SPACES OF INCLUSION

The buildings, cities, and landscapes where we live are not neutral. They are shaped by the interests of those in power, who often exclude others—people of color, regularly—from decisions, processes, and profits. The features in this issue cover initiatives that work in the opposite direction and expand the set of people whose voices are heard. In Dallas, an architecture critic leads the charge to reimagine sites of violence through the proposal of a connective, memorial landscape. Moody Nolan, an African American–owned architecture office, has served HBCU clients for over 30 years, resulting in more than 70 projects on 32 campuses across the country. And in the classroom, educators are revising how professional practice courses are taught, an improvement that expands knowledge about careers in the field for its future leaders.

Top: The Reimagining Dealey Plaza design by Stoss Landscape Urbanism and MPdL weaves a series of streetscape, landscape, architectural, and memorial gestures into the existing transportation infrastructure.

Left: A tiered amphitheater facing the grassy knoll ramps up to a soaring promontory and overlook that gradually descend in a winding, planted pathway delivering visitors across the train tracks to Martyrs Park.

Above: The design calls for planting trees down to the Trinity River, a move that anticipates the redesign of upland areas of the river’s levees for parks and recreation.

Facing page: Dealey Plaza in 1961

Commissioned by architecture critic Mark Lamster, Stoss Landscape Urbanism and MPdL Studio offer a new public terrain for downtown Dallas that addresses its violent past.