itself. Autrey Mill is a historic park in Johns Creek. Here, we were given the opportunity to walk through many historic landmarks and buildings like the Tenant Farmhouse that showcases rural life in the early 20th-century, pet goats, and look at many reptiles they keep on the park campus. Overall, this excursion taught us a lot about the design of parks, how they serve a purpose, and how people spend their time.