Shoptalk at the American Academy In Rome

Fellows at the American Academy in Rome have the opportunity to speak to their colleagues and invited guests about their project undertakings while studying at the Academy. David Rubin, 2011-12 recipient of the Garden Club of America Rome Prize in Landscape, spoke in March about his work in a presentation called: Food For Thought - Sustanance and Sustainability.

Rubin, in the tradition of Landscape Architect Fellows, uses the Academy campus as a canvas to explore his ideas in socially-sustainable landscape architecture, suggesting a 21st-century vision plan for the McKim Mead & White property and the adjacent Married Fellows' Residence (5B), Triangle Garden, and Chiaraviglio properties. The goal of the vision plan is to reinforce the Academy as an "Embassy of Knowledge" - the extant leader among academies worldwide - increasing the productivity in both academic and landscape terms, while reducing the expense and energy required to maintain a symbolic creative landscape.