Notes from the Field: Thoughts on the Environment and How We Shape It

About the Journal

At Lake Flato, we are architects, designers, and planners. But before that, and often in between, we are environmentalists, urbanists, bird watchers, craftspeople, and art seekers. We find inspiration and respite in the landscape and draw inspiration from nature in the buildings and settings we are tasked with designing. We seek out those who share our passion and concern for the environment and who choose to grapple with how their own work fits into the larger system of ecological relationships that shape the human experience.

Notes from the Field is Lake Flato’s conduit to those kindred individuals. It is a space for their work—which reaches across many disciplines—to converge with one another’s and our own. This collection of essays, interviews, fiction, poetry, and art is intended to celebrate our core commitment to creating environments that enrich communities and nurture life.

Our inaugural issue coincides with Lake Flato’s 40th anniversary of practice. In that time, we have brought the ideas of critical regionalism to projects across the country, creating architecture that is rooted in its place and fused with the landscape. Over those forty years, the landscapes we have been privileged to work in have changed dramatically. The climate is changing. The first order effects are obvious in the intensity of seasonal weather patterns and the dwindling levels of our local aquifer. The compounding effects are shaping global migration patterns and deepening socio-economic disparities, while upending the market for and management of our natural resources. The works assembled here share insights from people in remote landscapes and dense urban communities—each considering the evolving dynamics of a shifting landscape.

• Water provides an illustrative element and potent metaphor for journalist Bekah McNeel, who reflects on the ways her childhood was shaped by the Comal River.
• Colin McDonald takes on the same sinuous subject in his essay “The Disappearing Rio Grande,” exploring how water policy shapes the river’s flow more than any natural force could.
• Miriam Sitz’s celebration of the timeless wisdom of modernist architect O’Neil Ford is complemented by Jenny Browne’s poem “As Sky Happens to a Window,” written about the craftsmanship and construction Ford made the focus of his practice.
• Artist features and interviews with James Prosek and Katie Paterson reveal how their artwork pays homage to the history of art and natural sciences while addressing environmental concerns.
• Fiction from Brynne Jones frames contemporary issues of climate change, social fracturing, and generational disinheritance in a girl scout trip laden with dystopic premonitions.
• Interspersed between these creative pieces are interviews with thought leaders ‘from the field’ who offer insight into diverse topics like neuroaesthetics (Ivy Ross), sustainable forestry practices (Aaron Stottlemyer), and the challenges of urban revitalization (Maurice Cox). Each explores the tension between awareness and action, and the responsibility we have to bring the two into more creative and critical dialogue.

As Naomi Shihab Nye suggests in her poem, “In Certain Buildings,” to be “awakened to space” can reveal perspectives previously unknown. It’s our hope that this journal prompts similar awakenings and serves to inspire reflection on the shifting landscapes that shape your own experiences.