The League’s FF – Distance Edition, an online version of the long-running First Friday series, will continue on Thursday evenings. This season’s events feature design practices that are redefining the contemporary public landscape by responding to social and environmental concerns and exploring the intersections of architecture, technology, and ecology.

FF – Distance Edition brings participants on site, offering virtual access to practices’ workspaces and current projects. Following each presentation, join in an open conversation with the designers.

Founded in Boston by Chris Reed in 2001, Stoss Landscape Urbanism is a landscape architecture and urban design firm committed to “the power of open space to bind communities to one another and to the environment,” according to its website. At Stoss, landscape is a catalyst for positive change, enhancing both human wellbeing and ecological diversity. The firm’s work focuses on creating active and environmentally sustainable urban realms, socially vibrant public spaces, and diverse, vital neighborhoods in which people can live, work, and play.  

Completed projects include: 

• Erie Street Plaza, a waterfront ecopark in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, that activates and registers cycles of stormwater while accommodating a wide array of social activities.
• Gerstacker Grove, a renovation of a University of Michigan campus quad that amplifies seasonal change and creates space for a range of rotating performances, events, and everyday activities.
• Brickline Greenway, a masterplan for St. Louis, Missouri, that responds to the city’s constellation of architectures, ecologies, economies, geographies, and histories.  

Current and upcoming projects include:

• L Street Power Plant, a South Boston waterfront plan combining neighborhood creation, climate resiliency, and adaptive reuse of historic industrial buildings. 
• Moakley Park, a large-scale resiliency plan for one of Boston’s largest public waterfronts, with coastal flood protection, stormwater management, and multi-functional recreational spaces.
• Venice High School, a 23-acre public school site renovation inspired by the canals of Venice, California.

The program will be moderated by critic and curator Mimi Zeiger. Based in Los Angeles, Zeiger is co-curator of the 2020–2021 Exhibit Columbus in Columbus, Indiana, and visiting faculty at the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc).