Collaboration with Alice Chai, Mike Robitz, and Merica Jensen

There is no Here here was an entry to the Under the High Line competition put on in 2012.

In Manhattan soil is invisible. It is hidden below the finish of our buildings and streets, playing an unseen role.  

This project is conceived of as a ground tasting menu. The other forty-nine state’s official soils are each suspended in a bag nine feet above the ground. The bags spill their contents, recomposing the site with the ground of the ‘other’ states. Together, the soils- transplanted, emigrated, relocated- take on the cosmopolitan life of New York. Reciprocally, the site takes on the identity of each state’s soil.  If the High Line was the penultimate act of ground-making, then THERE IS NO HERE, HERE is the reset button, reverting the city to its true conglomerate identity. What results is a geological tapestry of every place but here, here.  

With time, the dirt, dust, rocks, stones, and soil will erode away from the site, reverting again to an urbane blankness.