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.

In Memoriam: Diana Balmori

It is with a heavy heart to share that on November 14th, 2016, Diana Balmori passed away.  Diana was a mentor, teacher, and confidant to many people over the years, including me.  She always made time for the intellectually curious, whether it was a nascent student of landscape architecture or an established contemporary.  Her influence was broad and wide-ranging, and her passion for landscape as a medium that could transform the way we live and interact with nature was second to none. 

For five years we spent countless hours together, both working in her office as well as teaching at Yale.  When I first came to work in her office in early 2011 it was unlike any other environment that I had experienced in the past, both professional or academic.  From the outset there was a relentless fervor and zeal placed on how to draw and how the process of drawing played a fundamental role in seeing and conceptualizing landscape.  This idea of drawing was not limited to a particular instrument – computer, pencil, pen, etc. - nor was it exclusive to a particular medium – drawing, painting, collage, physical models, dioramas, digital models, film, video.   It was wide open.  Experimentation was always encouraged and a fundamental part of her work.  I once heard the saying, “To draw is to see the world with your eye, mind, and your heart.”  Diana embodied this approach and used it to push the boundaries of envisioning landscape.  By doing so, she moved the discipline and discourse of landscape forward.  Among her many accomplishments perhaps one of the most impactful and enduring qualities she instilled in me, and I suspect many others working in her office through the years, was the ability to see landscape anew.

The profession of landscape architecture has lost a visionary, but beyond that, many of us have lost a mentor, colleague, friend, and family member.  Diana will be missed, but her ideas will live on in the people and places she inspired.    A link to her obituary in the NY Times can be found here.  Image courtesy of Balmori Associates

Theodore Hoerr, Founding Principal

Terrain Work

Terrain Work to Design New Eco(tonal) Community in Illinois

Terrain Work has begun the urban design and planning for a new 33 acre Eco(tonal) Community on the site of a former tree production nursery in Central Illinois.  The community will be organized around the ecotones of several landscape types: Deciduous Hardwood Forest, Shortgrass Prairie, and Littoral.  A central wildlife corridor creates a link for both species and residents to move between an adjacent hardwood forest, and a shared open space surrounding a small lake.  A water management plan for the community will capture and treat all runoff generated on the site through a network of bio-cells distributed throghout the community.  Visit us at terrainwork.com for updates on this project.