Annotated Bibliography Draft

Fausset, Richard. “A Glorified Sidewalk, and the Path to Transform Atlanta.” The New York Times, September 11, 2016. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/12/us/atlanta-beltline.html.
In The New York Times article “A Glorified Sidewalk, and the Path to Transform Atlanta,” Richard Fausset describes the impact and potential of the Beltline project taking place in Atlanta. Fausset looks at the reputation of Atlanta’s past being “the epitome of urban sprawl” and proceeds to examine how the Beltline promises to transform that notion and even how it already has. The author also compares it to similar projects already done in New York and Chicago, mentioning that the scope of the Atlanta project surpasses past projects. He also looks at how the existing product of the Beltline has already yielded benefits for Atlanta, including more affordable housing and expansion of business opportunities. As a whole, the article serves as a solid introduction to the idea of the Beltline for someone unfamiliar with the project, particularly those living outside of Atlanta.
For research on the Beltline, this article shows a non-Atlantan view of the project, and even the city, through people who do not live there, for people who do not live there, and, from my quick search online, is the first instance of a major, non-Georgian media entity reporting on the Beltline. However, some Georgian writers have quickly criticized the article’s title as being condescending or dismissive. Nevertheless, the article helps an Atlantan researcher understand the perceptions and expectations of the city’s project from a different view that he or she has likely not been acquainted with. To an Atlantan, the article may not do justice, but Atlantans do need to see through the eyes of others when writing about this project.

First Draft of Bibliography Annotation

Campanella, Richard. “Shotgun Geography: The History behind the Famous New Orleans Elongated House.” NOLA.com, February 12, 2014. http://www.nola.com/homegarden/index.ssf/2014/02/shotgun_geography_new_orleans.html.
The article “Shotgun Geography: The History Behind the Famous New Orleans Elongated House” appeared in the New Orleans-based newspaper The Times-Picayune on Febuarary 12, 2014. The article was posted in the Cityscapes column that accounts the evolution and history of News Orleans urban planning and architecture, written by Richard Campanella, a geographer and author who works at the Tulane School of Architecture. As the name implies, the article accounts the history and theory beyond the popularization of shotgun houses in New Orleans, and the South in general. Campanella mainly focuses on a theory that speculates that shotgun houses came from Haiti with escapee slaves recently removed from Africa who then built houses akin to ones that they, or their ancestors, lived in back in Africa. The citizens of New Orleans progressively began to adopt the style as well because of city policies that made land compact and taxes based on frontage and not square footage.
I found this source because when I read “Parting Ways” by James Deetz, I saw that he regarded the shotgun house as an African phenomenon, but I knew them from the South and especially New Orleans, where my sister lives. I searched for information on the topic and found an article that explains exactly what I had wanted to know about how an African architectural style became a Southern staple. Further, the author being a professor of architecture and a published author of several books about the field made Campanella a reliable source, to me.