Portfolio 2013, Jonathan Andrews

8/11/2019 Portfolio 2013, Jonathan Andrews

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An Arts Portfolio, 2013

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Jonathan Andrews


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00 Introduction

01 Physical

02 Visual

03 Verbal

04 Additional Notes

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Index


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00Introduction

The work in this portfolio spans three broadly defined categoriesthe physical , visual , and verbal . They are largely chronological, andflow largely from the practical to the more theoretical.

Documenting everything from my four years as an organic farmer,to Harvards Career Discovery Program, to my own writing, itpresents a span of my energies across numerous fields. The

selection is unified by its focus on spatial awareness, aesthetics,and intellectual interest (along with a few other odds and ends).

Jonathan

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01 PhysicalFOR FOUR YEARS, I worked on a variety of organic farms and gardens in theHudson Valley in New York state the following pictures and captions documentonly some of my work over the years. While I developed skills and a lot of practicalexperience, what I ultimately gained was an understanding of the farm as a site ofoverlapping social, economic, and ecological systems. This comprehension,developed over time through hands-on experience, is what ultimately drew me awayfrom farming and towards design.

View of Four Winds Farm, 2012


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The Stone Barns Center

From January 2009 till December 2012, I worked on and off at the StoneBarns Center for Food and Agriculture in Pocantico Hills, NY, as both anintern and later employee. The Center represents the bulk of my agriculturalcareer, incredibly formative in my understanding of the farm not only as aproductive space, but as a public and educational one as well.

The StoneBarnsCenter,2011.


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Founded in 2004 as a farm educationcenter by David Rockefeller, the StoneBarns Center is dedicated to thepreservation of American farmland. Itsmission includes raising public awarenessabout sustainable food production,training young farmers, and educatingchildren to encourage land stewardship in

the future.I was taken on as a full-time Apprentice inlate spring of 2011, working on the farms! acre Terrace space. There I grew avariety of crops, from culinary herbs andsungold tomatoes to hothouse ginger. Thespace was primarily dedicated to cutflowers and herbal teas, which were soldat the on-farm market.

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Stone Barns on-site farm market, where I would sellmy flowers and dried teas; foraging pigs in thewoods surrounding the Center.


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I was also responsible as a farm educator, leading tour groups, teaching classes andhelping host groups of campers. Stone Barns is as much a place of learning as it is aplace of agriculture, and arguably my work as a teacher was just as important asmy work as a grower.

Additionally, as a public farm Stone Barns had a responsibility to maintain both itsaccessibility and appearance. The agricultural work took on a horticulture spin andserved multiple functionsproductive growing space performed the secondaryfunction of looking beautiful, helping to attract visitors. Functional aesthetic was animportant part of the farming culture at Stone Barns.

The Terracesgreenhouse-grown ginger,along with asatisfiedcustomer.


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My experience at Stone Barns brought twoperspectives first, learning to balance the needsof production with issues of public access and

aesthetic, teaching me the various ways in whicha landscape (even a productive one,) can perform.Second, understanding the relationship betweena farm and its surrounding communities andsystems (be they social, economic, and ecological).I learned and how each can support (or hinder)the other, and ultimately the interconnectivitybetween a designated site and its surroundings.

These lessons brought depth to my experience atStone Barns, yet I appreciated this place aboveall else for its dual intellectual and hands-onnature I could pose theoretical questionsconcerning ecology and conservation while stillgetting my hands dirty. Whats more, theCenters aesthetic look gave me an opportunityfor creative expression thats often missing onother farms.

Video of Jonathan at Stone Barns http://vimeo.com/37267813

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Bouquets I hadmade;JonathanAndrews asprofessionalchickenwrangler, circa2011.


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Purchase College/Four Winds Farm

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While working at Stone Barns, I wassimultaneously managing a small student garden atPurchase College. My time there (from 2010 to2011,) became an extension of my work at StoneBarns much more than running a school growingspace, I worked with interns and local growers,taught classes on gardening, and found myselffunctioning more as an educator than farmer.

The next year I moved north to work atFour Winds Farm, an organic vegetablegrower outside of New Paltz, NY.Specializing in heirloom tomatoes andutilizing no-till growing practices, FourWinds followed a much more straightforward model, selling its produce atmarket. While I no longer had theopportunity to work as an educator, I

gained perspective on the economicchallenges and opportunities facingyoung farmers in upstate New York,and spent time engaging with thatcommunity. In addition to my job, I wasalso interning with garden writer Dr.Lee Reich, studying soil science,horticulture and fruit tree cultivationin my spare time.

Ultimately, my desire for greatercreative and intellectual freedom tookme away from farming and towardsdesign. Yet while I may have leftagriculture, my training in plants, foodproduction and ecology (not to mentionbasic commonsense and know-how,)was invaluable. I wouldnt trade it foranything in the world.

FourWindsFarm,2011.


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02 Visual:Sketches

VISUAL ART IS A NEW FIELD FOR ME. I started sketching for the first time inMay of 2012, while still farming in upstate New York. I approached it with theunderstanding that learning to draw would be essential to prepare myself forgraduate study. Yet while this was the catalyst for learning, it happened that Ireally enjoyed doing so once I started.


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Teaching myself through a combination ofinstructional books, advice from friends, and theodd art class, I found learning to draw both

challenging and engaging. It taught me a lot aboutperceiving and viewing, informing my othercreative endeavors such as poetry and fiction, andproviding me with a better sense of space,composition, and visual comprehension.


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I SPENT THE SUMMER OF 2013 AT

HARVARDS CAREER DISCOVERY PROGRAM,a six-week long design introduction course with afocus in landscape architecture. The workpresented here represents two of the threeprojects assigned to us over the course of theprogram.

The first assignment is a hypothetical design

project, based upon the research and analysis ofan ecological process. After selecting a process,students would develop a theoretical site to showthe process at work, then propose a designintervention to alter it. In my case, I chose waterrunoff and pollution from coal slurry dams in

Appalachian mining communities.

The second assignment was developing a plan forthe revitalization of the Brickbottomneighborhood in Somerville, MA. Choosing tofocus on the districts industrial past andreimagining its local transportation and wasteinfrastructure, my final design for the projectwas called Trash Park .

02 Visual:

CareerDiscovery


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My interest in researching water contamination from coal mining plants initiallystemmed from my fascination with Appalachian history, particularly its folk songs andlabor movements. It is a region with a long political and environmental history, with apast intimately tied to coal mining. Thus, when the time came to choose an ecologicalprocess, I was naturally drawn to the ecological effects of coal.

Using my basic understanding of the regions history as a jump-off point, run-off andgroundwater infiltration from coal slurry dams quickly emerged as a majorenvironmental issue, and became the focal point of my research.

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Project 01Coal Dam


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A coal slurry dam, or slurry impoundment, is a conventional method of storingwaste water left over from coal treatment plants. The highly-toxic slurry (whichcontains a mix of dirt, coal particulate and various chemicals,) is stored inmassive outdoor ponds, often placed in natural valleys through the damming upof adjacent mountains. Despite required safety precautions, groundwaterinfiltration, contaminated runoff, and the occasional dam break are notuncommon occurrences at these sites.


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The design not only alters an ecological process, it also creates public space and the opportunity foreducational and recreational programming.

My hypothetical intervention wouldtransform the one massive pond into a seriesof smaller treatment stages, using rhizo- andphytoremediation strategies to absorb toxinsand curtail groundwater seepage.


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The design not only alters an ecologicalprocess, it also creates public space and theopportunity for educational and recreationalprogramming. Following the flow ofcontaminated water downhill through theremediating wetlands, a series of descendingfootpaths allows visitors to trace the flowingwater as it makes its way back into rivers,streams, and the local aquifer.

Besides cleaning contaminated water andoffering outdoor access to the public, thedesign also creates wetland habitat for birdsand other wildlife, compensating for theecological destruction caused by mountaintopremoval, a common strip-mining practice usedwidely in Appalachia.


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Project 02Trash Park

Whereas the first project worked in thehypothetical, the second takes on anactual site in the Brickbottomneighborhood of Somerville, MA. A post-industrial site long stripped of the brickfactories and slaughterhouses that oncedefined it, the final design tookinspiration from both Brickbottomshistory and the last industry to leave theneighborhood, waste disposal.

Design strategies were developed arounda dual focus on waste management andtransportation infrastructure in theneighborhood and surrounding city. Itwas playing with concept of garbage thatgave the project its final name TrashPark.


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With the closure of the Somerville WasteManagement facility, Bostons trash now travelsmuch farther to a processing site in Revere, well

beyond the citys center.

Left: Detail of McGrath Highway trafficflows, note how map is divided virtually intwo by the highways presence.

As it stands, the Brickbottom districtoccupies an urban edge it is physicallyisolated by the elevated McGrath Highwayand the railways that surround it,suffering from limited publictransportation and pedestrian access. Withthe closure of the Somerville WasteManagement facility in July, theneighborhood consists largely of half-emptylots, auto-repair shops, a handful of artistsstudios and the odd municipal building.

Yet the district sits barely a mile outside ofdowntown Boston, and with the incomingSomerville Community Path and theMBTA Green Line Extension, visibility andaccess to the neighborhood will soonincrease dramatically.

R a i l Li n e

Cambridge

Somerville

Revere


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Factoring in the sites industrial past,its physical isolation, the pressures ofurban waste removal and theneighborhoods need for public space,Trash Park addresses these concernsthrough two distinct strategies.

The first strategy reverses thetraditional model of taking waste out ofour communities instead, it places itin our midst. Brickbottoms formerWaste Management facility istransformed into a municipalcomposting/community center. Itsimultaneously addresses issues offood waste in the Greater Boston Area,while also functioning as a site of localevents, community meetings, classes,recreation, workshops and more.

By focusing community developmentaround this composting center, we turngarbage into a participatoryexperience, challenges visitorspreconceptions of trash and renderingthe normally invisible process of wasteremoval into something tangible andeveryday.

Using an aerated static-pilewindrow system, the

proposed compostingcenter could managearound 250,000 tons peryear. Thats more than athird of the Greater Bostonareas compostablewaste including all foodwaste generated by thecitys twenty-plus collegesand universities that areshown here.


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The project's second concern is reinterpreting local transitinfrastructure. By altering existing traffic and pedestrian flowsaround the elevated highways pylons, the design both creates newpublic space and stitches together what had been two distinct

areas on either side of the highway.This alteration, in addition to transforming Poplar Street into apedestrian walkway and wetland grass planting, addresses thecommunitys desire for more green space. It encouragesaccessibility and foot traffic, and anticipates incoming developmentwith the Green Line Extension and Somerville Community Path.

CompostingWindrows

CommunityCenter Wetland Grass Planting

McGrath HighwayCorridor


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Bike lanes, expanded sidewalks, on-street parking, but especiallyreimagining the intersection andunused space beneath the highwayitself, are all used to radically alterthe McGrath Corridor and itsrelationship to the neighborhood.

The pylons and elevated roadwayare exploited for their shade andmicroclimate potential, transforminga formerly inhospitable spot into anpedestrian walking area. Anintrinsic part of the design, it unifiesthe composting facility andcommunity center into a single,cross-highway space.

Community Center

Composting Site

McGrath HighwayUnderplanting

The elevated highway isrepresented by pylons forsake of visibility.


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Working with pre-existing traffic patterns, the highwayunderplanting creates a living archipelago of trafficisles, as a means of enabling greater pedestrian access.

Utilizing a hardy mix of grasses and shrubs, the newplan breaks up the concrete hardscape, captures runoffand encourages the sense of spatial continuity, travellingfrom the neighborhoods western border into the mainpark along the former Poplar Street (now a pedestrianwalking area).

Composting Site(Below)

Medford St.

SomervilleAve.

Locust Grove


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The park features the usage of existing topography,channeling water-flows downhill into a series of

plantings consisting of both selected wetland grasses,along with a more mixed woodland environment. Theplanting would use species already existing on site,both native and non-native, in the final design.

Mixed PlantingBlack Locust Grove Vine Trellis/Small

Garden

W a t e r F e a t u r e


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Ultimately, the park looks towardsthe future Trash Park is intendedto be flexible, leaving room in itsdesign for staggered development

and expansion options. Shown aretwo of these plans: one for treemanagement practices in the BlackLocust Grove, the secondhypothetical model forinfrastructural, green-space andother development opportunitiesover a thirty year period.

Future developmentpossibilities.


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03 Verbal

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Though it may seem strange to include samples of written work ina design portfolio, the relationship between writing and landscape

architecture is actually quite strong (though not readily apparent).

Both disciplines focus heavily on narrative, and at their heartstrive for the successful conveyance of concepts and ideas fromcreator to viewer. At its most simplistic level, each field offers aspecific mode of story telling one visual, tactile, and experiential,the other aural, rhythmic, and lyrical.

Yet there is still more crossover between the two. The use ofspatiality in writing (be it typography, format, font, etc,.) is just asessential as the words the author uses, especially in poetry. Itaffects flow, timing and rhythm, can layer in nuance and meaning,and ultimately shapes (if not defines, ) the readers interpretationof a work. Even the dimensions of the page or book itself can effectthe poems physicality and thus its reading.

From Concrete Poetry to Futurism and Dadaism, to contemporarywriters such as Anne Carson, Gregory Corso, and KamauBrathwaite, we realize that the manipulation of typography toalter a poems emotional or intellectual content is hardly a newidea. While my own writing is not as radical in layout or format assome of these authors, my poems remain concerned with issues ofspatiality, and draw heavily from these influences.

Samples of film criticism areincluded as a supplement.


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In 2010 I began exploring the effects of different pagesizes on my writing, noting that subtle shifts in the formatof a page could direct the visual flow of the poem in newways. Leaving Crete was a simple 90-degree rotation ofthe conventional up-down rectangular page, leading me toa try a broader, zigzag arch from the pages top to bottom.


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This is the first page of an extended narrative-poem from 2012 entitled Astyanax. In exploring theloss of a child, the concept was to use a small, condensed language against a landscape of white,focusing the poems emotional energy onto a single, hardened point, one page after another. Theeffect is diminished by reformatting, but the idea can still be grasped.

Astyanax

My grandmother never talked much about the stillbirth.Indeed, the fact of it was only brought to my attention by acareless relative. While it is easy to give into the temptation ofplacing the occurrence in the context of a historical episode (agiven specific time, place, and list of involved parties), rarelyare these things so simple for those affected by it.

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04 Additional Notes

Jonathan Andrews lives in Brooklyn.

631.879.7098 [email protected]

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Portfolio 2013, Jonathan Andrews

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