Cornell University / December 2017
Option Studio: The Magic Hedge
Critics: Erin Pellegrino & Ben Nicholson
At a glance: A series of 10 atypical bird blinds that use simple mechanics to simultaneously serve as a vantage point for a birdwatcher and a shelter for two men having casual sex.
Chicago’s Montrose Point is a stopover for many migrating birds, making it an excellent site for birdwatching and bird conservation. However, its seasonal occupants aren’t limited to birds -- Montrose Point, locally known as the Magic Hedge, is also a hotspot for gay men cruising for casual sex. The Hedge is located nearby Chicago’s Boystown neighborhood, a historically LGBTQ neighborhood that has become increasingly gentrified in the last decade. Thus, cruising at the Hedge is seen as one of the last LGBTQ strongholds in an increasingly hetero-centric area. But birders -- often ‘straight-laced’ baby boomers -- tend not to take too kindly to stumbling upon two men in flagrante delicto while birding, citing the fact that many birders take their children birding with them as a reason to crack down on cruising. As a result, the queer community and the birding community tend to resent each other. This project proposes a program that protects the respective ecosystems of the birds, as well as the cruisers.
The intervention is a codeword, architecturalized. Ten sex acts are matched with ten acts associated with birding. The two programs exist simultaneously in one pavilion, separated acoustically and visually by a mechanical system unique to each pavilion, allowing both zones to be used at the same time. Those who don’t know to look for the entry see a bird blind; those who know what to look for find an intimate, underground cave for the senses. Using the pavilions, cruisers can meet without fear of a cop crackdown, and birders get to engage with the birds and observe them from different perspectives, all without compromising the vital queerness of the Magic Hedge.