Mikyoung Kim

Mikyoung Kim is an international Landscape Architect with work throughout the United States, the Middle East and South Korea. Her recent work has focused on the healing properties of landscape architecture within the public realm. As design director of Mikyoung Kim Design, Kim has designed a number of award winning public spaces that merge sculptural experience with sustainable landscape strategies, including the ChonGae Canal Restoration Project - Source Point Park in Seoul, Korea (2005), the Crown Sky Garden[1] in Chicago, IL (2012),[2] the Plaza at the Prudential at 888 Boylston in Boston, the roof garden for the John Hancock Tower in Boston, MA, the Anaheim Regional Transportation Holographic Arts Commission, and Pier 4 Seaport Plaza in Boston, MA. Kim's background in music and the fine arts shapes the public work that she has completed. Her recent work with regenerative landscapes was highlighted this year in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.[3] and in an interview on ABC new’s the Chronicle. In 2015 Architectural Digest named Mikyoung Kim as one of the years AD Innovators

The work of her firm, Mikyoung Kim Design has received awards from the American Society of Landscape Architects,[4] the American Institute of Architects, the Architizer A+ Awards, the International Federation of Landscape Architects, the Harvard Design School,[4] the General Services Administration, the Urban Waterfront Center, the Korean Cultural Commission, and the Land Forum Design Awards. In 2009, Mikyoung Kim’s personal history was archived in the Smithsonian Museum’s “American Voices Collection”. She has been involved nationally as a jury member for numerous competitions and awards, most notably, the Heinz Award Jury for the Arts and Humanities, the Living with Water Competition, and the Eisenhower Memorial Jury with the General Services Administration. Mikyoung Kim Design’s work has been published in Dwell Magazine, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Chicago Tribune, Garden Design, Architectural Record, Surface Magazine, Interior Design, Landscape Architecture Magazine and a monograph of the work of MYKD, “Inhabiting Circumference”.[5]

Early life and education

Mikyoung Kim was born in Hartford, Connecticut to Korean parents and lived there throughout her childhood in a modernist home. From the age of 6, Kim was a serious pianist and continued her passion for performing into her early twenties at Oberlin Conservatory.[2][6]

While at Oberlin College,[6] Kim also studied sculpture. She went on design at Harvard Graduate School of Design.[6] Her early work involved the use of fluid materials and casting - “a lot of poured materials, like concrete and plaster with the body as an armature.”[7] At Harvard, she studied concurrently at the GSD and at the MIT VES (Visual and Environmental Studies) department, developing designs, sculpture, installations and videos. While at Harvard, she was the Norman T. Newton Scholar and received the Jacob Weidenmann Prize for Design.

In 1994 she received a professorship at Rhode Island School of Design[6] and opened her own firm in Boston, MA. She was Department Head at RISD[3][6] for five years and has taught a variety of design and sculpture studios and seminars.[8] Since 2012, Kim has held a Professor Emeritus position.

She is representative of a new generation of artists, philosophers and designers who are interested in the inhabitation and transgression of numerous professional and cultural boundaries. As an Asian American, she may also be seen as representative of the increasing hybridization of design, as practice becomes ever more internationalized.[9]

Career

Design philosophy

Kim’s broad experience in environmental design, sculpture and music[10] brings a sensitivity and inclusiveness to her work in the public and private realm. Projects consist of designs that meld site, sculpture and sustainable initiatives to develop engaging and poetic landscapes. Over the past five years, Kim has been involved in projects at various scales that focus on the choreographed experience with the use of a wide range of technologies with light and color.[3]


Play spaces

Early projects by Kim focused on children and the way sculptural engagements could spark the imagination and offer more inventive ways of learning through play.[8]

Healing gardens

Projects such as the Crown Sky Garden at the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, Boston Children’s Hospital, and the Miami Healing Garden at the Jackson South Community Hospital are two recent examples of designs “that are regenerative and have a kind of humanity.”[11] These major examples of indoor and outdoor spaces are designed around the beauty of healing.

Sustainability and hydrology

The focus on hydrology as an important component of public space has driven Kim’s work since the mid-1990s. With the ChonGae Canal in Seoul, Korea, Mikyoung Kim won this major commission through an international competition. The city transformed this polluted historic riverway to a Class II rating and accommodates up to 22,000 tons of surficial and sub-surficial runoff from the city.

Light and color installations

Kim's work with various lighting and holographic technologies defines many of her art installations. Projects include the Pendulum Project (2012), at Dulles Airport, the Kaleidoscope Project at the Washington D.C. Bridge Tender's House,[1] and the Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center in California.[12] Projects at the Dunkin Donuts Center in Providence, RI, the New Jersey Environmental Laboratories, and a Federal Courthouse in Wheeling, WV the GSA experimented with light, color and innovative technologies.

Notable projects

Awards

Since the inception of Mikyoung Kim Design, the work of Mikyoung Kim has received critical acclaim winning multiple national awards from the American Society of Landscape Architects, the American Institute of Architects, the Urban Waterfront Center, The Harvard Design School and the International Federation of Landscape Architects, as well as awards from the Boston Society of Architects and the Boston Society of Landscape Architects.[14]

Publications

Magazines and newspapers

Online

Books

  • Richardson, Tim. Futurescapes: Designers for Tomorrow's Outdoor Spaces. New York: Thames & Hudson, 2011.
  • "Projects." Paisea #18 Landscape & Art Sept. 2011.
  • Frieze, Charlotte M., and Charles A. Birnbaum. Private Paradise: Contemporary American Gardens. [New York, N.Y.]: Monacelli, 2011.
  • "Oral History Interview." Interview by Avis Berman. Archives of American Art's U.S. General Services Administration. 14 Oct. 2009.
  • Foley, Roger. A Clearing in the Woods: Creating Contemporary Gardens. New York: Monacelli, 2009.
  • Halsey III, Ashley. Art Project to Add Psychedelic Touch to Staid Bridge. The Washington Post. 16 Oct. 2009.
  • Revkin, Andrew C. Peeling Back Pavement to Expose Watery Havens. The New York Times 17 July 2009: A4.
  • Carlock, Marty. Illuminating Knowledge: Bar Codes Grow Big in a Library's Sculptural Lanterns. Landscape Architecture Magazine Feb. 2009: 96-101.
  • Levitt, Rachel. It's About Time. Boston Magazine. Fall 2008.
  • Grozik, Michael. On the Fence. Dwell Sept. 2008: 128+.
  • Carlock, Marty. Visual Fugue. Landscape Architecture Magazine Apr. 2008: 2-8.
  • Broome, Beth. A fence wraps the forest in the sound of music. Architectural Record Mar. 2008: 75-76.
  • Commissions. Sculpture Magazine Nov. 2007: 21.
  • JA. Garden Design. Poet Modern Nov. 2007: 80.
  • Khiu, Jacqueline. Performance Piece. Surface Magazine The Annual Avant Guardian Issue: 95-96.
  • Dickinson, Emily, and Mikyoung Kim. My Business Is Circumference. Washington, DC: Grayson, 2002.
  • Bennett, Paul. Playtime in the City. Landscape Architecture Magazine Sept. 1999.
  • Lewitt, Sol. Between Exhibition and Meditation. Pages Paysages 2002: 96-101.
  • Crandell, Gina. Seoul Sculpture. LandFORUM Oct. 2001: 80-85.
  • Mola, Francesc Zamora., and Julio Fajardo. Star Landscape Architecture: The Stars of Landscape and Land Art. Singapore: Page One, 2010.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Ulam, Alex (1 August 2013). "Every Sense". Landscape Architecture Magazine. 103 (8): 82.
  2. 1 2 Julie, Lasky. "Mikyoung Kim's Healing Gardens". New York Times. New York Times. Retrieved 2013-09-25.
  3. 1 2 3 Taylor, Lindsey (4 March 2014). "Landscape Architects Share Their Favorite Things". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2014-04-11.
  4. 1 2 Corporate and Commercial Landscapes. Shenzhen, China: Hi-Design International Publishing. 2013. pp. 208–215, 333. ISBN 978-7-5611-7635-1.
  5. ↑ Water Landscapes. Hong Kong, China: Artpower International Publishing Co. May 2013. pp. 186–191, 339. ISBN 978-7-5335-4254-2.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 Hilderbrand, Gary (1 August 2013). "You Must Engage". Landscape Architecture Magazine. 103 (8): 74.
  7. ↑ Carlock, Marty (April 2008). "Visual Fugue" (PDF). Landscape Architecture Magazine.
  8. 1 2 "Prof. Mikyoung Kim - Designing Imaginative Playgrounds". NPR. Retrieved 2014-04-11.
  9. ↑ Jung, Do-Kuen (2002). Mikyoung Kim Monograph. Washington, D.C.: Grayson Publishing. pp. 7–9. ISBN 0-9679143-8-8.
  10. ↑ Scenery and Family Life-Housing Landscape. Hong Kong, China: Artpower International Publishing Co. September 2012. pp. 60–63, 200–205, 314. ISBN 978-7-5611-7131-8.
  11. ↑ Julia Lasky, "Summoning Nature for Healing", The New York Times, February 6, 2013
  12. ↑ Marroquin, Art (May 6June 2, 2014) "Transit station's artwork finally moving along" Orange County Register
  13. ↑ Wang, Lucy. "Exhale: Mikyoung Kim's Glowing Steel Serpent Breathes New Life into Chapel Hill". inhabitat. Inhabitat.com. Retrieved 2013-09-16.
  14. 1 2 Song, Jia (2012). Streets and Squares. Hong Kong, China: Artpower International Publishing Co. pp. 286–289, 409. ISBN 978-988-16428-3-7.
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