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!
Theodore Hoerr Preaching Plants At RISD This Spring
Theodore Hoerr, Founding Principal of Terrain Work, is teaching Plants & Design at Rhode Island School of Design again this spring with fellow plant fanatic Adam Anderson of Design Under Sky. Our course approaches plants and design through three areas of inquary: Time & Space, Ornament & Affect, and Culture & Production.
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 of an instrumental tool rather than an artful muse. 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.
Terrain Work Design Proposal for the Sandy Hook Memorial
Terrain Work recently submitted a proposal to the Sandy Hook Permanent Memorial Commission in Newtown, Connecticut. The Sandy Hook Memorial is meant to "remember, honor, and celebrate those 26 who died as a result of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting and serves to provide comfort to those who loved and were touched by them." To learn more about our proposal for this special project click here or visit 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.
Artist House: Terrain Work Design for a Mid-Century Modern House
Terrain Work has created a new landscape for the Artist House, a mid-century modern house set on a five-acre lot of a mature hardwood forest of oak, maple, and walnut trees in rural New Jersey. The house was originally designed and constructed by two local artists and educators, Robert and Rowena MacPhail, during the late 1950’s . The project is a collaboration with Gary Rosard Architect who is providing a full renovation and expansion of this exquisitely unique historical structure. The garden for the house draws upon the artwork that is thought to have influenced the artist's design of the structure with its sloping triangulated rooflines reminiscent of the works of Maholy-Nagy and Wassily Kandinsky. The garden takes two-dimensional concepts found in these artist's paintings and extends them into three dimensional expressions of space, color, and movement in the landscape. To learn more about the Artist House click here.
Terrain Work Designs Master Plan for Wheels o' Time Museum
Terrain Work recently completed a new master plan for the Wheels O’ Time Museum in Peoria, Illinois. The museum houses an extensive collection of over 30,000 square feet of antique and collector cars, trains, airplanes, tractors, fire trucks, and bicycles. In addition it recently acquired an innovative house from the 1930's constructed entirely from steel by the renowned industrial designer R.G. LeTourneau.
Terrain Work’s master plan for the museum incorporates the newly acquired Le Tourneau house into the museum campus to create an interconnected series of wheels that each contain different gardens designed to display museum artifacts and provide a variety of programmatic functions for the public to enjoy. To learn more about this project click here.
Theodore Hoerr Juror for "Nuclear"
Theodore Hoerr, Founding Principal of Terrain Work, will be a juror for "Nuclear" the international open ideas design competition for a landmarker for a waste isolation site. The competition sponsored by Arch Out Loud asks entrants to design a marker or marker system to deter inadvertent human intrusion into the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. The marker should exist as a means of passive institutional control of the site for the duration of 10,000 years, following the closure and deactivation of the WIPP. For more information about "Nuclear" click here.
Terrain Work on the Hoboken Garden Tour this Sunday
The Urban Sponge Garden by Terrain Work will be featured on the the Hoboken Secret Garden Tour on Sunday June 4th. For tickets to the event visit the Hoboken Historical Society. For more information about this garden click here. We hope to see you all on Sunday!
Terrain Work Designing the Landscape for 441 9th Avenue in Manhattan
Terrain Work is collaborating with COVE Property Group and KPF on a new project at 441 9th Avenue in Manhattan. The plan is to reposition 441 Ninth Avenue as a “new” Class-A office development targeted to meet the needs of various tenants including TAMI (Technology, Advertising, Media and Information), fashion, financial and legal tenants. We are thrilled to work with a world class team of design and development experts in the heart of Manhattan. Stay tuned for more to come on this project at 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.
242 West 53rd Street Featured in Field Condition
242 West 53rd Street is now being featured in the blog Field Condition. Situated in the heart of Manhattan and intertwined in a sixty story residential tower designed by Cetra Ruddy Architects and constructed by Pavarini McGovern, the landscape for West 53rd Street is embedded into the building at various levels offering a wide array of landcapes for vertical urban living. To learn more about this project that Theodore Hoerr led while a Principal at Balmori Associates click here.
Terrain Work Playing 'Mind Games'
Terrain Work recently created 'Mind Games' a temporary garden that explores our perceptions of childhood through the lens of adulthood. The garden is at once a representation of these myriad states of being, and a sensory experience that invites both children and adults to play in a field of fallen leaves - ten thousand balls of yellow, orange, and red. Mind Games is currently trying to find a home. If you are interested in speaking to us about implementing this project please contact us. To learn more about 'Mind Games' click here
Happy New Year from Terrain Work!
Wishing you all the best in 2017! Click here to see what we are up to!
242 West 53rd Street Making Ground
242 West 53rd was recently in the news as construction gains momentum. Situated in the heart of Manhattan and intertwined in a sixty story residential tower designed by Cetra Ruddy Architects, the landscape for West 53rd Street is embedded into the building at various levels, offering a wide array of spaces for outdoor dining, swimming, performance, sunbathing, and relaxation. Of particular importance, is a 3,000-square-foot blueroof that is both a performance art piece and intricate water managment infrastructure that slowly releases water back into the storm sewer system over a twenty four hour period. To learn more about this project that Theodore Hoerr led while a Principal at Balmori Associates click here.
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
University of Iowa Hancher Auditorium in the News
The University of Iowa Hancher Auditorium was recently featured on ArchDaily. The landscape for Hancher consists of an innovative water management system that captures, cleans, and infiltrates water from the surrounding area into the ground. This reduces runoff into the the Iowa River to help mitigate future flooding events, and create a more resilient riverfront landscape. Theodore Hoerr led the landscape architectural design of this project while a Principal at Balmori Associates in collaboration with Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects. To learn more about how this project transformed the Art Campus landscape on the banks of the Iowa River click here.
Theodore Hoerr Presents at National ASLA Conference in New Orleans
Theodore Hoerr, Founding Principal of Terrain Work, was in New Orleans this past week as part of the national ASLA conference. Theodore presented how teaching helps to shape and influence the ideological underpinnings of a professional practice. He was part of a panel discussion titled, "Learn by Teaching: Erasing the Academic and Practice Divide" with Tiffany Beamer, Partner, OLIN Partnership, Claire Fellman, Director, Snohetta, Ron Henderson, Professor/Director of Landscape Architecture at IIT and Founding Principal of L + A Landscape Architects, and Moderator Nilay Mistry, Adjunct Professor of Landscape Architecture at IIT. It was a fantastic weekend seeing old friends and making new ones in NOLA. Hope to see everyone in Los Angeles next year!
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.
Yes! Terrain Work will be Presenting in New Orleans for ASLA 2016
Theodore Hoerr, Founding Principal of Terrain Work, will be presenting at the National American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) Conference in New Orleans on Monday, October 24th. In a panel discussion titled, "Learn by Teaching: Erasing the Academic and Practice Divide," Theodore, along with Tiffany Beamer, Partner, OLIN Partnership, Claire Fellman, Director, Snohetta, Ron Henderson, Professor/Director of Landscape Architecture at IIT and Founding Principal of L + A Landscape Architects, and Moderator Nilay Mistry, Adjunct Professor of Landscape Architecture at IIT, will explore the advantages of being both an educator and practitioner. The session will be from 8:00am - 9:30am on Monday October 24th. For more information click here. Hope to see you there!