Professor Campo explores urban wilderness in Queens; authenticity and cities in Pittsburgh

Daniel Campo, Associate Professor in City and Regional Planning, spent large parts of the summer exploring the sometimes splendid and often overwhelming wilderness found in residual, accidental and postindustrial sites in the borough of Queens, NYC, as part of the Chance Ecologies project. During a week long residency at the Queens Museum’s Studio-in-the-Park, he documented and toured a variety of surprisingly natural sites along NYC’s most overlooked waterway, The Flushing River. Leading a tour of the wilderness of Flushing Meadows Corona Park during a blistering Saturday afternoon in August, his expedition located the headwaters of the river sandwiched in the woods between an MTA subway depot and the Grand Central Parkway. His earlier Chance Ecologies adventures along the East River are considered in his forthcoming paper to appear in StreetNotes, “A New Postindustrial Nature: Remembering the Wild Waterfront of Hunters Point.”

Later this month, he continues his postindustrial discourse at Pittsburgh’s Thrival Festival (the Rustbelt’s answer to Austin’s “South by South West”). The festival features three days of free public discussions and programming around the topic of innovation and urban life followed by a two-day electronic music festival at the Carrie Blast Furnaces. His panel on September 21 will explore the intersection of innovation and authenticity.