November 8, 2012 - December 21, 2012 4:30 pm - 5:00 pm Jackson Street Building Circle Gallery Sponsored by: College of Environment and Design Contact: Melissa Tufts Gallery Director 706-542-8292 "American Dreams: The Paradox of Failed Subdivisions in Georgia," photographs by Stephanie N. Bryan.This photographic exhibition documents the realities of failed residential and commercial developments in Georgia following the recent economic downturn. The images show long term ecological and social impacts of human actions, the fragility and resilience of nature, small acts of human reclamation and redemption, and the unfulfilled American Dreams that lay fallow in farm fields across America.According to the American Farmland Trust, the United States converted 7,491,300 acres of its rural land—an area nearly the size of Maryland—to developed land between 2002 and 2007. During this period developed land increased by 57 percent, while the population grew by only 30 percent.  Consequently, over 18.5 million vacant residential lots exist across the American landscape. The American Journal Constitution reports that Georgia has approximately 150,000 of these idle spaces. These unrealized developments create an alien aesthetic that is neither rural landscape nor suburban neighborhood. Left in legal and political limbo, these areas limit the ability of public and private planners and landscape architects to grapple with the implications of incomplete designs. Bryan received a BA degree in Studio Arts and Art History from Oglethorpe University in 2004 and a Master of Landscape Architecture degree from the University of Georgia’s College of Environment and Design (UGA-CED) in 2011. Her academic focus was on historic cultural landscape management. She currently is employed with the Jaeger Company as a landscape historian.Over the past three years, Bryan has spent her free time traveling throughout Georgia to document change in rural and suburban landscapes through photography and writing.  Exhibition through Dec. 21. The gallery is free and open to the public weekdays from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.Opening reception Nov. 8 at 4:30 p.m.News release: http://news.uga.edu/releases/article/uga-to-exhibit-american-dreams-the-paradox-of-failed-subdivisions/  College of Environment & Design