September 16, 2011

Leaving from: BMW Guggenheim Lab
Traveling to: Environment of Lower East Side
Mode of transportation: walking

How would the city look to a naturalist or activist who did not discriminate between alien and native (species)? In light of the move away from the ideology of invasive species in contemporary science, is there an alternative way to look at how we and other creatures circulate and find comfort? Creative consulting and design collaborative spurse will lead a study walk through the Lower East Side together with New School's Professor of Anthropology Hugh Raffles during which they will introduce a new classification system for naturalists and immigration-rights activists alike.

Photo used by permission under Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) License from kygp

Join Columbia University professor Clara Irazábal as she speaks about the conditions of immigrants in this country and the challenges that a radically and irreversibly multicultural U.S. poses to architecture, planning, and development. She will conclude her presentation by inviting audience members to brainstorm ideas for immigrant integration in New York and debate their implications for planners, policymakers, and community members. (Organized by Latin American and Caribbean Lab, School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, Columbia University.)

Photo: courtesy Clara Irazábal

Join Hester Street Collaborative and Partnerships for Parks as they launch the interactive website for People Make Parks, a project to help New Yorkers participate in the design of their parks. The website, designed by Objective Subject, makes the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation’s capital-design process accessible to community groups throughout the city. When citizens weigh in on park design, government builds better parks—and the public continues to care for places that they have helped to make.

An interactive exhibit of People Make Parks tools, media, and case-study park sites will be on view.

Image: courtesy People Make Parks