Seminar 1 Research

Korea Way

1.Korea Way refers the middle of Koreatown.

2. It is the area mostly for business such as restaurants, karaoke, doctor’s office, and bookstore.

3. It is located on 32nd Street between Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue.

4. There are many Hangul signs advertising stores.

5. The area is dense and crowded.

6. It represents the mood of Korea’s big city.

7. Thre are some japnese restaurants located on Korea Way.

8. There is Korean Style Spa.

9. There is a Korean Supermarket that sells Korean products.

10. Many people comming from outside of Korea town visits Korea Town.

The reason why the research about Korea Way is that threre are too limited information already excavated about Korea Way. There are more information about Korea Town, however, the town itself is too broad to research. If there are limited amout of information, it is hard to find a subject and links between the theme and a subject to support the research.

Chelsea Piers

1.It was used as passenger ship terminal in early 1900s.

2. Now it is the area of leisure.

3. There are many sports clubs for golf, swimming, ice skating, climbing, soccer and etc.

4. There are many people jogging around the piers.

5. It played a big role in  Titanic and Lusitania incidents.

6. It is located on the west side of Manhattan, Chelsea.

7. Titanic arrived at Pier 59 and saved lives.

8. Lusitania departed the pier before being attacked by a German submarine.

9. There are many galleries around Chealsea Piers.

10. Thre are some movies filmed at the location.

The reasn why it might be hard to write a research paper the place is that the area that I assigned to the project is too broad. However, if I write a research paper about Chelsea Piers, I do not want to focus on a specific pier. The most intersting thing about Chealsea Piers to me is that how life and death can cross each other at the same location.

Jaqueline Kenney Reservoir

1. The Reservoir in inside of Central Park.

2. It is named after Jaqueline Kennedy.

3. There is jogging track next to the reservoir.

4. Jacqueline Kennedy jogged on the track when she was alive so as Madonna and Bill Clinton.

5. There are trees surrounding the reservoir.

6. There are fences surrounding the reservoir to block people from actually diving into it.

7. Sex and the City (2008) was filmed at the Reservoir.

8. It is near many art museums such as Metropolitan and Guggenheim.

9. There are species like ducks and loons living in the reservoir.

10. The reservoir gave water for the city. It will be challenging for me to explore the reservoir because it is very far from where I live. According to google map, it is 5.9km far from my dorm. However, I will visit the reservoir on the day I attend an event at Lexington Ave so it will not take too much time. The main problem is that there are few objects to explore. There are not many installed objects nor nature around the reservoir. I have to come up with a creative idea making a relationship of other subjects to the reservoir.

Battery Park

1. It is located at the lowest side of Manhattan facing Upper Bay.

2. The park has many monuments and memorials.

3. There is Korean War memorial inside it which I visited in 2013.

4. There is Battery Park Public Library.

5. It was film location for Royal Tenenbaums by Wes Anderson.

6. Battery Park appears in the first page of Winter’s Tale by Mark Helprin in the scene of protagonist Peter Lake escapes from his enemies.

7. There is a tunnel, underpass, and subway line under the park.

8. There is a ferry terminal near it.

9. The park is 25 acres.

10. There is a Carousel called Sea Carousel in the park. The Battery Park will be challenging to the project of writing a research paper because the park is too wide. In order to write a nice research paper, the specific location is needed. However, there are too many interesting places in the Park. Moreover, the park is quite far from where I am living right now. It might take too much time to explore everywhere to determine which place would be the best place for the paper since I have to go and return also.

 

Chinatown

1.New York’s Chinatown is the largest of Chinatowns in the United States

2.Chinatown was largely supported of their own people in the Chinese community due to racial discrimination and self segregation.

3. The Exclusion Act against Chinese immigrants was to stop the immigration of the Chinese people who came over for freedom rather than work. This meant that the white population was outraged due to the willingness of the Chinese people to work for lower wages in worse conditions which in turn, left fewer jobs for the white population.

4. Before 1965, Chinatown’s population was overwhelmingly male.

5. Chinatown was a poor neighborhood involved in illegal trade, many business owners relied on tongs to provide loans, legal aid, and protection from governmental intrusion.(they controlled underground trades of gambling, prostitution, and drug dealing)

6.Chinatown has evolved into roughly two parts: the western front consisting of older Cantonese residents who arrived in the mid-20th century, and the eastern side transformed by more recent Fujianese immigrants.

7. Chinatown is home to more than 300 restaurants. Visitors can see dozens of traditional tea parlors, dumpling houses and food vendor carts scattered throughout the neighborhood.

8. You can find a lot of Chinese style decorations outside of stores in Chinatown.

9. Red, the symbolic Chinese color is something that people can see all the time walking on the streets of Chinatown.

10. A lot of tourists visit the town. However, there are many real Chinese people working and living inside/ near the town.

 

The reason why I am worried about writing a research paper about Chinatown is that the location itself is too broad. If I want to research Chinatown, I have to narrow down  the subject. However, I am not sure about the significant or intriguing section inside of Chinatown.

 

 

Macy’s

 

1. Macy’s opened in 1858 as a small store located on 6th Ave 14th street.
2. Rowland Hussey launched R.H. Macy & Co.
3. A red star symbol of Macy’s refers as his symbol of success.
4. Macy’s was the first retailer to promote a woman.
5. November 1902, the store had outgrown its modest storefront and moved uptown to its present Herald Square location on Broadway and 34th Street.
6. Macy’s Herald Square was the first building to have the modern-day escalator.
7. Macy’s offers a full-service Visitor Center on the Mezzanine Level.
8. There are restaurants throughout the building.
9.  The escalator that built in 1902 works untill now.
10. There are tourists taking a tour inside of the building after paying money.

I think Macy’s is the best site I can scrutinize and write a research paper since it gives great motivation and catches my interest. Moreover, this will provide me a chance to study about fashion industry’s practical side of execution. The only worry that I have is that I might not be able to write a paper about Macy’s if professors restrict the subject as the shared subject between two classes. Because the professor of Studio already restricted the topic not to be a place for commerce, like business. Even though I am strongly encouraged to share the topic, I desire to use the topic of Bloomingdales at least in Seminar class no matter how much research I must conduct.

1. How the tourists inside of Macy’s affect Macy’s brand image? Does it function positively on utility(profit)?
2. Why Macy’s does not offer high-quality restuarants inside of the building? How it fuctions on utility?
3. How sections are parted(on the floor)?
4. Which floor represents what?
5. How the theme(section) assigned to each floor affects utility that the building can create.
6. How does a bathroom looks like? Does it affect people using the building(consumers)?
7. How fashion brands display their product?
8. How the people who have control choose the shops in relation to utility?
9. Since there are many buildings in same structure aiming for the certain type of utility it can bring, what differentiates the building(location)?
10. Compared to other locations that possess the same goal of utility, is the location better than other buildings?

 

I am interested in all the questions besides number 1, 2, 8, 10. I cannot answer 1, 2, 8, 10 becuase the topic could be too broad if I focus on those.

---

Annotated Bibliography

Abrams, Rachel. “Bargain-Hunting Frenzy Threatens Traditional Department Stores.” New York Times. May 13 2016. Accessed Nov 4 2016. nytimes.com

The article suggest the current declining of department stores including Macy’s. Shoppers are no longer attracted to the physical space of a department store and buy things on-line. To attract the costumers, Macy’s hold many discount events. This can be considered as the current state of Macy’s(utility) that failed to attracted customers with physical space.

 

Dunlap, David.W. ” Latest Miracle on 34th Street: Macy’s Keeps Wooden Escalators.” New York Times. Nov 25 2015. Accessed Nov 4 2016. nytimes.com

The article provides the information about Macy’s wooden escalator created in 1902.  Even though the department store went through overall process of renovation, wooden escalator still remains as the icon of Macy’s. This article conveys the fact that Macy’s considers the escalator, which is a part of their physical space, functions on utility as a brand image.

Outstanding factors that I found after visiting Macy’s

:background noise, decorations, exit, high fashion brands did not exist, light was very distracting

Body 1

1. Time consumption in shopping

a. wooden escalator

b. elevator

c. exit

d. check-out line

Body 2

1. Distraction from shopping

a. Bathrooms

b. Somewhere to rest between shopping

c. Effects of music

d. Event Places

e. Eateries

Body 3

1. Location

a. target consumers

b. apparel stores near the deparment store

c. store layout

-where the stores are

Conclusion

-Providing a practical way to increase utility of Macy’s physical space

Additional Site Links for myself

http://www.businessinsider.com/retail-store-layout-plans-spend-money-2014-11 (link for body 3)

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/welcome/?toURL=http://www.forbes.com/2009/07/13/retail-customer-service-entrepreneurs-sales-marketing-wharton.html&refURL=https://www.google.com/&referrer=https://www.google.com/ (Final Base)

http://www.wsj.com/articles/store-wars-1470674201

https://macysinc.com/about-us/macysinc-history/macys-a-history/default.aspx

http://www.visitmacysusa.com/visitor-center/macy%E2%80%99s-herald-square

http://web.a.ebscohost.com.libproxy.newschool.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=3&sid=3be3b900-0f47-4632-b512-873549fb6508%40sessionmgr4007&hid=4204