RIVER CITY: WATERFRONT DESIGN FOR CIVIC LIFE

We're pleased to announce the launch of River City: Waterfront Design for Civic Life, a series of exhibitions and related public programs that consider riverfront design as a powerful tool for urban reinvention. Open to the public beginning July 26 with an exhibition exploring Brooklyn Bridge Park, River City investigates how innovative designs for waterfront spaces can address the paramount cultural and ecological questions of our time.

As the first exhibition in the series, Immensity and Intimacy: Brooklyn Bridge Park examines the reborn landscape on New York City’s East River as a prototype for the urban waterfront of the twenty-first century. On view from July 26 through October 19, 2012, this exhibition considers how the park’s design, by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates for Brooklyn Bridge Park, engages and reshapes the urban edge as a site of richly layered cultural, ecological, and historical contexts. Through an inventive series of strategies, including sculpting the site’s complex maritime edge, reusing salvaged materials, and embedding ecology and experience, the design redefines the Brooklyn waterfront as a central place in the civic imagination.

Van Alen Institute members are invited to a private preview of the exhibition in our 6th-floor gallery space on Wednesday, July 25 between 4:00 and 8:00 p.m. Come join as a member, and receive a special River City gift! Just RSVP to rsvp@vanalen.org.

Mark your calendar for the exhibition party on Monday, September 10, when we kick off a busy schedule of River City programs and events. Stay tuned for upcoming event announcements, and come visit the exhibition during regular gallery hours, Tuesday through Saturday, from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. in our sixth-floor gallery space.

Subsequent exhibitions in the series will examine the Cheonggyecheon River in Seoul, Korea, where a long-buried urban waterway has been remade as a metropolitan-scale public space; and the Mississippi River Delta, where the leveed and channeled river is being reimagined as the heart of a self-sustaining natural system that also serves as a cultural catalyst for New Orleans and its surrounding communities.

SUMMER LAUNCH EVENTS AT VAN ALEN BOOKS

Join us for two celebrations this month at Van Alen Books, starting tonight, Thursday, July 19, with a launch party for Make Space: How to Set the Stage for Creative Collaboration. Based on work from the Stanford University d.school and its Environments Collaborative Initiative, this new volume explores how space can be shaped to ignite creativity in how we work, play, and communicate. Come raise a toast with authors Scott Doorley and Scott Witthoft, designer Scott Stowell of Open, and producer Grace Hawthorne, co-founder of ReadyMade and creator of PaperPunk.

We’ll keep the party going the following Thursday, July 26 with the launch of Scapegoat 03: Realism, the latest from Scapegoat: Architecture, Landscape, Political Economy. In this engaging volume, the Toronto-based journal turns its sights on the histories, influences, and strategies of realism in architecture and landscape. Co-founders Adrian Blackwell and Adam Bobbette, with guests Urtzi Grau, Sadia Shirazi, and David Wachsmuth, join us for a conversation on the new issue, which includes features on Krzysztof Wodiczko, photography and the American desert, the Occupy movement, and much more.

Want to catch up on all that’s happening at Van Alen Books? Check out our freshly relaunched website to follow our schedule of events, find featured new releases, and browse a video archive from past conversations. In recent video updates, architectural historian Elihu Rubin answers questions about his terrific book Insuring the City: The Prudential Center and the Postwar Urban Landscape with journalist Matt Dellinger, and Jini Kim Watson introduces The New Asian City: Three Dimensional Fictions of Space and Urban Form, kicking off a rousing conversation about the evolving urban environments of East Asian metropolises.

And thanks again to our sponsor Brooklyn Brewery for generously providing beer for all our bookstore events!

UPCOMING FELLOWSHIPS AND COMPETITIONS

Next American City has announced a new journalism fellowship that will support three Philadelphia writers to contribute to the Forefront series and daily blog, develop local content on Philadelphia, and help organize discussions and public programs. Apply by July 31.

The Battery Conservancy is launching Draw Up a Chair, inviting students and professionals from the Americas to design an iconic moveable outdoor seating element for Battery Park in Manhattan. Submissions open July 31.

The James Dyson Award challenges the next generation of product designers, industrial designers, and engineers to creatively tackle a simple brief: design something that solves a problem. This international student award offers £10,000 to the winner. Submit by August 2.

Active Lifestyles for Better Health is the theme for this year’s AIA Young Architects Forum ideas competition, seeking innovative design proposals for educating and encouraging Americans to live a healthier life. Enter by August 31.

DIVE INTO VAN ALEN MEMBERSHIP

You won't want to miss the kick-off to our River City exhibition series this summer. With so much in store over the coming months, now is a perfect time to dive into Van Alen membership. Join today, and you’ll receive a special River City member’s gift, as well as an invitation to our private exhibition preview event on July 25. Plus, you’ll be a part of our diverse network of designers, planners, policy-makers, and urban thinkers—anyone with a passion for the public realm—bringing the best design ideas to civic life through innovative programs, inclusive dialogue, and visionary public architecture. Our current members are already enjoying benefits including 10% off purchases at Van Alen Books. Find out more about our membership opportunities and how you can join us here.