Charter school playground, Harlem, New York 2007 / Bill Bamberger
Why take photographs of basketball courts but leave out the players? For photographer Bill Bamberger, basketball courts tell a compelling story by themselves. They are signs of play — and community life. The environment surrounding a court tells a lot about the community that created it.
In Hoops, a new exhibition at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., Bamberger and curator Chrysanthe Broikos edited the 22,000 images of basketball courts Bamberger shot around the world over the past 15 years to just 75.
At the preview, Bamberger said he was intrigued by conceptual artists Bernd and Hilla Becher’s famous photographs of water towers and other industrial buildings. The duo shot objects in black and white, in the “same neutral light,” from the same angle, forcing the viewer to notice the small differences between the industrial remnants. The result was “there was no context.”
Bamberger is clearly inspired by aspects of their approach. The focus of this exhibition is entirely on one built object — the basketball court. But he also diverged from their path by highlighting the context — the environments surrounding the basketball courts.
In one photograph of a court at a charter school playground in Harlem, New York City, one can see the “color and the diversity of the place” (see image at top).
In contrast, in Phoenix, Arizona, the basketball court at a wealthy school almost blends into the landscape, its edges fading into the desert.
Public school playground, Sedona, Arizona 2009 / Bill Bamberger
In a church playground in Kinihara, Rwanda, where Bamberger visited with his partner, who is an HIV/AIDS researcher, the “inventiveness” of the community is apparent — the handmade basketball posts are made of tree trunks, the backboard is made up of old wood planks, and the rim is fashioned from found metal. The space from which players shoot is demarcated by bricks embedded in the ground instead of the usual painted lines.
Church playground, Kinihira, Rwanda 2013 / Bill Bamberger
Basketball hoops pop up everywhere there is life — on the sides of buildings and homes and along streets. One of Bamberger’s favorite photographs is of a hoop on a grain silo in Portland, Oregon.
Grain silo, Portland, Oregon 2007 / Bill Bamberger
And one call tell from the pictures which hoops are well-used and loved and which have been abandoned. A hoop at an abandoned campsite in Tennessee, where a homeless family was living in an old bus, is a remnant left by people moving through.
Homeless family campsite, rural Tennessee 2008 / Bill Bamberger
Bamberger said some of the greatest hoops were found in communities facing incredible challenges. One charming court in struggling North Fork, West Virginia, shows the hope and vitality still there.
Community playground, North Fork, West Virginia 2006 / Bill Bamberger
The Hoops exhibition shows you that if you see a basketball court somewhere, some unique group of people came together to built it. “Play is a necessity in community life.” Basketball courts are really community portraits.
Hoops opened just in time for the 2019 NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournaments. The exhibition is on view through January 5, 2020.
Renderings: South of Atlanta, Pinewood Forest’s Central Hub Aims to Impress– Curbed Atlanta, 2/21/19
“Fifteen miles south of Atlanta’s airport, the Pinewood Forest mini-city concept aims to be nothing short of the country’s preeminent ‘live, create, and play community,’ where creative types can spend leisure time among 100 acres of planned green space.”
Schenectady-based Landscape Architect Creates Meaningful Outdoor Spaces– The Daily Gazette, 2/28/19
“Schenectady’s Tribute Park is a simple park, created from three vacant parcels on Eastern Avenue. There are sidewalks and benches, there’s a large lawn to play on, and a splash pad where kids cool off on hot summer days.”
Are Dog Parks Exclusionary?– CityLab, 2/28/19
“In Chicago and other cities, the demand for pet-friendly public space has boomed. But many communities see off-leash parks as heralds of gentrification.”
Here’s D.C.’s Memorial For Native American Veterans– CityLab, 6/26/18 “Unlike other war memorials in D.C., the National Native American Veterans Memorial does not highlight a specific conflict, but rather an entire people.”
Central Park Love Song – The New York Times, 6/28/18 “Even though Central Park, like the rest of Manhattan, is largely man-made, not natural, it is a place to experience in person, not secondhand through images, regardless of their authenticity, nor through narratives, no matter how illustrative.”
Gateway to What?– Curbed, 6/28/18 “The Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Gateway Arch, a 630-foot-tall catenary curve—designed by Eero Saarinen and clad in stainless steel—stands on the west bank of the Mississippi River in St. Louis, Missouri. But really, it stands everywhere in St. Louis.”
Road to Los Alamos, ca. 1943-45 / Los Alamos National Laboratory Archives
The Manhattan Project, the secret US government program that produced the world’s first atomic weapons during World War II, left a complicated legacy in its wake. It brought the second world war to a close, but laid the groundwork for the Cold War. It was responsible for the deaths of over 125,000 Japanese citizens, the majority of whom were civilians. It ushered in the atomic age as scientists and businesses sought ways to use “atoms for peace,” leading to advances in medical imaging, the rise of nuclear energy, and even “atomic gardening.”
It also gave us the cities of Oak Ridge, Tennessee; Richland and Hanford, Washington; and Los Alamos, New Mexico, cities that were created as part of the Manhattan Project and whose existence remained a closely-held secret during the war. These cities are the subject of Secret Cities: The Architecture and Planning of the Manhattan Project, an exhibition currently on display at The National Building Museum in Washington, D.C.
Aerial view of Hanford Construction Camp, ca. 1945 / U.S. Department of Energy, Hanford Collection
At a recent lecture, senior curator Martin Moeller delved into the planning, architecture, and cultural legacy of these cities — their lasting impact on the industries of the built environment. He began by pointing out that, in terms of design, there was little revolutionary about these towns. Precedents for planned communities existed in developments such as Olmsted and Vaux’s Riverside, Illinois; the Garden City Movement; and the work of Scottish biologist and city planner Sir Patrick Geddes.
What makes the cities of the Manhattan Project significant, however, was the scale of their design and speed of their construction. Moeller pointed out that, unlike earlier examples of community planning, these cities had to be entirely self-contained due to the nature of the work being carried out there.
In the case of Oak Ridge, architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) was responsible for the design of an entire city that would be home to 75,000 residents by the end of the war.
Hutments at Oak Ridge / Southern Spaces
Moeller explained that SOM went from “being architects to being planners and civil engineers, and soon they were going to becoming construction engineers, interior designers, and even designers of the school curricula in the schools within Oak Ridge.”
In addition to being planned in utmost secrecy, Oak Ridge and other Manhattan Project cities had to be constructed at a breakneck pace. “During the height of the war, the contractors building these houses were turning over the keys to the government to one house every thirty minutes,” said Moeller.
The speed of construction was possible thanks to advances in prefabrication technology. Houses at Oak Ridge were constructed using Cemesto boards, a prefabricated product made of compressed cement and asbestos fibers, and were built in an assembly line fashion, a technique that developer William Levitt would later use in the construction of his Levittown developments.
“Flat Top” house, Oak Ridge, 1944 / National Archives and Records Administration
Given the speed at which these cities were constructed, one of the more remarkable aspects of their design is the inclusion of green, walkable community space. “This is extraordinary,” argues Moeller. “This is an emergency situation, where people are thinking that we are in a race against time, and we’re being careful to preserve large trees and create greenbelt spaces between houses.”
This also raises provocative questions about modern day development practices. If the planners of these communities were able to take the time to preserve existing natural features and integrate green space under extraordinary circumstances, why do we find it so difficult to do the same thing today?
There were darker aspects to these cities as well. Land for the developments was seized from existing residents via eminent domain; property owners were told that the land was needed for a “demolition range.” In Oak Ridge, this primarily impacted poor subsistence farmers. In Washington, the government seized land from the Wanapum people, a Native American group that traces its identity to the region and the Columbia River that runs through it.
Race also played a part in the story of these cities. For example, segregation was designed into the plan for Oak Ridge. African American residents were forced to live in “hutments,” small, single-room structures with minimal protection from the elements. The hutments were separated from the city and further segregated by sex, dividing up families and adding further insult to the indignity of being forced to live in substandard housing.
African American women hanging laundry in a hutment area, Oak Ridge, 1945 / Edward Westcott. National Archives and Records Administration
Despite a complicated social and political legacy, for Moeller, the urban design legacy of the Manhattan Project is clear. “The real thing to come out of this, in terms of architectural and planning history, is the emergence of the modern architecture-engineering-construction firm.”
By the end of WWII, SOM had grown to 650 employees, and would eventually become “arguably the single most influential corporate architectural firm in the post war era.”
In their work on Oak Ridge, SOM took on an expanded role as “architect, engineer, planner — all these things really beyond the scope of what architects had ever done.” Because of this experience, “they were uniquely prepared coming out of WWII to design for the new world, creating corporate campuses and communities on a scale that we wouldn’t have even been conceived of before.” They paved the way for the business model that would come to define the planning and design industries in the second half of the 20th century.
Russell Square designed by Humphrey Repton in 1810 / The Guardian
What Does a Presidential Building Look Like?– Curbed, 3/22/18
“On February 27, former President Barack Obama made a surprise appearance at a meeting at Chicago’s McCormick Place, the sixth public presentation on the plans for his presidential center in the city’s Jackson Park, currently under city and federal review for its impact on the historic landscape and environment.”
Women’s Safety Must Be Part of Transportation Planning– Next City, 3/27/18
“A woman traveling, whether walking on the street or using public transportation faces a near-constant threat of sexual violence — harassment, assault, or rape.”
Young Landscape Architect Works to Shape the Future– San Diego Downtown News, 11/3/17
“Growing up in Tempe, Arizona, Magnusson was influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright’s architecture, and had opportunities to explore several of his commercial, institutional and residential projects.”
Michael Maltzan Architecture to Expand ArtCenter College of Design– The Architect’s Newspaper, 11/3/17
“ArtCenter College of Design has unveiled renderings of a new, two-phase master plan created by Michael Maltzan Architecture that aims to reposition the college as an expansive, urban campus connected by pedestrianized open spaces, new housing, and student amenities.”
Lines Are Drawn Over Design for a National World War I Memorial – The New York Times, 11/8/17
“When it was built in 1981 as part of an architectural revival of Pennsylvania Avenue, Pershing Park was a downtown oasis of tree line and water fountain steps from the White House. In the years since, the park has fallen into disrepair and has become a haven for homeless people and pigeons.”
For the First Time, MacArthur Foundation Has Given ‘Genius’ Award to a Landscape Architect – The Washington Post, 10/18/17
“The New York landscape architect Kate Orff, 45, grew up in Crofton, Md., a place she remembers as the type of suburban community built around the automobile and molded on the tenacious idea that the lifeblood of modern settlement is oil.”
Cleanup Begins in NYC’s Most Polluted Waterway– Next City, 10/18/17
“Now, a long-anticipated cleanup has finally begun. Preliminary dredging began the first week of October, and the full project is anticipated to cost around $500 million, the Architect’s Newspaper reports.”
Greenspace Takes Over London with WATG’s ‘Green Block’ Proposal– Arch Daily, 10/25/17
“London Mayor Sadiq Khan proposed the challenge — how does London become a designated National Park City– and WATG, London-based landscape team, headed by Demet Karaoglu, accepted the challenge.”
Memorializing Tragedy in an Era of Constant Mass Assaults – CityLab, 10/24/17
“July 22, 2011, still stands as the bloodiest day in Norway’s history since World War II. Twin attacks that day, first a bomb in Oslo and then, two hours later, a gun massacre on the island of Utøya, claimed 77 lives.”
Lawrence Halprin’s L.A. Projects Star in Landscape Architecture Symposium This Weekend– Architect’s Newspaper, 10/30/17
“The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) will be holding a day-long symposium on November 4 at the Architecture and Design Museum in Los Angeles in conjunction with the opening of The Landscape Architecture of Lawrence Halprin, a photographic exhibition based on Halprin’s body of work.”
Chicago Botanic Garden Exhibit Brings a Little Bit of Rio to Glencoe– The Chicago Tribune, 7/2/17
“Burle Marx, who died in 1994, was a famous modernist landscape architect and artist, and his style is being celebrated in a summer-long event at the Chicago Botanic Garden.”
How a Landscape Architect Turned His 300-Square-Foot Balcony Into a Lush Private Oasis– Toronto Life, 7/8/17
“Owning a private, landscaped backyard used to be an achievable goal for a great many people in Toronto. Today, many starting homebuyers with horticultural ambitions have to make do with whatever outdoor space is afforded to them by their condo balconies.”
Each April World Landscape Architecture Month (WLAM) celebrates all aspects of landscape architecture. The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) asked its members and followers to share pictures of their favorite examples of landscape architecture on social media with #WLAM2017 and a card that reads, “This Is Landscape Architecture.” The goal of the campaign is to educate the public about the profession and all it entails.
This year, approximately 1,700 people from 57 different countries posted nearly 7,000 times with #WLAM2017, reaching 2.9 million people. Each day during WLAM a different ASLA chapter took over our Instagram so we could show the breadth of the field.
For example, the Iowa Chapter decided to highlight off some of its public spaces.
Lawrence Halprin at his residence at The Sea Ranch / Charles A. Birnbaum, 2008
“Lawrence Halprin didn’t imitate nature; he abstracted it,” argued Charles Birnbaum, FASLA, president of The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF), at the opening of a new exhibition of Halprin’s work at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. Martin Moeller, curator at NBM immediately agreed: Halprin often evoked a natural scene rather than copying it literally. “He let people think it through.”
This well-edited exhibition is perhaps the best of NBM’s recent triptych of landscape architecture exhibitions, which included a survey of the landscape photography of Alan Ward, FASLA, and a retrospective of Oehme van Sweden’s work. The curious flow of the exhibition enables discovery. Around each corner are Halprin’s surprising drawings and dioramas, and photographs graciously donated by some of the country’s leading architectural photographers.
The exhibition moves through 35 sites chronologically, from his early residential work through to his first forays into the public realm, from the hallmarks of his Modernist designs to his post-Modern work in the late 70s and early 80s, and, finally, his capstone projects before his death in 2009.
Some themes emerge. Throughout his career, Halprin enjoyed partnering with artists. He purposefully created room for art works, knowing they add rich, pleasing layers. Gould Garden in Berkeley, California, created from the late 50s to 1960, shows one of his early partnerships with artist Jacques Overhoff, who molded bas-relief panels in concrete around Halprin’s pool.
Pool at the Gould Garden / Ren Dodge, 2016
Halprin believed in cities. When many people abandoned the urban cores after the race riots, Halprin saw opportunities for regrowth. His Portland open space sequence, with its three-part necklace of Modernist parks, was created from 1965-70 and demonstrated his early commitment. Moeller argued “it changed perceptions of downtown Portland.” And New York Times architecture critic Ada Louis Huxtable, who was not generous with the compliments, called the sequence “one of the most important urban spaces since the Renaissance.” (The sequence is now on the National Register of Historic Places, but it is in need of major repair. A $4.5 million rehabilitation effort begins next year).
Ira Keller Fountain / Jeremy Bittermann, 2016
Halprin was all about “animating the landscape through choreography,” particularly the movement of water. The first thing you see when you enter the exhibition is a 10-foot-tall watercolor drawing of water moving around rocks. But if you look closely, you will see Halprin drew arrows to indicate the currents’ directions; he was mapping the choreography of a shore eddy.
Moeller thinks Halprin was deeply influenced by his wife Anna, who was a dancer. “He adapted her ideas by ‘scoring’ for human activity.” In his UN Plaza in San Francisco, he applied a design approach he called “motation,” which is described in the exhibition as “scoring how perception of the environment changes depending on the speed and motion of the observer.”
Fountain at United Nations Plaza / Charles A. Birnbaum, 2005
The exhibition, of course, includes beautiful photographs of his masterpieces: the Frankin Delano Roosevelt Memorial in Washington, D.C., which is a culmination of his life-long collaboration with artists; Freeway Park in Seattle, which creates a sense of movement through water and sculpted concrete and initiated a new landscape type — the park over a highway; and Sea Ranch in California, which showed how ecological community design should be done.
Sea Ranch in particular is made fresh by new photographs that show how Halprin ingeniously used berms reminiscent of military forts to both hide buildings and pools and create wind blocks. As Birnbaum explained, “Halprin was one of the first to think of landscape as infrastructure.”
Recreation Center at The Sea Ranch / Saxon Holt, 2016
Many of Halprin’s landscapes are under threat of demolition or a slow death from a lack of maintenance. Birnbaum hopes this exhibition will help “raise awareness of their value.” It’s a bit ironic given Halprin’s influence can be found in so many contemporary projects. Birnbaum even sees his impact on the High Line in New York City, where James Corner choreographed a continual dance between observer and observed.
