Judith Wasserman, MLA/MRP, Professor of Landscape Architecture Program at WVU
Judith Wasserman, MLA/MRP, Professor of Landscape Architecture Program at WVU, has been named the 2025 Art in the Libraries Faculty Exhibit Award winner.
Art in the Libraries sat down with Wasserman to discuss sustainable design in an exclusive Q&A interview.
What first sparked your interest in studying movement and health in relation to landscape architecture, particularly in projects like the Portland city waterfall? In your observations of the Portland waterfall site, how did public design encourage or discourage spontaneous movement, play, or joy?
I grew up both hiking through the beautiful gorges of Upstate New York and spending a lot of time in the dance studio. Since I had always been active in either nature or the studio, I was drawn to landscapes that focused on creating opportunities for active and creative engagement. Since Landscape Architect Lawrence Halprin was continually engaged with the world of dance via his wife Anna Halprin, his work consciously embedded interesting types of spaces that invite movement. Even the Parkour community in Rochester, New York recognized Halprin's fountains as prime spaces for movement. In his voluminous sketchbooks, he sketched and wrote ideas for the fountains. In Portland, he described the Lovejoy fountain as a space for events with “dancers all over, arriving to center space from above, downstairs, and around the fountain.”
He also actively "scored" his designs, much like a composer would write a musical score. As a key aspect of his design process, Lawrence Halprin would first draw sketches and write ideas of how he wanted people to move in, around, and through his spaces. He described his intent of landscape architecture as being a “design choreographer,” and he writes that urban design should start from movement as being the essential element of the plan. Only after programming movement should the environment — which he calls the envelope for movement — be designed. (Halprin L. 1963. Cities. Reinhold Publishing).
The Portland fountain sequence has a series of spaces that were intentionally designed differently to evoke different feelings and invite different ideas of movement — hard to soft or fast to slow. This is what I am showing in the exhibition.
The Portland Open Space Sequence invites programmed and informal movement, such as exercise classes, climbing up the walls, or just relaxing. Many performances and visual art exhibitions are centered on this open space network.
Public spaces—whether libraries, plazas, or campuses—are often designed for stillness. What possibilities do you see in introducing movement prompts into these everyday environments?
Many public spaces can and do invite movement. There is a lot of contemporary landscape architecture work that is moving towards active motion. A great example is the waterfront in Chattanooga, Tennessee, which I have studied, as well as the water's edge in Copenhagen, which includes elements such as trampolines and swimming areas. New York City has completely created the entire water's edge in Manhattan and now Brooklyn for active movement. Even historic landscapes like Olmsted's Central Park were designed around different types of movement including walking, carriage rides, cycling, and sports.
A big effort of landscape architects and urban designers is to pedestrianize urban places by including whimsical and creative ways to get people moving. Strategies include offering a variety of destinations, such as sculptures you want to go see, interesting ramps, or steppingstones to make moving interesting! Landscape architects design places people want to experience that draws them through spaces.
The last few panels of my exhibition describe a possible “score” for in front of the Downtown Library. That space has so many interesting possibilities — stairs, ramps, processional spaces, and dramatic space with columns.
And connectivity is really important. In order to have people choose walking and engaging with urban space, you have to keep it connected to amenities and exciting places. Many cities suffered from highways severing them in half, including West Virginia.
The principles of connectivity, interesting event “nodes,” places for people to engage with other people—such as front porches, outdoor dining, and other strategies—are pretty universal. You can see them in cities around the world.
If visitors leave the exhibit with one new habit or shift in perspective about movement in daily life, what do you hope that will be?
I hope they see possibilities in outdoor spaces for joyful movement! Roll down a hill, run up a ramp, stretch on some stairs! Gather with friends for a movement event!