Second Wave of Modernism II: Landscape Transformation and Complexity Friday November 18, 2011 at The Museum of Modern Art in New York

Media Contact: Nord Wennerstrom, Wennerstrom Communications | T: 202.255.7076 | E: nord@wennerco.com 

Daylong Conference Features International Leaders in Landscape Architecture & Architecture Examining Significant Modernist Sites at a Residential, Urban and Metropolitan Scale – Separate Evening Reception on November 18, Three Tours of NY Sites on November 19

The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF), in partnership with The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, is hosting Second Wave of Modernism II: Landscape Complexity and Transformation on Friday, November 18, 2011, at MoMA, followed Saturday, November 19, with three separate tours of major New York City projects. Second Wave II features thematic presentations by leading landscape architects and other experts that will collectively explore landscape transformations at residential, urban and metropolitan scales through a design lens that seeks to balance natural and cultural systems rather than the historic tabula rasa approach. Speakers include James Corner (James Corner Field Operations), Kathryn Gustafson (Gustafson Guthrie Nichol), Gary Hilderbrand (Reed Hilderbrand), Charles Renfro (Diller Scofidio + Renfro), Michael Van Valkenburgh (Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, Inc.), and others. The conference follows the first Second Wave of Modernism conference held in 2008 in Chicago. Proceedings from both conferences will be published at a later date. Complete details and registration at Second Wave II. American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) Continuing Education Credits are available for this event.

Second Wave of Modernism II: Landscape Complexity and Transformation starts from the premise that in recent years there has been an accelerating attitudinal shift: a departure away from the Modernist’s tabula rasa exemplified at varying scales by icons such as Philip Johnson’s Beck House in Dallas and the Lincoln Center Campus in New York. Today, designers are returning to Modernist sites with new motivations, attempting to balance the complex values of natural and cultural systems. The daylong conference Friday, November 18, 2011, at MoMA features internationally-recognized leaders in landscape architecture, architecture and other experts who examine landscape transformations at residential, urban and metropolitan scales. The residential panel looks at work in California, New York and Texas to examine how Modernism attempts to capture the essence of natural environments without mimicking its expression or materiality. The urban panel considers renewal projects in Miami, New York and St. Louis that are now being remade. Metropolitan Transformations tackles work in London, Nashville, New York and Philadelphia. The conference will be followed by a separate, ticketed reception at the offices of James Corner Field Operations, landscape architects for the High Line.

In addition, there will be three separately ticketed tours on Saturday, November 19:

• The new 9/11 Memorial at the site of the former World Trade Center Complex. The tour of the site, designed by PWP Landscape Architecture and Michael Arrad, will be lead by an expert on the design.
• The High Line, designed by James Corner Field Operations, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, and Piet Oudolf. This tour will be lead by experts from James Corner Field Operations.
• East River/Red Hook Waterfront Park Boat Tour featuring Erie Basin Park in Red Hook, Brooklyn (Lee Weintraub Landscape Architecture + Community Design), Brooklyn Bridge Park (Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, Inc.), and Queens West Stage 2, the most recently constructed section of Gantry Plaza State Park in Long Island City (Abel Bainnson Butz, LLP Landscape Architects and Site Planners).

The conference is made possible by host MoMA, presenting sponsors Charles Luck and landscapeforms, media partners The Architect’s Newspaper and Topos, the International Review of Landscape Architecture and Urban Design, with additional support from the New York Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects.

“Given the amazing scholarly and public work The Cultural Landscape Foundation is doing, the Department of Architecture is delighted to host this important conference at MoMA,” said Barry Bergdoll, The Philip Johnson Chief Curator of Architecture and Design, The Museum of Modern Art.

“The leadership and vision of the landscape architecture community is increasingly being recognized critically and publicly at places like the High Line and Brooklyn Bridge Park,” said Charles A. Birnbaum, TCLF’s Founder and President. “This conference, hosted by MoMA and featuring some of the most talented practitioners in the field, is part of TCLF’s broad mission to make the hand of the landscape architect visible and make us better stewards of our diverse landscape legacy.”

About The Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art (www.moma.org) is a place that fuels creativity, ignites minds, and provides inspiration. With extraordinary exhibitions and the world's finest collection of modern and contemporary art, MoMA is dedicated to the conversation between the past and the present, the established and the experimental. MoMA’s mission is helping you understand and enjoy the art of our time.

About Charles Luck
Charles Luck Stone Center (www.charlesluck.com) has a global distribution presence and locations across the mid-Atlantic and is a family owned company that services design professionals and style-minded homeowners through the consultation and sale of distinctive natural stone products. At Charles Luck, the experience is marked by tailored customer service for architects, interior designers, style minded homeowners, masons, landscapers and builders; hundreds of distinctive stone products from around the world; and unparalleled expertise from their stone experts and studio consultants. Charles Luck Stone Center is a division of Luck Stone Corporation; one of the largest private, families owned and operated aggregates suppliers in the United States with over 85 years expertise.

About the New York Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects
The American Society of Landscape Architects (www.nyasla.org) is the national professional association representing landscape architects. New York State has two chapters: New York Upstate, representing the communities north of Westchester, and the New York Chapter, representing the New York Metropolitan-Long Island region. The New York Chapter includes New York City and Westchester, Nassau, and Suffolk Counties.

About The Cultural Landscape Foundation
The Cultural Landscape Foundation (www.tclf.org) provides people with the ability to see, understand, and value landscape architecture and its practitioners, in the way many people have learned to do with buildings and their designers. Through its Web site, lectures, outreach, and publishing, TCLF broadens the support and understanding for cultural landscapes nationwide to help safeguard our priceless landscape heritage for future generations.