Final Reviews for Green New Deal Superstudio Spring Studios

As the spring semester winds down and the June 30 submission deadline nears, academic studios are conducting their final reviews and many would like to invite all interested to attend virtually.

Last summer, the Landscape Architecture Foundation (LAF) in association with the Weitzman School of Design McHarg Center, the Center for Resilient Cities and Landscapes, the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), and the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (CELA) invited designers to be part of the Green New Deal Superstudio, an open call for design responses to inform and advance these policy ideas.

In addition to dozens of firms, groups, and individuals, over 75 university and college design studios are participating in the Superstudio this spring. Following the inspiring and thoughtful projects that came from the fall semester participants, it has been incredible to witness, over 1,000 students translate the core goals of the Green New Deal—decarbonization, justice, and jobs—into design and planning projects for their respective regions this spring.

Once again, the range and ambition of these efforts reflect the vast opportunities for landscape architects to make their vital contribution to modern challenges through novel projects and policy measures that the Green New Deal may spawn. The time to think differently, and practice differently, is now. Studios throughout the nation are demonstrating what that looks like:

• A studio at Washington University in St. Louis is proposing a US Nuclear National Park to repair and upgrade the nuclear waste infrastructure of the United States while translating environmental, social, and cultural justice issues through speculative design.
• At the University of New Mexico, students are applying Green New Deal principles to infrastructure along the Rio Grande with the intention of reclaiming graywater for ecological and social use by local and indigenous communities.
• Students at the University of Arkansas are reframing renewable energy infrastructure as a civic amenity in a rich collaboration with many local partners, including the Botanical Garden of the Ozarks.
• A studio at the University of San Diego is taking a deep dive on Green New Deal policies and applying them to an urban corridor along the Sweetwater River in National City, California.

If you’ve been wanting to get involved with the Superstudio, take advantage of this chance to see the projects and thinking that will inform LAF’s summit on policy and design.

Studios are conducting their final reviews and many would like to invite all interested to attend virtually. Reviews take place from April through June and represent a variety of topics and geographies. Whether it’s regional-scale frameworks for adaptation, social media visualization for speculative environmental and social issues, alternative futures for forested urban landscapes in Cleveland Ohio, or some other aspect of the Green New Deal principles relevant to your locale or interests, students nationwide are demonstrating how much there is to be gained when landscape architects take an active role in shaping the future of our built environment.

Browse the course catalogue to learn more about the variety of projects taking place, then fill out this survey to receive information and connect with the studios that most interest you.