Guided Site Exploration with Chris Carl, Studio Land Arts

Bio of Chris Carl + Focus of Event

Note: This event was originally scheduled for March 24 and was rescheduled due to weather.

Chris Carl (MLA Illinois 2014) is founder and director of Studio Land Arts, a collaborative practice based in the Granite City Art and Design District G-CADD of Granite City, IL. As an artist-designer-builder, Carl pursues hands-on engagement in all aspects of his work. He believes that art (exploration), design (seeking solutions), and craft (actualization) form an ideal triad through which to negotiate more resilient and meaningful relationships with and between the built and natural environments. As gardeners and craftspeople, as well as designers and draftspeople, participants in Studio Land Arts are well practiced and capable of a full range of construction and landscape services, with particular interest in the production of unique, street-level, green infrastructures, such as rain gardens and native plant installations, and their continued proliferation with the urban landscape. Studio Land Arts also engages directly with users and communities throughout the process of development and actualization.

The Pulitzer Arts Foundation in St. Louis, MO, recently commissioned Studio Land Arts to transform a grass lot across the street from its building into an inviting open space for people, plants, and wildlife. Part archaeology, part land art, part rain garden, the resulting work—called Park-Like—utilizes creative landscape techniques to absorb stormwater runoff and reduce impacts on urban drainage and sewer systems. The sustainably designed project opened to the public in September 2019 and serves as both a site for educational programs and a new neighborhood space for the public to enjoy.

For this event, Carl will lead participants in a guided site exploration along and around the Boneyard Creek in Urbana, building on his deep knowledge of natural systems and cultural patterns in that context.

This event is made possible with support from the Visiting Practitioner Fund in the Department of Landscape Architecture.

If you require accessibility accommodation(s) to participate in any of our events, contact our Office Administrator Marti Gortner by phone at 217-333-0176 or by email at ladept@illinois.edu.