I grew up in what used to be a pretty rural area about twenty miles outside Philadelphia, PA. When I was a teen in the mid to late 1990s, a farm about a 10-minute walk from my childhood home was donated to the community as preserved open space. When the ups and downs of being a teen got to me, I went to this new public open space to find peace. At the time, this spot was surrounded by open farmland, with views of what was then countryside.
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In October 2021 went back to this location for the first time in about twenty years. This spot is about 15 miles from my current home, and I returned a few times over a week. I wasn't sure what I would find. Suburban sprawl has encroached on just about every piece of open land in this part of the county. My hometown is no longer rural. The building boom of the early 2000s filled almost every available piece of land with office buildings, warehouses, and tract housing.

​One side of this preserved space is now bordered by a warehouse complex, and another by a football field where there used to be open grassland. The sounds of nature are now drowned out by the sounds of commerce in the early morning. The views are still lovely when you hike up to the top of the hill, but it is not how I remember it. For this project I wanted to document what I found and what has been lost over time.