Reality TV-Style Competition Meets Landscape Architecture

Three teams of landscape architects were given 24 hrs. to develop a master plan for the growing Michigan town of New Buffalo.

1 minute read

September 17, 2008, 5:00 AM PDT

By Tim Halbur


"On Friday morning, after only a few hours of sleep, the teams presented their recommendations to a room of New Buffalo civic leaders. While the plans vary, there were two similar concepts running through each: One, let nature be your guide. Two, don't squander your potential.

Team A was led by Minneapolis-based Tom Oslund who opened for his group by saying that their plan was grounded in the history of New Buffalo and its unique natural systems, but that they took the words of architect Daniel Burnham to heart: "Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood." Or, as Oslund put it, 'Go big or go home.'"

"The team led by architect Alexander Lamis and landscape architect Kendra Taylor of Robert A.M. Stern Architects was inspired, in part, by Frank Lloyd Wright's 1932 Broadacre City concept, where agriculture was integrated into the city."

Monday, September 15, 2008 in Metropolis Magazine

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