This volume looks at twenty-three remarkable examples of designed open spaces–found throughout the United State, Europe, Asia and the Middle East–that portray the surge of creative activity in contemporary landscape design. The projects range from innovative reinterpretations of the traditional town square to large parks, often built on ground reclaimed from obsolescence or degradation as cities remake and redefine their outdoor spaces. An essay by Peter Reed, Curator, Department of Architecture and Design, examines the many approaches taken by today's architects and landscape architects as they explore the relationship between the artifice and nature in designs that resonate with a postindustrial landscape. From the exhibition:The exhibition demonstrates how urban sites have been reclaimedfrom obsolescence or degradation as cities remake and redefine their outdoor spaces. The projects range from innovative reinterpretations of the traditional town square to rooftop plazas, public parks and gardens, to large urban sectors ripe for redevelopment. These projects reveal the many approaches taken by today’s architects and landscape architects as they explore the relationship between artifice and nature. Organized by Peter Reed, Curator, and Irene Shum, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Architecture and Design, The Museum of Modern Art, the exhibition includes 23 projects from North America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. The projects—most of which are being exhibited for the first time in an art museum—are represented by video and animation, models, drawings, computer renderings, and large photographs. Groundswell uses before-and-after visuals to show the often-dramatic transformations that occur in these landscapes. The videos, most of which were made for the exhibition, are intended to give the visitor an experience of the sites portrayed. Some of the videos will be projected as large as 6 by 11 feet onto the gallery walls. Mr. Reed said, “Nearly every significant new landscape designed in recent years occupies a site that did not exist as public space half a generation ago. These constructed landscapes reveal remarkable aesthetic and programmatic changes as designers and cities find diverse ways to confront contemporary issues associated with these sites ranging from the physical properties of the ground, their history, and new purposes.”The projects are presented in three broadly themed sections in the exhibition. The projects illustrate how designers address the challenges of designing the urban plazas and squares with unique visual and symbolic identities, how designers are creating simulations and new topographies, and how designers and urban planners are reclaiming formerly obsolete and degraded sites for public spaces. The projects which have been recently completed or are in the process of being realized, are designed for many kinds of sites including artificially-constructed surfaces, abused and polluted sites that present numerous challenges, and sites of civil andpolitical strife. These issues are illustrated through a diverse range of transformations. A former fuel storage and transfer station requiring extensive remediation is being reconstructed as the Seattle Art Museum’s Olympic Sculpture Park in downtown Seattle by Weiss/Manfredi Architects (2001; projected completion 2006); Crissy Field, a military airstrip on San Francisco Bay has been transformed into a popular waterfront park with restored wetlands by Hargreaves Associates (1994–2001); in downtown Beirut, where civil war raged, the city’s first public garden, Hadiqat- As-Samah (Garden of Forgiveness), has been designed for an archeological site by KathrynGustafson and Neil Porter (2000; projected completion 2006); and America’s largest sanitary landfill is envisioned as wildlife sanctuary and place for recreation in New York’s Fresh Kills lifescape by James Corner of Field Operations (2001–05; projected start of construction 2007).(A full list of the projects and the respective designers is attached.)Designing the Urban StageSchouwburgplein (Theater Square) in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, designed by Adriaan Geuze of West 8 (1991–96), exemplifies several key issues in its rehabilitation of a de facto parking lot into a public gathering place. The most iconic features of the Square are the monumental light masts, resembling industrial cranes, which cast pools of light onto the plaza. The overall imagery of the Square draws upon the city’s shipping industry as portrayed in the lively video produced for the exhibition by Hectic Pictures and directed by Hans Werlemann. In 1996, the city of Manchester, England, was the target of a devastating IRA bombing that left the city’s center damaged. The master plan to restore and revitalize Manchester City Centre by EDAW (1996–present) proposed significant changes to the street and transportation network and created new and refurbished public spaces. The new Exchange Square (Martha Schwartz, Inc., 1996–2001) replaced a tangled traffic intersection with an abstract, minimalist composition that also incorporates references to the city’s industrial past. Piccadilly Gardens (ARUP and EDAW, 1998–2002) has been transformed into a modern urban park in the heart of the city that includes a broad central lawn, interactive fountain, and a pavilion by Japanese architect Tadao Ando. Another formerly industrial city, Bradford, England, which has suffered from economic decline and a shrinking population, is the subject of a master plan addressing its revitalization. The master plan for Bradford by Alsop Ltd. (2003; projected completion 2020) calls for radical interventions to remake the city center by replacing underused and insignificant buildings with a network of parks and restored waterways where no adequate public space exists. Other reinterpretations of the urban plaza include the rooftop Keyaki Plaza, Saitama City, Japan, by Yoji Sasaki and Peter Walker (1994–2000) with its grove of zelkova trees in a rigorously controlled Minimalist composition that is intended as a quiet refuge, and the sunken plaza called Shanghai Carpet in China by Tom Leader with Michael Duncan (2003; projected completion 2006) a rich amalgam of materials and plants associated with old Shanghai. In the designs of Christophe Girot’s Invalidenpark in former East Berlin (1992–97) and Kathryn Gustafson and Neil Porter’s Hadiqat-As-Samah (2000; projected completion 2006) urban spacesaddress emotionally charged issues of past civil unrest while transcending cultural differences. Simulations and New TopographiesMany projects in Groundswell explore the relationship between artifice and nature in various ways, including the sculpting of new topographies and the simulation of natural environments. These projects also expand on a traditional role of landscape design in correcting or concealing eyesores, whether natural or man-made, through artistic means and the reshaping of the ground plane. The Museum of Modern Art Roof Garden by Ken Smith (2003–05), a decorative landscape to be viewed from above, is also intended as a provocative and ironic commentary on this practice. The camouflage-inspired design employs real white pebbles, artificial rocks, crushed glass, recycled black rubber, artificial boxwood, and a green plastic supporting armature. The artificial garden is a simulation of nature and a subversion of the traditional role of camouflage to hide or conceal. Catherine Mosbach’s Bordeaux Botanical Garden in France (2000–02), which also serves as a public park, simulates natural environments, cultivated fields of crops, and aestheticized nature in the form of a water garden and labyrinth. Lurie Garden by Gustafson Guthrie Nichol Ltd. for downtown Chicago (2000–04) is inspired by the Midwest prairie with native perennials planted in contoured beds that are actually built on a slab that conceal an underground garage. Reclaimed SitesMany contemporary built landscapes, as seen in Groundswell, are situated on former sanitary landfills, defunct steel mills, and polluted riverfronts and other seemingly inhospitable sites. For Duisburg-Nord Landscape Park in Germany (1990–2002), Peter Latz chose not to erase the past, but to incorporate the infrastructure of the former Thyssen Steelworks in the new park. Latz recognized that the combination of industry and nature can evoke unexpected associations and experiences, expanding the idea of a modern park. The former San Francisco Bay military airstrip, Crissy Field (1994–2001), involved the restoration of natural tidal wetlands that had been filled and paved, and rehabilitating an historic grass airstrip. These elements are complemented by the design of new paths, activity areas, and restored dunes resulting in the transformation of a 100-acre site into a public park. The municipal Fresh Kills Landfill on Staten Island, New York, will soon undergo a decades-long transformation. The designer James Corner of Field Operations, has created a master plan to address the 53 years of dumping that have created mounds ranging from 100 to 225 feet in height concealed under a protective membrane. Yet nearly half the site consists of creeks and wetlands that provide a regionally significant wildlife sanctuary. The exhibition presents a video showing Fresh Kills as it exists today and a vision of how this complicated site could be developed into a place for recreation and wildlife including two monumental landforms that mark the site as the final home to the wreckage and remains from the World Trade Center disaster. MoMA, 2005, 233 color and 84 black and white illustrations, 168 pages.