Mission 2066: A National Park for the Anthropocene by Angeline Jacques

Recent MIT M.Arch graduate Angeline Jacques focuses her thesis project, Mission 2066, on the state of National Parks, specifically Glacier National Park in Montana, and how our perceptions and interventions within these parks might change for the future. 

According to Jacques, her thesis seeks to, "adapt and deploy a series of interventions that augment and artificialize melting glaciers. These interventions not only assist in easing the speed of change to ecologies and economies reliant on the glaciers but also provide new inhabitations of the park." Archinect connected with Jacques to discuss her thesis project as well as her experiences entering the workforce during a pandemic. As one of the lucky students able to secure a job post-graduation, she shares with us her experiences as a young designer learning how to start her professional career remotely.

Archinect's Spotlight on 2020 Thesis Projects: 2020 has been an extraordinarily challenging year for architecture graduates. Students were displaced as schools shut down, academic communities had to adapt to a new virtual format, end-of-year celebrations were canceled or changed dramatically, and now these students are graduating into an extremely challenging employment market. To support the 2020 class we're launching a summer series of features highlighting the work of thesis students during this unique time of remote learning amid COVID-19. Be sure to follow our 2020 thesis tag to stay up to date as we release new project highlights.

My thesis was on the design of National Parks in the age of climate change and spanned geography, landscape, and architecture as disciplines. In Mission 2066, park stewards take a more active role in maintaining the glacier population in the park [...] They adapt and deploy a series of interventions that augment and artificialize melting glaciers. 

Briefly describe your thesis project.

In 2020, facing the incontrovertible evidence that American protected lands are experiencing rapid climate change well above the national average, the National Park Service releases Mission 2066. The master plan acts as a critical foil to its centennial predecessor, Mission 66, which introduced a modernized highway system and architecture to match the automobile age of the mid-20th century. While M66 employed the viewing station, visitor center, and postcard to render protected landscapes as a visitable object of American identity and heritage, Mission 2066 seeks new strategies that react to and augment ecological systems and actors. It accepts the Anthropocentric assumption that truly untouched wilderness is an obsolete concept and is rooted, in the United States, in American expansionism and nationalism.

These interventions not only assist in easing the speed of change to ecologies and economies reliant on the glaciers but also provide new inhabitations of the park.”

The site of this thesis is Glacier National Park in Montana, paradoxically named as one of the last bastions of pristine wilderness in the United States as well as the poster child for cataclysmic climate change. Its namesake glaciers have dwindled from 150 a century ago to only 26 today, all of which are predicted to go extinct this century. In Mission 2066, park stewards take a more active role in maintaining the glacier population in the park, as they have historically done to avoid extinction with Gray Wolf and American Bison populations. They adapt and deploy a series of interventions that augment and artificialize melting glaciers. These interventions not only assist in easing the speed of change to ecologies and economies reliant on the glaciers but also provide new inhabitations of the park.”

How did your project change as studios transitioned to remote learning?

I was fortunate to present my thesis in December, before the pandemic began. My classmates who worked through the spring on their theses were forced to rethink how they planned to present and package their projects. Our program has always been flexible about the form that theses can take, so the idea of producing a book or some other media experience instead of a formal presentation isn’t new to us. My classmates with spring theses produced amazing work under the most difficult circumstances. But I know that, during my own thesis project, I benefited greatly from weekly meetings with my thesis advisor, and that kind of regularity would have been much more difficult to maintain through a transition to working remotely.

Ideally, I hope that what I explored in my thesis will come back in different forms throughout my life as a thinker and designer.

Any tips for students as they continue to work on their thesis?

I had to remind myself often that, although the thesis is usually a pretty personal project, it’s not THE project. It doesn’t have to respond to every hope, anxiety, and ambition you have as a designer. It is one step in developing yourself as a thinker, and it may go on to have heavy influence on your path or it may not. My thesis focused on broad, interdisciplinary topics – rapid climate change, the concept of American wilderness, curating national identities. Obviously I don’t get to address these issues every single day in my job as a new architectural designer, but they’re still on my mind and something I think about often. Ideally, I hope that what I explored in my thesis will come back in different forms throughout my life as a thinker and designer. But, hopefully, reminding yourself about all that will take some pressure off to produce the best, most uniquely “you” thesis that you can make. At the end of the day, it’s just another design project.

...as a new architectural designer I know that there’s a lot I don’t know, and when we went remote I had to adjust to reaching out through digital means to learn from my coworkers. 

As a recent graduate experiencing the direct effects of the pandemic, how do you feel about the architecture industry right now? 

I began my first post-graduation job on February 10th. We transitioned to remote working on March 15th. My firm is small, and we set up good communication protocols beforehand, so our transition was smoother than I had feared. But, as a new architectural designer I know that there’s a lot I don’t know, and when we went remote I had to adjust to reaching out through digital means to learn from my coworkers. Somehow, it felt much scarier than just turning to a deskmate and asking a quick question. A lot of the learning-by-osmosis that occurs for new designers has to be much more deliberate and explicit now. At an office with good mentorship and communication, that type of on-the-job learning is still happening, but our tools for it have definitely changed.

A lot of the learning-by-osmosis that occurs for new designers has to be much more deliberate and explicit now. At an office with good mentorship and communication, that type of on-the-job learning is still happening, but our tools for it have definitely changed.

But it is such a strange time to be entering the professional world – the industry we’re in now feels totally different than the industry I was interviewing in during January. Graduating architecture school already feels a bit like jumping off into the abyss, and that uncertainty is magnified tenfold now. It’s hard to tell where it’s heading – from taking with former classmates, it seems like some firms are weathering the storm and some are taking a hard hit. I do think it spotlights the abilities and flaws of architecture firm leadership. Some offices are doing everything they can to retain employees and adapt to remote working. Some firms swiftly laid off large amounts of employees or haven’t embraced helpful technologies for remote work. Hopefully offices can learn from this, and we can imagine a future where the architecture industry is more modern, agile and prepared.