Gale Fulton

Assistant Professor
Department of Landscape Architecture

Bio

Gale Fulton is an assistant professor of landscape architecture at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. After receiving his MLA at the University of Colorado- Denver, Gale practiced landscape architecture and urban design at the design firm Civitas in Denver, CO. Prior to arriving at the University of Illinois in 2007, he taught landscape architecture and urbanism at The University of Adelaide, South Australia, and The Pennsylvania State University. His teaching focuses on contemporary design theory and technique with an emphasis on urbanism, ecology, and disciplinarity. He has published in numerous journals including Monu, Landscape India, Kerb, Landscape Journal, Landscape Review, and Landscape Architecture Magazine. In collaboration with Aptum Architecture, he has received awards in several design competitions including Network Reset (2nd place, Chicago, IL), 10UP (3rd place, Atlanta, GA), and the Gowanus Lowline (2nd place, Brooklyn, NY).

Research Interests

My current research covers a wide range of interdisciplinary and landscape architectural issues ranging from the speculative to the practical. In collaboration with assistant professor Stewart Hicks from the architecture department I am exploring the idea of a 'Slipstream' in architectural, landscape architectural, and design cultures. Slipstream is a term first used by Bruce Sterling to connote an emerging field of literature that was as yet uncategorized. We believe there is a similar category in contemporary design that deserves a closer look.

In collaboration with assistant professors Roger Hubeli and Julie Larsen, also from the architecture department, I have been conducting design research largely through the vehicle of design competitions. While the scale, location, and program of each of these projects has varied widely, we have attempted to develop a consistent approach to the work, which we have tentatively named Projective Pragmatics.

On another front, I am currently working on a multi-faceted research project with assistant professor Sarah Taylor Lovell from the Crop Sciences department, which investigates the potential of small-scale ecological experiments as a strategy for transitioning from an outdated infrastructural paradigm to one that better fits the potentials and needs of the 21st century city.

Education

2000 Master of Landscape Architecture, University of Colorado at Denver
1994 Bachelor of Science, Horticulture, Iowa State University

Professional Experience

2007-present Assistant Professor, Department of Landscape Architecture, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
2007-present Landscape Intelligence, Urbana, IL - Founding Director & Principal
2005-2007 Assistant Professor, Department of Landscape Architecture, The Pennsylvania State University, State College
2004-2005 Visiting Professor, Department of Landscape Architecture, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia
2001-2003 Adjunct Professor, University of Colorado at Denver
2001-2004 Civitas, Inc., Denver, CO
2000-2001 EDAW, Inc., Denver, CO
1994-1997 Sub-Urban Landscape Design, Peoria, IL

Courses Taught at the University of Illinois

2013 LA 587: Grad Seminar: Landscape Strategies: from Big Plans to Small Experiments
2013 LA 281: Design Communication: The Communication Imperative
2012 LA 537: Graduate Design Studio: Landscape Innovations
2012 LA 281: Design Communication:The Communication Imperative
2011 LA 336/537: Graduate Design Studio: Studio mmmm: mats, megas, mountains, and molehills
2011 LA 281: Design Communication: The Communication Imperative
2011 LA 587: Sustainability in Social-Ecological Systems: Food, Water, Habitat
2010 LA 281: Design Communication: The Communication Imperative
2010 LA 590: Grad Studio: Landscape 21: Infrastructuralizing the Margin
2010 LA 590: Sustainability in Social-Ecological Systems: The John Street Watershed
2010 LA 587: Design Intelligence
2009 LA 281: Design Communication: The Communication Imperative
2009 LA 590: Grad Studio: Landscape 21: Infrastructures of Community
2009 LA 565: Grad Studio: Urban Ecologies
2008 LA 587: The Entrepreneurial Landscape
2008 LA 452: Planting Design Studio
2008 LA 587: Landscapes of Innovation: Technology, Ecology and Design
2008 LA 453: Planting Design Studio
2007 LA 452: Planting Design Studio

Selected Publications

2012 Journal of Planning Literature, review of Politics of Urban Runoff by Andrew Karvonen, (MIT Press, 2011).
2011 "Slipstreaming," Monu: Magazine on Urbanism, No. 15: Post-Ideological Urbanism, Fall 2011, pp. 74-80, co-authored with Stewart Hicks,
2011 "Towards Landscape Intelligence," LA! Journal of Landscape Architecture, No. 31, April - June, 2011, pp. 46-53.
2011 "Reclaiming Ecological Infrastructure," exhibition text for Stress Test: Infrastructure as a Synthetic Surface, Aptum Architecture traveling exhibition.
2009 thawed, Vol.1, No. 1, in Field Correspondence, “Before the Projective…There was the Diagrammatic,” pp. 6-9.
2009 Design Communication Association: Bridging Communication, “From Landscape Graphics to Graphic Landscapes,” conference proceedings, March, 2009.
2007 Landscape Review Vol. 12, No. 2, "Thoughts on Landscape Urbanism", review essay of The Landscape Urbanism Reader, edited by Charles Waldheim, (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2006).
2006 Landscape Journal, Vol. 25, No. 02. "Design Ecologies: Sustainable Potentials in Architecture", review of the Design Ecologies: Sustainable Potentials in Architecture conference held at the Knowlton School of Architecture in January, 2006.
2006 Landscape Architecture Magazine Vol. 96, No. 6, dual review of Recycling the City: The Uses and Reuses of Vacant Land, Rosalind Greenstein and Yesim Sungu-Eryilmaz editors, (Cambridge: Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, 2004), and Drosscapes: Wasting Land in Urban America, by Alan Berger, ( New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2006).
2005 Landscape Review Vol. 11, No. 01, "Waste(d) Opportunities", review essay of Designing America's Waste Landscapes , by Mira Engler, (The Johns Hopkins University Press: Baltimore, 2004).
2005 Landscape Journal , Vol. 24, No. 02. review of Landscape Urbanism : A Manual for the Machinic Landscape, M. Mostafavi and C. Najle editors, (London: Architectural Association, 2003).
2004 Kerb: Journal of Landscape Architecture, No. 13, 2004, "Leveraging Gaps: more tools for the landscape architectural toolbox."

Competitions

2012 Landschapping, Lausanne Jardins 2014, Switzerland, with Aptum Architecture. Advanced to competition stage.
2012 Casey Tree Farm Competition, Casey Trees, Washington, D.C., June 2012. One of five finalist teams.
2011 (f)lowliness, Gowanus Lowline Competition, Brooklyn, NY, July 2011, with Aptum Architecture. 2nd place.
2011 (Bio)Mass Production, 10UP Competition, Atlanta, GA, March, 2011, with Aptum Architecture. 3rd Place.
2011 Involuntary Prisoners of Climate Change, Network Reset Competition, February, 2011, with Aptum Architecture. 2nd place.
2006 Urban Voids International Design Ideas Competition, with Matt Langan and Tim Baird.

Symposia & Lectures

2012 URBANISM(S): Sustainable Cities for One Planet Symposium, “The Urbanism of the Four Ecologies,” Washington University, St. Louis, MO, November 9-10.
2012 “Diffusion of Sustainability Innovation Across City Tiers,” Comparative Cities and Urban Sustainability Workshop, KTH (The Royal Institute of Technology), Stockholm, Sweden, October 3-4.
2012 “Context Sensitive Solutions,” in National Dialogue 2, Panel Discussant, Federal Highway Administration, Springfield, IL, September 27.
2012 Manufacturing Landscapes Symposium, The Rotch Organization in conjunction with Julie Larsen (UIUC), Panel Moderator, Chicago, IL, May 19.
2012 “Studio MMMM,” Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, March 29, 2012.
2012 “Urban Ecologies: Towards an Ethos of Experimentation,” Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, March 29, 2012.
2011 “(Political) Economies of Stormwater,” Illinois Association of Floodplain and Stormwater Management, Naperville, IL, October 25, 2011.
2011 After Effects: Emerging Metrics in Landscape, Economics Panel Moderator, Knowlton School of Architecture, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, October 21-22.
2011 Upper Mississippi Reach Conference, Stormwater and Stewardship, Bettendorf, IA, September 22-23.
2011 Green Infrastructure Maintenance Conference, Ecological Experiments, Champaign, IL, April 13.
2011 Hydraulic Engineering Luncheon, Stormwater Strategies, Urbana, IL, February 17.
2010 Envisioning Organization Conference, Knowlton School of Architecture, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, Clarification, Moderator, November 5-6.
2010 Illinois Water Conference, Champaign, IL, Sustainable Stormwater: The John Street Watershed Project, October 6.
2010 Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, Towards Landscape Intelligence, Invited lecture, September 29.
2010 American Planners Association - Illinois, Normal, IL, Collaboration Tames Stormwater:  Neighborhood + City + University, Invited Panelist, September 23.
2010 University of California-Davis, Dept. of Landscape Architecture, Landscape Intelligence Now!, April 7.
2010 Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (Cela), Maastricht, Netherlands, Lost and Found Intelligences in Design Pedagogy, Panel lecture and discussion, May 14.
2009 Local Intelligence Symposium, Organizer and Presenter. Interdisciplinary symposium held at The University of Illinois Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology.
2009 Stormwater Strategies, Lecture to John Street Watershed Steering Committee, Champaign, IL.

Grants Received

2011 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Campus Research Board, “Slipstreaming: Architectural Ecologies,” with Stewart Hicks.
2011 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Campus Research Board, “Multifunctional Urban Green Space,” with Sarah Taylor Lovell.
2011 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, College of Fine and Applied Arts Creative Research Award, “Slipstreaming: An Exhibition,” with Stewart Hicks and Allison Newmeyer.
2011 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Office of the Vice-Chancellor for Public Engagement, “Illinois Rain Garden/Bio-Retention Strategy Manual,” with Eliana Brown.
2010 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Office of the Vice-Chancellor for Public Engagement, “Green Infrastructure Maintenance Conference,” with Eliana Brown.
2009 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Office of the Vice-Chancellor for Public Engagement, “John Street Watershed Course: Sustainability in Social-Ecological Systems,” with Tony Endress.
2009 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Department of Landscape Architecture, Wadsworth Grant, “The Social Potentials of Monstrous Landscapes.”
2008 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Department of Landscape Architecture, Wadsworth Grant, “Park 2.0: ReProgramming the Small Park.”
2008 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, College of Fine and Applied Arts Creative Research Award, “Landscapes of Play.”
2007 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, The Academy for Entrepreneurial Leadership: Faculty Fellows Award, Class of 2008, “The Entrepreneurial Landscape.”
2006 The Pennsylvania State University, The Hamer Center for Community Design Faculty Fund, “Activating Vacancy.”
2005 The Pennsylvania State University President’s Fund for Research, “Mapping Pennsylvania’s Brownfields.”