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BIOGRAPHY
1.
Bargmann recalls her childhood in New Jersey and the 鈥渓andscapes that shaped me鈥: industrial sites along the northern New Jersey Turnpike and a suburb with a 鈥渃ollective backyard鈥 that made the place 鈥渋nclusive.鈥
2.
As an undergraduate art student, Bargmann gravitated towards the work of minimalists and land artists, including Eva Hesse and Robert Smithson. Outside of class, she was drawn to the sights and smells of Pittsburgh鈥檚 steelmaking industry.
3.
Bargmann reflects on her decision to study landscape architecture, the difference between making art and designing landscapes, and the influential teachers and classmates who shaped her design ethos.
4.
After Harvard, Bargmann spent a year in Italy as a Rome Prize recipient, an experience she fondly remembers as an incubator for cross-disciplinary friendships and conversations.
5.
While working for Michael Van Valkenburgh, Bargmann accepts a teaching position in Minneapolis and establishes a career trajectory defined by taking 鈥渁dventures with the students.鈥
6.
Bargmann begins to shape the direction of her personal practice by visiting mines and working with Superfund sites, which she calls cultural landscapes. She focuses on the sites and their adjacent communities.
7.
Encouraged by her friend Beth Meyer, Bargmann, accepts a teaching position in Charlottesville and begins to research and explore industrial sites with her students.
8.
A reluctant Southerner, Bargmann is drawn to the 鈥渦rbanity鈥 of Charlottesville鈥檚 former factories and mills, where she finds community and space for creativity.
9.
A collaboration with artist Mel Chin in New Orleans shows Bargmann a new way of thinking and operating.
10.
Bargmann reflects on the relationships between clients and patrons, leaders and cities, and the need for mayors to be engaged with projects rather than just making decisions about them.
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DESIGN
1.
In establishing her professional practice, Bargmann defines her life鈥檚 work as a 鈥渕ission鈥 to 鈥渄o the right thing鈥 for industrialized sites and the communities surrounding them.
2.
Bargmann reflects on changing public attitudes towards industrial sites, and her experiences acting as a mentor for other practitioners working in industrial landscapes.
3.
After witnessing the effects of pollution, toxic waste, and other industrial byproducts on neighboring communities, Bargmann incorporates advocacy into her design practice.
4.
Bargmann reflects on developing her passion for plants, teaching about the 鈥渁rt and science鈥 of plants to her students, and how that teaching is still evolving to address fallow and industrial landscapes.
5.
Bargmann discusses her love of 鈥減lants, materiality, and tactility鈥 and her approach to reusing and repurposing rather than discarding found materials as part of a site-specific design palette.
6.
Bargmann distinguishes between 鈥渕aster plans,鈥 which she sees as closed, and 鈥渁ction plans鈥 that emphasize the importance of responsive and open engagement.
7.
Bargmann shares how the writings of her 鈥渉ero,鈥 the artist Robert Smithson, and his emphasis on process, 鈥渄igging and finding,鈥 and 鈥渟low looking,鈥 have impacted her personally and professionally.
8.
Bargmann explains the necessity of acknowledging that chance will play a role in shaping a site, and the difficulty of articulating this truth to clients.
9.
Bargmann reflects on how assigning a site, especially fallow or industrial sites, with a name and identity helps people connect with it.
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PROJECTS
1.
Bargmann uses her home and garden in Charlottesville as grounds for experimentation.
2.
When working on the remediation of this formerly industrial site in Pennsylvania, Bargmann imagined her work as one part of the evolution of this cultural landscape.
3.
Collaboration with developer Philip Kafka of Prince Concepts produces an urban woodland in Detroit that creatively reused materials and artifacts found on-site.
4.
In Dallas, Bargmann transforms a former waterworks facility, on the residential property of a discerning client, into a tranquil, immersive space for entertaining.
5.
Working within the grand scale of Philadelphia鈥檚 Navy Yard, Bargmann embraced the area鈥檚 industrial character while creating an inviting workplace for a creative business.
6.
The CEO of Urban Outfitters, Inc., recalls how Bargmann integrated the industrial heritage of Philadelphia鈥檚 Navy Yard with elements of natural beauty to serve and inspire a creative workforce.
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