OLIN Celebrated Black History Month with BlackLAN

To honor and celebrate Black History Month, OLIN sponsored the 3rd annual Black History Month Symposium hosted by the Black Landscape Architects Network (BlackLAN), an organization that supports Black landscape architecture students and professionals.

The event featured keynote speakers Divine Ndemeye, the founder of Remesha Design, and Maci Nelson, the creator, and host of The Landscape Nerd podcast, as they shared their knowledge, experiences, and perspectives on race, landscape, and media. The symposium acted as an interactive panel discussion and Q&A session, giving attendees the opportunity to engage with the speakers and learn more about the topics they presented.

The proceeds from the event are going to support BlackLAN's scholarship efforts.

To learn more about BlackLAN, visit here.

OLIN + NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project: LGBTQ+ PUBLIC SPACES Presentation

OLIN Landscape Designer Max Dickson joined forces with the NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project, hosting LGBTQ+ PUBLIC SPACES: Preservation of Historic Queer Landscapes, a free virtual presentation that dived into the history and untold stories of queer public spaces. 

Max and NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project co-director Ken Lustbader explored local and national sites, such as the Stonewall National Monument at Christopher Park and Central Park, and shed light on the roles of preservationists and designers to increase the overall visibility and preservation of culturally significant LGBTQ+ landscapes.

Max originally began research on this topic through OLIN Labs and collaboratively created the Pridescapes research initiative that explores LGBTQ+ landscapes and seeks to clarify the crucial importance of preserving LGBTQ+ spaces, telling untold LGBTQ+ histories, and imagining new futures for culturally significant LGBTQ+ landscapes.

Listen to the webinar here.

Pier 26 at Hudson River Park Sturgeon Construction Underway!

The Sturgeons of the Pier 26 Play Area are under construction! OLIN custom-designed the sturgeons in collaboration with award-winning Danish play design experts MONSTRUM once installed, the sturgeons will become signature features of the new 4,000-square-foot marine and science-themed playground at Hudson Rivers Park Pier 26.

The two wood sturgeons, modeled after the endangered Atlantic and Short-nosed species indigenous to the Hudson River Estuary, can be explored from the top, bottom, inside, and out. Visitors will climb the aquatic grass nets designed to mimic reeds and grasses found on the riverbed, slide from the sturgeons’ armor-scaled tails, and even crawl through its digestive systems.

Learn more about the Sturgeons and the Science Play Area here.