LSA 220 Intro to Landscape Architecture: SCAPE by Kate Orff

To: Profs. R. Hawks and I. Fernandez From: Christopher Peretti Date: 10/17/13 L.A. Speak Memo

Kate Orff is the founder and design director of SCAPE, which works on projects such as educating people on the biodiversity within a city, reclaiming post-industrial land, and using water to create a unique urban public space. The first project that Kate described, Safari 7, ties together New York Citys No. 7 subway line with the environment that the train travels through. The train educates people with maps and podcasts on the complex biodiversity of the citys ecosystems. The second project Kate talked about was her book titled Petrochemical America. In the book she describes the effects on the cultural, environmental, and economical issues of petrochemicals on the Mississippi River in Louisiana. Another project she discussed was reviving Town Beach Commons, an area in Lexington, Kentucky. This project connects neighborhoods both inside and outside the city by running a stream through them that adapts to the environment the neighborhood is in. This lecture really opened my eyes to a different form of landscape architecture. Before listening to Kate, I was just thinking of creating parks and public space for people to use. Now I see how designing ways for people to connect with the environment that already exists, allows them to become conscious of the environment they live in. I really liked how the Town Beach Commons stream changes its form between different bodies of water, depending on the area that it passes through. That gets people to understand the different ways that an environment can affect people.