As part of the AIA Conference on Architecture & Design 2024, Sarah Weidner Astheimer joins the AIA Committee on Design, Arlington County Planning, and ZGF Architects for a tour of Amazon's second headquarters in Crystal City, Virginia.

The design team will share more about the project, inclusive of a welcoming 2.5-acre public park, two 22-story buildings with over 2 million sq. ft. of office space, and 50,000 sq. ft. of retail with a publicly accessible lobby prioritizing small, female- and minority-owned businesses, art installations, and neighborhood connections.

Learn more and register for the tour through the AIA Conference.

As part of The Architect's Newspaper's Outdoor Spaces on May 8, Isabel and Alejandro will lead a panel conversation titled "The Underline: The Re-Naturalization of an Active Transportation Corridor," sharing strategies employed in Phase 3, currently under construction. 

The virtual one day conference features national leaders in landscape architecture presenting recent projects and discussions on how the relationship to outdoors spaces has changed in light of the pandemic, the urgencies of climate change, the need for new public spaces, and the drive to create more healthy and engaged connections to our landscapes.

Learn more and register with The Architect's Newspaper.

As part of Urban Design Forum's Public Works series, Lisa Switkin joins Ruchika Modi from PAU to lead a tour of the newly transformed Domino Sugar Refinery.

Nearly two decades have passed since the Williamsburg rezoning, prompting an influx of new investments in housing, office development, and notable open spaces such as Domino Park and the forthcoming Domino Square. Bridging the neighborhood’s industrial heritage with recent growth, the adaptive reuse of the former Domino Sugar Refinery aims to become a focal point for a new urban campus.

Learn more and register on Urban Design Forum's website.

Lisa Switkin joins The Cooper Union for their Student Lecture Series with "Immersion" on April 11. Lisa will share her work and thoughts on designing immersive landscapes and places that are meant to be explored, discovered, experienced, and felt. She will explain how immersing oneself in all aspects of the work and process, including thought and strategy, site and place, and community and experience, is fundamental to our role as designers of place.

Learn more and register for Zoom attendance on The Cooper Union's website.

Alejandro Vázquez, Justin Jackson, and Seth Rodewald-Bates from Field Operations recently joined Alan Burke and Bill Peregrine from The Green Meridian Podcast for a conversation about landscape architecture, horticulture, and building your network.

Sharing more about their individual experiences within the field and at Field Operations, they give insight into their mutual passion for designing with plants, and how this has informed their approach for projects from San Francisco to Arlington to South Florida. Elaborating on partnerships with horticulturalists, nurseries, botanical gardens, and soil scientists, the team shares details about some of the projects they've been working on and how these collaborations have been instrumental in creating successful large-scale public space projects.

Listen to the full conversation here.

As one of the first projects to move forward under the Gowanus Neighborhood Mixed Income Housing Development Program and overseen by Empire State Development, 320 and 340 Nevins Street celebrated its groundbreaking on February 9.

Developed by Charney Companies and Tavros Holdings, the 654-unit mixed-use, two tower development includes 154 affordable residential units. Working closely with the building architects, Fogarty Finger Architects, Field Operations designed a new public waterfront along the Gowanus Canal, drawing inspiration from the working barges that are a part of the canal's industrial history, creating a public space that supports the mixed-use development with spaces for art, leisure, gathering, and spaces to enjoy nature with riparian gardens.

Learn more about the groundbreaking in the press release from Governor Kathy Hochul's office and in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.

As part of the Allegheny Conference on Community Development's 2024 Annual Meeting, Lisa Tziona Switkin joins Allegheny Conference CEO Stefani Pashman, Allegheny Conference Chair David Holmberg, and Mayor Gainey of Pittsburgh for a moderated panel.

The Allegheny Conference on Community Development is the sole organization committed to improving the Pittsburgh region’s economic future and quality of life. The Conference brings together public and private sector leaders across Pittsburgh to define and communicate a regional vision, build partnerships and mobilize action to advance a shared vision for the future.

Learn more on their website.

Following an incredible year of construction progress and openings for Waterfront Seattle in 2023, Andrew tenBrink—a Director at Field Operations who has been a leader for the firm's work on the waterfront since October 2010—joined Power of Place – Stories of the Pacific Northwest for a conversation about the project and the transformative effects of landscape architecture within cities.

Learn more about Field Operations' approach to revitalizing the waterfront, with a focus on listening to local voices, and join Andrew for a virtual tour of Seattle's new network of open spaces, diving into the details that root it to its place, inspired by the site's history and the local community.

Listen to the full episode here.

Isabel Castilla from the leadership team at Field Operations will deliver a keynote for the 2024 NJASLA Annual Meeting Conference on January 28 in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The session, titled "Creating New Landscapes in Unlikely Sites" will provide insight into Isabel's expertise in infrastructure reuse projects:

As cities continue to grow and densify, the demand for parks and public open spaces increases; however, available “land” to develop significant green spaces within dense metropolitan areas is scarce. As a result, the field of landscape architecture is shifting focus to transforming challenging and infrastructural sites into lush, sustainable and community-focused public spaces. The session will address these topics by discussing three case studies: the High Line, a 1.5 mile long linear park built over an abandoned elevated train track in New York City, The Underline, a project that transforms the vacant land underneath Miami’s elevated Metrorail into a lush linear park, and Dallas’ West End Square, a project that replaces a former surface parking with a next-generation park focused around smart technologies and sustainability while still honoring the neighborhood’s historic character.

Learn more and register on the NJASLA Conference website.

In The Washington Post's recent opinion piece about Cleveland, the Editorial Board shares lessons learned in activating what was once a "dying downtown." One of the key components to this revitalization is the transformation of Public Square, designed by Field Operations and opened in 2016 following a push to renovate that began in 2011 with Cleveland's Group Plan Commission.

"The makeover had an immediate impact. Families brought kids to play in the water park. Office workers and students came to sit on benches and grab lunch at REBoL, a new organic eatery on the square. Rallies and festivals such as 'Pride in CLE' filled the square. And real estate developers began to buy the surrounding (mostly vacant) office buildings with a plan to turn them into rental apartments."

Read more about the history of Public Square and downtown Cleveland, and the significant change in recent years that provides a model for other downtown areas here.

Muscota Marsh has been selected as one of ten landscape projects for LAF's 2024 Case Study Investigation program!

Case Study Investigation (CSI) is a unique research collaboration and training program for faculty, students, and practitioners. LAF funded faculty-student research teams work with designers to document the impacts of exemplary, high-performing landscape projects. Teams develop methods to quantify the environmental, social, and economic benefits of built projects and produce Case Study Briefs for LAF’s Landscape Performance Series.

Field Operations will collaborate with Sohyun Park, PhD, SITES AP, ASLA (CSI Research Fellow) and Zahra S. Ali (Student Research Assistant) from the University of Connecticut from February through August, who will be researching the project and working to quantify the impact and benefits of Muscota Marsh in the Inwood neighborhood in Manhattan.

Learn more about the CSI program and about this year's projects on the LAF website.

Both the Reimagine Middle Branch Plan and the High Line – Moynihan Connector were recognized in this year's Best of Design Awards from The Architect's Newspaper!

For the Reimagine Middle Branch Plan, Field Operations worked with a one-of-a-kind team to create a design vision that is community-driven, equitable, and inclusive—we're pleased to share this award for Urban Design & Master Plan with our collaborators from the South Baltimore Gateway Partnership, City of Baltimore, Mahan Rykiel Associates, Design Jones, Moffatt & Nichol, Toole Design Group, Biohabitats, Waldon Studio, Assedo Consulting, The Urban Studio, Kofi Boone, KG&A, Public Mechanics, Urbane, and Dharam Consulting. The project won an award in the Urban Design & Master Plan category.

“Reimagine Middle Branch is such a large, serious, and complex project. I really liked the way that they have organized it into these four agendas, or four goals. They have equity embedded in their categorization. I think that helps make it a lot more clear what they’re trying to achieve through that shoreline.”
— E.B. Min

The High Line – Moynihan Connector, recognized with an honorable mention in Infrastructure, is a creative design collaboration between Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and Field Operations, under the leadership of ESD, Brookfield Properties, and Friends of the High Line.

Learn more about the awards and honorees here.

In recognition by Cal Poly Pomona's Department of Architecture, James Corner will accept the 2023 Richard Neutra Award for Professional Excellence and give a keynote lecture on November 1.

Named after acclaimed modernist architect Richard Neutra, the award honors architects and individuals who have dedicated their careers toward the research, design and development of innovative environments in which we live, work and play. “The Richard Neutra Award means a great deal to me,” Corner said. “I feel extremely honored to join the roster of esteemed past recipients. Neutra represented a view of architecture, landscape and urbanism as an integrated whole, a unity that served to advance both social and environmental good. His work is an inspiration, pointing toward design innovation in the service of improving quality of life for all.”

Learn more about the award from Cal Poly Pomona.

At this year's ASLA Conference on Landscape Architecture, Field Operators Sarah Weidner Astheimer, Megan Born, Isabel Castilla, Hong Zhou, Eric Becker, Yitian Zhao, and Brooke Dexter will be participating in 5 panels and one field session. Spanning a wide range of topics—from biodiversity restoration in the city, to preservation and resilience, revitalizing modernist public space through public-private partnerships, producing authentic photographic narratives, telling the story of your work in the media, and the High Line's fifteen years of development—the panels demonstrate Field Operations' commitment to a breadth of work within landscape architecture and urban design.

We'll also be celebrating Founder & CEO James Corner's acceptance of the ASLA Design Medal and ASLA Honor Awards for both the Reimagine Middle Branch Plan and Qianhai's Guiwan Park.

Learn more about the sessions on the ASLA 2023 Conference on Landscape Architecture website.

This year, three Field Operations projects will be leading tours during Open House New York (OHNY): Cornell Tech Campus on Roosevelt Island, the High Line – Moynihan Connector in Manhattan, and Freshkills Park in Staten Island. Join Field Operators and collaborators to learn more about the projects as part of OHNY's public celebration of New York and the
“power of place."

Learn more about OHNY and check the full schedule here.

Field Operations is delighted to serve as design lead for the reimagining of Fifth Avenue, called “The Future of Fifth" by the City of New York.

Working with core engineering, planning, and design team members Arcadis, Sam Schwartz, and Public Works Partners and supporting consultants, the team will reimagine Fifth Avenue, engaging with community members and key stakeholders and developing a comprehensive plan and design that will make Fifth Avenue more appealing to residents, workers, and visitors with world-class public space.

Learn more about the "Future of Fifth" visioning and design process in the City of New York's press release.

Isabel Castilla and Alejandro Vazquez from Field Operations join 1000 Friends of Florida and Patrice Gillespie Smith, COO of Friends of The Underline, to share more about their work on The Underline with "The Underline: Innovative Approaches to Linear Park Planning and Landscape Architecture." With the third phase underway, Isabel and Alejandro will explain some of its most innovative and ambitious design elements, including bioretention ponds and bioswales designed to collect and filter rainwater runoff in a garden setting and the Miyawaki method for urban afforestation.

Tune in to the virtual event here.