AIA Baltimore Spring Lecture Series- Presents Jerry van Eyck

Jerry van Eyck West 8 Rotterdam, New York / !Melk, New York Narration of Urban Settings through Integral Landscapes April 22, Thursday As a partner and design director at West 8 Urban Design and Landscape Architecture based in the Netherlands, Jerry van Eyck founded the West 8 New York office in 2007. Now acting as a consulting principle to West 8, he has also recently launched another firm !Melk in New York with urban designer Evan Rose. The same year Jerry graduated Summa Cum Laude from the Eindhoven Design Academy with a degree in Industrial Design and Landscape Architecture in 1992, he established IRONYX, Office/Laboratory/Workshop for Architectural design. For the next seven years, Jerry managed and designed projects across Europe, many in collaboration with West 8. In 1999, he integrated his practice with West 8, where he was named lead designer for public space design. By 2003, Jerry became a partner of West 8, thereby cementing the firm’s commitment to a truly interdisciplinary practice. His hybrid education has contributed to a portfolio comprised of a wide range of many types and scales of venerated public spaces, gardens, parks, and urban masterplans. With an expansive breadth and depth of skills, he approaches each commission as a balancing act on both the macro-scale and micro levels. He investigates how public spaces fit into the larger context of a city’s fabric and the urban experience, and then conversely turns his focus onto the basic elements of materiality, ornamentation, pattern, and distinguishing details in each project. Jerry has led international teams on projects and competitions that span the globe, including London’s Jubilee Gardens, the Toronto Waterfront, the Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza, Lincoln Park in Miami Beach, and New York’s Gowanus Canal. One of his earliest collaborations with West 8, Schouwburgplein, or “Theater Square,” in Rotterdam, continues to be a model for contemporary urban square design, with custom furniture, iconic crane-like lights that park users can operate, and a trademarked hardscape pattern that has remarkably withstood the test of time. After winning the international design competition for the remaking of New York’s Governors Island into a “Park at the Center of the World” in 2007, Jerry is presently managing and representing the West 8 team for this high-profile project. Architect magazine quoted Jerry as identifying Governors Island as “’the un-Central Park’ for its nonurban condition and ‘a sleeping beauty’ for its untapped potential.” In his vision, the new park will become not only a connection to its city as a lively retreat, but also a natural sanctuary. Jerry is a guest professor and critic at design schools around the globe, enabling him to spread his joy in the unexpected interplay of people and their environment. On April 22, he will deliver his presentation “Milk Ponds and Butter Mountains,” a distinguishing portrayal of his most critical works as a landscape architect and master planner. He will illustrate his holistic approach to design and detailing by sharing how methodical research and analysis of urbanity can compliment and balance the designer’s intuition. Each lecture will take place at Falvey Hall at Brown Center, Maryland Institute College of Art, 1301 W. Mount Royal Avenue and will begin at 6 p.m. with a reception to follow. 1.5 AIA/CES (HSW) with registration. Save time and money by purchasing tickets through the AIABaltimore office. Series tickets (4 lectures) are $30/AIA, BAF, BH and ASLA members; $45/public; $15 individually at the door as space permits. Additional information at www.aiabalt.com