OH New York: Conversations on the City

For millennia, cities have negotiated density and threats to public health, and have thrived. Against the backdrop of this pandemic, what will New York look like in the months and years ahead? Open House New York probes this topic with Conversations on the City, a weekly series of virtual one-on-one discussions with leading experts and thinkers.

Check out the whole series here or see below for Sara Jensen Carr, author of The Topography of Wellness: Health and the American Urban Landscape (University of Virginia Press, 2021), discussing epidemics with Gregory Wessner, executive director of OH New York.

Illness from infectious and chronic diseases have transformed urban landscapes for millennia. On April 22, Open House New York launched its new online series Conversations on the City, with OHNY executive director Gregory Wessner and Sara Jensen Carr, author of The Topography of Wellness: Health and the American Urban Landscape (University of Virginia Press, 2021), with a live conversation on epidemics. The Topography of Wellness is a chronological narrative of how six epidemics transformed the American urban landscape, reflecting changing views of the power of design, the pathology of disease, and the epidemiology of the environment. From the infectious diseases of cholera and tuberculosis to the more complicated origins of today's chronic diseases, this conversation explores how illness and the responses to it have left their marks on the contemporary city. Sara Jensen Carr is an assistant professor in architecture, urbanism, and landscape at the School of Architecture at Northeastern University. Her research, teaching, and practice examine both the tensions and potential of modifying the urban landscape for human health and social and environmental equity. For more information about Conversations on the City, visit https://ohny.org/posts/2020-conversations