Randi Johnson, landscape architect and educator:
Student participants: Emanuel Oliver Gonzales, Ruyang "Ivy" Xie, Jonathan Marc Heyneman Hallet, Karly Ann Behncke, Penelope Louise Leggett, Sara Harmon, and Wenjie Yang
Statement by Randi Johnsen
I was fascinated when I first visited the Albany Bulb in 2002, and wanted to question how I understood it as a landscape architect. My master’s thesis was a way for me to advocate for site-informed change by revealing the inherent beauty of this particular history, dialogue and place. I sought a design solution that did not destroy what I valued most about the site, and suggested that user-generated spaces have a positive role in a democratic community if they are given a framework that supports both encampment and art making, in this case, and universally accessible public park spaces.
The collages, models, and drawings I created attempted to reveal the violence of dynamiting Fleming Point and dumping debris into the Bay, the divided user groups, and the problems with "restoring" a landfill site into to a naturalistic landscape that never existed. In the end, I created a wide central public promenade that traveled the length of the site, concentrating the public along one axis and providing only visual access into privatized spaces, encampments and gardens.
As a Visiting Instructor in the Department of Landscape Architecture at UC Berkeley, I have used The Albany Bulb as a site for my design studios again and again, and I delight at the range of responses it inspires. The students research the creation of the landfill, the history of its use, local ecology and policy, and are challenged to create sculptural earth forms, universally accessible pathways and gathering spaces in response.
Student participants: Emanuel Oliver Gonzales, Ruyang "Ivy" Xie, Jonathan Marc Heyneman Hallet, Karly Ann Behncke, Penelope Louise Leggett, Sara Harmon, and Wenjie Yang
Statement by Randi Johnsen
I was fascinated when I first visited the Albany Bulb in 2002, and wanted to question how I understood it as a landscape architect. My master’s thesis was a way for me to advocate for site-informed change by revealing the inherent beauty of this particular history, dialogue and place. I sought a design solution that did not destroy what I valued most about the site, and suggested that user-generated spaces have a positive role in a democratic community if they are given a framework that supports both encampment and art making, in this case, and universally accessible public park spaces.
The collages, models, and drawings I created attempted to reveal the violence of dynamiting Fleming Point and dumping debris into the Bay, the divided user groups, and the problems with "restoring" a landfill site into to a naturalistic landscape that never existed. In the end, I created a wide central public promenade that traveled the length of the site, concentrating the public along one axis and providing only visual access into privatized spaces, encampments and gardens.
As a Visiting Instructor in the Department of Landscape Architecture at UC Berkeley, I have used The Albany Bulb as a site for my design studios again and again, and I delight at the range of responses it inspires. The students research the creation of the landfill, the history of its use, local ecology and policy, and are challenged to create sculptural earth forms, universally accessible pathways and gathering spaces in response.