Rescuing Cities From Themselves

“Architects grab more attention with their imposing skyscrapers. But landscape architects are emerging as the heroes of modern urban existence. They reclaim the wastelands,” of which there are certainly no shortage in America’s big cities, and turn them into, well, whatever you like, really. “After 53 years, mountains of garbage piled 225 feet high on New York’s Staten Island have begun a slow transition to parkland… In Duisburg, Germany, a derelict iron mill was reborn three years ago as a sort of theme park of the Industrial Age… In Beirut, a Garden of Forgiveness (Hadiqat As-Samah) is being constructed on a 5.7-acre site that was reduced to rubble by Lebanon’s 16-year civil war.”