The League’s FF – Distance Edition, an online version of the long-running First Friday series, is returning to the first Friday of every month, with a new start time of 12 p.m. 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.

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.

terrain is a landscape architecture firm founded in 2004 by Steven Tupu. Based in New York City, it specializes in preserving and revitalizing complex urban spaces. According to its firm profile, terrain “embraces the energy of the city and magnifies the role of nature within it.” In doing so, it aims to strengthen local ecosystems and foster connections within and across communities.

Completed projects include: 

• St. Augustine Terrace Supportive Housing, a residential building on the site of a former Catholic church whose landscape design embraces natural bedrock and the local Bronx landscape. 
• Industry City Courtyard 5-6, a large-scale verdant commons on the site of a former cargo loading dock in Sunset Park. 
• Panorama Brooklyn, a series of public gardens and terraces that transform a former Brooklyn printing press into a vibrant coworking campus.

Current and upcoming projects include: 

• Terminal Warehouse, a central courtyard and group of waterfront terraces in a rehabilitated nineteenth-century warehouse in Chelsea. 
• Morningside Gardens, an updated master plan for a nine-acre mid-century residential campus in Morningside Heights. 
• 100 Vandam, a series of dynamic terraces and loggia gardens in a new residential tower in Manhattan. 

The program will be moderated by Fernando Villa, FAIA. Villa is a principal of Magnusson Architecture and Planning. He specializes in sustainable, affordable housing and community-focused, mixed-use developments.