Remediation and reuse

Prof. Kelley Lemon has been awarded a $100,000 grant through the Chancellor’s Call to Action Initiative, a commitment by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to focus the intellectual and scholarly talent of our university on two of the greatest challenges facing our society—racism and social injustice—and to seek new solutions. The Call to Action to Address Racism & Social Injustice Research Program provides support for academic research and the expansion of community-based knowledge that advances the understanding of systemic racism and generationally embedded racial disparity.

In this online lecture, O’Shea will discuss recent projects by his practice, Hinterlands, that exemplify the firm’s commitment to radically rethinking the contemporary urban realm through the medium of landscape.

Led by Prof. Mary Pat McGuire, the initiative is part of a growing movement to transform underused paved areas, such as empty parking lots, into vibrant, green, community spaces.

Students in our undergrad Regional Design Studio partnered with the City of Whiting, IN, and the USDA Forest Service to design plans for foresting vacant lots. So far, two have been planted, with more to come.