Van Alen Institute - Events

VAN ALEN INSTITUTE PROJECT IN PUBLIC ARCHITECTURE

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In Conversation: Julia Czerniak and Edward Mitchell
on the possibilities for public life in new ecological infrastructures

Thursday, August 14, 2008
7:00 p.m.

at Van Alen Institute
30 West 22nd Street, 6th Floor
New York, NY 10010

Seating is limited; please RSVP to rsvp [at] vanalen.org

Van Alen Institute is pleased to present two public IN CONVERSATION programs in conjunction with the work of New York Prize Fellow Ellen Grimes. 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.

In her project "Public Ecologies at Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie," Ellen Grimes is developing the infrastructure for an unprecedented series of ecological experiments at Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie, the former site of the U.S. Army's Joliet Arsenal and the largest single piece of open land in metropolitan Chicago. Ranging across an area three times the size of Central Park, the ecological experiments will be publicly accessible, and Grimes is partnering with the U.S. Forest Service and a group of ecologists from the University of Illinois at Chicago to plan a landscape that will enable multiple audiences to participate in the scientific research. As part of her work at Van Alen Institute, Grimes brings together architects, historians, urbanists and ecologists to explore what it means to locate the public within natural ecological systems.

In the first conversation on Wednesday, August 6, Clive G. Jones, an ecologist and senior scientist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, will join architectural historian MICHAEL OSMAN for an unscripted dialogue on the intersection of ecological theory and design practice. While there is a long history of architects and designers using organic and biological metaphors in their work, how do these metaphors relate to actual theoretical content in ecology and biology? How might new models of nature that embrace risk and indeterminacy influence design thinking and practice? Likewise, how might contemporary design practices influence ecological thought, and what role should designers play in the planning and management of ecosystems?

In the second conversation on Thursday, August 14, Julia Czerniak, associate professor of architecture at Syracuse University and principal of CLEAR, will join Ed Mitchell, principal of Edward Mitchell Architects and adjunct assistant professor of architecture at Yale University, for an unscripted discussion and debate about the possibilities for public life in new ecological infrastructures. As ecosystems and metropolitan infrastructures become more integrated, how might they operate as a new kind of public realm? What forms of civic, cultural and scientific engagement will these new infrastructures enable and what forms of planning will they require? How will conventional strategies for managing public land — such as preservation, conservation, and restoration — adapt or expand to accommodate increasingly complex mandates?

Both conversations will take place around Grimes's topographic model of the Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie, and will be supplemented by extensive documentation and analyses of the site's geographic, socio-economic and historical contexts and precedents.

Image Gallery

Van Alen Institute gallery, August 14, 2008. Photo by Ashley May.

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New York Prize Fellow Ellen Grimes orients the audience to her topographic model of Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie, August 14, 2008. Photo by Ashley May

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From Left: VAI Fellowship Council member Sarah Whiting, Edward Mitchell, Julia Czerniak, and New York Prize Fellow Ellen Grimes, August 14, 2008. Photo by Ashley May

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BIOS

Julia Czerniak
Julia Czerniak is associate professor of architecture at Syracuse University and principal of CLEAR. Her research and practice focus on the intersection of architecture and landscape architecture, and she is the editor of Large Parks (Princeton Architectural Press, 2007) and Case: Downsview Park Toronto (Prestel and Harvard Design School, 2001). Czerniak is also Director of UPSTATE: A Center for Design, Research, and Real Estate, at the Syracuse University School of Architecture. UPSTATE is a design research and advocacy organization addressing urban revitalization in the city of Syracuse and the upstate region.

Ellen Grimes (moderator)
Ellen Grimes is an architectural designer and assistant professor of architecture at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her design practice, Available, focuses on projects that produce or develop resources for their stakeholders through market interventions, code and regulation interpretation, and the repurposing of under-valued assets. She is currently in residence at Van Alen Institute as a New York Prize Fellow.

Clive G. Jones
Clive G. Jones is an ecologist and senior scientist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies. His research focuses on ecosystem engineering, interaction webs in oak forests, and ecological theory. Dr. Jones is the author of Ecological Understanding, the Nature of Theory and the Theory of Nature with Steward Pickett and Jurek Kolasa. He also holds a Blaise Pascal International Research Chair at Ecole Normale Suprieure, Paris.

Edward Mitchell
Edward Mitchell is an architect and writer. His practice in New Haven involves residential, commercial, and urban design. He is a fellow of the Urban Design Workshop and a member of the Vita Nuova, a goup of environmental engineers, developers, and designers involved in the redevelopment of environmentally impacted properties. Mitchell is also an adjunct assistant professor of architecture at Yale University.

Michael Osman
Michael Osman is an architectural historian. His work addresses early 20th century American urbanism and the regulatory systems that control the economies of the home, the market, labor and nature. He has published in Grey Room, Thresholds, Constructs, and co-edited Perspecta 33: Mining Autonomy. Osman also teaches at the Yale School of Architecture.

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