About this Event
New York City has buried its most vulnerable populations in mass graves on Hart Island since 1872. The city conducts mass burials in 60-foot-long, 8-foot-deep trenches. This practice is grotesquely inhumane and has led to significant erosion along the island’s northern bluff, often causing remains to wash into Long Island Sound. This presentation will focus on developing a vision for Hart Island in consultation with the families of those buried there, and on creating a web tool to advocate for that vision to the NYC Council and city staff. After a two-year advocacy campaign, city agencies have changed how they plan for the island, and the work has led to council legislation requiring a reassessment of the city’s burial practices.
Jake Boswell is an associate professor of landscape architecture at The Ohio State University and the 2026 Distinguished Fulbright Scholar at the University of Edinburgh. He is widely published, and his speculative and applied design works have received recognition in numerous venues, including a full US utility patent for his work on floating concrete.
This talk is part of the Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (ESALA) 2026 Landscape Events, a series of public events focusing on ways of practising and thinking with landscapes.
Image credit: The Hart Island Project, Open Mass Grave, 2021.
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Hunter Lecture Theatre, Edinburgh College of Art, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
USD 0.00
