I am the founding chair of a new landscape architecture degree program in San Diego at the NewSchool of Architecture and Design. The program focus is on productive, sustainable, urban environments, even if 'sustainable' is a problematic word and 'productive' may mean living next to a factory....
NewSchool of Architecture & Design, San Diego, CA, US, Chair, Landscape Architecture Department
Yale University, School of Architecture, Masters, Master of Environmental Design research degree
My thesis project investigated the Olin Powder Farm, a post-industrial landscape in Hamden, CT with a past as a munitions storage area and dump site for a corporation that rather quietly manufactured nuclear fuel during the Cold War era. The research brought up questions about the value of parks and open spaces that are built on dangerous histories - will these be parks that are good or bad for future generations? The thesis received the John Addison Porter Prize, a University-wide award for a thesis of general interest, the first time the prize was awarded to a student in the School of Architecture.
The introduction is accessible on the Yale website: http://www.architecture.yale.edu/drupal/programs/med/research/ryan
American Academy of Rome Fellowship in Landscape Architecture, Other
I received the Rome Prize in 1994 and lived/worked in Rome at the American Academy for a year. My research focus was restorative gardens of cloisters and baths. My work there received a "Visionary Landscapes" award from Landscape Architecture magazine in 1995.
