The Architectural League of New York selects Merritt Chase for the American Roundtable project

Courtesy of Rebecca Kiger

Today the Architectural League of New York announced the commissioning of ten reports for its new American Roundtable initiative.

We’re excited to announce that Merritt Chase will be leading one of ten editorial reports alongside designer-led perspectives from across the country. The reports have been commissioned as part of American Roundtable, a new Architectural League initiative that will bring together on-the-ground perspectives on the condition of American communities and what they need to thrive going forward.

Merritt Chase’s report will highlight inspiring land-based projects in West Virginia that have positioned themselves to replace the region’s declining extraction economy. Through a series of contributions from an all-women group of regional landscape architects, artists, and writers, this multimedia project imagines alternate, post-carbon futures for West Virginia’s communities, acknowledging the state’s reverence for land and preparing the region for the inevitable effects of climate change.

We are excited to work with an incredible team of multimedia collaborators to make this report possible, including nationally acclaimed photographer Rebecca Kiger, Academy Award-nominated and Emmy winning film maker Elaine McMillion Sheldon, West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s Brittany Patterson, Harvard Graduate School of Design’s Caroline Filice Smith, and Point Line Projects’ Sarah Rafson. Their collective dedication to expressing alternative narratives about Appalachia, specifically West Virginia, has inspired this work.

For more information on the American Roundtable project visit the Architectural League of New York’s website here.

Merritt Chase Provides On-Call Services to Pittsburgh Institutions

In recent months Merritt Chase has been selected to provide on-call landscape architecture, urban design, and community engagement services for the City of Pittsburgh, the Urban Redevelopment Authority, and Carnegie Mellon University. Merritt Chase is currently working with the City of Pittsburgh on the Emerald View Regional Park Master Plan and with Carnegie Mellon University on TCS Hall with Bohlin Cywinski Jackson Architects and the 5th & Clyde Residence Hall with LTL Architects.

Merritt Chase invited to Harvard GSD's Landscape Practices Seminar

Harvard’s Graduate School of Design’s Spring 2020 elective seminar, Landscape Practices, will feature lectures by a wide range of landscape architecture practices from across the globe. Led by Chris Reed, “the seminar will shed light upon the ways in which a diverse array of practitioners and designers have both conceptualized what they do—the nature of and ideas behind their work—and operationalized it in terms of how they do it—the mechanisms, structures, and strategies that put their ideas into play.“

Merritt Chase was invited as a “Next Gen” firm and will present a range of current work and a behind-the-scenes peek into the mechanics of running a small, start-up design firm.

Carnegie Mellon University's 5th & Clyde Residence Hall Breaks Ground

The 5th and Clyde Residence Hall, designed by LTL Architects, will house ~250 students and include a campus HUB for Carnegie Mellon University’s North of Forbes campus neighborhood. The public realm will include improved streetscape along 5th Avenue and a new courtyard with access to the residence hall and HUB.

More information on the project can be found here.

Merritt Chase to Present at AIA Pittsburgh's Build Pittsburgh 2020

AIA Pittsburgh’s Build Pittsburgh 2020 is the region’s largest gathering for the architectural profession.

Nina Chase, alongside Matthew McMahon of Snøhetta and Terri Brightman of Strada Architecture, will present Between Architecture and Landscape Architecture: Creative Collaboration in Professional Practice. The panel will feature multiple projects, including Bow Market, where collaboration between architects and landscape architects was critical to project success.

Vertical Parks / Vertical Parties Featured in Public Source

2019 Christian Phillips Photography

“Harnessing the arts as a communication tool with direct, open participation can build agency in the community, strengthen social capital and create a collective vision.” 

Public Source’s latest piece features local organizations that are working with communities and artists (and landscape architects) to highlight community assets, including the city steps. Learn more in the article about our Vertical Park / Vertical Party project in Polish Hill with the Polish Hill Civic Association, the Office of Public Art, and BikePGH.

Birch Street Plaza Featured in Landscape Architecture Magazine

This month, Birch Street Plaza makes it editorial debut with a feature in Landscape Architecture Magazine, including information on the project and the process, duct tape and all!

“Instead of using bricks…the team, along with volunteers from the neighborhood, ‘paved’ the street with duct tape and used milk crates to frame the seating areas—a ‘one-to-one scale model’ of the more permanent intervention.”

Follow the project as construction for the final semi-permanent plaza starts this year.

The Wikipedia Project Takes over WxLA's Instagram

Next week follow along as landscape designer Alexandra Mei and The Wikipedia Project take over the WxLA instagram. Alexandra and her research partner Shira Grosman created the Wikipedia Project to promote the history and expand the presence of women in landscape architecture on Wikipedia. Alexandra serves as the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA)’s Women in Landscape Architecture Professional Practice Network (WiLA PPN)’s new Wiki Officer. The takeover will last one week from December 8 through December 14.

Merritt Chase joins GBBN Architects to design Penn State's Federal House

Built in 1838, the Federal House served as a family home, stagecoach shop, and a safe house on the Underground Railroad. Now owned by Penn State University, the Federal House will soon be the home of Susan Hirt Hagen Center for Community Outreach, Research, and Evaluation (CORE), a program that focuses on fostering positive outcomes for at-risk youth in Erie County, PA. The Federal House is the oldest brick structure on Penn State's Behrend campus. A renovation and addition will define an inspiring flexible space of inclusion, community, security, and growth. We are excited to be starting work on this project with our partners at GBBN Architects. More information on the project and the partners can be found on Penn State’s website here.

Staging Urban Landscapes Book Review Published

Check out Nina Chase’s recent review of Cannon Iver’s book Staging Urban Landscapes: The Activation and Curation of Flexible Public Spaces. Read an excerpt from the review below. The full review can be found on Land8 here.

“Cannon Ivers’ Staging Urban Landscapes: The Activation and Curation of Flexible Public Spaces is a beautifully designed and expertly choreographed survey of urban landscapes at the intersection of public space design and programming. As Sergio Lopez-Pineiro argues in his essay “Scratch That!”, “public space is no longer considered to be only physical space but…seen as a combination of physical space with a curatorial program.” Ivers makes a strong case for the advantageous mixing of both. The book includes essays, case studies, historic reviews, and a visual index all focused on the alignment of design and activation. Ivers playfully and intentionally provides a little something for everyone.

…

For the students of design (life-long or currently enrolled), take note. The insatiable rise in public space programming is driving the execution of urban landscapes globally. The challenge to design truly unique and culturally relevant landscapes is more important now than ever. In his afterword “Design, Curation, and Identity,” James Corner sums up the potential downfall of the “great design plus great programming” equation. “’Programming the urban surface’ and a design vocabulary of sheds, platforms, stages, plinths, theatres, frames, equipment, infrastructures, utilities and similar invitations for infinitely flexible use can all too easily lead to impoverished or formulaic physical designs.” As designers, we cannot fall victim to homogeneity, but rather leverage the contemporary demand for flexible public space to compliment the culture of a community and elevate its diversity. Ivers’ Case Studies are successful because they represent their constituents and provide space for individual interpretation. To remain relevant, we cannot simply copy and paste their successes in place.”