Placemaking Seminar Series 2015
SPRING 2015
PLACEMAKING: THE WRITERS AND THINKERS Speaker: Robert Tullis, Vice President?Director of Design, GID Urban Development Group Why are some places loved while others are never popular? Are some architectural characteristics more conducive to human habitation? How do scale, enclosure, use, and memory help create a sense of place? The Placemaking Network engages in a series of conversations covering architectural thinking and writing that relates to the making of distinct urban public spaces. After an overview derived from a Placemaking course that Rob Tullis developed for the Boston Architectural College, attendees will share a discussion of each group of authors’ ideas. THE OBSERVERS: The Renaissance, Camillo Sitte, Art Historians March 2, 2015 These writers focus primarily on the FORM of successful public spaces and simply document them or attempt to tease out of their observations some prescriptive notes on why the observer thinks they are successful. The talk will focus on the godfather of placemaking, Camillo Sitte, and bring Renaissance thinkers like Alberti & Palladio into the conversation, along with more contemporary observers like Gordon Cullen, Ed Bacon, William MacDonald, and Spiro Kostoff THE RESEARCHERS: William ‘Holly’ Whyte, Jan Gehl, Kevin Lynch March 30, 2015 These writers focus primarily on the USE of public open space, analyzing both human perception and human behavior. They’ve conducted real architectural research, setting up cameras to record how people behave in different spaces, creating experiments to test people’s spatial orientation, distributing questionnaires to understand their emotional reactions, and compiling diagrams of their movements. The research is a treasure trove of information. THE THEORISTS: Rowe & Koetter, Aldo Rossi, Chris Alexander April 27, 2015 These writers have created full-fledged architectural theory about public urban space. They have conceptualized an intellectual approach to the city and the role of architecture within it, and combined it with a working process for placemaking. Whether it’s the concept of the Collage City, or the Locus Solus, or a Pattern Language; each of this talk’s theorists was influential on the practice of architecture and urban planning in his time and in his own distinct way. THE ADVOCATES: Jane Jacobs, Project for Public Spaces, Leon Krier and the New Urbanists May 18, 2015 While all observers, researchers, and theorists have advocated for the creation of quality places within the city and town to a degree, this group of writers is primarily known for their advocacy of a certain prescription for the design of Place, often in opposition to a competing polemic. The influence of 1961’s “The Death and Life of Great American Cities” opposition to top-down renewal efforts, the Project for Public Spaces’ crowdsourcing and event-style advocacy, and the New Urbanists’ form-based codes have all turned the prevailing standards of their times on their heads. Art in the Landscape: Patrick Dougherty, Roxy Paine and Konstantin Dimopoulos June 22, 2015 Returning Placemaking Network co-chair, Christina Lanzl, will talk about the work of Patrick Dougherty, Roxy Paine and Konstantin Dimopoulos, three internationally renowned artists who have been transforming landscapes into worlds of wonder and discovery. Through their imagination and creativity, their works have imprinted indelible memories through both temporary and permanent installations. As placemakers, these artists have centered their creative inquiry on trees. Their processes and outcomes are distinctively different in regard to materials, narrative and durability of their large-scale outdoor installations. Dougherty has been utilizing traditional basket weaving techniques to turn saplings into massive "Stickwork" environments, many of them with an architectural character. One of his large-scale outdoor installations is on view at the Peabody Essex Museum through 2016. Roxy Paine’s naturalistic tree sculptures are meticulously cast in stainless steel. His Dendroids closely resemble leafless trees in a paralyzed, inanimate state. Dimopoulos developed The Blue Trees project, which has been realized in partnership with cultural and environmental organizations, cities and hundreds of volunteers at a dozen prominent sites worldwide. Stands of trees, either mature or saplings, are colored with an environmentally safe, ultramarine blue pigment to call attention to global deforestation. This Placemaking session will explore artistic intent, context and the relationship between art, landscape and nature in a comparative dialog. FRAMES OF REFERENCE | New York : Boston Thursday, July 23, 2015 | 6:30pm cultureNOW in partnership with the BSA Placemaking Network and the New York Center for Architecture's Architecture Dialogue and Global Dialogue committees presented FRAMES OF REFERENCE | New York : Boston. cultureNOW reached out to a diverse group of artists, architects, planners, and curators who practice globally and locally to explore the impact of context on the built environment. They shared their thoughts about how historical, cultural and civic contexts become their frames of reference at a pecha-kucha style presentation. The event was simulcast live from both cities. Speakers ...in New York: James Russell, FAIA, Adjunct Professor, Spitzer School of Architecture (Moderator) Jeremy Edmiston, Principal, SYSTEMarchitects Emma Fuller, Visiting Assistant Professor of Architecture, Pratt Institute Audrey Matlock, FAIA, Principal, Audrey Matlock Architect Jeffrey Murphy, AIA, LEED AP, Partner, Murphy Burnham & Buttrick Architects Thaddeus Pawlowski, Associate Urban Designer, New York City Department of City Planning Nina Rappaport, Director of Publications, Yale School of Architecture Caterina Roiatti, AIA, Principal, TRA STUDIO architecture PLLC Joel Sanders, AIA, Principal, Joel Sanders Architect Ken Smith, FASLA, Principal, Workshop: Ken Smith Landscape Architect Sylvia Smith, FAIA, Senior Partner, FXFOWLE Adam Yarinsky, FAIA, Principal, Architecture Research Office ...in Boston: David Fixler, FAIA, LEED AP, Principal, EYP Architecture and Engineering, Inc. (Moderator) Marie Law Adams, Founding Principal, Landing Studio Franziska Amacher, FAIA, Principal, Amacher and Associates Architects Ann Beha, FAIA, Principal, Ann Beha Architects Jeffry Buchard, AIA, Principal, Machado Silvetti Rodolfo Machado, Int'l Assoc. AIA, Principal, Machado Silvetti Marc Norman, Loeb Fellow, Harvard Graduate School of Design Hector Tarrido-Picart, Student, Harvard Graduate School of Design Maryann Thompson, FAIA, Principal, Maryann Thompson Architects Frano Violich, FAIA, Principal, Kennedy & Violich Architecture/KVA matx |
Programs take place at the BSA Space, 290 Congress Street in Boston from 6-8pm. They are free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served. To learn more about specific programs you would like to attend and to register visit the "Placemaking Network" on the BSA Website.
FALL 2015 Cities with Heart September 28, 2015 Nowhere is the need for implementing urban public open spaces best practices more urgent than in rapidly urbanizing China. Harvard-educated landscape architect and BSA Placemaking participant Thomas Paine, founder of the Boston office of AGER, a Shanghai based multidisciplinary design firm, will share the China book-tour PPT of his recently published book “Cities with Heart” (China Architecture and Building Press, Beijing, 2015) to show how he makes the case for urban public open space excellence to a general audience in China, where standards of practice differ markedly from our own in the US. For anyone currently involved in international work, or contemplating it, this session will be of particular interest. Design guidelines for open space systems–civic plazas, downtown parks, large parks, greenways and neighborhood parks–will be included in this image-rich presentation. Architecture and Human Subconscious Responses to the Built Environment October 26, 2015 The revolution in the life sciences, including neuroscience happening now, will impact far more than biology: it will change our understanding of the human response to buildings and places. With the availability of affordable biometric devices to measure subconscious traits, new tools for determining how built-environments makes people feel are possible, providing opportunities for research and a comprehensive understandings of our experience of place. Anne Sussman, co-author of Cognitive Architecture: Designing for How We Respond to the Built Environment (Routledge, 2015) will talk about three subconscious traits that determine our behavior: why Edges Matter, Patterns Matter and Shapes Carry Weight–each topic a synthesis of recent scientific findings. Ann Sussman, AIA, is an architect, artist, writer and community organizer. She co-authored Cognitive Architecture with Justin Hollander, PhD, AICP, of Tufts University. Previously, the pair created the “Open Neighborhood Project”, using art, craft and digital tools to increase public participation in planning, and earning the Commonwealth's "Gold Star Award". The Urban Innovation Gallery: A Report from the Field December 7, 2015 Sam Aquillano, Executive Director of Design Museum Boston, will report on the ongoing implementation of the Urban Innovation Gallery, an urban intervention and education project that explores placemaking strategies to improve underneath the I-93 overpass at Berkley Street bridge, close to Traveler and West 4th streets, an area Design Museum Boston named the Neighborhood Border Zone. The Urban Innovation Gallery will unite Boston's Chinatown, South End, Fort Point, and South Boston neighborhoods by exploring new solutions for the urban depression in what should be the heart of Boston's artistic and innovative core. The project is funded in part by an ArtPlace America grant. |