#gardenofsurgingwaves

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Chinese garden & city park Garden of Surging Waves in Astoria, Oregon. • • • • • #gardenofsurgingwaves #astoriaoregon #oregon #oregonexplored #oregonlife #oregonisbeautiful #pnw #traveloregon #pnwcollective #pnwonderland #destinationpnw #bestoforegon #hiddenoregon #architecturelovers #oregonphotography #oregonphotographer #urbanphotography #urbangarden #urbanexplorer #exploremore #travelphotography #travelgram #seetheworld (at Garden of Surging Waves, Astoria's Chinese Heritage Park) https://www.instagram.com/p/CD12BcEBkKj/?igshid=v5eqs280suml

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One in 28,000: Suenn Ho '85

If you ever get the chance to pick urban designer Suenn Ho ‘85’s brain over cheesy pizza and cold beer, do it. As a would-be creative, I was fascinated by this alum and her perspective on story telling, aging, and design. This is a slightly lengthier profile but please, please read it. Tell me after if you regret the extra two minutes. 

Michelle: What would you want people to understand about Garden of Surging Waves? About your process? 

Suenn: Never overlook the little things. Never overlook the potential of things that are seemingly unimportant in life.

Everybody’s got a story, whether or not you are poor, you are wealthy, and those are the stories that make us human, make us a community. For people who have a piece of paper saying they are an expert, they need to be humble because people who don’t have a piece of paper may have some inspiring, little story and lesson learned.

There are a lot of stories so there’s a lot of process.

M: I find that Williams values stories more and more. For example, a recent tradition is called Storytime. A community member is invited to sit in Paresky and have an audience listen to them talk while everyone munches on some cookies. That happens every Sunday.

S: And that is different than reading a story. Our life moves so fast and so the encounter of people sharing stories, face-to-face, gives them the ability to connect. With this project, I met grandchildren, now my age, who never knew their grandparent’s journey. Until now, they’d never shared it!

M: The Garden of Surging Waves is another way to tell a story. There’s no audio when you visit the Garden but in the way you lay your bricks, your placement of certain elements, your choice of quotes that invoke a visual image in our minds, all of it still tells a tale. 

S: The other thing about the garden’s design is that I wanted to get the most out of the richness of the materials. We don’t have to maintain much: there’s no paint, there’s no calking and it is to embrace age. 

The corrosive interaction between the steel and the bronze is to reveal the journey of the immigrants. You came from a long distance, you came here [Astoria], you got scuffed up and you stayed. You started to speak with an accent that is different than when you were at home. 

People should not keep thinking ‘Oh we have to polish it’. No! You don’t have to polish it. It is the moss that you gather..

M: ooooo I love that so much!

S: …so when we look at grandma’s face, it’s beautiful! People should embrace natural aging, it’s a sign of wisdom and experience. If something is corroding, let’s just say ‘this is how things age’. That has been Astoria’s spirit. 

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Stay tuned, 

M