On September 13th the five nominees of the Ymere NAI idea competition 2009 ‘Open Fort 400’ will be announced in New York. For the competition 100 entries from 28 countries have been submitted, of which only five nominees will go on to the closed second round of the competition. The announcement of the nominees will take place during an afternoon of lectures and presentations on the idea of 'Open Fort 400'. Host of the event is the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, Rose auditorium at Cooper Square, New York.

The announcement of the nominees will accompany two lectures on the context of Open Fort 400. After a word of welcome by Saskia Bos, Dean of Cooper Union School of Fine Arts and member of the jury of the Ymere NAI idea competition 2009 an introduction will be given on the competition.
Subsequently the floor will be given to Russell Shorto, also member of the jury of the idea competition, and bestselling author as well as director of the John Adams Institute in Amsterdam, followed by Professor Kate Orff of Columbia University, who is a landscape architect with her own firm SCAPE. The first speaker will deal with the socio-historical context of the competition and the historical and recent relation between Amsterdam and New York, while the second will discuss the cultural and economic developments of the river ecologies of post-industrial New York. After the lecture architect Mels Crouwel will provide a short clarification of the jury review, after which Job Cohen, Mayor of Amsterdam, will announce the five teams who have been nominated for the closed second round of the competition.

Programme
13:00-13:15 Welcome with coffee and rolls
13:15-13:30 Introduction Open Fort 400 competition
13:30-14:15 Lecture Russell Shorto
14:15-14:45 Lecture Kate Orff
14:45-15:00 Jury report by jury chair Mels Crouwel and introduction of Mayor Cohen
15:00-15:10 Announcement of nominees by Mayor Cohen
15:15-15:30 Toast and conclusion

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