 | |  | |
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 | |||
John Koepke Although John Koepke has many roles, including award-winning designer,department chair, educator, and researcher of Native American landscapedesign, the element that runs through them all is his role as interpreterand translator. This in part stems from his background. A member of theLac Courte Oreilles Tribe of the Ojibwe, Koepke frequently works withNative American tribes, often acting as the facilitator between the tribeand non-Native American designers. While a professor at the University of Washington, he worked with studentsto help the Tulalip tribe of Puget Sound create a tribal museum. Koepkealso led a design studio in which students worked with the Point GambleS'Klallam tribe on design proposals for the development of severalhistoric, entertainment, and commercial sites. For those projects heplayed a critical role in interpreting the tribal culture for thestudents. He adds, "I helped to bring the technical resources of theschool to bear on the cultural resources of the tribe in an appropriateway." More recently, Koepke was closely involved with the design of theBattle Point Historic Site and Culture Education Center of the Leech LakeBand of the Ojibwe in Minnesota, this time working with the tribe as partof a team of local designers. In a similar vein, much of Koepke's other design work has been creatingparks, trails, and zoos, projects requiring both ecological revelation andcultural interpretation. In 1996 he won a design merit award from theMinnesota chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects for theCannon Valley Trail Master Plan. One of his most recent projects has beenthe creation of an outdoor diorama and exhibit at the Bell Museum ofNatural History. Drawing on student work from a design studio, Koepke andsculptor Ian Dudley created a new entrance to the museum that tells astory of Minnesota's environments through bronze sculptures, nativeplantings, construction materials, and spatial design. Koepke's recent research has also been focused on revealing what mightotherwise be hidden or unintelligible. In 1993 he received a grant fromthe National Endowment for the Arts to study the sites of eight ancientNative American communities. "In the history of landscape architecture,very little has been written about what Native Americans have done inNorth America," he notes. "There are many fascinating sites that have beenchronicled by archaeologists but not by landscape architects." The centralquestion Koepke asks is "how did Native Americans design the landscapethey inhabited?" Most recently, Koepke collaborated with a team ofarchaeologists and a geographer in studying the ancient city ofCahokia. Northern Illinois University Press will publish their book,Envisioning Cahokia: A Landscape Interpretation In addition to hisNative American research, Koepke is part of a CALA team working on thedepartment's Laurentian Vision project. This project is bringingresidents, community leaders, and mining and power companies ofMinnesota's mining region in the Mesabi Iron Range together with designersand researchers from the University. By reclaiming depleted mines ininnovative ways and planning for the eventual reclamation of existing andfuture mines, the stakeholders and CALA team hope to preserve thelandscape's other important natural resources and ensure the region'seconomic and ecological viability. His strong interest in environmental science has lead Koepke tocollaborate with other CALA faculty on the Ecological Design EducationProject, which studied how to incorporate ecological literacy and thinkinginto the design curriculum of the college. This project has lead to theCALA Living Labs Consortium and Project, whose mission is to investigateand promote ecological innovation in the teaching, research, and practiceof landscape architecture, architecture, and interior design. Most of Koepke's efforts, however, are spent as chairman of the landscapearchitecture department. Koepke is nationally recognized for having helpedcreate the collegial, collaborative atmosphere with much interdisciplinarywork that the department enjoys today. He also helped create a sharedvision for the department, one of seeing its mission as integrating artand ecology. | |||
| |||
| | | |