Christopher Tallman

Experience

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  McRaven Restorations

  Dec 1999 - Mar 2003

  Job Supervisor/Lead Carpenter

  Full residential construction services, from excavation through roofing. As lead carpenter and job supervisor I was responsible for work flow organization, on-site design response, client liaison, and sub-contractor direction. Though we built to modern code specifications our specialty was field stone masonry (chimney's, foundations, wall systems), hewn log cabin reconstruction, timber framing, and historic preservation.

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  Traditional Timber Works, Inc.

  Mar 2001 - Oct 2010

  Owner

  Operated a design/build construction company which specialized in timber frame and hewn log cabin shelters.

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  Commonwealth Terrace Co-operative: UMn Student Family Housing

  Jul 2011 - Aug 2013

  President, Board of Directors

  Member of community elected board of directors for student family housing co-operative housing at the University of Minnesota. Executive Committee--member. Landscape Sub-Committee--member.

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  Contraction Designed: UMn CDes student group

  Sept 2011 - May 2014

  Founding Member

  A group of design students organizing to develop intentional reactions to a contracting civilization. Focused on furthering equity in the human habitat through intentional reactions.

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  W. L. Hall Workshop, College of Design

  Aug 2013 - Dec 2015

  Shop Assistant

  Supervision and assistant to student Workshop in the College of Design. Projects range from general woodworking through to CNC Routing (file development and fabrication) through to CNC laser and plasma cutting.

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  University of Minnesota, College of Design, Department of Landscape Architecture

  Jan 2014 - Jun 2014

  Teaching Assistant

  Present, assign, and evaluate course material and exercises in a classroom/studio environment.My student load consists of sixty undergraduate students in two sections of a larger lecture format presentation. My weekly classes allow me to interact one-on-one with undergraduate students studying architectural and landscape architectural responses to landscapes through the lens of ecological principles. Though the course is not currently set up as a design studio I have been actively pursuing opportunities inside and outside the classroom that permit me to draw out as much of a studio outlook as possible. I have been able to implement both an acceleration of digital production as well as demanding a more advanced level of research engagement form my students than the curriculum currently requires. The positive feedback from students to date makes me feel that this is a direction that is proving to be correct. Show less

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  University of Minnesota, College of Design

  May 2014 - Mar 2017

  My professional studies are focused in Architectural theory and Landscape Architectural practice. My areas of interest intersect with disciplines ranging from civil engineering through ecology and the political and social sciences. Of particular interest is the investigation of typologies and landscape patterns of the Anthropocene and the investigation through a design process of adaptive interventions that forward resiliency and steady state socio-economic paradigms.My Masters degree work is focused on the insertion of backcountry experiences into an urban national park. Working within the Twin Cities and the National Park: Mississippi National River and Recreation Area (MNRRA) a program of trails and activity nodes borrowed from the typologies of America's great National Parks is explored as the appropriate means to experience and discover the wilderness of a world class urban river. Show less I was invited to co-teach a graduate studio by Professor John Koepke. The studio is the second studio in the six studio sequence in the UMN MLA degree. The studio focuses on integrating ecological principles into a design process. It also introduces students to complex scaler issues while working through a visioning to site design project on a 30 mile stretch of the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area. The opportunity to teach in this studio is a continuation of the mentoring I have received from Professor Koepke since entering the MLA program. My duties have ranged from developing and presenting lectures (including project introduction and technical lectures on design process and American Indian architecture); weekly desk crits; office hours for one-on-one tutoring; field analysis; studio and juried review; grading and feedback summation.Two projects are completed by the studio over the fifteen week semester. The aforementioned visioning of the urban-to-rural Mississippi River, titled Alluvial Re-Stitch. This project begins with an analysis and visioning of the 30 mile river corridor and culminates with a site specific design that the student choses to enforce concepts they established in the larger riparian vision. The second studio project has the students working with the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa (FDL) and the UMN Cloquet Forestry Center (CFC) on a joint trail project. This project takes place in a culturally rich and contested space. The CFC lands where acquired by federal legislation in 1908 in violation of the 1854 treaty with the Ojibwa. Students have been guided in developing a workshop format for engagement that was carried out with a Joint Trail Committee, FDL, eighth graders, and FDL Elders. Their projects are seeking to provide meaningful experiences along the trail. Aspects of healing, access, rights of gathering, as well as the research interests of the CFC are to be considered in the final outcomes. Show less Center for Rural Design is an award winning, multi-disciplinary research studio that empowers communities to find innovative solutions to problems in rural areas in Minnesota, the Midwest, and globally.My work at the CRD has spanned all the basics that one would expect to encounter in a small design firm environment; from CAD drafting through conceptual rendering and schematic design. I have also had the opportunity to develop papers for conference presentation and peer review publication during my time at the CRD. The bulk of our work is focused out in the communities who are our clients. The center's focus on engagement as the primary tool of design research has exposed me to the process of developing and implementing community design workshops. Working as both design professional, teacher, and student to the communities who are our clients is a rewarding process which results in designs which communities feel an authentic measure of ownership over.Mission: The mission of the Center for Rural Design is to work with people to protect and improve rural landscapes, cultures, and communities through innovative design strategies.Vision: CRD strives to reconnect people with their region's landscapes cultures, communities, and environments.Working with University faculty, graduate students, rural communities, and industry CRD offers an integrative, problem-solving approach. Through research-based design projects that include a diversity of disciplines, the Center promotes communication and learning in rural communities and amongst policymakers about designed solutions to complex rural issues. Show less

  • Graduate Student

    Sept 2010 - Mar 2017

  • Graduate Studio Co-Instructor

    Jan 2016 - Jun 2016

  • Graduate Research Intern

    May 2014 - Apr 2016
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  University of Minnesota College of Design

  May 2014 - Jun 2016

  Research Assistant in Practice - Minneapolis Parks Foundation

  Connecting North Minneapolis to the Mississippi RiverChristopher Tallman, MLA | GD-2 For the past two years I have been a Research Assistant in Practice (RA) with the Minneapolis Parks Foundation. The research assistant in practice program in place at the Department of Landscape Architecture at the University of Minnesota is unique in that it is not an internship placement program but rather an opening of doors between professional practice and the academy. The traditional internship model is unidirectional; the student leaves the academic environment and enters into a proto-professional condition. The RA relationship opens the opportunity for public sector agents to engage with students on projects that can benefit from the umbrella of academic explorations. The bi-directional nature exposes students to much needed professional development while liberating the partner organization to explore scenarios and research that may not typically be supportable in the marketplace.I have had the opportunity to spend extensive time studying the history and current state of planning and development in North Minneapolis, particularly those areas affected by or adjacent to the Mississippi River. The work has included public and partner engagement in workshops and events with residents and community institutions. My work has more recently been focused on the premier project of the RiverFirst initiative, Minneapolis’ downtown Water Works Park.Water Works Park is the threshold to Minneapolis, both spatially—as the gateway from the city to the Mississippi River—and in efforts to face the new era boldly. Perched on the edge of St. Anthony Falls at the end of the Stone Arch Bridges’ transition to grade and tucked into the pocket formed by the the 3rd Ave. bridge and the river, the Water Works Park land represents the last opportunity to capture and infiltrate rainwater before it enters the Mississippi. Show less

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  Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and Cloquet Forestry Center

  Jun 2016 - Dec 2016

  Research Assistant in Practice -- FDL & CFC trail project

  Following on my roll teaching in the year one masters of landscape architecture studio I was hired to complete technical planning and detail drawings for the FDL-CFC trail project. The project seeks to link the two centers across a wooded trail that bridges Otter Creek.

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  University of Minnesota, College of Design, Department of Landscape Architecture

  Aug 2016 - Jun 2018

  LA 2301 Advanced Undergraduate Landscape RepresentationThis course, retooled to be co-lectured concurrently with the year-one MLA introductory representation course, will introduce students to advanced analog and digital modes of representation specific to the discipline of landscape architecture. Assistant to Assistant Professor Karen Lutsky in the teaching and evaluation of year-one graduate landscape architecture students in LA 5376 Introduction to Representation and Visual Communication (Rep I). I will be leading portions of the semester instruction focused on drafting and integrated digital workflows utilizing Rhino3D software as well as instructing perspective drawing assignments. Further details to be added soon.

  • Adjunct Faculty

    Aug 2016 - Jun 2018

  • Graduate Teaching Assistant

    Aug 2016 - Jun 2017
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  Landbase Ventures

  Mar 2017 - now

  Co-founder | Design Director
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  Self-employed

  Sept 2020 - now

  Traveling + teaching + writing + wrenching

  built a bus with my boys, traveling to launch them into the world...next...keep moving.