• Gateway: Visions for an Urban National Park
• Launch Parties and More at Van Alen Books
• Spotlight on Our NYC Design Colleagues
• Call for Entries and Funding Opportunities
• Warm Up with Van Alen Membership

GATEWAY: VISIONS FOR AN URBAN NATIONAL PARK

We’re thrilled to announce the release of Gateway: Visions for an Urban National Park. Now available from Princeton Architectural Press, this volume is the culminating publication of a multi-year research and design initiative that re-envisioned the role of urban nature in the twenty-first century. Beginning in 2006, Van Alen Institute partnered with the National Parks Conservation Association and Columbia’s GSAPP to explore a vast expanse of wilderness and recreation in New York City. The result was a 2007 international ideas competition for Gateway National Recreation Area—a 26,000-acre landscape spanning three boroughs, two states, and myriad opportunities to look afresh at the fate of natural and cultural resources in dense urban settings.

The book showcases entries from the competition, and explores them within broad contexts of ecological regeneration, cultural diversity, urban policy, and environmental education. With contributions from editors Alexander Brash, Jamie Hand, and Kate Orff, as well as reflections from historian Ethan Carr, critic Christopher Hawthorne, the National Park Service’s Rolf Diamant, former VAI executive director Adi Shamir, and others, the book documents the innovative competition process and ways that urban parks can foster democracy and community. Powerful photographs from Laura McPhee round out the volume, capturing Gateway’s sublime ruins and unexpected beauty. Special thanks to The Tiffany & Company Foundation for supporting both the competition and publication.

Copies are now available at Van Alen Books, where we’ll be hosting a launch with the book's editors on Thursday, January 26 at 7:00 p.m.

LAUNCH PARTIES AND MORE AT VAN ALEN BOOKS

Come down to Van Alen Books for a month of evening readings and book launches. We kick off on Wednesday, November 9 at 7:00 p.m. as Tala Gharagozlou, David Sadighian, and Ryan Welch bring Yale's student-edited journal Perspecta to the bookstore to present their latest issue tracing the evolving meanings of the term "domain." On Saturday, November 12 at 5:00 p.m., another team of graduate students fills the yellow steps. Gareth Doherty and El Hadi Jazairy, doctoral candidates at Harvard’s GSD, present New Geographies 3: Urbanisms of Color and New Geographies 4: Scales of Earth. Through critical essays and design projects, these two volumes consider concerns of scale, infrastructure, ecology, and globalization within the overarching geographic context. To round out our November of journal launches, we celebrate the latest issue of Topos on Saturday, November 19 at 5:00 p.m. The current issue examines crisis situations and their relationship to the landscape, exploring the role of design in the face of traumatic events.

Finally, we go local on Monday, November 21 at 7:00 p.m., when John Hill of Archidose offers a survey of New York's most recent architectural arrivals featured in his Guide to Contemporary New York City Architecture. Presenting 200 of the most notable structures and spaces in New York's five boroughs to be built since the turn of the new millennium, Hill’s guide groups them by neighborhood with photos, maps, directions, and descriptions.

SPOTLIGHT ON OUR NYC DESIGN COLLEAGUES

This winter, Van Alen Books showcases a selection of publications by peer organizations working in New York City to advance design dialogue and improve the public realm. We're kicking off with an installation at the store featuring the work of the Architectural League of NY, Center for Urban Pedagogy, Design Trust for Public Space, Institute for Urban Design, Storefront for Art and Architecture, and Van Alen and hosting a series of conversations that look at the role of their publications—from educational tools aimed at increasing community engagement to competition catalogues, policy guidelines, and platforms for young architects to refine and report on their developing practices.

Join us for our evening event series beginning on Friday, November 18 at 7:00 p.m., when Anne Rieselbach, Program Director for the Architectural League, will be joined by previous winners to reflect on 30 years of the League Prize and the evolution of the Young Architects series, published annually by Princeton Architectural Press. And on Tuesday, November 29 at 7:00 p.m., Christine Gaspar, Executive Director of the Center for Urban Pedagogy, discusses Making Policy Public, a series that pairs advocacy groups with graphic designers to create fold-out posters that explore, explain, and improve access to public policy.

DRYLANDS DESIGN: RETROFITTING THE AMERICAN WEST

Drylands Design is an open ideas competition to retrofit the American West. The California Architectural Foundation, in partnership with the Arid Lands Institute at Woodbury University and the AIACC Academy for Emerging Professionals, is seeking projects anticipating, mitigating, and adapting to the projected impacts of climate change across the Western landscape. Re-thinking water use will be central to the region’s survival, and Drylands Design invites collaborations across the disciplines of architecture, urban design, landscape architecture, regional planning, and infrastructure to address water supply, quality, access, and the water/energy nexus. Register by November 15.

ARTPLACE GRANTS FOR CREATIVE PLACEMAKING

The recently launched ArtPlace partnership believes that art, culture, and creativity expressed powerfully through place can create vibrant communities. Toward this end, the organization is inviting letters of inquiry from arts organizations, artists, and designers working with local and national partners to propose initiatives in creative placemaking and vibrant community building in fields such as economic development, transportation, neighborhood development, entrepreneurship, sustainability, and health. Projects can range in topic and scope, but should engage the local community and stimulate local development through art. Read the complete guidelines for further information on how your organization or initiative can receive support. Letters of inquiry are due November 15.

GARDNER MUSEUM 2012 LANDSCAPE FELLOWSHIP

Calling emerging talent in landscape architecture! The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is offering its inaugural fellowship in Landscape Studies for the summer of 2012. As a new biennial program, the fellowship will be awarded to an emerging design talent whose work articulates the potential for landscape as a medium of design in the public realm. The selected fellow will work within the museum grounds and surrounding Boston community to develop landscape as a medium of public works—and will be put up in one of the Gardner’s Renzo Piano-designed apartments! Landscape architects and designers in related disciplines may apply by December 15. Learn more about the fellowship here.

CALL FOR ENTRIES: [UN]RESTRICTED ACCESS

Architecture for Humanity’s [Un]restricted Access competition invites architects and designers around the world to re-envision decommissioned military installations as vital parts of their surrounding communities. As symbols of power, pride, and the consequences of military aggression, these vast depots, airfields, and entire ghost towns are important opportunities for social and urban regeneration. The competition asks participants to partner with local organizations to transform the barricaded zones through a design-driven process of civic change. Registration is open through March 31, but now is the time to start thinking about how to productively re-energize these places and their complex ties to community.

WARM UP WITH VAN ALEN MEMBERSHIP

We're celebrating the fall season with high-spirited projects that inspire public participation and fuel the civic imagination. We invite you to join us in creating a more vibrant public realm by becoming a Van Alen member. Join today, and you'll be a part of our diverse community of designers, planners, policy-makers, and urban thinkers—anyone with a passion for the public realm. Of course, current supporters already enjoy the 10% members’ discount at Van Alen Books, along with complimentary VAI publications, special members-only events, and more. Join us today by signing up here.

As always, it’s easy to keep in touch with Van Alen: Browse our home page at www.vanalen.org, find us in your in-box via our monthly newsletter, and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Van Alen Institute’s ongoing programs are made possible through the generous assistance of our individual contributors and partners, and are supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, and by Furthermore: a program of the J.M. Kaplan Fund and Seed Fund. We gratefully appreciate their assistance, and acknowledge the generous support of the following organizations: