River City: Water Front Design For Civic Life

We are pleased to present the second exhibition in Van Alen’s series River City: Waterfront Design for Civic Life. Exploring the reinvention of a once-buried urban waterway, Deconstruction/Construction: The Cheonggyecheon River Project in Seoul examines this complex work of Korean infrastructure as a case study in how rivers can be reclaimed as thriving civic resources.

All but forgotten under the shadow of an elevated highway in the heart of Seoul, the Cheonggyecheon was transformed as a metropolitan-scale public space through an unprecedented effort of urban planning and design. Completed in 2005, the project re-made the river as the centerpiece of a 3.5-mile-long public park and the core of a multifaceted ecological, cultural, and economic redevelopment.

This exhibition, first presented at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, considers how the Cheonggyecheon’s renewal not only created a new ecological network in the center of the city, but also knit once-severed neighborhoods back together and catalyzed civic life through integrated architecture, landscape architecture, engineering, planning, and economic development.

We are excited to present this exhibition in our pop-up gallery space on Van Alen Institute’s ground-floor level. Please join us for the latest in our River City exhibition and program series exploring innovative waterfront design.

Van Alen Institute
30 West 22nd Street
Ground Floor (Enter through Van Alen Books)
New York, NY 10010
Exhibition Hours: Tuesday – Saturday, 11AM – 7PM