On exhibit through April 15, 2012 at CLUI Los Angeles
Initial Points: Anchors of America's Grid looks at the historic surveying infrastructure of the USA, and how literal monuments of place have evolved into expressive cornerstones of space. The exhibit depicts and describes the 37 Iinitial Points of the Public Land Survey System, the rectilinear grid that covers more than two thirds of the landscape of the USA. These surveying points, located in places such as swamps, under manhole covers in roads, and on top of mountains, are the physical locations that tied this grid to the ground. Looking at them in a contemporary context explores the process and importance of the endeavor of surveying, and reveals a latent cadastral history of the nation, as it expanded westward.
An exhibition by the Center for Land Use Interpretation in association with the Institute of Marking and Measuring with contributions by the National Museum of Surveying and the Principal Meridian Project.
Event:
A public survey event was held on Saturday, January 28th, as part of the opening of the exhibition. Jesse Vogler and Louis Schalk from the Institute of Marking and Measuring led a led a group on field session and surveying exercise in the urban landscape of Los Angeles.
