J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller Prize
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PORT
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THE PLOT PROJECT
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Presented by The Schumaker Family
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J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller Prize ● PORT ● THE PLOT PROJECT ● Presented by The Schumaker Family ●
THE PLOT PROJECT interfaces with the Mill Race Center and its surrounding landscapes to place the Center’s diverse activities and the biodiversity of the park into public dialogue.
By extending and inscribing the arced shape of the Center’s building into the landscape, PORT defines a new arc approximately 1250 feet in length, covering a half-acre of ground. This zone is subdivided into 12 plots that serve as testing beds for landscape rewilding experiments that have been grown over the course of a 9-month growing season. Some plots are left unmown to grow feral, while others are prepped and over-seeded with mixes of native warm-season grasses. Bands of wildflowers, which were seeded with a mix of native and naturalized annuals and perennials, highlight the transition between plots.
Along the outside curve of the rewilded area, survey poles are arrayed at 25 feet intervals, allowing the geometry of the arc to be clearly legible from the ground. At three points along the arc, conservation outreach stations are positioned as new places to reflect that invite social interaction and education. The color of the stations riff on the mid-century formal architectural heritage and color palette of Columbus.
Accessibility
Parts of the exhibit are located in grassy areas. The grass may be uneven and damp due to weather but is relatively flat. The items can be viewed easily from a nearby sidewalk.
How does nature connect us?
THE PLOT PROJECT Installation Credits
J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller Prize
Presented by
Schumaker Family
Team
Christopher Marcinkoski
Andrew Moddrell
Brandon Biederman
Anna Darling
Maddie Clark
Rula Zuhour
Martha Ashe
Materials
Landscape: Grasses: Big Bluestem (Andropogon gerardii), Blue Grama (Bouteloua gracilis), Little Bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium), Side Oats Grama (Bouteloua curtipendula); Perennials: Common Milkweed (Asclepia syriaca), New England Aster (Aster novae-angliae), Rattlesnake Master (Eryngium yuccifolium), Slender Mountain Mint (Pycnanthemum tenuifolium), Spiked, Blazing Star (Liatris spicata), Wild Bergamot (Monarda fistulosa); Annuals: Corn Poppy (Papaver rhoeas), Golden Wave Tickseed (Coreopsis basalis), Indian Blanket (Gaillardia pulchella), Scarlet Flax (Linum grandiflorum rubrum), Sulphur Cosmos (Cosmos sulphureus)
Pavilions: Powder-coated aluminum and steel, Thermally modified red oak, Poured-in-place concrete pad foundation, Metal edging, Stone fines
Conservation outreach stations: Painted aluminum, Custom solar-LED light fixtures
Fabrication Supporters
Columbus Parks and Recreation Department
Forms360 of Forms + Surfaces
Force Construction
Bartholomew County Blazing Stars CISMA
Additional Credits
Mill Race Center staff and volunteers
Site: Mill Race Center, 2011
Mill Race Center is a community center for active adults located in Mill Race Park in Columbus, Indiana. The purpose of Mill Race Center is to develop a nationally recognized model for dynamic, comprehensive, collaborative programming for the age 50 plus population. PORT will be focused on the public areas surrounding the Center, which was designed by William Rawn Associates and opened in 2011.
In partnership with Community Curator, Dan Mustard, Executive Director of Mill Race Center.
Curatorial Question
How does nature connect us?
“The team said every person with whom they spoke about their installation offered to help them implement it.”
Christopher Marcinkoski and Andrew Moddrell of PORT grew up in the Midwest. Both have siblings, and both played intramural basketball in graduate school, although only one of them tore his ACL in the process. Today, they both have children.
Their first project was a multigenerational playground in Denver, for which they won an international competition. They said that taught them the importance of actively managing the process, not just the design. Today, they do public realm projects exclusively, and they said they are most proud of the professional growth of their colleagues at PORT.
Their installation, THE PLOT PROJECT, was born because it is civic in scale, has an ecological orientation, offers space for social interaction, and is exuberant in its materiality–all qualities they pursue in every project. THE PLOT PROJECT interfaces with the Mill Race Center and its surrounding landscapes to place the Center’s diverse activities and the park's biodiversity into public dialogue. The greatest challenge in creating it was getting things to grow. Mother Nature does not care about design intent, they said.
They appreciated how warm and supportive the Columbus community was.
Currently they are working on large urban parks in Boise, Idaho; Bentonville, Arkansas; and Knoxville, Tennessee, as well as urban public realms in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Chicago, Illinois; Cleveland, Ohio; and Boston, Massachusetts. If they could design a new place in Columbus, it would be a new public square or a large public park–both essential civic spaces.
Public by Design, they said, is in the DNA of PORT. Their interest in the public realm is driven by a belief in the power of public space to generate those essential opportunities for shared experience that lead to greater empathy and understanding within society.
Asked the whimsical question of whether there could be an Exhibit Columbus on Mars, they responded that human effort would better be spent on Earth: “We can still save this planet–but it’s getting dicey.”
This excerpt is from the 2023 Field Guide. Download it here.
Activity Guide for kids and families to explore the Exhibition.
Download the activity for the installation THE PLOT PROJECT. Print at home, or stop by any Infohub to pick up a free guide.
Creating THE PLOT PROJECT
2023 Design Presentations
THE PLOT PROJECT installation design concept by 2022–23 J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller Prize Recipient PORT from Philadelphia and Chicago.
“Public by Design is in the DNA of PORT. Our interest in the public realm is driven by a belief in the power of public space to generate those essential opportunities for shared experience that lead to a greater sense of empathy and understanding within society.” — Christopher Marcinkoski and Andrew Moddrell, Co-Founders
2022 Symposium
PORT led a community engagement session with Mill Race [Senior] Center members to imagine new ways to bring intergenerational experiences to the center by engaging people outdoors in multisensory experiences within Mill Race Park.
J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller Prize Recipient
PORT
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Chicago, Illinois
PORT is a public realm design and planning consultancy made up of landscape architects, architects, urban designers, and planners based in Philadelphia and Chicago. The practice works across scales, contexts, and landscapes throughout the United States and abroad. PORT’s work is rooted in a belief in the transformative potential of a socially and ecologically vibrant urban public realm. By collaborating with communities to reimagine and shape these spaces, PORT delivers projects that are both forward-looking and emphatically of a place.
Existing work by PORT
Northcenter Town Square Summer morning activity at Chicago’s Northcenter Town Square, designed by PORT in collaboration with Northcenter Chamber of Commerce and the Chicago Department of Transportation. Credit: Brandon Biederman/PORT
The OVAL The Big Seat anchored the PORT-designed Summer at Eakins Oval program for Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park Conservancy. Credit: Albert Yee/Fairmount Park Conservancy
Gateway Park The Yard central pavilion and event plaza at the new 110-acre Gateway Park planned and designed by PORT for the City of Bentonville Parks and Recreation as part of the Walton Family Foundation Design Excellence Program. Credit: PORT