The 5th and Clyde Residence Hall, designed by LTL Architects, will house ~250 students and include a campus HUB for Carnegie Mellon University’s North of Forbes campus neighborhood. The public realm will include improved streetscape along 5th Avenue and a new courtyard with access to the residence hall and HUB.
More information on the project can be found here.
AIA Pittsburgh’s Build Pittsburgh 2020 is the region’s largest gathering for the architectural profession.
Nina Chase, alongside Matthew McMahon of Snøhetta and Terri Brightman of Strada Architecture, will present Between Architecture and Landscape Architecture: Creative Collaboration in Professional Practice. The panel will feature multiple projects, including Bow Market, where collaboration between architects and landscape architects was critical to project success.
2019 Christian Phillips Photography
“Harnessing the arts as a communication tool with direct, open participation can build agency in the community, strengthen social capital and create a collective vision.”
Public Source’s latest piece features local organizations that are working with communities and artists (and landscape architects) to highlight community assets, including the city steps. Learn more in the article about our Vertical Park / Vertical Party project in Polish Hill with the Polish Hill Civic Association, the Office of Public Art, and BikePGH.
This month, Birch Street Plaza makes it editorial debut with a feature in Landscape Architecture Magazine, including information on the project and the process, duct tape and all!
“Instead of using bricks…the team, along with volunteers from the neighborhood, ‘paved’ the street with duct tape and used milk crates to frame the seating areas—a ‘one-to-one scale model’ of the more permanent intervention.”
Follow the project as construction for the final semi-permanent plaza starts this year.
Next week follow along as landscape designer Alexandra Mei and The Wikipedia Project take over the WxLA instagram. Alexandra and her research partner Shira Grosman created the Wikipedia Project to promote the history and expand the presence of women in landscape architecture on Wikipedia. Alexandra serves as the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA)’s Women in Landscape Architecture Professional Practice Network (WiLA PPN)’s new Wiki Officer. The takeover will last one week from December 8 through December 14.
Built in 1838, the Federal House served as a family home, stagecoach shop, and a safe house on the Underground Railroad. Now owned by Penn State University, the Federal House will soon be the home of Susan Hirt Hagen Center for Community Outreach, Research, and Evaluation (CORE), a program that focuses on fostering positive outcomes for at-risk youth in Erie County, PA. The Federal House is the oldest brick structure on Penn State's Behrend campus. A renovation and addition will define an inspiring flexible space of inclusion, community, security, and growth. We are excited to be starting work on this project with our partners at GBBN Architects. More information on the project and the partners can be found on Penn State’s website here.
Check out Nina Chase’s recent review of Cannon Iver’s book Staging Urban Landscapes: The Activation and Curation of Flexible Public Spaces. Read an excerpt from the review below. The full review can be found on Land8 here.
“Cannon Ivers’ Staging Urban Landscapes: The Activation and Curation of Flexible Public Spaces is a beautifully designed and expertly choreographed survey of urban landscapes at the intersection of public space design and programming. As Sergio Lopez-Pineiro argues in his essay “Scratch That!”, “public space is no longer considered to be only physical space but…seen as a combination of physical space with a curatorial program.” Ivers makes a strong case for the advantageous mixing of both. The book includes essays, case studies, historic reviews, and a visual index all focused on the alignment of design and activation. Ivers playfully and intentionally provides a little something for everyone.
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For the students of design (life-long or currently enrolled), take note. The insatiable rise in public space programming is driving the execution of urban landscapes globally. The challenge to design truly unique and culturally relevant landscapes is more important now than ever. In his afterword “Design, Curation, and Identity,” James Corner sums up the potential downfall of the “great design plus great programming” equation. “’Programming the urban surface’ and a design vocabulary of sheds, platforms, stages, plinths, theatres, frames, equipment, infrastructures, utilities and similar invitations for infinitely flexible use can all too easily lead to impoverished or formulaic physical designs.” As designers, we cannot fall victim to homogeneity, but rather leverage the contemporary demand for flexible public space to compliment the culture of a community and elevate its diversity. Ivers’ Case Studies are successful because they represent their constituents and provide space for individual interpretation. To remain relevant, we cannot simply copy and paste their successes in place.”
This week, Merritt Chase participates in the Plazas, Parklets, & Pop-ups in the Public Realm workshop at the Boston Society of Architects (BSA) Space. The workshop, hosted by A Better City, will explore recent tactical public realm projects throughout the City of Boston, including Birch Street Plaza and the Jamaica Plain Parklet.
In September 2018, the City of Boston released the Tactical Public Realm Guidelines, which have guided the creation of new public spaces across the city. The workshop will include a panel of experts and a keynote presentation by Mike Lydon, author of Tactical Urbanism. Breakout groups will discuss project specifics, including permitting, project costs, funding, timelines, community input, and materials.
Details on the workshop can be found here. We hope to see you there!
It’s that time of year again! Merritt Chase joins landscape architects from across the country at this year’s annual American Society of Landscape Architects Conference on Landscape Architecture in San Diego from November 15th-18th.
Join Nina Chase for Friday’s 1:30pm Education Session The Business of Innovation: Three Case Studies in Unconventional Practice with Falon Mihalic of Falon Land Studio in Houston, TX, and Sara Zewde of Studio Zewde in Harlem, NY.
Follow up with Alexandra Mei’s Friday 3:00pm Education Session Fundamental Materials, How They Weather, and Their Surrounding Cultures with William Baumgardner of STOSS Landscape Urbanism and Kotchakorn Voraakhom of Landprocess.
Be sure to get your ticket to the Landscape Architecture Foundation’s 34th Annual Benefit on Friday here.
We hope to see you there!
Source: MICD
Nina joins the Mayors’ Institute on City Design (MICD) for its 74th National Session in Richmond, VA, November 6-8th. The MICD is a leadership initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the United States Conference of Mayors. Since 1986, the Mayors’ Institute has helped transform communities through design by preparing mayors to be the chief urban designers of their cities. Learn more about the 74th National Session here.