Charles Waldheim is the new Landscape Architecture Chair as the leadership shuffle continues. previous|1
Charles Waldheim Appointed Professor of Landscape Architecture and Chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture
It gives me great pleasure to announce the appointment of Charles Waldheim as Professor of Landscape Architecture without limit of time and also as Chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture, starting July 2009. I very much look forward to working with Charles and the Landscape faculty in defining the future direction of the department, and in confronting the current challenges and opportunities facing those who teach and practice in the field of Landscape Architecture.
Waldheim’s research focuses on landscape architecture in relation to contemporary urbanism. He coined the term “landscape urbanism” to describe emerging landscape design practices in the context of North American urbanism. He has written extensively on the topic and edited The Landscape Urbanism Reader (Princeton Architectural Press, 2006). Citing the city of Detroit as the most legible example of urban industrial economy in North America, Waldheim is editor of CASE: Lafayette Park Detroit (Prestel / Harvard Design School, 2004) and co-editor, with Jason Young and Georgia Daskalakis, of Stalking Detroit (Barcelona: ACTAR, 2001). On the history and future of Chicago urbanism, he is author of Constructed Ground (University of Illinois Press, 2001) and co-editor, with Katerina Ruedi Ray, of Chicago Architecture and Urbanism: Histories, Revisions, Alternatives (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005). He is currently writing the first book-length history of Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, entitled Chicago O’Hare: A Natural and Cultural History (Chicago: University of Chicago Press). His writing has also appeared in Landscape Journal, Topos, Log, Praxis, 306090, Canadian Architect, Dimensions, and Landscape Architecture Magazine.
Currently, Waldheim is Associate Professor and Director of the Landscape Architecture program at the University of Toronto. He has lectured on landscape and contemporary urbanism across North America, Europe, and Australasia. He has taught as a visiting faculty member at Harvard University, the University of Michigan, the University of Pennsylvania, and Rice University. He is an honorary member of the Ontario Association of Landscape Architects, and was the 2006 recipient of the Rome Prize Fellowship in Landscape Architecture at the American Academy in Rome.
Please join me in warmly welcoming Charles to both of these important appointments in the senior ranks of the GSD faculty.
With Best Regards,
Mohsen Mostafavi
Dean
Alexander and Victoria Wiley Professor of Design
12 Comments
I had a feeling that it was only a matter of time.
Interesting...
sad day in t.o.
GSD couldn't find an actual landscape architect to head the architecture program?! They had to go get an architect?! WTF?
not JUST an architect, but a landscape urbanist.
upenn FTW
Obviously Mohsen Mostafavi's decision rubberstamped by others. Always good to have a chair that is of the same nature as the dean.
The landscape urbanism movement is led (mostly) by architects that believe that they understand landscape systems technically and as a medium as good as the trained, experienced and leading landscape architects.
A very arrogant approach -- that is unfortunately now rewarded.
On one hand this is a sad day -- on the other, I hope that these type of elections will furhter expose Landscape urbanism as a failed concept and as urban design - expose not only the capabilities of architects but also their limitations.
LANY, can you explain further your belief that landscape urbanism is a failed idea, or point me to some reading that will explain it?
Charles Waldheim is one scary-smart dude, I imagine he will excel as chair of an entire program he can mold.
landscape urbanism isn't a failed idea. it is however a reinterpretation of many concepts already implemented by Frederick Law Olmsted, Warren Manning, John Nolen and other early landscape architects. Waldheim's shortcoming is that he really doesn't know the history of "his" creation.
Given what I know of Waldheim I sincerely doubt that he doesn't know his history. Moving the discipline forward involves editing and rethinking, no?
editing and rethinking is crucial, however the breathless newness of much landscape urbanism rhetoric is irksome. alex wall and james corner have been working their particular margins for quite some time, and they are now, interestingly, landscape urbanists.
it's fine that there is branding available for some great work and writing, and one can only be glad that philip johnson isn't around to mount a show at moma. it will be a while before any shark jumping.
Ah, "breathless newness" - nice descriptor; I get your point now, cowerd.
there is a serious problem when a large number of super smart, relevant, contemporary minds gravitate to one single academic instituion. it robs the larger society and academia of talent, and ultimately causes a serious status cuo within that one school. we need balance, we need multiple ideas,we need to spread knowledge, not concentrate it in a few or a single elitist institution. i consider this a step in the wrong direction, on the part of the gsd, mostafavi and waldheim himself.
Block this user
Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?
Archinect
This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.