Terragrams – Details, episodes & analysis

This episode was originally broadcast in May 2009.

Stefan Rotzler studied History of Art at the Zurich University before becoming a gardener. Following this hands-on experience, Rotzler opted to study landscape architecture at the ITR Technical School in Rapperswil, Switzerland where he graduated in one of the first classes of the newly-created professional program. After graduation, he worked with the town planning office of Zurich for a few years and then opened his own office.

In 1989 he began his collaboration with Matthias Krebs. Together, they have made projects for gardens, public spaces, sports facilities, infrastructure primarily in Europe. In 2007, the Swiss publishing firm Niggli released the first monograph of the Rotzler Krebs collaboration. Rotzler has taught in the landscape program at Rapperswil and has participated widely in international competitions, juries and workshops.

Special thanks to Merete Vindum for dispatch research and preparation.

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This episode was originally broadcast in June 2009.

Claude Cormier grew up on a farm and went on to study in agronomy and plant sciences at the University of Guelph. However, in search for a different perspective on nature, he entered the University of Toronto to study landscape architecture. After practicing for some time in Toronto and Montreal, he returned to school in the early 90’s to obtain a Master's in Landscape Architecture from the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

In 1995, he founded his office, Claude Cormier Landscape Architects. Claude has been described as belonging to "the second generation of landscape architects, known as conceptualists". Having emerged concurrent with postmodern architecture and on the heels of the conceptual art movement, the 'conceptualists' approach is distinguished by the predominance accorded the concept or governing idea that spurs a project and defines its every detail, from start to finish. This viewpoint differs radically from the functionalist imperatives of modernism. Within this camp, the practice of Cormier and his team is distinguished by his insistence to peel back the historic, economic, botanical, ecological and socio-cultural strata (whether hidden or manifest) that make up the sites on and with which they work.

Special thanks to Terje Ong for dispatch research and preparation.

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This episode was originally broadcast in January 2009.

Liat Margolis is the co-author of Living Systems, Innovative Materials & Technologies for Landscape Architecture.

Liat received an BFA in Industrial Design from the Rhode Island School of Design and a Masters of Landscape Architecture from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. She was the Materials director for Material ConneXion, a materials research and consulting company in New York City. She has also recently worked at the landscape architecture firm Hargreaves Associates and is currently a special lecturer at the University of Toronto.

In this dispatch, Liat discusses her book, her engagement with the world of materials, the GSD Materials Collection, the University of Toronto and the cocoa jute log.

This show employs visual chapters that update the show art to provide illustrations relevant to the ongoing onversation. If your podcast client does not support this, you can view the chapter art and their sources at this episode's webpage.

This episode was originally broadcast in May 2008.

Gary Hilderbrand, landscape architect, is one of the founding principals of Reed Hilderbrand and is a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome. Gary joins Terragrams to discuss his partnership with Douglas Reed, professional practice, multiple career paths, and his role in the 5th European Biennal of Landscape Architecture in Barcelona. He is also responsible for the monographs "Making a Landscape of Continuity: the Practice of Innocenti & Webel" and "The Miller Garden: Icon of Modernism".

The Architecture League of New York named Gary Hilderbrand and Douglas Reed as Emerging Voices in 2015. They have also received more than a dozen ASLA Awards, including 2 Awards of Excellence as well as nearly 30 Boston Society of Landscape Architects Awards. Their work includes residential, institutional, schools and park landscapes and recently they have designed projects for the Phoenix Art Museum, the Clark Art Institute, Bennington College, and a garden for a 1964 house by the architect Phillip Johnson.

This show employs visual chapters that update the show art to provide illustrations relevant to the ongoing onversation. If your podcast client does not support this, you can view the chapter art and their sources at this episode's webpage.

This episode was originally broadcast in May 2008.

Chris Reed is a registered landscape architect and the principal and founder of the Boston-based practice Stoss Landscape Urbanism. Stoss operates within and between the fields of urban design, landscape architecture and planning. It recognizes the urban context alongside the multiple scales and functions of ecological systems as basic tenets of its practice.

The Architecture League of New York has named Chris Reed an 2008 Emerging Voice and C3 Publishers of Korea has recently monograph of Stoss' work. In this episode, Chris discusses the name of his office, landscape urbanism, competition work, and his introduction into the profession. He is currently teaching at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, regularly teaches at the University of Pennsylvania, and has previously taught in the University of Toronto.

This show employs visual chapters that update the show art to provide illustrations relevant to the ongoing onversation. If your podcast client does not support this, you can view the chapter art and their sources at this episode's webpage.

This episode was originally broadcast in May 2008.

In this dispatch we are in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and are joined by Richard Forman. Richard is Harvard University’s Professor of Advanced Environmental Studies in the Field of Landscape Ecology. He teaches ecological courses in the Graduate School of Design as well as in the Harvard College.

Here he talks to us about his latest book entitled Urban Regions: Ecology and Planning Beyond the City. Additionally, Richard discusses the hurdles to creating a healthy urban environment, endangered landscapes, who is making a difference today, teaching, and why he finds himself at the GSD.

Richard is also the author of Landscape Ecology with Michel Godron, Land Mosaics - the Ecology of Landscapes and Regions, and Landscape Ecology Principles in Landscape Architecture and Land-Use Planning with Dramstad and Olson.

This show employs visual chapters that update the show art to provide illustrations relevant to the ongoing onversation. If your podcast client does not support this, you can view the chapter art and their sources at this episode's webpage.

This episode was originally broadcast in May 2008.

Reuben Rainey returns to Terragrams and discusses his latest work on Garden Story: Inspiring Spaces, Healing Places, a 10-part series of half-hour programs for Public Television on how gardens improve our lives and our communities. He also gives us more insight on his nearly 3 decades of teaching at UVA and on the career of Robert Royston.

Reuben is the William Stone Weedon Professor Emeritus in the Department of Architecture and Landscape Architecture at the University of Virginia. His courses included history and theory of landscape architecture and specifically he has lectured and written on the topics of Italian Garden, Ethics, Research Methodology and Healing landscapes. Recently, he has co-authored the book entitled Modern Public Gardens: The Suburban Parks of Robert Royston and is preparing a book about Royston's gardens.

This show employs visual chapters that update the show art to provide illustrations relevant to the ongoing onversation. If your podcast client does not support this, you can view the chapter art and their sources at this episode's webpage.

This episode was originally broadcast in March 2008.

In this dispatch, Reuben Rainey talks to Robert Royston (1918-2008), a pioneer of modernism in landscape architecture. Royston was born in San Francisco and grew up on a farm before studying landscape architecture at the University of California in Berkeley and beginning practice in the office of Thomas Church. After volunteering to fight in World War II, he established a rich collaboration with Garret Eckbo and Edward Williams. During this period, and thereafter, Royston designed an extraordinary large number of suburban parks. His most recent firm has evolved into Royston Hanamoto Alley & Abbey.

Robert talks about his days designing gardens on a Navy ship, manual labor with Thomas Church, his visit to Le Corbusier’s Chandigarh and his ideas about a making a landscape matrix. His work can be found in the Modern Public Gardens: Robert Royston and the Suburban Park by Reuben Rainey and J.C. Miller and in The Cultural Landscape Foundation's Oral History.

This show employs visual chapters that update the show art to provide illustrations relevant to the ongoing onversation. If your podcast client does not support this, you can view the chapter art and their sources at this episode's webpage.

This episode was originally broadcast in April 2007.

In the 10th delivery of Terragrams, Paula Meijerink talks about juggling her work as a young practitioner and an Assistant Professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Design while raising 2 daughters. With her studio, Wanted, Meijerink has built 2 gardens for the International Garden Festival of Metis in Quebec and is presently working on a roof deck for a 700 unit tower in Miami as well as a masterplan for a development near Shanghai. At the GSD, Meijerink is researching the benefits of asphalt and in our dispatch discusses her 'asphalt manifesto' and the On Asphalt project.

This show employs visual chapters that update the show art to provide illustrations relevant to the ongoing onversation. If your podcast client does not support this, you can view the chapter art and their sources at this episode's webpage.

This episode was originally broadcast in March 2007.

Elizabeth Meyer is an Associate Professor and has twice acted as the Director of Landscape Architecture at the University of Virginia. Here, she discusses her latest book project entitled 'Groundwork', past and present landscape architectural theory, creativity, site interpretation, the ASLA Student Awards, women in the practice, and the MOMA Groundswell Exhibition.

Some of her published writings include "Uncertain Parks. Disturbed Sites, Citizens and a Risk Society" in Czerniak and Hargreaves’ Large Parks (2007), "Site Citations: Grounding the Modern Landscape" in Burns and Kahns' Site Matters (2005), and "The Post-Earth Day Conundrum: Translating Environmental Values into Landscape Design" in Conan’s Environmentalism in Landscape Architecture.

This show employs visual chapters that update the show art to provide illustrations relevant to the ongoing onversation. If your podcast client does not support this, you can view the chapter art and their sources at this episode's webpage.