Horrigan, Paula H

member of graduate field

Landscape Architecture

research overview

SCRIPTING THE FUTURE OF A COMMUNITY: A PARTICIPATORY VISIONING PROCESS FOR IOWA’S AMANA COLONIES. This participation action research project currently funded with a Cornell Institute for Social Sciences (ISS) small project grant, engages Iowa’s Amana Colonies-a significant historic utopian society in existence since 1855. Since their founding, the Amana Colonies have struggled to preserve their way of life, their values, social traditions and cultural landscape. Today, having abandoned communal living, the Amana’s livelihood relies heavily on tourism. Facing a tourism boom and the need for additional hospitality establishments, the Amana’s are seriously concerned for their community’s future and for the impacts of growth and development. Desperately in need of a vision, they have approached Cornell to assist them in examining, understanding and facilitating how they will plan, envision and script their future growth and development. Using place- based participatory design methods and practices this research project will enable the Amana community to “own” the process of planning their future. Both the process and its results will provide evidence regarding how democratic place-based participatory planning and design processes can be used to facilitate community planning while sustaining the vitality of our most valued cultural landscapes. This project is undertaken jointly by Deni Ruggeri, Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture and Paula Horrigan, Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture
THE INTERIOR ARCHETYPES RESEARCH and TEACHING PROJECT The Intypes Project (Interior Archetypes Research and Teaching Project), initiated in 1997 by Professor Jan Jennings in the Department of Design and Environmental Analysis at Cornell University, creates a typology of contemporary interior design practices derived from reiterative historical designs that span time and style and cross cultural boundaries. The project identifies design traits that have not been named, providing designers with an interior-specific, historical, and contemporary design vocabulary. The project’s methodological and theoretical approaches create new knowledge from the creative dimension of design rather than from behavioral studies. Collaborating Academic Partners at Cornell, since the project’s inception, include Professor Paula Horrigan, Department of Landscape Architecture and Professor E.D. Intemann, Theatre, Film and Dance Department.

research activities

principal investigator on

RUST TO GREEN (R2G) UTICA ECOLOGICAL CITIZENSHIP CURRICULUM AND GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE MAPPING PROJECT awarded by THE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF HERKIMER & ONEIDA COUNTIES, INC 2010 - 2011

submitted impact statement

individual publications

book
- Service-Learning in Design and Planning: Educating at the Boundaries 2011
conference paper
- Erasing Boundaries Project . 2012 Imagining America Annual Conference. 2012
- Forgotten Frames . Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture 2012 Conference. 2012
- Erasing Boundaries Project Presented to the International Association of Research in Service-Learning and Community Engagement. International Association of Research in Service-Learning and Community Engagement. 2011
- Rust To Green Utica . We Live NY Summit. 2011
- Rust to Green . Cornell Social Entrepreneurship Conference. 2011
- Rust to Green Utica – Addressing Community Needs Through A Food Policy Council . Cornell Cooperative Extension Centennial Conference, Syracuse. 2011
- Rust to Green: Cultivating Resilience in the Rust Belt. Environmental Design Research Association. 2011
- Rust to Green: Cultivating Resilience in the Rust Belt . Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture. 2011
- “Rust to Green NYS” . Upstate APA and ASLA Conference. 2011
- “Creating a Sustainable City Form in Toronto, Canada”. Paper in the Proceedings of the ASLA Annual Meeting. 1997
- “The Hospice Garden: Sustaining Wellness and Resolution”. Paper in the Proceedings of the ASLA Annual Meeting. 1997
- “Visual Books: Representing Landscapes.”. Proceedings of the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture. 35-48. 1995
conference poster
- Erasing Boundaries Project: Service-Learning in Design and Planning 2012
report

teaching overview

In her teaching, Professor Horrigan advocates for place-based design theory and practices, action-research, service learning and community-based, student-directed teaching and learning. In her theory seminar, Placemaking By Design, Professor Horrigan introduces the theory and practice of contemporary place-based design at the planning and site scale. She has developed an innovative Service-Learning curriculum through her Participatory Community Design Studio where landscape architecture majors partner with community organizations on real projects. Action Research Design Projects undertaken with her students have included streetscape redesign, downtown revitalization, public park design, and "landscapes for learning" on school grounds and educational environments. An ongoing focus of Professor Horrigan’s teaching and research is concerned with place-based landscape representation. She uses"visual books" as a representational mode for both knowing and creating landscapes. Such “book works” convey the experiential, spatial and temporal realities of landscape. As place-based narrative structures, these book works turn viewers into engaged participants. This consciously cultural approach promotes a vision for landscape architecture that embraces depth, community connection, staying power, and environmental sustainability. Each work presents a unique “site immersion” into a landscape’s dynamic, place-specific conditions.

teaching activities

outreach overview

Advancing the field of community building has been one of Horrigan's intentions. She has made many contributions to civic planning, helping to create richer places for community experience. Her work falls into two main categories, as part of Cornell-based design practice and outreach, and as action-research design projects. Horrigan's award-winning design and execution of the Ithaca Hospicare Gardens in Ithaca, New York, provides a peaceful, sylvan setting for the terminally ill, their families, and their caretakers, through its powerful integration between facility and site. The Trumansburg Main Street, Engaged Community Project t Project, falls into the category of an action-research design project, whereby from the start, Horrigan engaged participation by the community as a cornerstone of the project. Horrigan incorporated research and reflection on how to engage a community in civic projects, as opposed to top-down decision making about what a community needs. The Main Street Project broke ground in 2006 and continues to transform downtown Trumansburg into a more pedestrian-friendly and revitalized atmosphere. Through this project and others Horrigan has brought people with vastly different backgrounds and viewpoints together to discuss and decide upon the priorities of their communities, and so has helped to build community while transforming landscape.

service to the profession

Service-Learning Track Co-Chair for Annual Conference of Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture Chairperson 2009 -
Environmental Design Research Association Member 2005 -
Growing Up in Cities Advisory Committee Member 2004 -
Kaplan Service-Learning Fellowship Awards Committee Member 2004 -
Main Street Advisory Board Board Member 2001 -
American Planning Association
American Society of Landscape Architects
Environmental Design Research Association
New York State Preservation League
Walkability Study Committee, Tompkins County Planning Department Member 2006 - 2007
Historic Ithaca Board Member 2001 - 2005
SUNY NETWORK: QUALITY COMMUNITIES INITIATIVE, NY Department of State Historic Ithaca Board Member 2001 - 2005
Awards Preservation Committee, Historic Ithaca for Tompkins County Chairperson - 2005
Bartels Action Research Scholarship & Awards Governance Committee Board Member 2002 - 2004
AI-SPER-0203DF692AB0001085B Program Organizer - 2003
Town of Ulysses, NY Planning Board Board Member 1997 - 2002
3-City Squares Workshop. Academie van Bouwkunst Committee Member 2002
Conservation Advisory Council Chairperson 1989 - 1992

reviewer or editor for

education and training

Cornell University 1987
B.A. in Fine Arts, Brown University 1979

awards and honors

Distinguished Practitioner Award Academics, 2012
Weeding and Winnowing: Deaccession Plan A, 2012
Interactive Art: Invited Exhibition, 2006
Ithaca Art Trail Invited Exhibition, 2005
"Havana Sighting," Ithaca Art Trail Invited Exhibition, 2004
ASLA Honor Award for Hospicare Gardens and Landscape, 2003
Kaplan Family Distinguished Faculty Fellowship in Service-Learning, 2003
CARDI Community and Economic Vitality Award, 2002
Campus-Community Partnership Award, 2002
Selected for inclusion, 2001
On Site: Off Site. Exhibition of Visual Books Representing Landscape Architecture, 2001
Selected Exhibitor, 2000
Selected for Inclusion, 1997
Second Place Winner, 1994
Visionary Landscapes Competition Winner, 1994
Winning submission for "City Underfoot," Public Art Project. (With Margaret McAvin), 1994
National Teaching Award, 1991
Certificate of Recognition: Outstanding Educator, Merrill Presidential Scholar, 1990
Merit Award, 1990
Merit Award, 1990

college

CALS

name prefix

Professor

VIVO: Cornell Research & Scholarship

Horrigan, Paula H

Positions

Research Areas

Websites

Affiliations

member of graduate field

Research

research overview

research activities

principal investigator on

submitted impact statement

Publications

individual publications

book

conference paper

conference poster

report

Teaching

teaching overview

teaching activities

Service

outreach overview

service to the profession

reviewer or editor for

Background

education and training

awards and honors

Other

college

name prefix