Project
Roundtable: Conversation on Waterfront
MAY 4, 12:30PM
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
AVERY HALL 114
116th ST. & Broadway
New York, NY 10027
Free and open to the public
More info here
Andrea Kahn, Design Content
Mary Kimball, City of New York
Meri Louekari, City of Helsinki & Aalto University
Moderated by Thaddeus Pawlowski, Columbia University & City of New York
Urban waterfronts are facing significant transformations world-wide and are among the most pressing urban design challenges of the next century. Former industrial sites are being reclaimed and rebuilt for new uses, while new urban maritime districts begin to provide a mix of housing, recreation, post-industrial, and ecological programs, in the midst of greater environmental uncertainty. The goal of this event is to foster cross-city dialogue and learning between the cities New York and Helsinki. Both cities have already opened up access to miles of the shoreline that have been closed off to the public for decades.
The event is organized in collaboration with Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP) and FCINY's Mobius Fellowship Program.
Mobius fellow Meri Louekari is an architect, specialized in urban design and urban research. She is currently working at the Helsinki City Planning Department, focusing on the waterfront development. Her work includes maintaining an overall view on the maritime development and emphasizing the multitude of activities and services located by the waterfront. She also works with various interdisciplinary assignments in the field of urban development, including writing and editing publications and curating exhibitions and temporary use at the waterfront locations.
Located in one of the most vibrant global cities, Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP) is a laboratory for learning that weaves together cutting edge design skills, incisive critical thinking and new forms of knowledge as students and faculty engage one another in a spirit of intellectual generosity that strives to re-imagine the future of architecture, cities and the environment. Columbia GSAPP fosters the development of new forms of design research and scholarship to open up new territories for more meaningful practices of architecture and the design of cities. In this moment of convergence, the school draws together the geographical question of “where” with the temporal question of “when,” making visible the processes of rapid urbanization in a time of climate change.
MOBIUS is a fellowship program for visual arts, museum and archive professionals based in New York, the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Finland. The program enables transatlantic mobility and collaborative practices and supports long-lasting professional relationships.