Slide show of Maya Lins Storm King – I used to like this

What do you expect?

An artist, trained as an architect, working in landscape…ugh. ; )

Okay, after actually looking at it and watching the video I like it with some caveats–The scale seems a little excessively large like it would be a chore to walk across, but I guess that’s the difference between art and design–you don’t need to think about things like comfort and usability, which is refreshing. If the entire wor d were comfortable and usable it would be a pretty boring uninspiring place.

As far as maintenance–that looks like a shortgrass prairie/native seed that was used–is there really much maintenance requirement? But really, maintainability is the mark of good design..ahem art?

Thats cool. Do people farm that or is it used recreationally?

It’s the idea of ‘hypernature’ again.

Interesting and compelling photos – the earthwork seems to flatten the landscape into a ‘picture’…which might be what she meant to do – certainly a concept with a long history in landscape architecture if we want to include Zen gardens in our tradition.
On the downside, it does appear to be pretty weedy. I can’t imagine any farmer or county weed control employee could be happy to see a photo of a butterfly on a THISTLE of all things. (yes, I realize there are native thistles, but this seems to be Canada thistle).

Wouldn’t it be cool if they just let the native plants slowly take over? I would love to see this rigid structure soften and disappear into the forest – oooh – can you imagine stumbling on a landform like this in a forest? Too Andy Goldsworthy-esque?

I don’t understand any of your criticism… Seriously, give me a break… it’s an old gravel pit! What was she supposed to do with it?

When pushing the boundaries of “Landscape Architecture” mistakes will happen. It’s called experimentation. An abandoned gravel pit seems like the ideal place to experiment. You can’t really get any worse than a giant scar on the earth.

Please review the basics of The Scientific Method. Research, Analysis, Synthesis, Repeat. What Maya Lin has done, if nothing else, is create a wonderful case-study for similar designs in the future. How will the mounds weather? What kind of maintenance is required? What is the overall experience and how can that be modified/ effected? What happens at the boundaries of the forest/wave interface? What was the construction process like and what would you do differently next time? There are a host of questions that this site could help address.

And doing a bit more research could have answered many of the issues you raised… Not fluid enough? It’s based on an actual model of water movement… Need to mow it? Are you sure? It’s planted with native seed…. Too big? Not easy to walk through? That’s the point.

From Miya Lin’s Website:

Storm King Wavefield
Opening at Storm King Art Center in Mountainville, NY, in May 2009

The Storm King Wavefield encompasses an eleven-acre site, with the earthwork covering four acres at the southwest border of the Storm King Art Center in Mountainville, New York. Formerly a gravel pit, the site is an environmental reclamation project in compliance with The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. The work maximized the soil from the existing site and was created with a naturally made drainage system beneath the soil. Grasses were planted that are native and require minimal watering needs stressing the sustainable nature of the work. The carbon footprint of the construction of the piece was calculated and will be fully offset by the planting of 260 indigenous trees .

The Wavefield is comprised of seven rows of undulating, rolling waves of earth and grass. The waves range in height from ten to fifteen feet, with a trough-to-trough distance of approximately forty feet. The work at Storm King is the largest site-specific art installation that Lin has created, and it marks a culmination in her series dedicated to the exploration of water-wave formations. Because it is executed in the same scale as an actual set of waves, the viewer’s experience is similar to that of being at sea, where one loses visual contact with adjacent waves. Compound curves allow for a complex and subtle reading of the space in the form of an environment that pulls the viewer into its interior and creates a sense of total immersion.

Also, let’s not forget that it’s only 1 year old. Maybe we should give the site time to mature before jumping all over it with criticism… I foresee it becoming very beautiful with age, perhaps requiring an undulating network of d.g. paths and wood/stone steps to navigate waste/chest high grasses. Wouldn’t that be fun to design!?