IN CONVERSATION: Michael Singer and Signe Nielsen
“Infrastructure and Community”
Thursday, November 15, 2007
6:30-8:30pm
Van Alen Institute
30 W. 22nd Street, 6th Floor
New York, NY 10010
Van Alen Institute and Environmental Defense present MICHAEL SINGER (Environmental Artist and Designer, Michael Singer Studio) and SIGNE NIELSEN (Partner, Mathews Nielsen) on the integration of infrastructure facilities and public amenities. Can waste, power and water treatment facilities provide cultural, educational, aesthetic or recreational assets for their surrounding communities? Who takes the lead in the planning, engineering and design of public works today?
Van Alen Institute's IN CONVERSATION series pairs diverse practitioners in spontaneous, unscripted dialogue to bridge work in contemporary architecture and urbanism with other disciplines that engage the public realm. This conversation is presented in conjunction with the launch of “Infrastructure and Community: How can we live with what sustains us?”, a new report issued by Environmental Defense and Michael Singer Studio.
The report proposes a radical rethinking of urban infrastructure, to bring the best of design to bear on making the siting of these facilities not something to be opposed, but to be embraced. Design, technology and community come together in a shared vision for how to build infrastructure in a way that also benefits neighborhoods.
The world’s mega-cities are growing fast. By 2030, New York’s population will grow by an estimated one million people. The demand for additional waste transfer stations, power plants and water treatment facilities will follow, yet this kind of infrastructure can be extraordinarily difficult to site: community opposition to poorly designed facilities runs strong. Can design and environmental technology break this pattern?
Renowned landscape architect Signe Nielsen will join report co-author Michael Singer for a vibrant conversation about new directions for infrastructure design. Environmental Defense’s Ramon Cruz, co-author with Singer, will introduce the report. Copies will be available during the reception.
This event is free and open to the public, however space is limited. Please RSVP to rsvp@vanalen.org by 5pm on Tuesday, November 13.
About Michael Singer
Michael Singer’s recent work has been instrumental in transforming public art, architecture, landscape and planning projects into successful models for urban and ecological renewal, which have contributed to the definition of site specific art and the development of public places. In 1993, The New York Times chose Singer's design of a massive waste recycling and transfer station in Phoenix as one of the top eight design events of the year. In recent years, Singer has been involved in a variety of landscape and outdoor environment, planning, and infrastructure projects in the United States and Europe. Michael Singer has received numerous awards, including fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation. Current civic projects include a mile long waterfront in Downtown West Palm Beach, planning strategies for Historic Boca Raton, and a collaboration with Environmental Defense on a white paper titled “Infrastructure and Community: How can we live with what sustains us?” Whole Foods Market has also commissioned Michael Singer Studio to create green site planning guidelines and concept shell designs for all future stores in South Florida. For more information visit http://www.michaelsinger.com/.
About Signe Nielsen
Signe Nielsen has practiced as a landscape architect and urban designer since 1978. She has overseen the planning, design and construction of more than $360 million worth of projects, including waterfront parks, large campuses, urban design and transportation improvements, and corporate facilities in the United States and abroad. Her design work has received more than two dozen national design awards, has been published extensively in professional journals and books on landscape architecture and has been exhibited in New York, Washington DC and Chicago. Ms. Nielsen is Vice President of the Art Commission for the City of New York and a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects. She holds degrees in Urban Planning from Smith College, Landscape Architecture from City College, and Construction Management from Pratt Institute, and is currently a full Professor in both the graduate and undergraduate Schools of Architecture at Pratt Institute. For more information visit http://www.mnlandscape.com/.
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Van Alen Institute is an independent nonprofit architectural organization whose mission is to promote inquiry into the processes that shape the design of the public realm. For over a century, the Institute has cultivated a fellowship of architecture and design practitioners and scholars, awarded excellence in design, and fostered dialogue about architecture as a public practice. Today, as conventionally defined fields of knowledge give way to new disciplines and alternative methodologies, Van Alen Institute reclaims its legacy as an architectural institute that is dedicated to critical inquiry surrounding contemporary forms of public space and new configurations of spatial practice. The Institute develops and presents programs that inform debate and advance design through competitions and fellowships, related forums, publications and exhibitions. For more information visit www.vanalen.org.
Environmental Defense is a leading national nonprofit organization representing more than 500,000 members. Since 1967, we have linked science, economics and law to create innovative, equitable and cost-effective solutions to society's most urgent environmental problems. Environmental Defense is dedicated to protecting the environmental rights of all people, including future generations. Among these rights are access to clean air and water, healthy and nourishing food, and flourishing ecosystems. Guided by science, Environmental Defense evaluates environmental problems and works to create and advocate solutions that win lasting political, economic and social support because they are nonpartisan, cost-efficient and fair. Environmental Defense believes that a sustainable environment will require economic and social systems that are equitable and just. We affirm our commitment to the environmental rights of the poor and people of color. As an American organization, Environmental Defense will always pay special attention to American environmental problems and to America's role in both causing and solving global environmental problems. For more information visit www.environmentaldefense.org.
Van Alen Institute is located at 30 W. 22nd Street, 6th Floor. Take the N, R, W or F, V trains to 23rd Street.
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