{"id":2305,"date":"2026-10-11T22:36:42","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T02:36:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ivanhimanen.com\/crisesofdocumentation\/?p=2305"},"modified":"2026-10-11T23:27:05","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T03:27:05","slug":"field-urbanist-draft-syllabus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ivanhimanen.com\/crisesofdocumentation\/field-urbanist-draft-syllabus\/","title":{"rendered":"Field Urbanist – Draft Syllabus"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Preface<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Almost twenty years ago I took a school field trip with the late professor Diane Lewis up Park Avenue, from Grand Central Terminal on 42nd Street to The Lever House on 53rd, which became the inspiration for a walking tour I developed and have given multiple times. Its topic– the urban evolution of that corridor into one of the richest land tracts in the country– may seem easier to explain with historic photographs, maps, and charts than from the ground looking up, but it isn’t. In fact, during the tour, I illuminate how seemingly abstract phenomena as development rights and rail operations are plainly visible just by knowing where to look.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, 5 years ago, Charlotte bought me a ticket to a course taught by Annie Novak for Atlas Obscura called How To Read A Landscape<\/em>. Annie Novak has been cultivating a life of urban naturalism for many years, primarily being the steward-in-chief of the Eagle Street Rooftop Farms<\/a> in Greenpoint. In each class, she showed us photographs of northeastern landscapes– some untamed, some deeply urban– and over the course of an hour shepherded us toward answering the whats, wheres, whens, and whys of that scene. Naming names was de-emphasized, especially the casual sense of finality that it brings, in exchange for empirical descriptions of objects and phenomena, meandering toward an understanding that always glimmered through the underbrush. Annie quietly turned on a switch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, last year, I read two standout books which I realized share the same outlook: These Trees Tell A Story<\/em> by Noah Charney<\/a> and Outside Lies Magic<\/em> by John Stilgoe<\/a>. They discuss the world around us phenomenologically, blending history, ecology, psychology, and a mischievous curiosity. Outside Lies Magic<\/em> is a simple ode to going on walks, but These Trees Tell A Story<\/em> in particular felt simultaneously revolutionary and familiar to me. Based on a class that Charney teaches at the University of Maine called Field Naturalist<\/em>, each chapter begins with a photographic collage, taken by Charney while bushwacking in the woods, then slowly parses what natural forces can be seen at work. Why are the plants on the left darker than the plants on the right? Why are the trees all dead here? Its style is neither pedantic nor solipsistic, but didactic and concrete. The switch of mindfulness that Annie Novak flipped half a decade ago became a humming current.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Having grown up pushed down many paths, I am continually enthralled with how all of those paths eventually lead to architecture. Call it confirmation bias, but my profession has a knack for accepting many ways of practicing it, be it through drawing, photography, speaking, reading, building, organizing, or managing. It is a gift I want to share. My proposition is simple: do what Charney does, but in cities. Call it Field Urbanist<\/em>. For each session I take the class for a walk in the city, rain or shine, hot or cold, pausing in a pre-determined locus, then observe, sketch, photograph, and discuss what we see. Why does the brick change color here? Why is this part of the street wet, and that part dry? Why are people only walking on that side? Students will learn to read the cityscape<\/em> spatially and temporally and articulate its basic workings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here’s a draft syllabus of that course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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FIELD URBANIST: How to Read the City<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Seminar \/ Field Laboratory<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Course Description<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Field Urbanist<\/em> is a seminar about attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Borrowing from natural history, journalism, drawing, photography, oral history, and the scientific method, Field Urbanist<\/em> teaches students to read the city as evidence. The form of the city around us– buildings, trees, curbs, crowds, storefronts, signs, manholes, vacant lots, and property lines– all contain clues about the invisible forces that shape the built environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inspired equally by Noah Charney’s These Trees Tell a Story<\/em>, Jan Gehl’s Urban Life Data Protocol, and Teju Cole’s Open City<\/em>, the majority of this seminar takes place outdoors, in a select urban place each session. With cameras and sketchbooks in hand, students begin with patient observation, and are challenged to look closer, question further, observing and deducing why things are the way they are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New York City’s urban fabric has endless information and narrative embedded within it. Our task is to learn how to observe & decipher.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Class discussions will resist historiographic tendencies to explain cities too quickly. Cities do not reveal themselves systematically, and neither will the course. Our discussions will often meander. This is intentional. Students will learn to notice things better and, with luck, discover that they already know more than they realize.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lastly, this course will draw on a diverse range of reading sources beyond traditional history books in order to illuminate how cities are organisms whose life is codified in real time in social media, community board newsletters, flyers, city agency reports, signage, and more. Students will practice gleaning these sources to understand how urban policy manifests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Learning Objectives<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

By the end of the semester students should be able to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n