http://calendar.washington.edu/119168785/SusannahDrakeCreationof21stCenturyPublicInfrastructureBeautyEconomicsPoliticsEcology

Susannah Drake: Creation of 21st Century Public Infrastructure: Beauty, Economics, Politics, Ecology
Architecture Hall Room 147

Reception at 6p, Lecture at 6:30p)
Like many cities around the world, New York was settled because of its strategic position in relation to natural geography. Physical conditions of the landscape facilitated access, resource extraction, management and trade. Almost 400 years after its founding, the shape of the landscape has been transformed in relation to economic, technological, and cultural forces. Filling in swamps and shallow coastlines, managing clean and dirty water, dredging rivers, developing industrial canals, constructing transportation systems–including elevators, roads, train lines, and airports–all created forms of infrastructure that enabled increased development and density. The systems that shape our city often serve a singular purpose solving a limited set of problems in a very utilitarian manner. Land is scarce and valuable, so the repurposing of the newly valued territory created by singularly functioning or defunct infrastructure presents the next frontier in urban design.

This lecture is free and open to the public. This lecture will offer one (1) ASLA Continuing Education credit for licensed landscape architects. Please register HERE if you wish to receive credit.

Susannah C Drake is the founding principal of DLANDstudio Architecture and Landscape Architecture. The internationally recognized firm, winner of the 2014 AIA New Practices New York Award, is the recipient of City, State, and National AIA and ASLA Awards for their work. She has received numerous grants and awards for adapting infrastructure corridors for storm water capture, climate resilience and park creation. Susannah lectures globally about resilient urban infrastructure. Her work is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art and the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. DLANDstudio’s current projects include QueensWay, MoMA Rising Currents, BQGreen, and Gowanus Sponge Park.
Susannah received a BA from Dartmouth College in 1987 and MArch and MLA from the Harvard University GSD. She is both a registered architect and a registered landscape architect.