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Home > SAM_FOX > ENGAGE > FALL2019_STANEK

Fall 2019 Confluence: St. Louis and Hinterlands

 
MLA 501, Fall 2019 Graduate Landscape Architecture Studio. Lecturer Micah Stanek, Washington University in St. Louis

[C]ontexts imply other contexts, so that each context implies a global network of contexts.—Arjun Appadurai, Modernity at Large, (1996).

The  Gateway  Arch  commemorates  the  role  of  St.  Louis  as  a  launching  site  for  the  settlement  of  the  American  West. For many, the monument no longer evokes Manifest Destiny, but conjures modern architectural ideals and feats of engineering in the 20th century. The 21st century redesign of the Gateway Arch National Park reconnected city to park and drew the indeterminate environment into the design. In this way, the St. Louis riverfront has long been a testing ground for architecture and landscape as representations of our history and aspirations.

While  the  Gateway  Mall  also  points  to  Western  Expansion,  the  City  Beautiful  movement  drove  the  removal  of  the  historic  urban  core  for  the  construction  of  the  string  of  parks.  Ideas  of  aesthetic  clarity,  open  space,  and  civic  monumentality  lay  the  groundwork.  However, block-by-block,  designers  and  stakeholders  have  shaped  and reshaped the open space over time. The Mall recently has undergone multiple redesigns, and the character seems to be shifting away from openness, toward intensive greening and increased biodiversity. Again, landscapes represent history and aspirations.

If we extend our monumental axis, through Danforth campus, where does the imaginary line go? Would we draw up the Missouri River or a straight section across the continental divide and down to the Pacific Ocean? How many crude oil and natural gas pipelines would we cross? How many coal mines? Is our West-facing axis pointing to the fact that much of St. Louis’s infrastructure lies ‘out West?’

This  second  year  Master  of  Landscape  Architecture  studio  will  trace  infrastructural  lines—from  Downtown  St.  Louis  to  the  hinterland(1)  and  back.  We  will  travel  to  Montana  and  Wyoming,  to  understand  what  connects  St.  Louis  and  the  American  West. 

Through  drawings  we  will  understand  how  infrastructure  overlaps  with  ecology  and how economy and politics impact landscapes. Beyond westward and upstream, we will look downstream to understand the whole watershed context; we will also look worldwide and try to disentangle a globalized network of resources and environments. Students will tell an informed story about how St. Louis and the American West developed, how US infrastructure is changing, and what St. Louis might stand for in the future. 

Landscape architects are... in everything they do, contributing to the political landscapes that all things dwell within.—Rod Barnett, “Designing Indian Country,” (2016)

Finally the studio will return to the Gateway Mall and the Gateway Arch National Park in Downtown St. Louis—the studio site. Students will ground their research through the design of a dialectical landscape—one that fosters the exchange of ideas and invites opposing forces(2). The projects will visualize our history, especially the 20th century infrastructure on which we depend. We will use design to communicate changing priorities in the 21st century.

The  landscapes  and  questions  in  this  studio  are  monumental,  so  each  student  will  study  one  infrastructure  and  each  design  project  will  take  one  clear  position.  The  studio  will  employ  large  maps  and  valley  sections  to  understand our continental context. Experimental drawings and models will conflate our site with the hinterland and serve as generative tools. Then students will clarify and refine their site designs on or adjacent to the Gateway Mall and Gateway Arch National Park.

1 Meaning “a region remote from urban areas” (Merriam-Webster online). Etymology: from the German hinter (behind) + land (land). 
2 Defined from Merriam-Webster (online). For the term ‘dialectical landscape’ draws on Smithson’s “Frederick Law Olmsted and the Dialectical Landscape,” (1973  

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