Designing for Public Life, Dialogue 5: New Urban Ecologies

Kate Orff has developed her practice around integrating social life, infrastructure, urban form, biodiversity, and community-driven action. Her ambitious landscape projects confront the urgent impacts of climate change while advancing both social and environmental justice, with an emphasis on the relationships between urban and ecological systems along the water’s edge where people, wildlife, and natural processes meet.

In this fifth Designing for Public Life dialogue, the Center for Architecture’s current exhibition Searching for Superpublics will serve as a point of departure, beginning with a discussion of ongoing New York City initiatives at the intersection of water management and the public realm—such as the Greater Rockaway Coastal Resilience Plan, Staten Island Bluebelts program, and Lower Manhattan and East Side Coastal Resilience projects. Drawing on Orff’s experience both in New York and beyond, we will consider: What constitutes a successful model for reshaping our relationship with increasingly dynamic urban edges? How might ecological infrastructures not only safeguard cities but also foster vibrant, healthy, and equitable public places? And in turn, how can these efforts serve as prototypes for the broader project of urban adaptation?

Speakers:
Kate Orff, RLA, FASLA, Founder, SCAPE

Moderator:
Benjamin Gilmartin, AIA, Partner, Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R)

About the Speakers:
Kate Orff focuses on retooling the practice of landscape architecture relative to the uncertainty of climate change and creating spaces to foster social life, which she has explored through publications, activism, research, and projects. Widely recognized as a leading voice in landscape architecture, urban design, and climate adaptation in a global context, she is known for advancing complex, creative, and collaborative work that advances broad environmental and social prerogatives. Kate was the first landscape architect to receive the MacArthur Foundation’s prestigious “genius” grant in 2017. She is the Director of the Urban Design Program, Co-Director of the Center for Resilient Cities and Landscapes (CRCL), and Professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP). She also sits on the Commission on Accelerating Climate Action for the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, as well as the Advisory Board for Urban Ocean Lab, a policy think tank.

Benjamin Gilmartin, AIA, is a Partner at Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R) in New York, and led public space projects for the Lincoln Center Redevelopment, and collaborated on the design of the High Line in New York and Zaryade Park in Moscow, among many other public space and cultural projects. Gilmartin is the 2025 AIA New York President.