Elliott Maltby

New York City

Ms. Elliott Maltby is a founding partner of thread collective, a multi-disciplinary collaborative design studio that explores the seams between building, art, and landscape. Her current work defines the idea of the urban backstage, both conceptually and through design proposals. The backstage is the shadow or counterpoint of branded public space, a space to be found and explored, to wonder about, to wander around, a place to speculate. A survey of New York City backstage spaces demonstrates a common pairing of productive spontaneous ecologies and aging infrastructure; these are novel landscapes. Rather than seeing them as derelict or underutilized, she is interested in documenting and supporting the stealth success of these spaces. She is also a Visiting Associate Professor of Graduate Architecture and Urban Design at the Pratt Institute. Since 2009, she has been an active board member of iLAND [interdisciplinary Laboratory for Art Nature and Dance]. With founder Jennifer Monson, she has been developing an innovative platform for cross-disciplinary collaboration for researching New York City’s urban ecology.