The Urban Landscape Lab is dedicated to affecting positive social and ecological change in the joint built-natural environment. We study cities as places in which ecological processes and urban systems have a complex range of influences upon species diversity, climate change, and social equity. Our projects bring together a wide range of disciplines – architecture, landscape architecture, urban design, preservation, civil engineering, conservation biology, economics, climate, public health, and community-based advocacy – to connect experimental research methods of the academic setting to practices embedded in New York City and beyond. If you are interested in working with us, please get in touch.
Directors
Kate Orff
Founder & Director, Urban Landscape Lab
Kate Orff is an Assistant Professor of Architecture and Urban Design, and Founder Co-Director of the Urban Landscape Lab where she leads studios and seminars that integrate the earth sciences into the design curriculum. Kate is also a registered Landscape Architect and active design practitioner. Her office, SCAPE, has won local and national design awards and is working on 7 active projects for the City of New York, a waterfront park for The State of New Jersey, the LEED platinum Ford Calumet Environmental Center in Chicago, and environmental education centers in Greenville, SC, and in the Catskills for the NY State DEC. She was named a Dwell Magazine ‘Design Leader’ and H&G’s 50 For the Future of Design and received a 2008 National ASLA award in the Communications Category. Kate received a B.A. in Political and Social Thought from the University of Virginia in 1993 and an MLA from Harvard University. contact: kate @ scapestudio.com
Janette Kim
Director, Urban Landscape Lab
Janette Kim is an architectural designer and educator based in New York City. She is principal of All of the Above, an architectural research and design practice, and teaches at Barnard College and Columbia University GSAPP, where she is director of the Urban Landscape Lab. Kim’s practice, research, and teaching focus on the construction of ecologies in relationship to representations of public identity, opinion, and debate. Her work has been published by Artforum, Architectural Record, and Volume, and exhibited at Artists Space and Storefront for Art and Architecture, among others. As partner of Town/Kim studio, Kim was selected as the designer of the AIDS Memorial in San Francisco, and has been awarded by the Sudapan Competition, Pamphlet Architecture, and the Shinkenchiku Residential Competition. She holds a Masters of Architecture from Princeton University and a bachelor’s degree from Columbia University. contact: janette @ e-alloftheabove.org
Research & Design Associates
YoungJi Bae
YoungJi received a Master of Science in Urban Planning from Columbia University GSAPP in the spring of 2010. She has worked on podcast research for Beijing Safari 4.
Lisa Ekle
Lisa Ekle is a Master of Architecture candidate at Columbia University GSAPP. Lisa has worked on podcasts, the Queens Arts Express issue map, research, and drawings for the Safari 7 Reading Room at Studio X in the summer and fall of 2009.
Robin Fitzgerald-Green
Robin Fitzgerald-Green is a Master of Architecture candidate at Columbia University GSAPP. He has worked on podcasts, the Queens Arts Express issue map and research in the summer and fall of 2009.
Steven Garcia
Steven Garcia received his Master of Architecture at Columbia University GSAPP in 2009. He has worked on installation design and production for the Safari 7 Reading Room at Studio X in the fall of 2009.
Margaux Groux
Margaux Groux received a Bachelor of Arts at Barnard College with a major in Urban Studies and a specialization in Architecture. She worked on the ULL and Underdome websites.
Meg Kelly
Meg Kelly received a Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in architecture from Barnard College in the spring of 2009. She has worked on the Fall Kill signage project, A User’s Guide to the Fall Kill Creek publication, and research for the Known Unknowns seminar. Meg directed the installation of the Public Horizon exhibition at Studio-X.
Helen Kongsgaard
Helen Kongsgaard is a designer based in New York City, who addresses urban, landscape and experimental media. She organizes school partnerships, exhibitions and publications for Urban Landscape Lab and pilots outreach for Safari 7. After earning a B.A. from St. John’s College in Philosophy and the History of Science, Helen graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she trained in Visual Culture.
Sayli Korgaonkar
Sayli Korgaonkar received her B.A. with a major in Architecture at Columbia University in 2009. She has worked on research for the Safari 7 Reading Room at Studio X in the summer and fall of 2009, and is was a podcast author as a students in a seminar on urban ecology at the Barnard and Columbia Colleges Architecture Program.
Monique Marian
Monique Marian holds a B.Arch from Pratt Institute. She is a visiting professor at Pratt Institute School of Architecture and a freelance architectural designer. She recorded and authored various podcasts for Safari 7 in summer 2010.
Eliza Montgomery
Eliza Montgomery received a Master of Architecture from Columbia University GSAPP in the spring of 2012. She has worked on Beijing Safari 4 research and mapping in 2010, and was project manager of the Fall Kill Plan from 2011-12.
Katie Okamoto
Katie Okamoto is a Master of Architecture candidate at Columbia University GSAPP and received her B.A. in Environmental Studies from Brown University. She works on the websites for Urban Landscape Lab and the Fall Kill Creek Plan.
Soohyun Park
Soohyun Park received her B.S. in Architecture from the University of Michigan in 2007. She has worked on drawings for the Safari 7 Reading Room at Studio X in fall of 2009.
Jonathan Payne
Jonathan Payne graduated from Columbia University in 2009 with a Bachelor of Arts and departmental honors in architecture. Professional experience in architecture has included internships at design firms as well as contributions to exhibits, museum tours, and academic research in drawing and spatial representation. While a student at Columbia, he also studied cello at the Juilliard School and explored a variety of subjects linking architecture and music. An essay resulting from that research, “Xenakis, Cage, and the Architecture of Music,” will be published in The Norton Pocketbook of Writing by Students in 2010.
Jonathan Pettibone
Jonathan Pettibone is an architectural and urban designer based in Brooklyn, New York. He has worked on drawings for the Safari 7 Reading Room at Studio X in Fall of 2009. Currently Jonathan holds the position of Designer at Clinton Hill Design Build in Brooklyn, NY. Previously he collaborated with TUG Studio on the Thai Exhibition at the ICFF and the Fancy Food Show held at the Javitts Convention Center in NYC. Jonathan received a MSAUD from Columbia University and a BARCH degree from Wentworth Institute of Technology. His research and design work for the Dongdaemun district in Seoul, South Korea is featured in Columbia University’s publication Abstract v.05-06.
Evan Sharp
Evan Sharp is a Masters of Architecture Candidate at Columbia University’s GSAPP and also the Principal and Creative Lead of HeaderFooter Design, LLC. He received a BA in History from the University of Chicago and a Diploma in Alternative Architecture & Design from Archeworks. Previously, he was Lead Interface and Information Designer at Catylist Real Estate Software, a national commercial real estate listing and marketing software company, and before that a Business Consultant and Information Designer working in City Hall for the City of Chicago. Evan has worked on the the Queens Arts Express issue map, drawings and research in the summer and fall of 2009. Evan is the designer of the ULL and Safari 7 website, and the founder of the Urban Landscape Lab Encyclopedia.
Lily Saporta-Taguiri
Lily Saporta-Taguiri received a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental and Urban Studies from Bard College in the spring of 2012. She worked on podcast research and graphics for Beijing Safari 4 in 2010, and returned to the lab to work on outreach for the Fall Kill Creek project in 2012.
Sydney Talcott
Sydney Talcott is a Master of Architecture candidate at Columbia University GSAPP. She was the project manager of Safari 4 Beijing from 2010-2011, and designer for the Fall Kill Plan signage scheme.
Gena Wirth
Gena Wirth received her MUP and MLA at Harvard University GSD in 2009. She has coordinated, researched, and produced drawings for the Safari 7 Reading Room at Studio X in fall of 2009.
Peter Li-Yang Wu
Peter received a Master of Architecture from Columbia University GSAPP in the spring of 2010. He travelled to Beijing conducting Safari 4 research in 2011, and edited the Safari 4 videos.
Christina Nguyen, Christian Prasch, Inbar Kishoni
Queens Arts Express Volunteers
Partners & Collaborators
Glen Cummings
Partner, MTWTF
Glen Cummings is a partner at MTWTF, a interdisciplinary graphic design studio in Lower Manhattan that collaborates with other disciplines, such as architecture, fashion and urban planning, to create identities, environments, products and publications. Glen has been a lecturer in Graphic Design at Yale University since 2002. His work has been awarded and published by the American Institute of Architects, The American Institute of Graphic Designers among others.
Jordan Carver
Research & Design Associate, MTWTF
Jordan Carver is a Masters of Architecture and Urban Planning candidate at Columbia University’s GSAPP and founder of Experiments in Architecture and Research, a multidisciplinary design studio. He is an assistant editor for ABSTRACT, the yearly compendium of student work, and a teaching assistant for the GSAPP Introduction to Architecture Summer program. Previously Jordan was a graphic designer working in Brooklyn and Denver and an adjunct professor and critic at the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design. Jordan has worked on installation design and fabrication for the Safari 7 Reading Room at Studio X in the summer and fall of 2009.
Susan Choe
Research & Design Associate, MTWTF
Susan Choe is a Master of Architecture candidate at Columbia University GSAPP. Susan has worked on installation design and fabrication for the Safari 7 Reading Room at Studio X in the fall of 2009.
Eliza Dzik
Research & Design Associate, MTWTF
Kathryn Hotler
Research & Design Associate, MTWTF
Kathryn Hotler has worked on installation design and presentation materials for the Safari 7 Reading Room at Studio X in the summer of 2009.
Jenny Noguchi
Research & Design Associate, MTWTF
Jenny Noguchi has worked on installation design and presentation materials for the Safari 7 Reading Room at Studio X in the summer of 2009. She is a freelance graphic designer based in New York and has worked for several publications including Print and Picture.
Gavin Browning
Programming Coordinator of Studio-X
Gavin Browning holds a BA in English from The New School University and a MS in urban planning from Columbia University. His writing has appeared in artonpaper, The Brooklyn Rail, loud paper, Time Out New York, Village Voice, Volume, Urban China and elsewhere. Previously, he worked for the publishing houses Verso, The New Press and Metropolis Books.
Erik Carver
principal Erik Carver Design
Erik Carver is an architectural designer and artist based in New York City. He has worked individually on residential and institutional design, co-founded collaborative groups—Advanced Architecture, common room, and Seru, and worked for architects Lyn Rice and Laura Kurgan. He teaches at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Erik received a Masters of Architecture from Princeton University and a bachelor’s degree from University of California San Diego. Erik co-authored Crisis in Crisis: Biosphere 2′s Contested Ecologies.
Damon Rich
Chief Urban Designer, Division of Planning &
Community Development, City of Newark
Damon collaborated with the Urban Landscape Lab on This Is Newark.
Phil Anzalone
Director, Avery Digital Fabrication Lab
The Digital Fabrication lab provided support for the Safari 7 Reading Room.
Safari 7 Authors and Contributors
Steven Handel
Alexandre Vial
Alex Cook
Evelyn Ting
Grace Robinson Leo
Lesley Merz
Meg Kelly
Ryan Johns
Sayli Korgaonkar
Stephanie Odenheimer
Emily Glass
Aaron Hsieh
Alison Von Glinow
Friends of the Lab
Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning & Preservation
- Studio-X A downtown studio for design and research, located in the heart of New York’s creative community.
- Columbia Laboratory for Architectural Broadcasting An experimental unit that develops new forms of communication in architecture, collaboratively with Archis and AMO.
- China Lab Both a research laboratory and a design studio, which asks questions of and develops investigations inspired by China’s rapid urbanization and spatial production.
- Living Architecture Lab A firm that amalgamates architectural processes into strong, conceptual statements.
- Network Architecture Lab An experimental unit investigating the impact of telecommunications, digital technology, and changing social demographics on architecture and urbanism.
- Spatial Information Design Lab A think- and action-tank at Columbia University specializing in the visual display of spatial information about contemporary cities and events.
- Avery Digital Fabrication Lab A fabrication lab that develops techniques for merging design and fabrication through digital networks and develops new building systems using CNC technology for prototyping full-scale component parts that structure the logic of larger assemblies.
Institutional
- Newark Division of Planning & Community Development Guiding Newark’s growth and preservation through informed and thoughtful regulation and analysis.
- Center for Land Use Interpretation Dedicated to diffusing information about how the nation’s lands are used and understood.
- Van Alen Institute An independent nonprofit architectural organization promoting inquiry into design processes that shape the public realm.
Organizations in New York City
- NYC Urban Park Rangers A group dedicated to linking New Yorkers to the natural world.
- Queens Arts Express An annual arts festival along the No. 7 train line packed with arts exhibitions, festive events, and live performances.
- Arts for Transit Encouraging the use of public transit by presenting visual and performing arts projects in NYC rail stations.
- Queens Botanical Gardens A living museum serving the most ethnically diverse county in the United States.
Practices
- Scape SCAPE is a design-driven landscape architecture and urban design studio based in New York.
- All of the Above An architectural research & design practice that focuses on public and social engagement within media.
- MTWTF A graphic design studio specializing in publications, environmental graphics and identity systems.
- HeaderFooter A design firm that complicates perspectives by humanizing information.
- common room A provisional practice that questions institutional and physical boundaries.