
The Other ‘iO’ in iO Studio
In 2018, I had an opportunity to speak at Penn State University on the topic of race and open space. The subject is one that is never far from mind as a designer- the challenge of creating equal access to quality built and natural environments. The presentation was centered around the importance of providing opportunity to children to experience beautiful environments as often as possible, and to do so with intention. Working in Baltimore city, where poverty, disinvested neighborhoods and a dilapidated and under funded school system conspire to rob children of a chance to achieve much in life, providing ANY glimmer of reality outside of the impoverished, derelict shells of neighborhoods they come from is a desperate need. Common sense says so. Published science confirms it. Yet how many children never get to see the beauty of our world, or in cities like Baltimore, even experience the new park that may be just across town.
And so, in this space, i was moved to reflect on those caring individuals in my life who provided me the opportunity in my formative years to embrace the world and realize its beauty, and marvel at its possibility. A simple walk down a tree lined street, or through a park. A chance to see spring flowers in bloom and watch silently autumn leaves float gently to the ground. Simple, yet profound experiences that planted in me seeds of calm and curiosity. Curiosity that led me to search out a future in landscape architecture before i was even aware that such a profession existed. The person who so often brought me so many of those moments was my aunt, Irmgard Otte.
On my drives through Baltimore City, or really any city or town where the fingerprints of inequity cloud so many views, I wonder to myself how many of the children that i see, made to play in yards of glass covered asphalt WOULD see hope beyond the despair in the environments in which they are forced to play; How many might not bend under the weight of the oppressive visual neglect they are made to consume each day, if they had the opportunity to experience something better. Not just SEE it, but touch it. And not just touch it, but dream of one day creating spaces of beauty themselves, or simply know that a more beautiful world exists, and that it is as much there’s as it is anyone elses’s. How many more landscape architects, environmental scientists, preservationists, might there be if there were more Irmgard Otte’s- or simply people who cared to give of themselves the time to open a child’s eyes to see that there can be a better future than the present they have been given.
I am not so naive to believe that the enormity the challenge that poverty and inequity presents in this country can be overcome by simple acts of caring. But ‘hope’ must begin somewhere. A seed cannot become a tree if it is never planted.
And so in this space, I’d like to thank Irmgard Otte for the seeds she planted in my life. Though the love she poured into me went well beyond the moments spent in the parks of my hometown, Ansbach, Germany, those moments created an enormous impact on how i perceived the world around me. So much so, that I am proud to say that as much as the iO in IO Studio represents the belief that ultimately what is inside of us as human beings, is all around us, the naming of the studio (for me) is a nod to her selfless acts of giving. Thank you to my aunt, and to all of those who take the time to plant seeds when they can.