Yvette Pollack

How would you characterize your design ethos or process?

I usually start my research with trying to understand either the people or the animals that presently use the land I’ll be transforming. In order to understand the shift that will be made, it should be known what creatures presently live in the space and to understand who the space can be opened up for more animals or enhanced. For people, it is important to untangle the general needs of a population from data and to understand the population(s) culture before trying to design.

Being at Cornell, has living in the Finger Lakes region informed your view on the field, or even broader, the environment?

Ithaca is the farthest inland I’ve lived. I’ve lived by the Atlantic Ocean coasts for the majority of my life. Living here has made me think of the flow of water across topography. Cornell campus in itself provides a great environment to learn the structures of ecosystems as well as how to try to incorporate them into urban environments.

What kinds of professional and personal trajectories are you setting for yourself at the moment?

At the core of my decision to attend landscape architecture school was my goal to live a happy and fulfilling life. I hope to be able to work on projects focused on play and/or ecology in my professional career. I’m looking to create a stable future for myself where I can finally put down roots.