MARGINAL STREET, the first in the PLOT series, seeks to track emerging landscape phenomena as well as consider design thinking and the urban landscape. The theme Marginal Street is both an actual street name near our campus and a thematic metaphorical perspective; it is a space with which to frame dialogue and thoughts. Within urban areas there exist a number of streets, often extensions of off-ramps, former construction roads, or dead-end culs-de-sac that are named Marginal Street. Discovering one such street while researching a particular Manhattan site, the student editors reflected on how often we investigate spaces and conditions that are dilapidated, in ruin, or somehow on the fringe. As students, we are determined to identify and explore these places as well as plot their significance. 

Editors: Michael Mason, Kelly McCracken, Sheila Moss, Stuart Polasky, Tyler Silvestro

Contributors: Danae Alessi, Kjirsten Alexander, Kenn Bass, Samuel W. Berkheiser III, Agnes Denes, Chiara di Palma, Edward Eigen, Lindsay Foehrenbach, Lara Gelband, Toni L. Griffin, Denise Hoffman Brandt, Len Hopper, Elise Kaufman, Michael A. King, Michael Mason, Kelly McCracken, Molly McIntosh, Charles McKinney, Ken Missbrenner, Sheila Moss, Dominic Perri, Stuart Polasky, Linda Pollak, Gregory Schaffer, Catherine Seavitt Nordenson, B. Tyler Silvestro, John Silvestro, Terreform, June Williamson

VOL. 2: PATCHWORK

The second volume, PATCHWORK, addresses the “patchwork thinking” that creates ad-hoc assemblages of ideas, much as a quilt is a pragmatic act of joining disparate pieces in revelatory ways. Patchwork thinking is both innovative and precise: it solves specific problems and addresses specific needs. We also see patchwork thinking as particularly urban; it’s a useful way of fixing things that have gone wrong, or embracing conditions emanating from between the cracks. Contributors to this issue are thoughtful observers of change, fluidity, and emergent systems in the city. This issue of PLOT shapes new ways of collectively reconsidering the city and its patchwork logic.

Editors: Samuel W. Berkheiser III, Kathleen Cholewka, Lara Gelband, Sara Malmqvist, Ryan Morrison, Liza Trafton

Contributors: Kjirsten Alexander, Carl Alderson, Sara Alsum-Wassenaar, Bradley Alter, Julie Bargmann, Beirut Field (Frederic Karam, an Ackenhausen, and George SalAmeh), Megan Berkheiser and Mike Caldwell, Samuel W. Berkheiser III, Emily Bolevice, Molly Briggs, Kathleen Cholewka, Xiaochao Dai, Aurora Davis , Earth Matter NY, Will Ellis, Alan Feigenberg, 596 Acres, Elizabeth Fodde-Reguer, Alberto Foyo , Future Green Studio, Lara Gelband , Anina Gerchick, Denise Hoffman Brandt, Max Jacquard, Michael A. King, Daphne Lasky, Elizabeth Luzzi, Michaela Macleod, Sara MalmQvist, Michael Mason, Matt McCormick, Ryan Morrison, Kirsten Myhr, Grace Ng, Mary Nunn, Luke Pryjma, Alanna Rios, Marie Salembier, Anamel Sanchez Lee, Eli Sands, Catherine Seavitt Nordenson, Alexandra T. Siladi, B. Tyler Silvestro, Michael Sorkin, Liza Trafton, Urban-Think Tank, Maura Whang, Gabriel Willow, Esther Yang, Andrew Zientek