Safari 7
Safari 7 is a self-guided tour of urban animal life along New York City's No. 7 subway line. Traveling from Manhattan's dense core, under the East River and into Queens, the nation's most ethnically diverse county, we hope you can use Safari 7's resources to better understand the complexity, biodiversity, conflicts, and potentials of our urban ecosystems.
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Contact Us
Want to collaborate? Have questions or stories about animal life in NYC? Email us at: info@safari7.org
Team
The Safari 7 team is a collaboration among architects, designers, educators, and students.
The Urban Landscape Lab at the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, & Preservation is an inter-disciplinary applied research group dedicated to affecting social equity and positive change in urban ecosystems. Janette Kim and Kate Orff, Directors.
MTWTF is a graphic design studio specializing in publications, environmental graphic, and identity systems. Glen Cummings, Partner
Safari 7 Research & Design Associates: Yuval Borochov, Jordan Carver, Susan Choe, Aliza Dzik, Lisa Ekle, Robin Fitzgerald-Green, Steven Garcia, Kathryn Hotler, Sayli Korgaonkar, Jenny Noguchi, Soohyun Park, Jonathan Pettibone, Evan Sharp, Gena Wirth.
Barnard and Columbia Colleges Architecture Program students in a seminar on urban ecology created the Safari 7 May 2009 podcasts. Students include Alex Cook, Emily Glass, Aaron Hsieh, Ryan Johns, Meg Kelly, Sayli Korgaonkar, Lesley Merz, Stephanie Odenheimer, Grace Robinson-Leo, Evelyn Ting, Alexandre Vial and Alison Von Glinow.
Thank You
Karen Fairbanks, Ann Whitney Olin Professor of Professional Practice and Chair, Architecture at the Barnard and Columbia Colleges Architecture Program
Gavin Browning, Programming Coordinator at Studio X.
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Participate
Educator’s Roundtable
The Urban Landscape Lab and MTWTF hosted an Educator’s Roundtable at the Safari 7 Reading Room at Studio-X to discuss urban ecology education at the K-12 levels, and to explore how Safari 7 can contribute to educators’ programming and curriculum.
Participants:
Heather Cardinale, New York City Dept. of Education
Rachel Crumpler, Queens Museum of Art
Glen Cummings, Safari 7
Nathaniel Curtis, iLAND Art
Amanda Dargan, City Lore
Edward Eckert, Growing Up Green Charter School
Christopher Kennedy, Strataspore and Solar One
Janette Kim, Safari 7
Helen Kongsgaard, Safari 7
Jonathan Payne, Safari 7
Miriam Walls, New York City Dept. of Education
Get your Safari 7 T-Shirt!
There are still a limited number of Safari 7 T-Shirts available! Get yours at the Safari 7 Reading room, while supplies last.
The Safari 7 Reading Room Open House is on Sat Nov 7
DATE: 12pm-6pm Saturday Nov 7
LOCATION: Studio-X 180 Varick Street, Ste 1610 New York, NY 10014 – 1 Train to Houston Street
Join the curators of Safari 7 in this day-long open house of “Safari 7 Reading Room,” an exhibition including a series of 3D maps, audio listening stations, curated reading materials, and a series of large-scale drawings of animal habitats, behaviors and life cycles in relationship to urban culture and history at selected sites along the MTA No. 7 line.
The Reading Room in the News
Holland Herald, the KLM In-flight Magazine(Jan 2010)
Columbia Political Review(Dec 2009)
GOOD (Dec 21 2009)
am New York (Dec 17 2009)
The Daily News (Nov 10 2009)
The Brooklyn Rail (Nov 2009)
The Architect’s Newspaper (Oct 28 2009)
WNYC The Brian Lehrer Show (Oct 21 2009)Columbia Global Centers (Oct 19 2009)
BLDGBLOG (Oct 16 2009)
WNYC’s Brian Lehrer Show
Princeton American Studies Undergrads visit the Reading Room
Safari 7 Reading Room Opens Oct 15
OPENING: THU 7-9PM OCTOBER 15
PRESS PREVIEW: 6-7PM with exhibition curators
LOCATION: Studio-X 180 Varick Street, Ste 1610 New York, NY 10014 – 1 Train to Houston Street
PRESS RELEASE: link
EXHIBITION DATES: October 15-December 31, 2009
Oysters, dogs, humans, worms, snakefish, cormorants and germs are some of the species that populate the length of the MTA 7 train. The “Safari 7 Reading Room” is an exhibition that presents a series of 3D maps, audio listening stations, curated reading materials, and a series of large-scale drawings of animal habitats, behaviors and life cycles in relationship to urban culture and history at selected sites along the MTA No. 7 line. www.urbanlandscapelab.org/work/safari-7-reading-room.
This exhibition is opening in conjunction with the conference ECOGRAM II: Architecture for a Crowded Planet at Columbia University (GSAPP), at Studio-X, a downtown studio for design and research run by GSAPP. It is generously supported by the the Dean’s Office at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation of Columbia University. Fabrication support from the Avery Digital Fabrication Lab at Columbia University. Additional funding from CeX Complete Entertainment Exchange and Ito En.
Stay Tuned for More!
Thanks to everyone who came out for the Queens Arts Express Safari 7 special event. Please stay tuned for upcoming tour and workshop information, coming soon!
Our next tour is this Sunday!
The next Safari 7 tour will take place on Sunday, June 14 as a part of Queens Art Express, a multi-day multi-venue art extravaganza that will take place on three weekends in Spring 2009 (between May 30 – June 14). To participate, follow these two simple steps:
- Download the Safari 7 podcasts and load them on your mp3 players.
- Meet at the front of the No. 7 platform at Times Square at 1:00pm. We will ride the subway from Times Square to Flushing.
-OR-
Meet at the front of the No. 7 platform at Flushing Main Street at 2:00pm. We will ride the subway from Flushing to Times Square.
Please join us!
Queens Art Express – S7 Special Edition Map!
This map shows the international express running through a landscape of hills, dried up lakes, historic wetlands, landfill, and some of Queens’ galleries, theaters, and other cultural magnets. Pick up a copy at one of the Queens Art Express venues, or on our June 14th tour.
Queens Art Express Special Edition Map
Know of any curiosities or points of interest that should be on the map? Let us know!
S7 is in the News
Safari 7 has been featured in:
- The Queens Chronicle
- The Village Voice blog
- Urban Omnibus
- Liqcity
- WNYC’s Cityscapes blog
- Queens Council on the Arts’ Queens Art Express blog
- Splitting Hairs in Forest Hills
- “Queens Crap”
- we got that p.m.a.
Join us Sunday, June 14!
The next Safari 7 tour will take place on Sunday, June 14 as a part of Queens Art Express, a multi-day multi-venue art extravaganza that will take place on three weekends in Spring 2009 (between May 30 – June 14). To participate, follow these two simple steps:
- Download the Safari 7 podcasts and load them on your mp3 players.
- Meet at the front of the No. 7 platform at Times Square at 1:00pm. We will ride the subway from Times Square to Flushing.
-OR-
Meet at the front of the No. 7 platform at Flushing Main Street at 2:00pm. We will ride the subway from Flushing to Times Square.
Please join us!
Join us for the S7 beta launch on May 16!
Our first Safari 7 tour will take place on Saturday, May 16th. To participate, follow these two simple steps:
- Download the Safari 7 podcasts and load them on your mp3 players.
- Meet at the front of the No. 7 platform at Times Square on Saturday, May 16th at 11:00am.
We are launching a beta version of the tour, with podcasts developed by Barnard + Columbia Architecture students.
We will ride the subway from Times Square to Flushing followed by snacks at the Flushing Mall.
Podcasts look at urban design and planning, landscape architecture, and architecture in relationship to ecological issues, including species survival within the city’s infrastructures, trans-species cooperation and competition, animal psychology, and much more! Please join us.
Please join us!
Podcasts / Guides
Weed Walk
A walking tour in Sunnyside with noted plant ecologist Steven Handel. Produced by Lisa Ekle and Kate Hotler.
33 St - vacant lot
Plantain
Lisa Ekle, Kate Hotler
Check your shoes! These sticky brits, also known as rib wort, have been known to stiffen collars and pants in Ye Olde NYC for two centuries.
33 St - vacant lot
Milkweed
Lisa Ekle, Kate Hotler
Don't put this poisonous weed's juice in your coffee, although caterpillers love it! That's how they develop their toxic chemistry that keeps the birds away.
33 St - vacant lot
Bittersweet
Lisa Ekle, Kate Hotler
Those beautiful orange seed pods disguise a stone-cold tree killa!
33 St - vacant lot
Bouncing Bet
Lisa Ekle, Kate Hotler
After a rough day working the rails or in your cubicle lather up with a fistful of sudsy bouncing bet, aka "soap wart."
33 St - vacant lot
Ragweed
Lisa Ekle, Kate Hotler
Not to be confused with golden rods, these mustard-tasting weeds have NYC eyes watering and itching every fall.
33 St - vacant lot
Poor Man's Pepper
Lisa Ekle, Kate Hotler
One foot tall with small green purses on top, poor man's pepper could still spice up a bland sandwich.
33 St - vacant lot
Moss
Lisa Ekle, Kate Hotler
No soil? No Problem. NYC's oldest lifeform blows onto rock and turns it into soil.
33 St - vacant lot
Mugwort
Lisa Ekle, Kate Hotler
This spicy-smelling medieval medicine muscles out seeds and wildflowers in its bid to dominate NYC's parks.
33 St - vacant lot
Sedum
Lisa Ekle, Kate Hotler
Up on that green roof, there's something slowly crawling from rock to rock.
33 St - vacant lot
Queen Anne's Lace
Lisa Ekle, Kate Hotler
Next time you're chomping on a raw carrot, think of its frilly, first cousin.
33 St - vacant lot
Tree of Heaven
Lisa Ekle, Kate Hotler
If you see brown propellers drifting in the wind this fall, they are the male and female tree of heaven beginning their slightly smelly mating ritual.
33 St - vacant lot
Japanese Maple
Lisa Ekle, Kate Hotler
In NYC, anything can happen, even a Japanese maple growing between the fence and sidewalk.
33 St - vacant lot
Butter & Eggs
Lisa Ekle, Kate Hotler
This tough weed gets its name from its deep golden yellow and pale lemon yellow good looks, not its taste.
33 St - Sunnyside yards
Opportunists
Lisa Ekle, Kate Hotler
If you think the stakes are high and conditions crowded in the NYC real estate market, check out any pile of gravel in the street, where weeds are working hard to gain a root-hold and stake out a life on the mean city streets.
33 St - Sunnyside yards
Foxtail Grass
Lisa Ekle, Kate Hotler
See a small, green squirrel tail sticking up in that alley? It is more likely to be NYC's fastest-growing weed.
40 St - Queens Blvd
McDonald's Garden
Lisa Ekle, Kate Hotler
Even in man-made gardens, gregarious mother nature joins the plant party. Stealthy weeds lay low to avoid detection, and lovable three-leafed clovers hope to get lucky.
40 St - Queens Blvd
Tree Boxes & Wind Pollination
Lisa Ekle, Kate Hotler
In NYC, even the insects have their own agenda, so self-reliant street weeds get down to business and pollinate themselves.
