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Faculty Dean Abbott Roger Clemence Ann Forsyth Clint Hewitt John Koepke Rebecca Krinke Roger Martin Kristine Miller Laura Musacchio Lance Neckar David Pitt Robert Sykes Adjunct Faculty Joseph R. Favour Robert J. Gunderson Jon Kingstad Richard Murphy, Jr. Patrick Nunnally Peter Olin Sharon Pfeifer Dan Shaw Lecturers Research Fellows  faculty+staff main page | |||
Dean Abbott Around Dean Abbott, the phrase "drawing inspiration" has two meanings. As the department's drawing instructor, Abbott does more than teach the mechanics of rendering and perspective. He teaches drawing as tool for developing ideas. Abbott emphasizes fast, three-dimensional, gestural drawing for quickly understanding the physical characteristics of a site. Those drawings provide feedback about the design and inspire further ideas, thus allowing designers to experiment with multiple iterations of their concepts and build stronger designs. In order to develop good ideas and design well, Abbott contends that "you have to speak the language fluently, and the language is images and pictures." Abbott's influence doesn't stop with pen and paper, however. As the co-instructor of the 1st year design studio and director of the final year capstone studio, Abbott works to infuse students with the same drive for artistically and conceptually inspired work that characterize his own practice. And Abbott is quite an example to draw inspiration from. For example, in 1990 and 1999 Landscape Architecture magazine listed Abbott's redesign of Copley Square in Boston among the profession's highlights. Noted scholar and author William H. Whyte described Abbott's design as an important turning point in the design of American public spaces for how it addressed the needs of its eventual users. Abbott has a particular specialty in urban parks, plazas, and streetscapes. "It's probably what I'm best at," he says. "Urban places--that's my real interest." Abbott has had a particular influence on the New York City waterfront, having worked on South Street Seaport, Battery Park, Battery Park City, and Westway. "At one point I was involved with the whole West Side, from 42nd St. to Battery Park," he recalls. Locally, Abbott designed the interior water garden in the Fifth & Marquette Building Skyway and the courtyard for St. Mary's Hospital in Rochester. Most recently, as a consultant to SRF, he helped create the conceptual design for the proposed Avenue of the Arts along 3rd Avenue from downtown Minneapolis at the Mississippi River to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Throughout his career, Abbott has been committed to teaching. "It's really important that practitioners get into schools," he says. "It's important to get the other side into the classroom." Abbott has been a faculty member or visiting critic at a number of schools, including the University of California at Davis, the University of Georgia, Harvard University, Michigan State, and the University of Virginia. In addition to teaching at the University, Abbott maintains a private practice as an urban designer and artist. His goal is to experiment more with the art of landscape architecture. "I'm interested in the physical, spatial, visual, and formal aspects of place at a scale that can be quickly built and experienced," he explains. | |||
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