Cocktails & Conversations
August 15, 2014 Center for Architecture, New York City
The Pairing:
Ken Smith FASLA, WORKSHOP: Ken Smith Landscape Architect
Alan Brake, The Architects Newspaper
Cocktail designed by:
Toby Cecchini, Bartender + Author
Ken Smith FASLA, WORKSHOP: Ken Smith Landscape Architect
View Ken Smith's projects
Ken Smith is one of the best-known of a new generation of landscape architects equally at home in the worlds of art, architecture, and urbanism. Trained in both design and the fine arts, he explores the relationship between art, contemporary culture, and landscape. His practice, WORKSHOP: Ken Smith Landscape Architect, was established in 1992 and is based in New York City with a southern California office in Irvine. Smith is committed to creating landscapes, especially parks and other public spaces, as a way of improving the quality of urban life. Much of his work pushes beyond traditional landscape typologies - plaza, street, and garden - to landscapes that draw on diverse cultural traditions and influences of the contemporary urban landscape. Smith's approach is directed at projects of varying scales and types: temporary installations, private residential gardens, public spaces, parks and commercial projects. With a particular emphasis on projects that explore the symbolic content and expressive power of landscape as an art form, the WORKSHOP specializes in the investigation of new expressions in landscape design. Ken Smith is a graduate of Iowa State University and the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. He has taught and lectured at Harvard, the City College of New York, and other universities and institutions around the world. Smith's work has been published widely in the popular and trade press.
Alan Brake, Executive Editor The Architects Newspaper
Alan G. Brake has written about architecture, design, and urbanism for Architecture, Architectural Record, Azure, Interior Design, Landscape Architecture, Metropolis, The New York Times and other publications. He studied architectural history and urbanism at Vassar College and Yale University, where he earned a Masters in Environmental Design. He is the recipient of a research grant from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts.
Toby Cecchini, Bartender & Author
Toby is a writer and bartender based in New York City. He has written on food, wine and spirits for GQ, Food and Wine, and The New York Times. His first book, Cosmopolitan: A Bartender's Life, was published in 2003. He is currently at work on his second book, a travelogue of spirits based on his travels for The New York Times' Living and travel magazines. He began bartending at the Odeon in 1987, where he is credited with creating the internationally recognized version of the Cosmopolitan cocktail in New York. He followed that with stints in several bars including Passersby, which he owned until 2008. In 2013 he reopened Cobble Hill's Historic Long Island Bar.
Ken Smith FASLA, WORKSHOP: Ken Smith Landscape Architect
Alan Brake, The Architects Newspaper
Cocktail designed by:
Toby Cecchini, Bartender + Author
Cocktails & Conversations - Ken Smith, FASLA and Alan Brake - 8.15.14
Ken Smith FASLA, WORKSHOP: Ken Smith Landscape Architect
View Ken Smith's projects
Ken Smith is one of the best-known of a new generation of landscape architects equally at home in the worlds of art, architecture, and urbanism. Trained in both design and the fine arts, he explores the relationship between art, contemporary culture, and landscape. His practice, WORKSHOP: Ken Smith Landscape Architect, was established in 1992 and is based in New York City with a southern California office in Irvine. Smith is committed to creating landscapes, especially parks and other public spaces, as a way of improving the quality of urban life. Much of his work pushes beyond traditional landscape typologies - plaza, street, and garden - to landscapes that draw on diverse cultural traditions and influences of the contemporary urban landscape. Smith's approach is directed at projects of varying scales and types: temporary installations, private residential gardens, public spaces, parks and commercial projects. With a particular emphasis on projects that explore the symbolic content and expressive power of landscape as an art form, the WORKSHOP specializes in the investigation of new expressions in landscape design. Ken Smith is a graduate of Iowa State University and the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. He has taught and lectured at Harvard, the City College of New York, and other universities and institutions around the world. Smith's work has been published widely in the popular and trade press.
Alan Brake, Executive Editor The Architects Newspaper
Alan G. Brake has written about architecture, design, and urbanism for Architecture, Architectural Record, Azure, Interior Design, Landscape Architecture, Metropolis, The New York Times and other publications. He studied architectural history and urbanism at Vassar College and Yale University, where he earned a Masters in Environmental Design. He is the recipient of a research grant from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts.
Toby Cecchini, Bartender & Author
Toby is a writer and bartender based in New York City. He has written on food, wine and spirits for GQ, Food and Wine, and The New York Times. His first book, Cosmopolitan: A Bartender's Life, was published in 2003. He is currently at work on his second book, a travelogue of spirits based on his travels for The New York Times' Living and travel magazines. He began bartending at the Odeon in 1987, where he is credited with creating the internationally recognized version of the Cosmopolitan cocktail in New York. He followed that with stints in several bars including Passersby, which he owned until 2008. In 2013 he reopened Cobble Hill's Historic Long Island Bar.
- 1 ounce Ford's Gin
- 75 oz. Chartreuse
- .75 oz. lime
- .5 oz. lavender simple syrup (1:1 ratio by volume of lavender tisane and white sugar)
- 12 mint leaves, plus top sprig for garnish
- 1 Persian cucumber
- 4 oz. soda
Chop cucumber into small pieces, reserving one long slice for garnish. Muddle pieces along with the mint leaves in a shaker tin, then add in gin, simple syrup, lime and Chartreuse. Add ice and shake well. Double-strain into a large rocks glass half-filled with ice. Top with soda and garnish with cucumber slice, a lime wheel and the mint sprig.
