The Project:
Safari 7 is a self-guided tour of urban wildlife along the 7 subway line. The 7 Line is a physical, urban transect through New York City’s most diverse range of ecosystems. Affectionately called the International Express, the 7 line runs from Manhattan’s dense core, under the East River, and through a dispersed mixture of residences and parklands, terminating in downtown Flushing, Queens, the nation’s most ethnically diverse county.
Safari 7 circulates an ongoing series of podcasts and maps that explore the complexity, biodiversity, conflicts, and potentials of New York’s ecosystems. Materials are available online and can be experienced independently or in tours or workshops organized by Safari 7 team members. Safari 7 imagines train cars as eco-urban classrooms, and invites travelers to act as park rangers in their city. We hope to engage the broadest range of New Yorkers, from commuters and school children to urban explorers and designers, in active research and exploration of their own environment.
Contact:
Want to collaborate? Have questions or stories about animal life in NYC? Email us at: info@safari7.org or participate here.
Team:
The Safari 7 team is a collaboration among architects, designers, educators, and students at the Urban Landscape Lab at Columbia University and MTWTF.
Glen Cummings, MTWTF
Janette Kim, Urban Landscape Lab
Kate Orff, Urban Landscape Lab
Research and Design Associates: Jordan Carver, Susan Choe, Aliza Dzik, Lisa Ekle, Robin Fitzgerald-Green, Steven Garcia, Kathryn Hotler, Helen Kongsgaard, Sayli Korgaonkar, Jenny Noguchi, Jonathan Payne, Jonathan Pettibone, Evan Sharp, Gena Wirth, Soohyun Park.
Select Podcasts were created in Janette Kim’s seminar on urban ecologies at the Barnard and Columbia Colleges Architecture Program. Students: Andrew Balmer, Julia Burgi, Alex Cook, Rick Fudge, Charlotte Furet, Emily Glass, Aaron Hsieh, Ryan Johns, Alyssa Kahn, Meg Kelly, Sayli Korgaonkar, Lesley Merz, Stephanie Odenheimer, Marc Rios, Grace Robinson-Leo, Evelyn Ting, Alexandre Vial, and Alison Von Glinow.
Podcast interviews with Steven Handel, Professor of Ecology and Evolution at Rutgers University; James Danoff-Berg, Associate Director Center for Environment, Economy, and Society at Columbia University; John Mattera Planner, NYC Parks; Susan Elbin, Director of Conservation, NYC Audubon Society; Donald Karatzas, author of “Jackson Heights: A Garden in the City”; Katie Mosher-Smith, NY-NJ Baykeeper; Ed Westley Jackson Heights Beautification Group and numerous Queens and Manhattan residents.
Supporters and Partners:
The Safari 7 Base Camp at Grand Central Station in April 2010 was presented by MTA Arts for Transit.
The Safari 7 Reading Room at Studio-X was organized by Studio-X (Gavin Browning, Programming Coordinator of Studio-X) and Safari 7.
Base Camp and Reading Room exhibitions were in-part supported by the Dean’s Office at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation of Columbia University. Special thanks to CeX Complete Entertainment Exchange, the Avery Digital Fabrication Lab at Columbia University, and Ito En.
