Drone photo by Hadley Fruits
Merritt Chase, alongside landscape architecture firms Reed Hilderbrand, Studio Zewde, and GGN, has been shortlisted by the Community Education Coalition and the Cummins Foundation to imagine a unified and inclusive AirPark Campus in Columbus, IN.
Learn more about the project and the process here.
Rebecca Kiger
“Appalachia Rising begins with a simple prompt for a place that’s been exploited and maligned for much of its modern history: “We can start by listening to what the people of West Virginia are interesting in seeing in the future.”
Nina Chase, ASLA, is the editor of Appalachia Rising, and what follows is both design document and policy paper, and part of the final project for the Architectural League’s American Roundtable series, which is focused on better futures for small and medium-sized towns.
Appalachia Rising looks at how land is valued, tracing historical precedents established in West Virginia from extraction industries (oil, gas, logging, coal) to ecologically restorative agriculture and recreation.
The most defining rhetorical choice in Appalachia Rising is presenting West Virginia as a place of abundance—not deficiency—while still acknowledging the public austerity and corporate largess that’s defined it.”
Click here for the full article.
The Highland Park Super Playground, located in the City of Pittsburgh’s Highland Park, was originally designed by Leathers and built as a community design-build project in 1991. The renovation will include new playground equipment, site improvements, and restoration of the existing park shelter.
Merritt Chase, with Civil & Environmental Consultants, Bartlett Tree Experts, and Kanics Inclusive Design Services, is leading the renovation effort with the City of Pittsburgh’s Department of Public Works and the Highland Park Community Council.
You can follow the project’s process and provide feedback on the City of Pittsburgh’s EngagePGH project page here.
“The American Roundtable reports are being published in a period of profound challenge and turmoil in the United States, a time when it is very easy to lapse into despair about our prospects...We offer these reports with the conviction that the best hope for our common future lies in understanding, respecting, embracing, and encouraging the many peoples and histories and aspirations of our variegated, complex, multicultural, multiracial society.” -Rosalie Genevro, Executive Director, The Architectural League of New York
This week, ”Appalachia Rising” kicks off The Architectural League’s American Roundtable initiative. The American Roundtable project is a new initiative of the Architectural League that brings together on-the-ground perspectives of the condition of American small to mid-sized communities and what they need to thrive. The League commissioned nine design-led reports from across the country. “Appalachia Rising,” edited by Merritt Chase’s Nina Chase, features visions of alternative landscape futures for West Virginia, inspired by letters written by current and former West Virginians, and showcases emerging examples of land-based projects that are already showing what is possible across the state. The report includes the work of a multi-media team of Appalachian collaborators including Rebecca Kiger, Elaine McMillion Sheldon, Brittany Patterson of WV Public Broadcasting, Caroline Filice Smith of Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, and Sarah Rafson, of Point Line Projects.
Click here to read the full “Appalachia Rising” report.
Merritt Chase is pleased to welcome Terrie Brightman as a Senior Associate to our team in Pittsburgh.
As a project manager and registered landscape architect, Terrie has significant experience leading conceptual design, construction documentation, and construction administration for complex urban projects. Her past work has included waterfront parks, public plazas, multi-modal projects and campus gathering spaces. Prior to joining Merritt Chase, Terrie worked at Mathews Nielsen Landscape Architects in New York City and Strada in Pittsburgh.
Read Terrie’s bio and learn more about our full team on our About page here.
©2019 Christian Phillips Photography
This week Bow Market was awarded a 2020 Boston Society of Landscape Architects Design Honor Award. Thank you to the BSLA and the BSLA Awards Jury. Congratulations to the entire Bow Market team!
The Jury commended the “clever design for this compact and comfortable space which provides a multitude of public and semi private areas throughout the year. The dramatic transformation of an area that was a complete afterthought responds well to Somerville’s eclecticism, and the material selections and reuse of the Longfellow Bridge materials were applauded. The overall integration is seamless and smart.”
Check out all the 2020 BSLA Award Winners here.
Courtesy of SOM
The Bloomington Hospital Redevelopment Master Plan in Bloomington, IN, will envision a new future for the current Bloomington Hospital property, located south of the city’s downtown. In the words of Bloomington Mayor John Hamilton, the master planning process is “an exciting opportunity for Bloomingtonians to thoughtfully reimagine this important location in our city.”
Merritt Chase joins the SOM-led team for landscape architecture and public realm design.
More information on the project and the process can be found on the project’s website here.
Courtesy of Rebecca Kiger
Calling all West Virginians (current/former residents and/or anyone who is dedicated to the state),
As part of our work for the Architectural League's American Roundtable report, we are collecting ideas and perspectives about West Virginia’s future. Are you interested in contributing?
We invite you to participate in the project by writing a letter to a hypothetical relative living in West Virginia in the year 2120. Who do you imagine? What do they do for fun? What do they do for a living? What are your hopes and dreams for their community? Our goal is that by writing a letter into the future, you are inspired to envision a new reality for your family and the state, 100 years from today.
You can download the letter writing template with more information on the project and prompts for the letter writing activity (including how to submit) here. We are collecting letters through June 22nd.
Over the past two weeks, the visible and violent culmination of generations of racism against Black Americans has demanded that we work to dismantle the systems that disproportionately benefit White Americans. We felt the urge to respond quickly given the immediacy of the moment, but also feel a sense of responsibility to educate and examine ourselves.
We are a White-led firm that benefits from the structure of a predominately White profession that answers to predominantly White clients. While we may have felt that we acknowledged these facts internally and have worked to make change, it has not been enough, within our firm or within the profession of landscape architecture. There is so much work we have to do.
Below are the actions we are taking to do the work:
Learn - We will continue to learn by reading, listening, and discussing. We will add to the list below and are open to comments, suggestions, and critique.
Elevate - We will elevate our Black design colleagues by promoting their work with our clients and connections. Last year we worked with a client to compile a list of designers of color to lead a project in Indianapolis. We have made that document public here on our website and have added the same names and firms to lists that are currently being compiled to elevate BIPOC designers across the country.
Vote - We will use our individual power to elect anti-racist politicians and vote for anti-racist policies.
Donate - We will donate time and money to support the work of anti-racist organizations. We are currently an office with staff that works remotely in four midwestern cities (Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, and St. Louis). We have donated money to anti-racists organizations in each of our cities and will continue to do so.
Advocate - We serve on boards and alumni councils. We teach. We volunteer. We will be a more adamant voice, both locally and nationally, to advocate for anti-racist programs, policies, and actions from organizations that have the power to make change and to teach the next generation.
Partner - We will actively seek out partnerships with clients, consultants, and communities who support anti-racist projects.
Design - We design and build physical spaces. We will challenge clients to ensure that all landscapes are safe, inclusive, and welcoming. We have committed to the Design Justice for Black Lives Demands. We are ready to look, listen, learn, and design meaningful processes alongside local stakeholders that result in public spaces that are sensitive to context and reflective of the communities that they currently serve.
Emerald View Park, Pittsburgh, PA
Perspectrum Photography
Emerald View Park is the most recent addition to the City of Pittsburgh’s regional park system. Nestled along the slopes of Mount Washington, Emerald View Park comprises over 250 acres of public open spaces, including greenways, trails, Grandview Boulevard, Olympia Park, Mt. Washington Park, and Grandview Park. The regional park master plan aims to provide a unifying vision for Emerald View Park.
Merritt Chase, in partnership with Spackman Mossop Michaels, Civil & Environmental Consultants, Mon-Win Consulting, and Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, is leading the regional park master planning effort with the City of Pittsburgh and the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy.