Boston Flora

Tag: Harvard Graduate School Of Design

  • Wednesday, February 6, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – The Challenge and Promise of Restoring Urban Landscapes

    Human activity has degraded much of our urban landscape, making the rebuilding of native habitat on these lands an important priority. But potential restoration sites are often small and heavily altered, and questions about best strategies abound. Can these landscapes be designed and managed to support native biodiversity? How can we rebuild functioning ecosystems on them? Which target sites are practical ones, especially in this time of rapid climate change? Noted ecologist Steven Handel has been researching these challenges for most of his career and his work illustrates the surprising and significant transformations that are possible. On Wednesday, February 6 at 7 pm at the Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway in Cambridge, He will discuss projects that he has worked on, including Freshkills Park (a former landfill on Staten Island), Brooklyn Bridge Park, and other coastal sites. Join us to learn more about urban ecological restoration in a world that desperately needs it.

    Dr. Steven Handel, Distinguished Professor of Ecology and Evolution at Rutgers University, is currently a Visiting Professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and editor of the journal, Ecological Restoration. This free program is sponsored by Grow Native Massachusetts.

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  • Wednesday, November 14, 6:30 pm – 9:00 pm, and Thursday, November 15, 12:00 noon – 1:30 pm – The Veronica Rudge Green Prize in Urban Design: The High Line

    Please join The Harvard Graduate School of Design for two days of events in conjunction with the 2017 Veronica Rudge Green Prize in Urban Design, awarded to the High Line. The events begin Wednesday, November 14 at 6:30 PM with remarks in the GSD’s Piper Auditorium followed by a reception in the Druker Design Gallery to celebrate the opening of the exhibition. Thursday, November 15 from 12:00 – 1:30 PM, the GSD will host a panel discussion exploring the enduring impact of The High Line.

    The 13th Veronica Rudge Green Prize in Urban Design has been awarded to the High Line in New York, designed collaboratively by James Corner Field Operations, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, and Piet Oudolf. The prize committee has elected to allot the monetary prize of $50,000 associated with the award to Friends of the High Line, in recognition of the organization’s originating efforts and continued stewardship behind the project.

    The High Line, a linear public park built on elevated freight rail on Manhattan’s West Side, has been hailed as a model of urban regeneration and of collaboration across fields and perspectives. In summarizing the deliberation process, the Green Prize jury noted that a great urban-design project is one where multiple actors spanning public and private domains are involved in and committed to lasting urban change. For complete information visit http://www.gsd.harvard.edu/event/the-veronica-rudge-green-prize-in-urban-design-the-high-line/

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  • Thursday, November 8, 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm – Thomas Woltz: Restoration Ecology

    Over the past two decades of practice, landscape architect Thomas Woltz has forged a body of work that integrates the beauty and function of built forms with an understanding of complex biological systems and restoration ecology. As principal of Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects (NBW), a 45-person firm based in Charlottesville, Virginia and New York City, Woltz has infused narratives of the land into the places where people live, work and play, deepening the public’s enjoyment of the natural world and inspiring environmental stewardship. NBW projects create models of biodiversity and sustainable agriculture within areas of damaged ecological infrastructure and working farmland, yielding hundreds of acres of reconstructed wetlands, reforested land, and flourishing wildlife habitat.

    Presently, Thomas and NBW are entrusted with the design of major public parks across the United States, Canada and New Zealand, they include Memorial Park in Houston, Hudson Yards in New York City, NoMA Green in Washington DC, Cornwall Park in Auckland, the Aga Khan Garden in Alberta, Canada, and three parks in Nashville, including Centennial Park.

    In 2013 was named Design Innovator of the Year by the Wall Street Journal magazine and in 2017 Fast Company named Woltz one of the most creative people in business. Thomas will speak at the Harvard Graduate School of Design’s Piper Auditorium on Quincy Street in Cambridge on Thursday, November 8 at 6:30 pm. Free and open to the public. For more information visit http://www.gsd.harvard.edu/event/thomas-woltz/

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  • Thursday, October 25, 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm – Frederick Law Olmsted Lecture: Michael Van Valkenburgh

    Michael Van Valkenburgh is the founder of the landscape architecture firm Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, with offices in Brooklyn, New York and Cambridge, Massachusetts. The firm works at all scales, from large urban green spaces like Brooklyn Bridge Park to intimate gardens like the Monk’s Garden at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. Other recent projects include Dorothea Dix Park in Raleigh, The Obama Presidential Center in Chicago (rendering below), A Gathering Place for Tulsa, and master planning and design for a new neighborhood at the mouth of Toronto’s Lower Don River.

    Michael earned a Bachelor of Science in Landscape Architecture from Cornell University’s College of Agriculture and a Master of Fine Arts in Landscape Architecture from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

    Currently the Charles Eliot Professor Emeritus in Practice of Landscape Architecture at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, Michael is a registered landscape architect in more than 25 states. On Thursday, October 25 at 6:30 pm in the Piper Auditorium at Gund Hall at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Michael will deliver the Frederick Law Olmsted Lecture, free and open to the public. For more information visit http://www.gsd.harvard.edu/event/michael-van-valkenburgh/

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  • Wednesday, September 12, 10:00 am – Frederick Law Olmsted and the Massachusetts Legacy

    Wednesday, September 12, 10:00 am – Frederick Law Olmsted and the Massachusetts Legacy

    Alan Banks, Supervisory Park Ranger of Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site, will talk about the firm Frederick Law Olmsted founded over a century ago, and was involved in over 1,200 landscape architecture projects throughout Massachusetts, ranging from expansive 500-acre public parks to intimate private gardens. One of the greatest achievements is the six-mile long “emerald necklace” of ponds, parks, and parkways that winds its way through Boston.

    Alan Banks oversees the historical interpretation of Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site in Brookline. He has researched and developed a variety of landscape walking tours and presentations on the Olmsteds and their work across the country. He has lectured at Wellesley College Davis Art Museum, Harvard Graduate School of Design, Appalachian Institute at Biltmore Estate in North Carolina, and American Society of Landscape Architects in Atlanta, among other locations. He consulted on PBS productions Olmsted and America’s Urban Parks and Frederick Law Olmsted: Designing America. Banks wrote the first comprehensive guide and map to the Boston Park System.

    This program, to be held Wednesday, September 12 beginning at 10 am at The College Club, 44 Commonwealth Avenue, kicks off The Garden Club of the Back Bay’s 2018-2019 season, and will be followed 2 weeks later on Wednesday, October 3, by a field trip at the Olmsted Home and Office in Brookline (Fairsted). Garden Club members will receive notices of both meetings. If you are not a member but are interested in attending, email info@bostonflora.com

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  • Wednesday, April 4, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – Revealing a Sense of Place

    Seasonal New England is rich in its unique and dynamic ecological patterns. Join Grow Native Massachusetts on Wednesday, April 4 at 7 pm at the Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway, as Matthew Cunningham explores how his observations of these natural systems have influenced his firm’s creation of contextual and native plant-centric projects that grasp the rhythms of everyday life. He will show us a variety of residential landscapes, large and small, that embrace our regional flora, utilize ecologically sustainable principles, and that build connections between interior and exterior spaces to strengthen our relationship with nature. Come be inspired by these beautiful, vibrant landscapes that enhance life for both their human and their wild residents.

    Matthew Cunningham is a rising star in the world of landscape architecture. He is passionate about the landscapes of New England and is committed to excellent design with ecologically sustainable principles. A graduate of the Harvard Graduate School of Design, he worked at the renowned firm Reed Hilderbrand Associates before starting his own practice. Matthew was named “International Designer of the Year” by the APLD in 2017.  Image below from Turf Magazine.

    This lecture if free, and co-sponsored by the Boston Society of Landscape Architects. For more information visit http://www.grownativemass.org/programs/eveningswithexperts

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  • Friday, February 9, 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm – Green Up for Clean Up: Planting to Remediate Contaminated Landscapes Webinar

    When soil tests confirm the presence of site contaminants, cost-effective phytotechnology (phytoremediation) plantings can often be effective in mitigating on-site pollutants. These interactions are complicated, sometimes taking decades for remediation, and many times plant-based remediation strategies are not a good fit for environmental cleanup.

    Phytotechnology is the use of vegetation and their associated microbes to remediate, contain, or prevent contaminants in soils, sediments, and groundwater. The term ‘phytoremediation,’ where plants are used to remediate sites that are already polluted, is often used interchangeably with ‘phytotechnology,’ but is only one subset of the field. ‘Phytotechnology’ is a much broader term that includes techniques such as pre-emptive installation of vegetation to mitigate ecological problems before they actually occur, as well as stabilization of pollutants on site, beyond just contaminant removal. Green roofs, constructed wetlands, bioswales, bioenergy crop cultivation, and phytoremediation plantings are all forms of ‘phytotechnology,’ a term which encompasses all uses of plants to meet environmental and technological goals.

    Plants are a cost-effective method of tracking and mitigating contaminated landscapes. In this Ecological Landscape Alliance online presentation on Friday, February 9 from 12:30 – 1:30, Kate Kennen will explain phytoremediation (plants uptake and remove contaminants) and phytoforensics (plants detect and delineate pollutants). She will discuss some of the limitations of phytoremediation, how to integrate the science of phytoremediation into landscape design practices, preventative (phytobuffering) capabilities, and recommend plant species that can be utilized.

    Kate Kennen is the founder and president of Offshoots, Inc., a Boston landscape architecture practice focused on productive planting techniques and phytotechnology consulting. Ms. Kennen’s book PHYTO: Principles of Site Remediation and Landscape Design was published in 2015. Ms. Kennen completed her undergraduate studies in Landscape Architecture at Cornell University, and received her master’s degree with distinction from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. Having spent her childhood at her family’s garden center in Massachusetts, Ms. Kennen is well versed in the plants of the Northeast. She currently teaches a research seminar in phytoremediation and plant-based technologies at the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

    Free for ELA members, $10 for nonmembers. Register at http://www.ecolandscaping.org/event/webinar-green-clean-planting-remediate-contaminated-landscapes/

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  • Thursday, November 16, 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm – Landscape Architecture and the ‘New Generic’

    The Harvard Graduate School of Design will present a free lecture on Thursday, November 16 from 6:30 – 8:30 in the Gund Hall Piper Auditorium, 48 Quincy Street in Cambridge, on Landscape Architecture and the ‘New Generic’.

    Michael Jakob teaches History and Theory of Landscape at hepia, Geneva, and aesthetics of design at HEAD, Geneva. He is a visiting professor at Politecnico di Milano and the Accademia di Architettura in Mendrisio. He is, at the same time, Professor of Comparative Literature (Chair) at Grenoble University. Jakob’s teaching and research focus on landscape theory, aesthetics, the history of vertigo, contemporary theories of perception and the poetics of architecture. He is the founder and head of COMPAR(A)ISON, an International Journal of Comparative Literature and the chief editor of “di monte in monte”, a series of books on mountain culture (Edizioni Tarara’, Verbania). He produced several documentary films for TV and has a longstanding experience as a radio journalist.

    Michael Jakob published recently: 100 Paysages, Infolio, Gollion 2011; asp Architecture du paysage, Infolio, Gollion 2012; Mirei Shigemori e il nuovo linguaggio del giardino giapponese, Tarara’, Verbania 2012; the swiss touch in landscape architecture, Tarara’, Verbania 2013/ Ifengspace, Tianjing 2015; La poétique du banc, Macula, Paris 2014/ Sulla Panchina, Einaudi, Turin 2014/ The Bench in the Garden, Oro Editions, Bay Area 2017; Cette ville qui nous regarde, b2 éditions, Paris 2015/ Dall’alto della città, Lettera 22, Siracusa 2017.

    Jakob is a curator of international exhibitions and the author of documentary films on landscape (Chiappetti o il paradiso perduto, RAI, 2014, and Capri: a lezione di paesaggio, 2016).

    Anyone requiring accessibility accommodations should contact the events office at (617) 496-2414 or events@gsd.harvard.edu.

  • Tuesday, October 31, 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm – Toru Mitani

    Is there any essential difference between the detail design of landscape architecture and of architecture? It is very common to discuss detail design in the architectural realm, as evidenced by a number of research works and publications focusing on the rationality and logics of the wooden structure of traditional Japanese architecture that praise its beauty. On the other hand, it is not so easy to find any discussion of detail designs of the traditional gardens in Japan, because most focus on the semantics and symbolization of their style. For example, the stone formation in the dry garden has been explained from the viewpoint of Buddhist symbolization or sometimes of the spiritual representation, and not from the viewpoint of its functional, structural reason, in other words, as a matter of engineering.

    Japanese-based landscape architect Toru Mitani discusses these and other considerations with reference to the concurrent Harvard Graduate School of Design exhibition featuring his ongoing work and collaborative projects with his firm ‘studio on site.’The lecture will take place Tuesday, October 31 from 6:30 – 8:30 in Gund Hall Piper Auditorium, 48 Quincy Street, Cambridge. Anyone requiring accessibility accommodations should contact the events office at (617) 496-2414 or events@gsd.harvard.edu.

  • Thursday, October 5, 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm – Teresa Moller

    The Harvard Graduate School of Design presents a free lecture by Teresa Moller on Thursday, October 5 beginning at 6:30 pm in  Gund Hall’s Piper Auditorium on Quincy Street in Cambridge. The studio Teresa Moller y Asociados has been working for the past 35 years in the world of Landscape Architecture. The office strongly believes in the power of simplicity. A careful observation and awareness of the existing landscape is the key for developing sociocultural projects and bringing nature accessible to people and for them to find balance in a constant changing urban environment.

    The diverse landscapes of Chile have been the setting for the majority of the studio’s projects since its founding. Distinct palettes of plants and materials are utilized as project locations range from the Atacama Desert in the north to the Lakes Region of the south as well as from the Pacific Coast in the east to the Andes mountain range in the west. This diversity has developed a way of working in the studio that approaches each project by examining the valuable elements existing in the site along with the surrounding natural systems, local ecology, and architecture. Thus, every project is a direct and unique result of its environment.

    The work has an architectural base, a geometry that structures the landscape over which the vegetation interacts more freely. Moller’s work is characterized by its simplicity, and she strongly believes that in that simplicity lays its force. This force unites nature with architecture and provides a point of interaction between humans and their surroundings. The studio has developed international projects, including in China, Germany, Argentina, and Australia. The studio works in the realms of residential, public urban space, commercial, institutional and agricultural settings with many built projects to date. The goal of the office is always to collaborate with the architects and clients, using each participant’s strengths and knowledge to arrive at an integrated design solution that is both efficient and elegant.

    Anyone requiring accessibility accommodations should contact the events office at (617) 496-2414 or events@gsd.harvard.edu.