bryant park

NYC Exhibit

Emerge Studio: Two Universities, One Goal


The University of Idaho and Rutgers – The State University of New Jersey came together to provide sustainable design advisory for Earth From Above.

Emerge Studio, the team led by Elizabeth Graff (UI) and Wolfram Hoefer (RU), formed as a merging of disciplinary expertise to realize responsible design and technical innovation desired for the exhibit in NYC. Made up of educators, scientists, designers and students, Emerge Studio creates a model for working in the realm of the built environment in the 21st century with collaboration and environmental stewardship at the fore. Following William McDonough's Cradle-to-Cradle dictum as taught in the university classroom, Emerge oversaw site selection, worked with the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation, Central Park Conservancy, and other public and private stakeholders in evaluating the ideal location in NYC for the debut of this critical exhibition.

From the perspective of landscape architecture, while tapping student coursework and research opportunities, Emerge helped facilitate a 9-month venue research process with strict exhibition criteria. Before determining a beneficial fit at Bryant Park and immediate environs, multiple sites (including Central Park, Battery Park City, Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park, Flushing Meadows Corona Park, and Madison Square Park among others) were compared for spatial suitability, accessibility, contextual support, green potential, emotive response, and event logistics.

Upon determining the event's feasibility at Bryant Park, landscape architecture research and design studios informed the event's layout plan, conceptual design of exhibition elements, and sustainable materials and construction guidelines. Consequently, the process opened the student's view to the breadth of contemporary landscape architecture, as motivated by the exhilaration of an actual project they are integrally a part. Subsequently, the preparatory materials become a launching point and means for collaboration with a chosen professional design firm in bringing forth the project's realization with a strong philosophical foundation. Thus, the long-term implications of this integrated and collaborative approach lends toward the continued development of theoretical pedagogy linked directly to the pragmatics of responsible design and management of the built environment in which we all live, work, and play with Earth From Above/NYC as precedent.

>> Learn more about landscape architecture at Idaho and Rutgers

Education

Bring Your Classroom

EFA encourages classrooms to come to the exhibit.

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