“The idea for Studio Zewde’s installation emerged from their analysis of community feedback.”

Sara Zewde of Studio Zewde was raised on the Gulf Coast in Slidell, Louisiana, and Houston, Texas, with her sister Naomi who is now an economist at the University of California Los Angeles. Sara watched Hurricane Katrina from her college dorm room in Boston, and the aftermath of that event eventually prompted her on her journey toward landscape architecture.

As a teenager, she visited the Menil Collection in Houston frequently. In fact, it was the first place she drove by herself when she got her driver’s license. The fact that it was free entry meant that she could visit frequently throughout her young adulthood, which shaped her relationship with its landscape, architecture, and museum exhibitions.

Sara said her practice has diverse projects in scale, geography, client type, and communities–from public art installations to residential landscapes to museums, public parks, and large-scale regional planning, from Columbus, Indiana, Rio de Janeiro, to the Swiss Alps. They are all powered by a core design methodology they are building. Still, this range of projects means that methodology is always challenged and evolving to keep their design muscles strong.

Studio Zewde came into the project knowing that Mill Race Park’s 30th anniversary was a chance to speak to the deep history of the land and its last 30 years and to prompt a conversation about its next 30 years and beyond. The community’s responses during engagement pointed to a strong existing connection to the hill but less so to the field to which it sits adjacent. Her group began conceiving the installation as a dialogue between these two spaces and a chance to extend the activation the hill evokes toward the field.

They asked the Columbus community for their favorite stories at Mill Race Park. From the responses, they learned about secret gin and tonics at the playground, the Mill Race Monster, and the frequency of squirrel attacks.  

Michael Van Valkenburgh, a professor for whom Sara served as a teaching assistant, designed Mill Race Park, so she has more than one reason to be invested in this project. The installation prompted Sara to reconnect with him and listen to his reflections on his experience designing the park and what the commission meant for his career. Coincidentally, she is about the same age he was when he designed the park, so the conversations have also prompted the sharing of wisdom and retrospection. 

Most of the portfolio in the office is either public or public-facing, so the curatorial theme of Public by Design was already so resonant with their approach to work. It feels like an affirmation that they will carry with them into the future.

This excerpt is from the 2023 Field Guide. Download it here.