Dakota Access Pipeline

Last spring, four classmates—B. Abbas, L. Harris, C. Turett, and B.K. Walker—and I were awarded the Howland Traveling Fellowship by the University of Virginia Department of Landscape Architecture. In June of 2017, we embarked on a month-long research trip along the Dakota Access Pipeline. We wore the hats of anthropologists, ecologists, and artists while using the frameworks and tools of landscape architecture to better understand the material realities and socio-ecological implications of this contentious 1,172-mile site. We saw oil rigs in North Dakota, heard Lakota histories in the Standing Rock Reservation, and learned about eminent domain from farmers in Iowa. While testing the limits of a mobile studio, we gained perspective on the complexity of relationships between people and land throughout the midwest. An exhibition of our work is scheduled at the UVA School of Architecture in February 2018.