The Urban Garden

Artist Kanene Holder and biologist Paul Mankiewicz explored how people interact with nature and questioned where and if urban planning has succeeded or failed to accommodate natural ecosystems.

Food, Culture & the Urban Environment

Artist Miguel Luciano and environmental scientist Daniel Carrion led a walk to bring awareness on the complex relationships between migration, housing, food insecurity and pollution in West Harlem.

Ice Cubed: An Inquiry into the Aesthetics, History, and Science of Ice

Artist Marshall Reese and anthropologist Ben Orlove revealed the geological traces and disappearances in the neighborhood of Columbia University's Heyman Center. This CALL WALK was presented for Ice Cubed: An Inquiry into the Aesthetics, History, and Science of Ice, a two day conference hosted by the Heyman Center.

Places, Pleasures, & Public Space

This WALK explored the qualities that make public spaces inviting or unwelcoming — considering habitat, migration, and the relationship between social and natural ecology. They examined the pleasures and benefits of public space by looking at the Upper West Side and the populations it serves through the perspectives of three New Yorkers who significantly shaped public space in the city: Frederick Law Olmsted, Robert Moses, and Jane Jacobs.

Broadway: 1000 Steps —Jean Shin & Robin Nagle

Artist Jean Shin and ecologist Robin Nagle highlighted the often invisible immigrant population, systems and economies that are part of the ecology of Chinatown. Shin and Nagle focused on recycling work done by canners, patterns of consumption, and hidden infrastructures of waste stream and labor, as well as Nagle's research into unofficial can redemptions infrastructure.

Broadway: 1000 Steps — Ellen Driscoll, Joyce Hwang & Mckenzie Younger

Artists Ellen Driscoll, Mckenzie Younger and architect Joyce Hwang’s WALK explored the urban ecosystem of Chinatown, touching on the history and evolution of the neighborhood around Collect Pond from a freshwater pond landscape to an industrialized urban area. The WALK conveyed the profound effects that human actions have on urban ecosystems.

Broadway: 1000 Steps — Mary Ting, Paul Bartlett & Sophie Plitt

Artist Mary Ting, scientist Paul Bartlett, and urban forester Sophie Plitt discussed the nuances of post 9-11 air pollution, toxicity and quality of life issues that Chinatown residents face. The walk began on the Southwest corner of Broadway and Canal and ended in front of the Confucius Plaza.

Habitats And High Rises

Artist Marshall Reese and naturalist Mike Feller discuss the history of invasive species — both cultural and natural, coupling the story of Columbus, with the the European dove (colomba) and the history of apartment developments in New York City. The WALK focused on 59th Street/ Columbus Circle.

Microbial Maps

Geneticist Dr. Chris Mason and artist Will Lamson talk about microbiomes in urban spaces — the invisible forces that animate the world. They discuss Dr. Mason's project to map the bacteria in New York City's subway system and how those microorganisms are generally benign or even have a positive effect on the ecosystem of the subway system. The walk is on Houston Street/ Lower East Side.

Collision Theory: Birds and Buildings

Architect Joyce Hwang and naturalist Gabriel Willow explore the possibilities for architecture that supports urban species. They addressed the intersection of urban wildlife with the built urban environment, specifically focusing on the relationship between buildings and birds. They discuss how buildings are cited as the primary “killer” of migratory birds but how urban building façades can serve as bird habitats.

Revitalizing Urban Waterways

SLO Architecture and hydrologist Theo Barbagianis envision reconnecting and rejuvenating the fragmented waterways around Van Cortlandt Park. The WALK mission was to detect signs of former and latent natural riparian landscapes, as well as identify telling fragments of cityscape, to help uncover the possibilities to unlock and restore the ecological future of this Bronx neighborhood within the waterway network of New York City.

Home Is Where The Heart Is

Artist Heather Hart and sociologist Dalton Conley led an interactive discussion on the history and future of the Lower East Side — the most economically unequal neighborhood in the United States. They discuss the class and art history of the neighborhood, the changing populations and the vestiges of those changes. Houston St./ Lower East Side

The Identity of Water

Artist Juanli Carrión and sociologist Gianpaolo Baiocchi will lead a cultural journey through different flavors of water. Participants will get a perspective of the different "identities" water can have and how susceptible these identities are to change, while learning about the past and the future of the neighborhood and its population.

Noise and The Psychogeography On The Street

Urban design strategist Howard Chambers and Environmental Psychologist Arline Bronzaft discussed noise and the psychogeography on the street. The WALK observed the sounds of the street and how those sounds are interpreted and perceived. They started on Central Park West.

Ruminations on Extinct Topography

Artist Bob Braine, plant ecologist Rebecca Swadek, and botanist George Jackman, focused on stream resiliency and fish habitat. They discuss the history of Tibbets Brook, the ecology of the of marble hill and the contemporary connection the neighborhood has to the water.

Production and Consumption in the Bronx

Walking in a circle starting and ending at 228th Street, artist Mary Mattingly and scientist Sabine Marx described cycles of historic and future visions, building and preserving projects that highlight New York's resources. From farms to gardens, the rivers to the reservoir, spaces of production and consumption, how we simultaneously re-imagine spaces around the powers that be.

Our Democratic Public Space

Writers Garnette Cadogan and Jonathan Tarleton explore the qualities that make public spaces inviting or unwelcoming. They open the notion public space to include not only parks, but the sidewalk and the subway, and articulate how all these public spaces share and participate in an ecology. They discuss Frederick Law Olmsted, Robert Moses, and Jane Jacobs, as they walk from Central Park West to Riverside Park.