Matthew Urbanski
Encyclopedia
Matthew Louis Urbanski is an American landscape architect. He has planned and designed landscapes in the United States, Canada, and France, including waterfronts, parks, college campuses, sculpture gardens, and private gardens. Collaborating with Michael Van Valkenburgh, he was a lead designer of Brooklyn Bridge Park
in Brooklyn, New York, Alumnae Valley at Wellesley College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, Allegheny Riverfront Park
in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Teardrop Park
in New York City. In addition to his work as a designer, Urbanski is a Lecturer at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design and is co-owner of a native plants nursery in New Jersey.
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Urbanski has emerged as a leader in the firm’s efforts to redefine the way that urban landscapes are planned and built, most notably in the Brooklyn Bridge Park project and the Lower Don Lands plan. He makes the argument that the city, which consists of a series of interdependent systems, resembles a landscape more than it does a building. In working with planners, engineers, and architects to reclaim formerly industrial territories, Urbanski and MVVA promote integrated approaches to urban systems and greater awareness of the role that landscape space and ecological function play in the quality of urban life. In a paper entitled “Do Landscape Architects Make the Best Urban Designers” that he delivered at the 2009 “Landscape – Great Idea” X-L.Arch III conference in Vienna, Urbanski laid out the concept of “landscape imagination” that he feels differentiates the urban design work of MVVA from traditional urban planning. While traditional urban planners had difficulty in moving beyond “the well-intentioned infusion of undifferentiated green spaces,” Urbanski felt that landscape architects in general and MVVA in particular had “faith in the landscape’s ability to resolve difficult urban adjacencies” and that they were more likely to “understand how this full range of landscape typologies can be brought to bear on the problems of the contemporary city.”
at Harvard University
. Since 1989, he has taught the subject of plants to landscape architecture students.
M. Van Valkenburgh, A. S. MacLean, J. Corner
J. Gilette, Landscape Architecture Magazine, February 1998
A. Blum, Metropolis, March 2006
M. Van Valkenburgh, with essays by Peter Rose, Will Miller, James Corner, Paula Deitz, John Beardsley, and Mildred Friedman, Princeton Architectural Press, 1994
J. Amidon, Princeton Architectural Press, 2005
S. Hines, Landscape Architecture Magazine, 97, no. 2
A. Ulam, Landscape Architecture Magazine, November 2011
Luncheon Forum on West Side Parks Development, held November 17, 2010, Urban Design Review, Fall/Winter 2011, Installment No. 2
Brooklyn Bridge Park
Brooklyn Bridge Park is an park currently under construction on the Brooklyn waterfront in the vicinity of the Manhattan and Brooklyn bridges. As of March 22, 2010 the first newly built section of the park, Pier 1, has been open to the public...
in Brooklyn, New York, Alumnae Valley at Wellesley College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, Allegheny Riverfront Park
Allegheny Riverfront Park
Allegheny Riverfront Park is a small municipal park along the south bank of the Allegheny River in Downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania's Cultural District...
in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Teardrop Park
Teardrop Park
Teardrop Park is a public park in downtown Manhattan, in Battery Park City near to the site of the World Trade Center. It was designed by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, a New York City architectural landscaping firm...
in New York City. In addition to his work as a designer, Urbanski is a Lecturer at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design and is co-owner of a native plants nursery in New Jersey.
Early Years and Schooling
Matthew Urbanski was born in 1963 and grew up near Holmdel, New Jersey. Urbanski attended Albright College and graduated in 1985 with a Bachelor of Science. His major was biology. From 1985-1986 he studied horticulture at the Delaware Valley College of Science and Agriculture. Urbanski attended Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, receiving his Master of Landscape Architecture degree in 1989. One of Urbanski’s design instructors while at Harvard was Michael Van ValkenburghMichael Van Valkenburgh
Michael R. Van Valkenburgh is an American landscape architect and educator. He has worked on a wide variety of projects in the United States, Canada, Korea, and France including public parks, college campuses, sculpture gardens, city courtyards, corporate landscapes, and private gardens-Early...
.
Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, Inc.
Urbanski joined Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates (MVVA) in 1989, a move that surprised many classmates because he and Van Valkenburgh had frequently argued at the GSD. Urbanski became a firm Principal in 2000. He and Van Valkenburgh are frequently listed as co-designers on many of the firm’s projects.Design Approach
Matthew Urbanski began his career at MVVA working on both small gardens and on larger projects, most notably Mill Race Park in Columbus, Indiana. As a designer, Urbanski frequently uses plantings in dramatic ways that create a strong sense of contrast when read against other aspects of their context. Examples of this include the use of birches and meadow plantings in the General Mills entry garden (now destroyed) and the steeply planted hills of Teardrop Park. Van Valkenburgh and Urbanski have coined the term “hypernature” to describe this aspect of their work.Urbanski has emerged as a leader in the firm’s efforts to redefine the way that urban landscapes are planned and built, most notably in the Brooklyn Bridge Park project and the Lower Don Lands plan. He makes the argument that the city, which consists of a series of interdependent systems, resembles a landscape more than it does a building. In working with planners, engineers, and architects to reclaim formerly industrial territories, Urbanski and MVVA promote integrated approaches to urban systems and greater awareness of the role that landscape space and ecological function play in the quality of urban life. In a paper entitled “Do Landscape Architects Make the Best Urban Designers” that he delivered at the 2009 “Landscape – Great Idea” X-L.Arch III conference in Vienna, Urbanski laid out the concept of “landscape imagination” that he feels differentiates the urban design work of MVVA from traditional urban planning. While traditional urban planners had difficulty in moving beyond “the well-intentioned infusion of undifferentiated green spaces,” Urbanski felt that landscape architects in general and MVVA in particular had “faith in the landscape’s ability to resolve difficult urban adjacencies” and that they were more likely to “understand how this full range of landscape typologies can be brought to bear on the problems of the contemporary city.”
Design Language
Urbanski is credited with phrases that describe paradoxes encountered in contemporary design:- “Proposed Existing Condition” – refers to a project’s anticipated context, something that does not exist at the moment that the design investigation is taking place. Coined in conjunction with work on Teardrop Park, a courtyard-type park that was planned and built before the towers that eventually surrounded it.
- ”Permanent Temporary Condition” – refers to an urban condition that was meant to be temporary, but ended up being permanent. Originally used to refer to metal barricades located along the northern boundary of the Union Square Park Plaza.
Design Awards
Urbanski has been a co-designer or lead designer on many works by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates that have gone on to win professional awards. Some of these awards include:- Honor Award from the Boston Society of Landscape Architects for Mill Race Park in Columbus, Indiana, 1993
- Design Merit Award, ASLAASLAASLA may refer to:* Academia de Ştiinţe, Literatură şi Arte* American Society of Landscape Architects...
for the Vera List Courtyard at the New School for Social Research, New York, NY, 1998 - Planning and Analysis Merit Award, ASLAASLAASLA may refer to:* Academia de Ştiinţe, Literatură şi Arte* American Society of Landscape Architects...
, for Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA 1999 - Citation from Progressive Architecture for Allegheny Riverfront ParkAllegheny Riverfront ParkAllegheny Riverfront Park is a small municipal park along the south bank of the Allegheny River in Downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania's Cultural District...
in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 2002 - Design Merit Award, ASLAASLAASLA may refer to:* Academia de Ştiinţe, Literatură şi Arte* American Society of Landscape Architects...
, Allegheny Riverfront Park, Pittsburgh, PA, 2002 - Places Magazine/EDRA Place Design Award, Allegheny Riverfront Park, Pittsburgh, PA, 2002
- Design Merit Award, ASLAASLAASLA may refer to:* Academia de Ştiinţe, Literatură şi Arte* American Society of Landscape Architects...
, Spider Island, Chicago Botanic Garden, Glenncoe, IL, 2002 - Design Honor Award, ASLAASLAASLA may refer to:* Academia de Ştiinţe, Literatură şi Arte* American Society of Landscape Architects...
, for the Herman Miller Factory Landscape, Cherokee County, GA 2005 - Design Excellence Award, ASLAASLAASLA may refer to:* Academia de Ştiinţe, Literatură şi Arte* American Society of Landscape Architects...
, for Alumnae Valley at Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA, 2006 - Planning and Analysis Honor Award, for the Lower Don Lands project, Toronto, ON, 2008
- Planning and Analysis Honor Award, for the Brooklyn Bridge Park Master Plan, Brooklyn, NY 2009
- Design Honor Award, ASLAASLAASLA may refer to:* Academia de Ştiinţe, Literatură şi Arte* American Society of Landscape Architects...
, for Teardrop Park, New York, NY, 2009 - Design Honor Award, ASLAASLAASLA may refer to:* Academia de Ştiinţe, Literatură şi Arte* American Society of Landscape Architects...
, for Connecticut Water Treatment Facility, New Haven, CT, 2010
Teaching career
Matthew Urbanski is a lecturer at the Graduate School of DesignHarvard Graduate School of Design
The Harvard Graduate School of Design is a graduate school at Harvard University offering degrees in Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Urban Planning and Design.-History:...
at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
. Since 1989, he has taught the subject of plants to landscape architecture students.
Publications
- Taking Measures Across the American Landscape
M. Van Valkenburgh, A. S. MacLean, J. Corner
- Michael
J. Gilette, Landscape Architecture Magazine, February 1998
- The Active Edge
A. Blum, Metropolis, March 2006
- Design with the Land: Landscape Architecture of Michael Van Valkenburgh
M. Van Valkenburgh, with essays by Peter Rose, Will Miller, James Corner, Paula Deitz, John Beardsley, and Mildred Friedman, Princeton Architectural Press, 1994
- Michael Van Valkenburgh/Allegheny Riverfront Park: Source Books in Landscape Architecture
J. Amidon, Princeton Architectural Press, 2005
- Abstract Realism
S. Hines, Landscape Architecture Magazine, 97, no. 2
- On the New Waterfront
A. Ulam, Landscape Architecture Magazine, November 2011
- Trophy Parks
Luncheon Forum on West Side Parks Development, held November 17, 2010, Urban Design Review, Fall/Winter 2011, Installment No. 2
Notable works
A list of notable works by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates that have involved Urbanski as co-designer or lead designer:- Pucker Garden, Brookline, Massachusetts, 1990
- General MillsGeneral MillsGeneral Mills, Inc. is an American Fortune 500 corporation, primarily concerned with food products, which is headquartered in Golden Valley, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis. The company markets many well-known brands, such as Betty Crocker, Yoplait, Colombo, Totinos, Jeno's, Pillsbury, Green...
Sculpture Garden, Minneapolis, 1991 (destroyed 2000) - Redesign of The Jardin Des Tuileries, Paris, France, 1991
- Mill Race Park, Columbus, IndianaColumbus, IndianaColumbus is a city in and the county seat of Bartholomew County, Indiana, United States. The population was 44,061 at the 2010 census, and the current mayor is Fred Armstrong. Located approximately 40 miles south of Indianapolis, on the east fork of the White River, it is the state's 20th largest...
, 1993 - 50 Avenue Montaigne Courtyard, Paris, France, 1993
- Vera List Courtyard, New School University, New York, New York 1997
- Allegheny Riverfront ParkAllegheny Riverfront ParkAllegheny Riverfront Park is a small municipal park along the south bank of the Allegheny River in Downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania's Cultural District...
, Pittsburgh, PennsylvaniaPittsburgh, PennsylvaniaPittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...
, 1998 - Spider Island, Chicago Botanic GardenChicago Botanic GardenLocated at 1000 Lake Cook Road, Glencoe, Illinois, USA, the Chicago Botanic Garden is a living plant museum situated on nine islands featuring 24 display gardens and surrounded by four natural habitats: McDonald Woods, Dixon Prairie, Skokie River Corridor, and Lakes and Shores. The Garden is open...
, Glencoe, Illinois, 2000 - Herman Miller Factory Landscape, Cherokee County, Georgia, 2001
- Straightsview Farm, San Juan Island, Washington, 2003
- Nomentana Garden, Stoneham, Maine, 2005
- Alumnae Valley, Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts, 2005
- Lake Whitney Water Treatment Plant, New Haven, Connecticut, 2005
- Teardrop ParkTeardrop ParkTeardrop Park is a public park in downtown Manhattan, in Battery Park City near to the site of the World Trade Center. It was designed by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, a New York City architectural landscaping firm...
in Battery Park City, New York NY, 2006 - Pier 1, Brooklyn Bridge Park, Brooklyn, NY 2010
- Pier 6, Brooklyn Bridge Park, Brooklyn, NY 2010
- Segment 5, Hudson River Park, New York, NY 2010
See also
- Landscape ArchitectureLandscape architectureLandscape architecture is the design of outdoor and public spaces to achieve environmental, socio-behavioral, or aesthetic outcomes. It involves the systematic investigation of existing social, ecological, and geological conditions and processes in the landscape, and the design of interventions...
- Allegheny Riverfront ParkAllegheny Riverfront ParkAllegheny Riverfront Park is a small municipal park along the south bank of the Allegheny River in Downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania's Cultural District...
- ParkParkA park is a protected area, in its natural or semi-natural state, or planted, and set aside for human recreation and enjoyment, or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. It may consist of rocks, soil, water, flora and fauna and grass areas. Many parks are legally protected by...
- LandscapeLandscapeLandscape comprises the visible features of an area of land, including the physical elements of landforms such as mountains, hills, water bodies such as rivers, lakes, ponds and the sea, living elements of land cover including indigenous vegetation, human elements including different forms of...
- Teardrop ParkTeardrop ParkTeardrop Park is a public park in downtown Manhattan, in Battery Park City near to the site of the World Trade Center. It was designed by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, a New York City architectural landscaping firm...
- Brooklyn Bridge ParkBrooklyn Bridge ParkBrooklyn Bridge Park is an park currently under construction on the Brooklyn waterfront in the vicinity of the Manhattan and Brooklyn bridges. As of March 22, 2010 the first newly built section of the park, Pier 1, has been open to the public...