National Parks Now
This is a competition inviting multidisciplinary teams of young professionals to develop strategies for reshaping the national parks visitor experience.
| Category | Project Competition |
| Type | International, Project, RfQ , Age Restriction , Two-Stage, Onymous |
| Genre | Landscape |
| Country | United States |
| RegDeadline | 30 October 2014 GoogleCal iCal |
| 30 October 2014 (via Online) | |
| Eligibility | Team leads must be early career professionals with professional degrees obtained within the last ten years. |
Description
Van Alen Institute and the National Park Service (NPS) have launched National Parks Now, a competition inviting multidisciplinary teams of young professionals to develop strategies for reshaping the national parks visitor experience.
As the National Park Service prepares to celebrate its centennial in 2016, the competition highlights four parks in the Northeast Region as case studies for attracting diverse audiences, telling new stories, and engaging the next generation of visitors at a time of fast-evolving technologies, regional contexts, and audience expectations:
- Sagamore Hill National Historic Site (Oyster Bay, NY), the estate of President Theodore Roosevelt
- Steamtown National Historic Site (Scranton, PA), one of the world’s most important monuments to the steam locomotive
- Paterson Great Falls National Historical Park (Paterson, NJ), a historic birthplace of American textile manufacturing
- Weir Farm National Historic Site (Ridgefield, CT), the summer estate of the artist Julian Alden Weir
Jury
Glen Cummings (Partner, MTWTF)
Fred Dust (Partner, IDEO)
Mark Hansen (Director, Brown Institute for Media Innovation, Columbia University School of Journalism)
David van der Leer (Executive Director, Van Alen Institute)
Setha Low (Professor, Ph.D. programs in Anthropology, Geography, and Environmental Psychology, The Graduate Center, City University of New York)
William Morrish (Dean, Parsons School of Constructed Environments)
Kate Orff (Partner, SCAPE / Landscape Architecture)
Hunter Tura (President and CEO, Bruce Mau Design)
Linda Cook (Superintendent, Weir Farm National Historic Site)
Shaun Eyring (Chief, Resource Planning and Compliance, Northeast Region, National Park Service)
Barbara Pollarine (Chief, Interpretation, Education, and Partnership Development, Northeast Region, NPS)
Prize
Four teams - one for each park site - will be selected to receive a $15,000 stipend each to participate in a six-month, collaborative research and design process that explores the themes of region, engagement, narrative, and place.
At the conclusion of this phase, one team will be selected to receive an additional $10,000 to create a prototype for one of their strategies, which will be implemented at their site in summer of 2015.
Entry Fee
None
Entries
- Team Description
- Project Approach (in no more than 500 words, include relevant materials illustrating)
- Previous Work (include a maximum of five projects demonstrating the capacity to create innovative, interactive experiences and environments. At least three of these projects should have been realized)
Timetable
Winning teams selected and convened at kickoff event: November, 2014
Teams make initial site visits: November, 2014
Pin-Up Review 1: January, 2015
Pin-Up Review 2: February, 2015
Final presentations: April, 2015
Organizer
Van Alen Institute and the National Park Service (NPS)