Architecture prize goes to woman who reclaims toxic dumps : NPR

A desolate parking lot full of weeds and debris has been converted into Core City Park in Detroit, Michigan. Almost everything that was used in the construction of the park was found on site – the benches, for example, were recycled from old concrete walls. Prince Concepts and the Cultural Landscape Foundation. Hide caption

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Prince Concepts and the Cultural Landscape Foundation.

A desolate parking lot full of weeds and debris has been converted into Core City Park in Detroit, Michigan. Almost everything that was used in the construction of the park was found on site – the benches, for example, were recycled from old concrete walls.

Prince Concepts and the Cultural Landscape Foundation.

Landscape architecture has never won the admiration of capital city A architecture, but perhaps a new award can help change that – especially as it goes to an innovative designer who is respectfully referred to as “the poisonous beauty queen of wasteland remediation”.

The first winner of the Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Landscape Architecture Prize is Julie Bargmann, professor at the University of Virginia and founder of the studio DIRT – Dump It Right There. The award, announced today by the Cultural Landscape Foundation, is designed to confer Pritzker Architecture Prize status as well as similar prize money – US $ 100,000 for the winner.

Bargman is funny, tough, a committed environmentalist, and, well, female. The selection calls into question old ideas of landscape architecture as a stuffy, male-dominated, service-oriented profession. Rather than designing gardens for stately mansions, Bargmann tackles toxic waste dumps, superfund sites, and wasteland, which she happily describes as “gnarled”.

Pritzker Prize 2021 goes to French architects who

“The gnarliest one!” exclaimed Bargmann in an interview with NPR. “The more gnarled, the better.”

Born in New Jersey, Bargmann is no stranger to industrial locations. She has redesigned abandoned train stations and quarries, landfills, derelict factories and coal mines. In Detroit, she rebuilt an urban forest around an apartment complex using Quonset huts in patterns inspired by the sheet music for John Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme”.

Maurice Cox was head of the Department of Planning and Development in Detroit at the time (he currently holds the same position in Chicago). He recalls when Bargmann started another Detroit project in what appeared to be a vacant parking lot.

Core City Park under construction in Detroit, Michigan. The design added green spaces and new local businesses to a distressed commercial corridor. Prince Concepts and The Cultural Landscape Foundation hide caption

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Prince Concepts and the Cultural Landscape Foundation

Core City Park under construction in Detroit, Michigan. The design added green spaces and new local businesses to a distressed commercial corridor.

Prince Concepts and the Cultural Landscape Foundation

“Julie takes the classic view that all websites have a story,” he told NPR. “She had the contractor get an excavator and start digging in the dirt just to uncover the foundations of a farmhouse that once stood on this property. and went in and planted dozens and dozen of trees. And, you know, a whole urban place was created. And Julie would tell you he was already there.

The establishment of the Core City Park in Detroit. Prince Concepts and The Cultural Landscape Foundation hide caption

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Prince Concepts and the Cultural Landscape Foundation

The establishment of the Core City Park in Detroit.

Prince Concepts and the Cultural Landscape Foundation

Cox describes Bargmann as a visionary thinker whose life’s work revolves around finding existing beauty in fringe communities that respect and honor these places. “And that puts them at the center of the public discourse on landscape architecture,” he adds.

Julie Bargmann, winner of the Oberländer Prize 2021. Barrett Doherty / The Cultural Landscape Foundation Hide the caption

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Barrett Doherty / Cultural Landscape Foundation

Julie Bargmann, winner of the Oberländer Prize 2021.

Barrett Doherty / Cultural Landscape Foundation

“It’s not often that people who work on the fringes are recognized for their unique genius, especially not during their lifetime, and especially not at a point in their careers where they will have many, many years more influence “Says Cox about Bargmann’s win. “So it’s a smart move by this jury. If you’re trying to establish primacy for this award, do it by shocking the discipline a little.”

In the jury quote, Bargmann is described as follows: “She was a provocateur, a critical practitioner and a public intellectual.

A combination of activism and architecture gives discarded places a new form

Dealing with such inequalities and poisoned, buried spaces can be a melancholy affair, Bargmann admits. But she meets the demands of her work with artistic optimism and engineering precision. (Also vice versa.)

In the old mining community of Vintondale, Pennsylvania, the designer used a passive treatment system to turn a toxic area into a public space for art and recreation.

“I always call it an ecological washing machine because that’s what it is,” she says. “And so, you know, the liquid comes through the wetlands and then it goes back into the creek. Basically, we’re preventing the acid mine drainage from getting into this creek and washing it having fun. “

Bargmann is opposed to the fact that these landscapes can become objects of a voyeuristic urban aesthetic – which is inevitably referred to as “ruin porn”.

  • Urban Outfitters, Philadelphia.  Julie Bargmann's studio finds ways to reuse salvaged materials in the rehabilitation of industrial sites like the disused Navy Yard that has become the headquarters of retailer Urban Outfitters.

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    Urban Outfitters, Philadelphia. Julie Bargmann’s studio finds ways to reuse salvaged materials in the rehabilitation of industrial sites like the disused Navy Yard that has become the headquarters of retailer Urban Outfitters.

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    Barrett Doherty / Cultural Landscape Foundation

  • Urban Outfitters campus, Philadelphia.

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    Urban Outfitters campus, Philadelphia.

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    Barrett Doherty / Cultural Landscape Foundation

  • Urban Outfitters campus, Philadelphia.

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    Urban Outfitters campus, Philadelphia.

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    Barrett Doherty / Cultural Landscape Foundation

  • Urban Outfitters campus, Philadelphia.

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    Urban Outfitters campus, Philadelphia.

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    Charles A. Birnbaum / Foundation for Cultural Landscape

  • The Turtle Creek Water Works in Dallas, Texas became a public space with native plants and art installations.

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    The Turtle Creek Water Works in Dallas, Texas became a public space with native plants and art installations.

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    Charles A. Birnbaum / Foundation for Cultural Landscape

  • Turtle Creek Waterworks, Dallas.

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    Turtle Creek Waterworks, Dallas.

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    Barrett Doherty / Cultural Landscape Foundation

  • Turtle Creek Waterworks, Dallas.

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    Turtle Creek Waterworks, Dallas.

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    Barrett Doherty / Cultural Landscape Foundation

  • Turtle Creek Waterworks, Dallas.

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    Turtle Creek Waterworks, Dallas.

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    Barrett Doherty / Cultural Landscape Foundation

And she quickly agrees that while nicknames like “Slag Queen” are catchy, there is a strong hint of sexism involved. “I get calls and have to say, are you interested in the chick in the hard hat? Or are you interested in work? ”She says.

The work is only expanding. In a communication from the Kulturlandschaftsstiftung, Bargmann says that although she will continue to recapture individual sites, she is increasingly drawn to larger canvases. “Namely post-industrial cities and regions,” she said. “There is tremendous potential and sublime beauty in places that at first glance may seem devastated. Places, neighborhoods, entire cities – they are full of energy that is waiting to be recognized, released and given a new shape. “

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