The Big Park Studio: Moccasin Bend

When asked to teach this studio, I was given the following charge by [Professor and Chair of Landscape Architecture] Richard Weller:

What I personally think we need at 700 is always at least one studio that puts a premium on professionalism and a high degree of resolution/form but still connects this to ideas. As a graduating studio I think the ethos is professionalism / realism / discipline / precision.

I believe the studio, THE BIG PARK STUDIO: MOCCASIN BEND, the identified problem, and the teaching team I have assembled delivered on that request. But let’s take a moment to pull apart the meaning of professionalism in the context of the studio. Professionalism requires your leadership in a myriad of situations and is largely about how you show up in the context of the assignments before you. The breadth of the circumstances you encounter requires you to establish cohesion between teams, interface with the community within the city who will host us, listen, be empathic, use your imagination, draw outside of the lines, respond with clear and inspiring narratives, develop a unique voice, incorporate the largeness of the issues without being hindered by them, develop a precise and compelling proposal, land your proposal on the ground, all the while demonstrating a high level of mastery. We aimed to accomplish all of this in this studio.