by Laurie Galbraith
There used to be a large, freshwater pond that sat where Chinatown in New York is today.
400 years ago, the native Lenape people used it to sustain their livelihood, but that ended with colonization in the 18th century. Slaughterhouses and tanneries were built, resulting in a polluted dump. Later, city officials decided to fill the area in and it became a neighborhood of ongoing arrivals, displacement and resettlement. New immigrants, refugees and enslaved African-Americans all have a history there. The place where the pond was filled in stretches along the south and western boundaries of Chinatown including Canal Street, named after the canal built to drain the pond.
Landscape architecture is not just a well-maintained gorgeous front yard. Or a minimalistic, xeriscape model at the newest local park. Both ideas are accurate, but there’s more. Concepts like social justice, as well as the intersection of racial and cultural history with the built environment are also integral to understanding the field.
These intersections matter deeply to Liska Chan, associate professor of landscape architecture and most recently, associate dean of faculty at Clark Honors College. She was the principal architect of Chinatown Invisible, an art mapping project which chronicles the racial and geographic cultural history in what is now Chinatown. Those scars of injustice are unseen to most people. Chan says the term is called “invisible landscapes.”
“It’s shorthand for ‘invisible aspects of landscapes,’” says Chan. “Meaning, the facets that influence the places where you visit, but they are not immediately perceptible.”
According to Chan, almost every (American) city has a low-lying wet area where if not now, was at some point in history, a Black neighborhood. In 1940s Eugene, it was the Ferry Street Settlement where Alton Baker Park now sits. She says where the duck ponds are now, there was a short-term settlement where African-Americans were required to live outside the city limits. While it was prone to flooding, the residents still managed to cultivate a strong community, “even having its own church,” says Chan. Then they were evicted, likely for site development, but the area remained vacant until 25 years later when the duck ponds were constructed. In 2013, Chan taught “Invisible Landscapes,” having students work on projects surrounding the settlement. Chan says most people aren’t aware of this time in local history.
“This is an important historical landscape that isn’t recognized—as far as I know—in any way,” says Chan. “The current landscape erases any stories about the settlement.”
Chan’s passion lies where layers of injustice and exclusion related to these landscapes intersect with social justice and the built environment. This passion adds fuel to the fire for one of her highest priorities at the CHC next year.
“We are examining how we can incorporate more anti-racist education into the honors college,” explains Chan.
That goal includes collaborations with the University of Oregon’s Division of Equity and Inclusion, as well as the Office of Financial Aid and Scholarships, which Chan says are strategic.
“I want not only to recruit more students of color, with a focus on Black students, but also make us [CHC] a genuinely welcoming environment.” She adds, “Our goal in the next few years will be to advance students of color.”
Placing a high value on welcoming and ‘seeing’ those she serves is part of Chan’s professional DNA. A past project—redesigning the university playground behind Prince Puckler’s ice cream—was “an academic exercise with a real-life feel for her students,” says Chan. A collaboration with Dan Rosenberg, professor of history at UO, the studio class focused on creating “a really lovely place for children to play in.”
“We thought, ‘how nice it would be if it weren’t just a giant frying pan of wood chips and puddles,’” says Chan. “But rather a beautiful park for the UO community’s and Eugene’s children.”
Considering aesthetics was only one part of the learning and design process, however. Rebecca Cruze, BS ’20, was a landscape architecture major and took several classes with Chan. One of her favorites was the playground studio class. She says they were encouraged to think across disciplines, to be thorough in considering all the children who would use the space.
“It was a delightful design exploration that integrated psychology and social sciences into our process. We investigated the different needs and abilities of children at different phases in their development,” explains Cruze.
In classic CHC fashion, Chan’s two classes this upcoming year will use cross-disciplinary approaches. In Fall 2020, she’ll teach “Walkscapes: The Art and Architecture of Walking,” where students will look at walking through a fresh lens. Chan says this will include considering the practice as “ritual, protest and pilgrimage.”
In Winter 2021, Chan will teach “Contemporary American Landscapes.” Built upon her interest in “natural systems and cultural layers,” the class will examine how the natural landscape combined with history and injustice, affects our landscapes today.
That class won’t be a moment too soon.