Gravity Field wins American Society of Landscape Architects NY Award

Terrain Work is excited to announce that Gravity Field has won an American Society of Landscape Architects New York Merit award for 2025! We are delighted to receive two awards, including Gravity Field, from a record number of submissions this year!   

Gravity Field demonstrates the robust adaptation of plants in the most inhospitable conditions. Plants are extraordinarily adaptive and essential to life. 171 sunflowers are grown upside-down and curve up towards the sun, defying gravity and exhibiting phototropic, gravitropic, and heliotropic properties.  While the future is uncertain, Gravity Field sees optimism in the ability of plants, and all organisms, to adapt and thrive in the face of climate change. To learn more about Gravity Field click here.

West Harlem Going Wild

West Harlem Going Wild transforms a vacant asphalt lot on 128th Street in Manhattan into a planted respite. The design addresses issues that urban environments face in the wake of climate change, such as: reducing the heat island effect, improving air quality, breaking up the urban soil profile to allow for water percolation into the ground, and upcycling materials onsite to reduce waste and emissions associated with the construction industry. Working with limited resources on a shoestring budget, the design utilizes discarded construction materials and plant species that spontaneously occur in the urban environment that have historically been considered “weeds” to form a grass roots solution to these global problems. As a prototype for future urban landscapes, the site will be continuously monitored for species performance and longevity over time.

As we grapple with the deepening climate crisis that threatens humanity, novel and incremental solutions to combat this complex problem are desperately needed. It requires both broad level policy changes from governments as well as grass roots movements from individuals to address the myriad causes of climate change. In this spirit, West Harlem Going Wild was born. West Harlem Going Wild is a model of how underutilized and marginal urban spaces can be adapted to become productive and thriving landscapes with a limited budget. Learn more about West Harlem Going Wild by clicking here.

Terrain Work Makes West Harlem New Home!

Terrain Work has relocated our office to the historic Mink Building located in West Harlem! Our new neighborhood is the Manhattanville Factory District located near Columbia University, City College, and the 125th Street corridor, Harlem’s most important commercial and cultural zone. We made the move to West Harlem after working the past several years on a series of projects in the neighborhood with Janus Property Group to bring publicly accessible open spaces to the Manhatanville Factory District. We are thrilled to make West Harlem our new home in such a vibrant and culturally rich neighborhood!

Hudson Commons Wins Urban Land Institute NY Award For Excellence in Development

We are proud to share that our Hudson Commons project in NYC with KPF Architects and Cove Property Group was the recipient of the Excellence in Office Development Award for the Urban Land Institute (ULI) of New York. Terrain Work’s landscape for Hudson Commons, creates a landscape that views the Manhattan skyline as an integrated topography full of peaks and valleys embedded in its underlying geology. This ‘Urban Mountain’ changes in composition and experience as it climbs up from the ground to the peak of the structure.   Plant communities, strata, and programs are all linked to their corresponding elevation within the Hudson Commons giving shape to a distinctly different set of experiences as the various terraces climb up the 17 story structure. Learn more about the Hudson Commons Project.

Taystee Ribbon Cut with Governor Kathy Hochul

Terrain Work was delighted to be part of the ribbon cutting ceremonies for Taystee in West Harlem recently. Governor Kathy Hochul and Lt. Governor Brian Behjamin led the festivities along with Janus Property partners Scott Metzner and Jerry Salama. "The completion of the Taystee Lab Building is a milestone in the next chapter of Harlem's rich history," Governor Hochul said. "Anchoring the Manhattanville Factory District, the new state-of-the-art building will serve as the home for innovative companies developing the next generation of life science research and technology. As we continue to build back from the pandemic, today's investments that support our life science infrastructure will ensure that we are better prepared, better equipped and more resilient in the future."

Terrain Work is honored be part of this transformative project in West Harlem’s Manhattanville Factory District with Janus Property and LevenBetts Architects. For more on the Taystee landscape click here.

HUDSON COMMONS CONSTRUCTION IN MANHATTAN UNDERWAY!

Terrain Work is excited to announce that our project Hudson Commons at 441 9th Avenue in New York City has begun construction of the landscape!  The project, in collaboration with COVE Property Group and KPF Architects, consists of 40,000 square feet of landscape that climbs up a commercial office tower.  Hudson Commons offers premier office space in the heart of Manhattan providing an innovative approach to work-space environments that encourages indoor to outdoor interactivity with a landscape that is designed for both work and relaxation.   To learn more about Hudson Commons click here or visit www.terrainwork.com.

Terrain Work Celebrates Earth Day with 'Broadway Bouquet'

Terrain Work  unveiled 'Broadway Bouquet' on April 21, 2018 for the NYC Car Free Earth Day Event sponsored by the City of New York and NYC DOT.  'Broadway Bouquet' was a 40' feet long by 8' high temporary public art installation that was displayed at the intersection of Broadway and 24th Street in the Flatiron District of Manhattan. To see Photos and Video of 'Broadway Bouquet' Click Here.

The ‘Broadway Bouquet’ takes one of the most familiar and portable landscapes found on countless street corners in Manhattan and turns it into a larger than life experience, which is quintessentially New York.  The artwork captures the scale-bending qualities of the city while giving people a glimpse of how introducing plants and urban ecology in civic spaces can pique the imagination. 

The art installation was a featured piece of the NYC/DOT Car Free Earth Day event that closed thirty blocks of Broadway from Times Square to Union Square to vehicular traffic, creating a temporary pedestrian space for people to explore for the day.  A variety of environmental programming  were introduced by city agencies and nonprofit organizations along Broadway to promote activism and education surrounding climate change, sustainability and rethinking how we use our city streets.    To see our Interview about 'Broadway Bouquet' on Good Morning America Click Here.

Terrain Work Wins Public Art Commission To Be Featured on Broadway!

Terrain Work is excited to announce that we have won a public art commission through the City of New York and DOT!  On Saturday, April 21st from 9am to 3pm, "Broadway Bouquet" will be displayed on Broadway in the Flatiron district of New York as part of the Earth Day celebration.  The  artwork will be a featured piece in the NYC Car Free Earth Day festivities when Broadway is shut down to automobiles for the day.

"Broadway Bouquet" takes one of the most familiar and portable landscapes found on countless street corners in Manhattan and turns it into a larger than life experience, which is quintessentially New York.  The artwork captures the scale-bending qualities of the city while giving people a glimpse of how plants and urban ecology in new civic spaces can spark the imagination.  Learn more about 'Broadway Bouquet' here.

Terrain Work Selected As Finalist for Park Avenue Competition in NYC!

Terrain Work has been selected as a finalist for the Beyond the Centerline international design competition to re-imagine the future of Park Avenue in New York City.  Our entry "The New York Plant Circus" will be on public display at Park Avenue Plaza located at 55 East 52nd Street in Manhattan from March 5th-9th.  You can also see our design featured on CBS News and Archdaily, and read about the competition in the New York Times.   Public voting will be open from 8 AM EST on Monday, March 5th to 5 PM EST on Friday, March 9th.  More details to come on this project soon at www.terrainwork.com!

Hudson Commons Begins Construction!

Terrain Work is excited to announce that our project Hudson Commons at 441 9th Avenue in New York City has begun construction!  The project, in collaboration with COVE Property Group and KPF Architects, consists of 40,000 square feet of landscape that climbs up a commercial office tower.  Hudson Commons offers premier office space in the heart of Manhattan providing an innovative approach to work-space environments that encourages indoor to outdoor interactivity with a landscape that is designed for both work and relaxation.   To learn more about Hudson Commons click here or visit www.terrainwork.com.

Terrain Work is Hiring!

Terrain Work is looking for a creative and enthusiastic Landscape Architect or Designer with 1-4 years of working experience.  Individuals with strong design and graphic representation abilities who are able to take drawings through construction are preferred.  Candidates must be proficient in Rhino, AutoCAD, and the Adobe Suite to be considered for this position.  Ability to sketch and/or build models with an interest in hybrid graphic practices is desirable.  If you are interested in working in a small atelier practice where you will have the potential to grow with the company, please email your resume and work samples to thoerr@terrainwork.com.  Please no phone calls.  

Terrain Work is a New York City based design firm founded by Theodore Hoerr whose work explores how the emergent qualities of nature and culture create new forms and experiences in the built environment. They approach each project with a curiosity and collaborative spirit born out of the belief that landscapes should perform as both cultural provocateur and ecological system.  

Theodore Hoerr Preaching Plants at RISD

Theodore Hoerr, Founding Principal of Terrain Work, will be teaching Plants & Design at RISD with fellow plant aficionado Adam Anderson of Design Under Sky this spring.  We will focus on how to innovate with plants in design and bring these living creatures back to the forefront of the design conversation in landscape architecture. 

Over the last few decades plants have often been reduced to "green infrastructure" while the discourse surrounding them has been limited to largely ecological functions.  These issues are important, no doubt, but they cast plants as more an instrumental tool rather than an artful muse.   Plants have also been frequently maligned as just another "material" along with the likes of stone, brick, or concrete.  We aim to change this.  Along with our students our course will explore how plants have the ability to create culture, shape space, and provide atmospheric effects creating new experiences in the built environment.   If there are any plant lovers out there we would love to hear your thoughts on this topic!  Contact us at thoerr@terrainwork.com.