Yue Li has been named OLIN’s newest partner, bringing 17 years of landscape architectural expertise to the position.
Yue’s design career began as a building architect. “I grew up in a family of architects and went on to study architecture at Tsinghua University in Beijing,” she said. “However, my passion was always in landscape—I was always more interested in the formation of the exterior spaces of buildings. Unfortunately, when I was a student in the mid-1980s, landscape architecture was not a recognized profession in China.”
After practicing as an architect in China for several years, Yue moved to the United States with her husband when he began studying architectural intelligent design at Pennsylvania State University. Through her husband’s studies at Penn State, she met several landscape architectural professors and eventually enrolled in a class on the history of landscape architecture.
As they say, the rest is history.
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Sketch by Laurie Olin
Ada Louise Huxtable was a formidable figure, one whose writing and commentary was always informed, thoughtful, and delivered without the jargon that so often plagues architecture and art criticism. She was the epitome of clarity and common sense with an equal devotion to the highest aesthetic standards and the most democratic social view.
Ada Louise was a fierce champion of urban design that engendered community and life on the street. Like her contemporary and fellow New Yorker Jane Jacobs, she was fierce in her loyalties and enmities, and she didn’t suffer fools, lax or corrupt politicians, or smarmy designers. Un-swayed by fashion, she stuck her neck out for work that she deemed exemplary, whether others liked it or not. Unlike some critics who have followed her in the field, Ada Louise didn’t limit herself to reviewing only new, high-style buildings, but took a broader perspective, especially regarding urban design and city planning, even occasionally landscape. She had an unerring eye and ear, a pioneer of mainstream newspaper architecture criticism.
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White River State Park in the heart of downtown Indianapolis is an exceptional resource to the City and its communities, and in the heart of White River State Park is The Oval, a tranquil—if underutilized—half-acre lawn area. As part of our 2011 vision plan for White River State Park, OLIN sought to reinvigorate this space through interventions designed to encourage access and wide flexibility of use, making The Oval at White River State Park both the physical and the social nucleus of the park. OLIN proposed removing the granite curbing which currently surrounds The Oval, enabling universal access from all around the site. The team also recommended a central concrete plaza and programmable scrim fountain, which can be turned on as an interactive play feature, turned off to accommodate events, and frozen over to make a winter ice skating rink. The rendered perspectives above show all the ways in which The Oval at White River State Park, once completed, can be enjoyed by visitors of all ages and throughout all the seasons of the year.
The stately Divine Lorraine rises ten stories above Broad Street. Originally designed in the 1890s, it closed in 1999 and now sits vacant.
Once upon a time, elephants paraded into the Metropolitan Opera House and the Divine Lorraine stood regally ten stories above North Broad Street in Philadelphia. A fantastical quality remains in these two buildings that has outlasted entertainment trends, housing fashions and urban shifts that led to the general decline of the surrounding neighborhood and the near demise of these two landmarks. I had the opportunity to explore these iconic structures on a tour led by Hidden City Philadelphia and learn about their storied pasts and aspirations for the future.
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This Philadelphia street becomes resplendent in spring, with an arching canopy of blossoming cherry trees. Image © Dennis McGlade.
Throughout his career, Partner Dennis McGlade has applied his horticultural expertise to projects around the world, chronicling the natural conditions of trees, shrubs and other plantings, and examining their potential uses and benefits within the urban realm. He turned his sensibilities closer to home in an article for Hidden City Philadelphia, in which he documents Philadelphia’s abundance of street trees and explores how they have been cultivated, installed, maintained and engaged within the city’s infrastructural and cultural milieu.
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Top: As part of the design for Canal Park in Washington, DC, OLIN created this rendered perspective of the ice skating loop, illustrating how people of all ages can enjoy the space on a wintry day. Bottom: A familiar sight? The completed skating loop as seen on Canal Park's opening weekend.
OLIN Partner Skip Graffam and Landscape Architect Judy Venonsky.
OLIN Partner Skip Graffam and Landscape Architect Judy Venonsky were both presenters at AIA Philadelphia’s 10th Annual Design on the Delaware conference. The three day event gives design and building professionals the opportunity to learn about regional projects that are positively influencing the urban condition and stimulate thought and innovation within the design community. Skip presented as part of a panel on the development and implementation of Temple University’s 20/20 Framework Plan, a comprehensive vision for campus development and connection to the community and Center City Philadelphia. Judy and her panel discussed the process behind realizing an art installation designed by famed conceptual artist Sol LeWitt, titled Lines in Four Directions in Flowers.
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Loren Shaw has joined OLIN as the studio’s newest Associate. A graduate of Ohio State University with a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture, Loren brings over a decade of project experience, including park design, restoration projects, and green infrastructure interventions. His role within the studio will include coordination of OLIN’s Quality Assurance/Quality Control program, in which he will oversee the systematic review of construction documents and guide the studio in establishing and maintaining best practices from design through construction. In addition to providing review services for each phase of OLIN’s projects, Loren will lead initiatives to continually improve the studio’s design process through the facilitation of regular training seminars and mentoring of staff to ensure a culture of quality assurance.
A quick self-portrait on one of the many pedestrian bridges that cross the streams leading into the Schuylkill River.
It’s been two months since I moved from Eugene, Oregon to join OLIN in Philadelphia. I knew the 3,000 miles would bring numerous changes in my way of life and environment. With my background in landscape architecture, I was curious to see the new plant communities, geologic and cultural landscapes of the opposing coast. Out of all this newness, however, I was most looking forward to experiencing the fall color. Coming from a state dominated by evergreens, I had painted a mental picture with vibrant reds, yellows, and my favorite color of all: orange.
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I traveled to Washington, DC to photograph the opening event for Canal Park and returned the next day to enjoy the site with my family. It was great to see the community come out in full support of this new urban park.
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