William Morrish in the News
Monday, January 14, 2008
UVa Faculty Collaborative Named Finalist in History Channel "City of the Future" Design Competition
Several UVa School of Architecture faculty members have collaborated to form Grow: DC, one of 24 finalist teams in the “City of the Future” design competition organized by the History Channel. The competition stipulates that teams select one of three cities (San Francisco, Atlanta, or Washington, D.C.) and imagine what it would look like in 100 years. Eight finalists have been selected for each city. The winner of each city competition will be given $10,000 and the opportunity to compete for the national title which will be decided by a public online vote. GROW:DC is a design collaborative and urban think tank based in Charlottesville, Virginia. The team is led by Assistant Professors of Architecture Jason Johnson and Nataly Gattegno (Future Cities Lab LLC) and also includes Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture Julie Bargmann and Lecturer in Landscape Architecture Christopher Fannin (D.I.R.T. Studio), as well as Elwood R. Quesada Professor William Morrish. The team is consulted by Associate Professor and Director of Landscape Architecture Kristina Hill and environmental engineer Byron Stigge of Buro Happold Engineers in New York. The team’s proposal, "Harvest the City," aims to gather together the diverse and fluctuating patches of the city: “Beyond the brilliant tyranny of its master plan, DC has to simultaneously grow at a finer street-by-street scale, while embracing the poetics of larger infrastructural systems and global networks. We envision the fufture of D.C. as a thriving ecology of multiple sites. These sites are already embedded in the messy urban, suburban, and coastal fabric of DC. They provide a framework for interconnectivity and opportunity. They engage a series of ecologies and landscapes that could be industrious and working places, productive landscapes that could yield innovative, creative and cultural change.” Competitors were given one week to assemble a three-dimensional design that is representative of their vision for the city. The finalists for D.C. presented their projects to the judges and the public at Union Station on January 15th where a team from the firm Beyer Blinder Belle was named the winner. For additional information, see the Washington Post's article 01/16/08: "Visions of a Brave New Washington", by Michael Ruane.Monday, October 15, 2007
Faculty and Students Visit New Orleans' Pontilly Neighborhood to Plan Green Space
Students in Assoc. Professor Julie Bargmann's LAR 801 Refloat NOLA studio traveled to New Orleans last weekend to participate in a design workshop in the Pontilly neighborhood. Professor William Morrish and Assoc. Professor Elizabeth Meyer also participated.
From the New Orleans' Times-Picayune, "DESIGN WEEKEND
Landscape experts and students converge on Pontchartrain Park, Gentilly Woods,"(Oct. 13. 2007:
"As Pontchartrain Park and Gentilly Woods residents rebuild their neighborhoods, they can expect lots of ideas to choose from regarding how to design their natural areas.
"A group of design experts and university students in cooperation with Longue Vue House & Gardens are gathering information about the green spaces in the two New Orleans neighborhoods, collectively known as Pontilly, so they can develop strategies for shaping the landscape in ways that add to the area's beauty while helping protect it against flooding...
The Pontilly neighborhood already has a master plan, said William Morrish, a professor of architecture, landscape architecture and urban and environmental planning at the University of Virginia. This effort, he said, will provide richer details for landscaping the environment and public parks in Pontilly.
"We're hoping that by early next year we'll have a plan to take to the public," said Jane Wolff, assistant professor of architecture at Washington University in St. Louis, Mo. "It will be less like a prescription and more like a menu" from which residents may make a selection.
Wolff, Moorish, Longue Vue Executive Director Bonnie Goldblum and students from Louisiana State University, Southern University, Tulane University and the University of Virginia toured the Pontilly area Friday. They began discussing possible options for the green spaces in connection with the four-day design weekend financed by $30,000 from the Catherine Brown Memorial Fund, which is named after Moorish's deceased wife.
There are many issues to consider, said Moorish, like using some of the land in the area to reduce flooding, making the land more productive, sorting out the best use for vacant spaces and deciding what to plant...." [for complete article, visit the Times-Picayune website]
Friday, February 10, 2006
Podcast of The Next New Orleans? Available
Professors William Morrish and Dell Upton presented their popular lecture, The Next New Orleans? at the school on February 10. The audio portion of the lecture is available for downloading from the University's Podcast site.Friday, November 11, 2005
Faculty Take Part in National Design Initiatives for Gulf Coast
School of Architecture faculty are playing key roles in the planning and redesign phases of the Gulf Coast's recovery from the recent hurricanes. Quesada Professor William Morrish has been appointed a member of the Urban Land Institute's advisory panel to New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin's "Rebuilding Committee". The panel is visiting the area November 13-18 and plans to issue a report at the end of December.Associate Professor Maurice Cox will serve on the resource team for the Mayors’ Institute on City Design for the Gulf Cities to be held in Biloxi, MS and New Orleans next week. The sessions will provide mayors from dozens of affected cities in the region with guidance on planning and design.
