As students from Rutgers State enter the final weeks of their landscape architecture studio, they're making one more trip to Hopewell Furnace. This semester, the studio has examined the site's spatial, social, and ecological boundaries, looking at the park's complex cultural history through a range of disciplines including GIS specialists, plant biologists, and preservation experts.
Posted on April 13, 2012
PennDesign students have been posting about park design on their competition blog. The latest entry looks at access and connectivity between the Civil War Defenses of Washington sites, using the online tool WalkScore to assess the walkability of the parks.
Posted on April 12, 2012
Thanks to The Architect's Newspaper for this recent article about Parks for the People, introducing the competition's current phase and touching on studio work at park sites in San Juan Island, Washington, and Nicodemus, Kansas.
Posted on April 12, 2012
Hear from Pratt’s EDI students about their midterm review. They’ve posted a recap of last week’s event on their blog.
Posted on March 30, 2012
Over spring break, the studio team from Cornell University visited the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area, exploring the river valley’s extraordinary natural and cultural assets. Students in the thesis design studio are developing individual projects to address park challenges. Check out photos from their adventure.
Posted on March 28, 2012
Last week, Van Alen, the design advisory committee and National Park Service attended the midterm review and symposium for the Pratt Institute Exhibition Design Intensive, hosted by the Ralph Appelbaum Associates Culture and Media Lab. Students have made multiple visits to Hopewell Furnace to consider how to enhance visitor experience and broaden the audience for this important national historic site.
Posted on March 27, 2012
On March 16, members of the design advisory committee headed to New Mexico to attend the Rice University School of Architecture midterm review. Undergraduate architecture students recently visited the snow-covered park to collect site information and meet with staff at the Valles Caldera National Preserve.
Posted on March 25, 2012
In a blog post on the PennDesign studio blog, Samantha Kuntz documents conditions at the Civil War Defenses of Washington and reflects on how entrances to the forts may impact visitors' perception of the park.
Posted on March 12, 2012
In early March, members of the Parks for the People Design Advisory Committee, National Park Service, and Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy visited the students participating in the Rutgers' landscape architecture studio to offer feedback at their midterm review. The students are compiling research and developing projects that will illustrate how landscapes change over time and offer new recreational opportunities at the site.
Posted on March 9, 2012
In February, Van Alen Institute was joined by our advisory team and community stakeholders from Nicodemus at Kansas State University to meet with students participating in the competition. K-State's diverse studio is working to generate a wide range of sustainable community development alternatives and innovative design concepts to increase visitorship to the historic site and revitalize the Nicodemus Township.
Posted on February 29, 2012
Landscape architecture students at Florida International University have been busy exploring Biscayne National Park in Miami. Van Alen and competition advisors visited the studio to review the atlas of subjective interpretations, site research, and mappings they've compiled.
Posted on February 25, 2012
Earlier this month, VAI, National Park Service, and members of the Parks for the People Design Advisory Committee visited Seattle and San Juan Island to review the work of University of Washington's Landscape Architecture Studio. Check out this great recap of the review and images from their visit to the site!
Posted on February 16, 2012
"Defining Cultural Landscapes, Nicodemus, Kansas: Negotiating National Heritage and a Living Landscape" on February 3-4 in NYC was the first Parks for the People studio event of the semester! Landscape Architecture and Urban Design students from CCNY were joined by faculty, architects, VAI staff and representatives from National Park Service to creatively rethink the national park experience.
Posted on February 5, 2012
UW's Parks for the People studio is officially underway! You can follow the studio's progress by reading their blog. Their interdisciplinary studio includes students of landscape architecture, urban design + planning, environmental studies, quantitative ecology and resource management, forestry, museology, and architecture.
Posted on January 10, 2012
