Many of you have been getting into work by Marpillero Pollak Architects, info about East New York, and all the interesting happenings over at the Architectural League. If you fall smack dab in the overlap of that Venn diagram, then take a look at this podcast.

Last month, as part of the League’s New York Designs lecture series, Linda Pollak and Sandro Marpillero discussed their recent design of two Learning Gardens, one at the Whitestone Branch of the Queens Public Library and one at the Stone Avenue Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library in East New York. The gardens were constructed as part of the Horticultural Society of New York’s GreenBranches program.  In Linda and Sandro’s words:

The Horticultural Society of New York’s GreenBranches Program – in public-private partnership with Queens and Brooklyn library systems – constructs and maintains Learning Gardens in underutilized outdoor spaces at branch libraries. The program enables libraries – which have been called the last remaining truly public institutional spaces – to realize the potential of long-derelict sites as public outdoor program space.

The gardens, which are primarily intended to function as space for educational programming and library workshops, also benefit the neighborhood at large. The fences, once barriers, now offer places for social interaction, activating the boundary between these beloved neighborhood institutions and the streets that surround them. And they didn’t wait around for a ribbon cutting to start offering social benefits. The projects employed members of the GreenTeam, a transitional work program for recently released inmates that provides vocational training. And as for the immediate community of each library, GreenBranches and Marpillero Pollak involved them throughout the entire process, giving the garden’s users a strong sense of pride and ownership of the site.

Libraries, community engagement, excellent design, and activating street life. Yep, we like.

WXY Architecture and Local Projects were commissioned by NYC and Company to create an entirely new idea of how an information center should work in New York City. What used to be a room filled with brochures, counter agents, and lines, is now a technologically-advanced visitor center that allows you to piece together your own itinerary through the city on one of three interactive map tables, creating custom maps and guidebooks which you can print out, email to yourself, or take with you on your mobile device. There are still FAQ stations for people looking for the top 10 attractions, or info on generally getting around. (There are also still a handful of – gasp! – humans ready to answer questions or help you out.) But for those who want to explore a bit more, these interactive maps are a fertile resource to help scout out a different path through the city.

Wayfinding and orientation are pervasive issues in a city like New York and, increasingly, in architectural theory and practice. The city can be daunting, and visitors stay in areas they already know about and feel at least slightly familiar with. Heck, locals fall into the same trap (even if not in the same areas). The stereotypical tourist takes a cab to his or her hotel, and from there visits the Empire State Building, Times Square, or Ground Zero, never realizing that they are right around the corner from the Morgan Library, Bryant Park, or Century 21. Map-based browsing allows people to uncover lesser-known gems that the typical tourist might not find by sticking to the guidebook. Visitors can experience another side of New York – the walking city, where one can wander endlessly, discovering new soon-to-be-favorite spots by chance – but with a guiding hand that helps make it a little friendlier, a little more approachable.

The space itself, while beautifully designed, intentionally takes a back seat to the information it is presenting. The focus is the city itself, and everything that goes into exploring it.  The team, in their own words, “killed the brochure.” They exploded it, really, and completely reimagined how information can be discovered, organized, and delivered. From the details (subway directions provide you with photographs of every train and station along your route, easing the anxieties of a newbie straphanger), to the spectacle (a wall-sized screen lets you take an aerial flyover of your custom itinerary via Google Earth), the information center sets visitors off on an entirely different foot. Throw this app into the mix and soon they’ll be getting around better than the rest of us.

To watch the complete podcast of Claire Weisz (WXY Architecture) and Jake Barton (Local Projects) presenting the project, click here.

In the fall of 2008, Janette Kim and Kate Orff, co-directors of the Urban Landscape Lab at Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP), and Glen Cummings, founder of the graphic design firm MTWTF, began collaborating on research into different models of ecological interpretation. The National Parks Service model, for example, has historically defined the national park as a preserved, natural and “unbuilt” system with the park ranger as tour guide. Janette, Kate and Glen felt the need to suggest an alternative that treats the city and its complex ecosystems as a national park, challenging the preconceptions that divorce theories of environment and ecology from the experience of architecture and the built environment.

One of the first steps was to develop a seminar for undergraduates at the Barnard and Columbia Colleges Architecture Program that used podcasts as a medium to read the political ecology of New York, along one of the city’s diverse spines: the 7 train. Read below for their introduction to the project and a self-guided podcast tour from Times Square to Flushing.

Listen to the podcasts below or download them for your next trip along the 7, and be sure to check in on the Safari 7 project often: many more phases are coming soon, starting this summer with new tours and maps, podcasts and interviews, and expansion into cellphone and social networking venues. - C.S.

Introduction
This past Saturday at 11:00 a.m. sharp, a group of architects, artists, and students boarded the 7 Local at Times Square Station to participate in the launch of Safari 7, a self-guided tour of urban animal life along New York City’s No. 7 subway line.

The 7 Line is a physical, urban transect through New York City’s most diverse collection of human ecosystems.  Affectionately called the International Express, the 7 line runs from Manhattan’s dense core, under the East River, and through a dispersed mixture of residences and parklands, terminating in downtown Flushing, Queens, the nation’s most ethnically diverse county. Here, in territories excavated by Robert Moses’ transportation networks, watersheds constructed by the World’s Fair, and tree canopies stretched across residential street grids, species find systems necessary for survival, develop mating rituals and behaviors amidst inter-species competition and cooperation, and respond to migration, colonization, and disturbances of this dynamic urban landscape. By mapping the complexity, biodiversity, conflicts, and potentials of our urban ecosystems Safari 7 aims to unpack the role of architecture and the related disciplines in the construction of networks, spatial patterns, enclosures, grounds, rituals, and policies that are the city’s life support mechanism.

The project uses a range of media – podcasts, maps, signs, schedules and social networking tools – to create a platform where commuters, school children, subway operators – and yes, architects – can connect to New York City’s ecosystems as they travel through it.  New York’s transit system acts as an eco-urban classroom, and passengers become their own park rangers, or safari guides.

EPISODE INFORMATION
Click on the links below to play the podcasts through your browser or here to download the podcasts and listen during your next 7 train commute. These podcasts were created by students in a seminar on urban ecology at the Barnard and Columbia Colleges Architecture Program.

Throughout the summer we will organize tours, publish new maps, podcasts and interviews, and expand to cellphone and social networking venues. We are working to initiate further dialogue with educators and community activists throughout the city. Please visit www.safari7.org to learn more. Listen in, and check back for more in the future.

Do you have information about sites of interest along the 7 line? Have you seen a curious landscape along the tracks that you have always wondered about? Are you interested in collaborating? We welcome your findings on New York’s diverse ecosystems in the comments field below, and we invite you to join the mailing list or say hello at info@safari7.org.

Listen to 12 current episodes below, download MP3 files, or download the M4A slideshow versions to watch in iTunes. Download all of the podcasts here.

Germs / 42 St – Times Square
Alex Cook, Ryan Johns

From Flushing Station to 42nd Street, more germs ride the #7 line each day than people do in a year. A closer look at the microecology of NYC’s microscopic commuters.

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U Thant Island / Grand Central – 42 St
Alison Von Glinow, Lesley Merz

Off the grid and hidden in plain sight, U Thant Island is made from the leftovers from the 7 line’s Steinway tunnel and is home to NYC’s cormorant population. Interviews with John Mattera, Parks & Recreation Librarian, NYC Dept of Parks and Recreation and Dr. Susan Elbin, Director of Conservation, New York City Audubon Society.

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Oysters / Vernon Blvd – Jackson Av
Aaron Hsieh, Evelyn Ting

Back in the day Queens Bay was NYC’s raw bar, home of the largest oyster population on the East Coast. Interview with Katie Mosher-Smith, NY-NJ Baykeeper.

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Dope Fish / Hunters Point Av
Alex Vial

The East River’s high level of estrogen has the local fish swimming sideways.

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Squirrels / Queensboro Plaza
Meg Kelly, Grace Robinson-Leo

The expansion of Manhattan’s East River parks mean a real estate boom for the indigenous East side squirrels.

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Dogs / 40 St – Lowery St
Sayli Korgaonkar

From 5th Avenue to Times Square, the price of real estate is directly related to what size dog you keep. Canine demographics across two boroughs.

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Ecology of Death / 52 St
Alex Cook, Ryan Johns

Calvary Cemetery, one the largest urban necropolises in the nation, has an ecology and chemistry all its own. A look at what goes in, what comes out, and what we should know about the dead in New York City.

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Courtyards / 82 St – Jackson Hts
Aaron Hsieh, Evelyn Ting

Away from the street and behind brick walls are well-tended garden oases. Are these historic landscapes, public playgrounds, or private gated communities? Residents, preservationists, and neighbors weigh in. Interviews with Donald Karatzas, Author of Jackson Heights: A Garden in the City, Ed Westley and anonymous residents.

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Reef Condos / 90 St – Elmhurst Av
Lesley Merz, Alison Von Glinow

Homo sapiens aren’t the only New Yorkers riding NYC’s subway cars. Aquatic New Yorkers strap-hang in decommissioned cars which have been used to build reefs around Manhattan Island.

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Pigeons / Junction Blvd
Alex Vial

New Yorkers have tried dozens of techniques, all unsuccessful, to control the population of the urban freeloaders otherwise known as Rock Doves.

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Chickens / 103 St – Corona Plaza
Meg Kelly, Grace Robinson-Leo

The urban chicken occupies two spots in Queen’s Corona Park, the egg-maker for suburban farmers and the heavy in backroom cock-fights. Audio footage of Owen Taylor is from Leonard Lopate, December 21, 2006, and of Martin Edmund and Charlie Johnson from Cockfighters: The Interviews by Stephanie J. Castillo.

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Flushing Meadows / Willets Point – Shea Stadium
Emily Glass, Stephanie Odenheimer

This former ash dumping ground became the site of the 1964 World’s Fair, and is also the site of some fishy and fowl activities. Audio footage from NPR’s All Things Considered.

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CREDITS

Our team is a collaboration among architects, designers, educators, and graphic designers from the Urban Landscape Lab and MTWTF.  The Urban Landscape Lab is an interdisciplinary applied research group at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation focused on the analysis and transformation of ecological processes and urban systems.  MTWTF is a graphic design studio specializing in publications, environmental graphic, and identity systems.  Safari 7 podcasts aired at the first launch were created by students from the Barnard and Columbia Colleges Architecture Program.

Urban Landscape Lab:
Janette Kim and Kate Orff, Directors
Lisa Ekle
Robin Fitzgerald-Green
Evan Sharp

MTWTF:
Glen Cummings, Principal

Barnard + Columbia Architecture students
Alex Cook
Emily Glass
Aaron Hsieh
Ryan Johns
Meg Kelly
Sayli Korgaonkar
Lesley Merz
Stephanie Odenheimer
Grace Robinson-Leo
Evelyn Ting
Alexandre Vial
Alison Von Glinow

Glen Cummings is a graphic designer and writer based in New York City. He is a partner at MTWTF (Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday) and a lecturer in design at Yale University School of Art, New Haven, Connecticut.

Janette Kim is an architectural designer, critic, and educator based in New York City. She is principal of All of the Above and teaches at Barnard College and Columbia University GSAPP, where she is director of the Urban Landscape Lab.

Kate Orff is a registered landscape architect and an Assistant Professor of Architecture and Urban Design at Columbia GSAPP. She is also director of the Urban Landscape Lab.

Thank you to Karen Fairbanks, Ann Whitney Olin Professor of Professional Practice and Chair, Architecture at the Barnard and Columbia Colleges Architecture Program; and Gavin Browning, Programming Coordinator at Studio X.

The views expressed here are those of the author only and do not reflect the position of Urban Omnibus editorial staff or the Architectural League of New York.