James Corner

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James Corner is an internationally known landscape designer and theorist with numerous works exploring the meaning and depth of contemporary landscape architecture. His focus is on “developing innovative approaches toward landscape architectural design and urbanism” and he is recognized for his modern designs and theories. Designs of notable significance are those of Fresh Kills Park on Staten Island and the High Line design in New York.

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[edit] Education and Profession

Born in 1961, Corner received his Bachelor's degree at Manchester Metropolitan University in England with first class honors in 1983 before he received his Masters in Landscape Architecture and Urban Design Certificate from the University of Pennsylvania in 1986. Prior to his teaching profession at University of Pennsylvania in 1988 where he taught courses in media and theory, as well as design studios, Corner was employed by Wallace, Roberts and Todd on the New Jersey Hudson River Waterfront Development; for Richard Rogers and Partners on the redevelopment of the Royal Docks in London; and for William Gillespie and Partners on the design and implementation of the International Garden Festival Park in Liverpool. Once an associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania, Corner was elected as Chair of the Landscape Architecture Department in 2000. As a professor, Corner's landscape design and environmental research and teaching interests are based upon "developing innovative approaches toward landscape architectural design and urbanism." He is a professionally registered landscape architect and principal with architect Stan Allen of Field Office, a landscape, architectural and urban design practice based in New York, NY and Philadelphia, PA.He also served as a visiting professor at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen in 1998 and at the KTH School of Architecture in Stockholm, Sweden in 1999. Corner is currently principal of Field Operations a landscape, architectural and urban design practice in Philadelphia and New York City where he has distinguished himself as an asset to modern landscape revival and design.

Throughout his career as a professor and professional landscape architect, James Corner has distinguished himself through his environmentally beneficial efforts to regenerate landscape architecture in modern urbanism. Corner is working past and overcoming the traditional constraints seen in past landscape designs. A new aspect of this profession that Corner has had a major success with, and is also responsible for his Chrysler Design Institute Award in 2000, is his plan of working with graphic artists, photographers, and other artists from various fields. An example of this merge is the project Corner and photographer Alex MacLean completed when they published their Taking Measures Across the American Landscape (Yale University Press, 1996).

What sets James Corner apart from landscape architects from the past and present are his theories and ideas for innovative and appropriate urban landscapes. Corner has shown a knack for changing the perspective and expressing the depth of the landscape. As Corner states, "It is important to remember, however, that this tradition has never been one of doctrine, but rather one of invention, an always evolving tradition of teaching, research and practice that seeks innovative and pertinent approaches to the very real issues of the time." Corner wants the world to understand it as process of growth.

[edit] Awards

Many, if not most, landscape architects are overlooked when is comes to awards for designs because they have before been viewed as a more subdued role in the design and construction process of projects. James Corner broke this mode with his new light and perspectives of landscape architecture that are re-shaping the role of landscape design. Most impressively, Corner was the first landscape architect to receive many of his awards. In 1996, Corner received the G. Holmes Perkins Award for “distinguished and innovative teachings and methods of instruction in design”. The following year, in 1997, he was the first recipient of the Jens Jensen Professorship in Landscape Architecture and Urbanism at the University of Illinois at Chicago's School of Architecture and in 2000 he was the second landscape architect, after Achva Benzinberg Stein, to be chosen for theDaimlerChrysler Award, which recognizes and promotes innovative design.

[edit] Works

In one of his notable works, Corner collaborated with Alex McLean to write Taking Measures Across the American Landscape which takes one on a journey to see what type of landscapes made up America. Essays and map drawings by Corner and aerial photos taken by McLean make this a very compelling book of the landscape of different reasons and the possibilities they hold. Corner's other well-known work, Recovering Landscape: Essays in Contemporary Landscape Architecture offers insight on how contemporary landscapes are "designed, constructed and culturally valued".

Corner's designs bring back the open spaces of the natural wild with a rough, natural, and ecologically sound approach; this could be compared to the works of Frederick Law Olmsted except more unbridled.

The High Line is a 1.5-mile-long stretch of abandoned railroad viaduct that runs from the Meatpacking district to Hell's Kitchen. The proposed design by Field Operations is meant to transform it into a 1.5-mile-long park. Corner envisioned "fantastic, mixed perennial landscape" interspersed by "event spaces." It is a once in a lifetime opportunity to create a garden in the sky. The "High Line raises a host of extraordinary opportunities for new synthesis of ecology, art, urbanism, and urban culture. Although it won't be opened until 2008, it has already made an impact on the surrounding blocks with the addition of 27 new residential towers, hotels, offices, and museums.

James Corner, the principal of Field Operations in New York and Pennsylvania, headed up a design team that won the international design competition with its "Lifescape" design for the redesign of Fresh Kills Park. The competition was formulated for design teams across the nation to salvage a landfill located on Staten Island. The landfill is the largest in the country at 2,200 acres, or three times the size of Central Park in New York. Today it is one of the largest publics work project in the world. The winning design incorporates a World Trade Center memorial, because the landfill was temporarily reopened to accommodate the remains of the towers, as well as a strong, central focus on programs, habitat, and circulation throughout the new park. Fresh Kills Park is reminiscent of Olmsted's massive design for Central Park as far as work load, scale, and project purpose and design. Fresh Kills Park is said to be "one of the most ambitious public works projects in the world," considering 45% of the area is landfill and the remaining land is wetlands and lowlands. The goals of Fresh Kills Park is to create a world class large scale park in which restores the ecological systems, yet allows New York to optimize its local and regional access while reducing traffic congestion. The park will be developed as a setting for a range of outdoor activities, programs, and recreation that are unique to New York.

[edit] Books

  • Taking Measures Across the American Landscape (Yale, 1996), coauthored with Alex MacLean. ISBN 0-300-06566-3 Received the AIA International Book of the Year Award and the ASLA Award of Honor.
  • Editor of Recovering Landscape: Essays in Contemporary Landscape Architecture (Princeton, 1999) ISBN 1-56898-179-1 (pbk. : alk. paper), a book focused on the revitalization of landscape architecture as a critical cultural practice.)
  • Ian McHarg : conversations with students : dwelling in nature / Lynn Margulis, James Corner, and Brian Hawthorne, editors. New York : Princeton Architectural Press, c2006. ISBN 978-1-56898-620-3
  • Landscapes Transformed (Academy Editions, 1996), co-authored with Michael Spens and Peter Lantz. 112 pages. ISBN 1854904523. This book examines the condition of the modern landscape. It presents an international collection of projects which challenge old perceptions and give good cause for confidence in the future of landscape design.

[edit] References