Climate Justice in the Megacity

SINY 65 - Climate Justice in the Megacity

Climate Justice in the New York megacity is scaling rapidly. The five boroughs are a living experiment in the global fight against extinction in the Anthropocene. With hardhat site visits, this course will visit projects under construction that address the long-term causation of climate volatility and those that are also adapting to the immediate symptoms.

The class will develop a qualitative and quantitative understanding of climate justice using inductive reasoning. Students will be required to document observations from the field, manipulate data using google earth pro software and generative mapping AI along with inputs from quantitative tools (spread sheets) to make relations, predictions, and conclusions that develop a final thesis. Grading will be gauged by the quality of which students are able to engage a complex constellation of data, identify specific relations that develop broad generalizations and hypothesis. The first part of the class is an overview of the different types of climate justice that will inform the student’s selected research topic to be developed through deliverables during the second part of the course.

Meet the Instructor(s)

Walter Rodriguez Meyer
 

Walter Rodriguez Meyer is an urban designer, policy advisor, professor at The New School’s Parsons School of Design, and founding Principal of Local Office Landscape & Urban Design (Local), a minority owned business in Brooklyn, NY. Walter has advised three Whitehouse administrations on design led policy making for climate justice. President Obama awarded Walter the Whitehouse Champions of Change.

Operating between culture, infrastructure, and ecology - Local has won awards from across the disciplines of architecture, landscape, public policy, science and art. Walter has been engaged as a lecturer and visiting critic at Harvard University, Yale, Columbia, Penn, MIT, Stanford University, Parsons New School, and Pratt Institute. Currently, Local Office is designing NYC’s first net zero climate resilient neighborhood in Queens, NY and resiliency plans for the states of MS and NJ.