2018

2019 CSI Teams and Projects Announced

rory — Wed, 19 Dec 2018 21:10:04 +0000

2019 CSI Teams and Projects Announced

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Eleven faculty Research Fellows and twelve high-performing landscape projects have been selected for LAF’s 2019 Case Study Investigation program.

Case Study Investigation (CSI) is a unique research collaboration that matches faculty-student research teams with design firms to document the benefits of exemplary high-performing landscape projects. Teams develop methods to quantify environmental, social, and economic benefits and produce Case Study Briefs that are published in LAF’s award-winning Landscape Performance Series.

Research Fellows lead the CSI collaboration and receive funding to support a student Research Assistant. Participants from each firm serve as liaisons and work with the academic team. Starting with the 2019 CSI program, funding for each team has been increased! The standard award is a $1,000 honorarium for Fellows and $9,000 to support the student Research Assistant, with varying amounts awarded based on case study workload.

The selected projects include several with strong diversity/equity/inclusion and climate change goals and benefits and include a world-class museum, a shared street project, a post-Harvey evaluation of a Houston park, and — a CSI first — two wind farms. The geographically diverse spaces also include an award-winning ecolodge in Kenya, a university campus in Michigan, and a SEED-certified park designed to promote social equity in Florida.

The 2019 CSI program kicks off in February and runs through early August. We look forward to working with this impressive group and learning more about these outstanding projects and their impacts!

CSI Research Fellows: Aidan Ackerman, ASLA, Robin E. Hoffman, PhD, and Maren King, ASLA, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry
Student Research Assistant: Meaghan Keefe

Environmental Design & Research – Block Island Wind Farm, New Shoreham, RI
Environmental Design & Research – Hardscrabble Wind Power Project, Fairfield, NY

CSI Research Fellow: Amanda Aman, AIA, University of Texas at Arlington
Student Research Assistant: Yalcin Yildirim

MIG, Inc. – Yanaguana Garden, San Antonio, TX
SWA Group – Buffalo Bayou Park Post-Harvey, Houston, TX

CSI Research Fellow: Sarah Hanson, Illinois Institute of Technology
Student Research Assistant: Matt Callone

Jacobs/Ryan – Regenstein Learning Campus at the Chicago Botanic Garden, Chicago, IL
Sasaki – Chicago Riverwalk, Chicago, IL
site design group – Argyle Shared Street, Chicago, IL

CSI Research Fellow: Dennis Karanja, MAAK(A), PhD, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology
Student Research Assistant: Carolyne Wanza Nthiwa, MAAK(LA)

HM Design – Eagle View Camp, Mara Naboisho Conservancy, Kenya

CSI Research Fellow: Jun-Hyun Kim, PhD, ASLA, Michigan State University
Student Research Assistant: Amanda Catherine Wakefield

Mithun – Chatham University Eden Hall Campus, Richland Township, PA

CSI Research Fellow: Emma Mendel, University of Virginia
Student Research Assistant: Chloé Skye Nagraj

PWP Landscape Architecture – Glenstone, Potomac, MD

CSI Research Fellow: Mark Lindquist, PhD, ASLA, University of Michigan
Student Research Assistant: Evan Gill

Stoss Landscape Urbanism – Eda U. Gerstacker Grove, Ann Arbor, MI

CSI Research Fellows: Yi Luo and Michael Volk, University of Florida
Student Research Assistant: Kanglin Chen

Gainesville Community Redevelopment Agency – Depot Park, Gainesville, FL

2018: A Year of Growth and Evolution

heather — Tue, 18 Dec 2018 15:24:13 +0000

2018: A Year of Growth and Evolution

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LAF staff and supporters at the LAF booth at the ASLA EXPO in Phildelphia

The Landscape Architecture Foundation (LAF) invests in research, scholarships, and leadership initiatives to increase the influence and impact of landscape architects to create a more sustainable, just, and resilient future. As this busy year comes to an end, LAF would like to thank our many friends, partners, and donors for their indispensable support.

The LAF website was completely redesigned in 2018 to reflect our focus on spurring the discipline to action to address the defining issues highlighted in the New Landscape Declaration. After conversations with over 6,000 landscape architects, LAF crafted and released an Action Plan offering tangible steps that we can all take to help move the needle on these pressing challenges. We also launched the first of our new Take Action campaigns, with our first call launching in October to remind people to head to the polls in support of candidates who share their values. New campaigns will launch in 2019 and LAF will continue to add resources and stories of impact to support and inspire you.

2017-2018 LAF Fellow Alpa Nawre presents at the LAF Symposium for Innovation and Leadership

In May, LAF hosted a sold-out symposium in which the inaugural cohort of the LAF Fellowship for Innovation and Leadership presented their work on transformative issues like the intersection of homelessness and public space, resilient water management in India, and advocating for safe and restorative public high school environments. This same event kicked off the fellowship year for the second cohort of four LAF Fellows and three Olmsted Scholar participants.

Throughout 2018, LAF marked the 10th year of our Olmsted Scholars Program by working with program alumni to organize events across the country to celebrate and reconnect with the growing community of 634 Olmsted Scholars. The capstone event was a private reception following LAF’s 33rd Annual Benefit in Philadelphia in October.

The 2018 LAF Olmsted Scholars at the Olmsted Scholar Luncheon in Philadelphia

LAF rolled out a new series of articles showcasing ways in which design firms are demonstrating leadership on issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion. 2018 was also a building year for the Foundation as LAF added two new staff positions in communications and development, moved to a new office to better accommodate growth, and completed a 5-year strategic plan.

Generous support from donors allows LAF to inspire, grow, strengthen, and embolden the discipline of landscape architecture to innovate and activate. Together, we accomplished the following in 2018:

Awarded $125,000 to students through scholarships and our Olmsted Scholars Program. Thanks to the support of donors to our LAF: 50 & Forward campaign awards for finalists increased from $1,000 to $5,000 for graduate students and $3,000 for undergraduates.
Kicked off the second cohort of the new $25,000 LAF Fellowship for Innovation and Leadership with a total of $115,000 awarded to the 2018-2019 fellowship cohort.
Recognized pioneer Carol Franklin, FASLA of Andropogon and The Trust for Public Land with the 2018 LAF Medal and Founders’ Award.
Invested over $25,000 in landscape performance research to support four faculty-student research teams in producing case studies of seven high-performing landscape projects.

To sustain and grow these innovative and influential programs, please consider investing in the Landscape Architecture Foundation in your year-end giving. Together we can expand our impact and make our collective aspirations for change a reality. Give online today or learn more about the many ways to support LAF.

Our friends at IRONSMITH will match up to $10,000 of your donations made by Dec 31!

Give Today

LAF is a tax-exempt organization under 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Your charitable contribution is deductible to the full extent allowed by law.

Perspectives: Amirah Shahid

rory — Mon, 17 Dec 2018 19:44:40 +0000

Perspectives: Amirah Shahid

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December 13, 2018

Amirah Shahid, RLA, LEED AP, is a Coloradan, public leader, and landscape architect with 10 years of experience. During her 5+ years at Civitas, Amirah has worked on a variety of projects from streetscapes and plazas to affordable housing and riverfront redevelopments. She is currently the Vice Chair of the City of Golden Parks and Rec Advisory Board.

What drew you to landscape architecture?

The combination of my interests in ecological sciences and how environments shape cultures drew me to the profession. I was studying both of these fields and topics and was excited about how landscape architecture would let me continue to explore both avenues in a way that we can actually see the tangible results of how an intervention affects the environment and people around it.

What is driving you professionally right now?

There’s a stronger need than ever for building resilient communities and environments for reasons rooted in public health, safety, and making sure future generations have the resources required to thrive in today’s ever-changing world.

What challenges is landscape architecture allowing you to address right now?

I am working a lot on addressing the need for public spaces in urban and developing environments, places for people to come face to face and have shared experiences with their neighbors. Considering sites beyond their immediate boundaries is critical in getting this right, and cities should be pushed to consider the projects they have immediate funding for within this larger context.

What challenge would you give emerging leaders?

How do we make new clients aware of the full breadth of our expertise? All too often we’re brought onto a project to solve what appears to be an isolated problem when there are opportunities within the project to make it much more transformative at a community-wide scale. This often turns into quite an effort to expand scope and realms of thinking to do the ‘right thing.’

Where do you think the profession needs to go from here?

I think we need to pursue increased collaboration with other disciplines. As mentioned above, all of the recent projects I’ve seen reach beyond the immediate problem presented. Realizing that we can’t solve everything on our own, and creating integrated teams of users and stakeholders as soon as the root problem is identified, will lead to the most efficient and cohesive results.

LAF's Perspectives interview series showcases landscape architects from diverse backgrounds discussing how they came to the profession and where they see it heading. Any opinions expressed in this interview belong solely to the author. Their inclusion in this article does not reflect endorsement by LAF.

Xtreme LA: Adaptation and Resilience in Miami Beach

rory — Tue, 11 Dec 2018 16:37:24 +0000

Xtreme LA: Adaptation and Resilience in Miami Beach

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Roberto Rovira and his team on South Beach

DECEMBER 11, 2018

Xtreme LA Miami took place November 7-9, 2018 at Florida International University’s Miami Beach Urban Studios. The Xtreme LA Challenge is an annual event offered by Landscape Forms in partnership with LAF that brings together rising design professionals and students to create resilient design solutions for complex problems. The challenge this year focused on the critical intersection of Washington Avenue and Lincoln Road in the heart of Miami Beach where the challenges of climate change meet the opportunities of a highly diverse cultural and ecological environment. The teams delved deeply into local issues, meeting with local representatives, visiting nearby locations, and delivering final presentations to community stakeholders.

Below, LAF Board Member and 2018 Xtreme LA Team Leader Roberto Rovira reflects on his experience, the unique challenges of Xtreme LA-Miami, and the impact of intergenerational mentorship on the teams.

Sunny days in South Beach can be disconcerting. A few short weeks after Xtreme LA-Miami, many of the spaces that our teams focused on during our intense three-day charrette were now part of the global cultural phenomenon known as Art Basel / Art Week – an event that brings hundreds of thousands of visitors from all corners of the world to Miami and has become an unparalleled economic engine with an estimated impact of over $2 billion to the region every year.

Destinations like South Florida can be natural facilitators of cultural and ecological exchange by virtue of their coastal location, as much as they can be remarkable paradigms for addressing existential threats like climate change and sea level rise. As mediators for a diverse public realm, designed spaces that are conceived with a holistic view as we tried to do during Xtreme LA have the potential to solve problems while also imparting poetics into the environments in which we live, work, play, and commune with the natural world.

Among Xtreme LA-Miami’s aspirations was the desire to question how our surrounding environment can adapt in the short and the long term and bring us together in the face of extreme challenges. As a condensed design process, Xtreme LA allowed us to focus on a tangible, nearby site and timely topic in a collaborative and high-energy environment where the natural combustion of up-and-coming students and top-notch young professionals made bold and innovative ideas the welcome standard. The diverse insights of back-to-back presentations from a city planner, an environmental scientist, and a business leader helped kicked things off and communicated their critical insights. The compressed and unforgiving timeline of deliverables, bookended with tight outbound flight schedules, ensured that solutions found their way to the final pinup and cemented friendships that will last for many years to come, I’m sure.

In guiding the two groups, Team Leaders Richard Hindle, Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture at UC Berkeley, and I prioritized an elemental approach that began by surveying the components of a Miami Beach intersection that combines proximities to high profile cultural institutions with notable pedestrian corridors and commerce. As a result of multiple site visits over the course of the charrette, the site footprint naturally expanded to the eastern boundary of the ocean a few blocks away.

Whereas we began with a survey of existing masterplans and a stream of consciousness listing of site elements and peculiarities ranging from light posts and storm drains to tree carvings and signage, the teams’ final proposals ultimately reassessed the fundamental building blocks of the corridor. They reimagined the site’s famous concrete follies as a resilient network of urban tools that could be deployed for shelter, energy generation, water filtration, and habitat, while also delighting the senses with color and access to higher ground as needed. The teams also rethought the default treatment of the end of the corridor as it reaches the ocean as much more than a vehicular drop-off by celebrating its significance as a new ecological plaza where natural systems would be visibly unleashed as a resilient strategy for storm surge protection and stormwater filtration.

Both schemes shared a vision for simultaneously providing spaces for social interaction, integration, resilience, and shelter, while also embracing these as opportunities that define a new kind of public space that performs as it captivates and inspires–an admirable aspiration that hopefully extends well beyond Xtreme LA Miami no matter the place or the weather.

UPDATE: Landscape Forms has produced a short video, white paper, and recorded presentations from the two teams of 2018 Xtreme LA challenge, available here.

Advocacy at the heart of practice: Studio-MLA

rory — Mon, 10 Dec 2018 16:36:16 +0000

Advocacy at the heart of practice: Studio-MLA

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Studio-MLA is a landscape architecture firm with offices in the California cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco. The firm’s team of 40 landscape architects, urban designers, community advocates, scientists, and technical experts collaborates frequently with nonprofit partners, including The Nature Conservancy and local civic institutions, to pursue research and create large-scale plans and design for resilient and equitable parks, greenways, and other developments. Mia Lehrer, founder and president of the firm, is herself widely known as an advocate for the restoration of the LA River. The ethos of advocacy and issue ownership runs deep in the firm as well. Studio-MLA empowers its employees to tackle the issues they see in their community and has incubated two nonprofits, Grown in LA and LA Más, that do just that.

Grown in LA (GiLA), whose mission focuses on urban ecology and native plant life is one of the projects that began in the offices of Studio-MLA. Kat Superfisky, a trained landscape architect and ecologist, launched GiLA during her time at the firm in response to the LA River Ecosystem Feasibility Study. Kat saw that such a large-scale project would require a larger stock of native plants than was readily available in the region. To promote the use of locally-grown native plants for the restoration of the LA River, she created GiLA, a coalition of government, nonprofit, private, and academic partners. As a member of this coalition, Studio-MLA brings expertise and resources that support the creation of new knowledge regarding how these plants respond to the changing climate and how to incorporate their use into initiatives to restore the LA River to its natural state.

The goal of LA Más, which also got its start with Studio-MLA, is to empower lower-income communities to design their own futures through policy and architecture. Working with Studio-MLA, LA Más received its first grant to design with underserved communities in Los Angeles. In addition to its design work, LA Más is a resource for knowledge, providing information about renter rights and landlord responsibilities and showcasing strategies for community-driven change. As development continues across Los Angeles, LA Más is working to ensure that the changes don’t displace the people and cultures that have been in places for generations.

Beyond the GiLA coalition and nonprofit incubation, Studio-MLA engages with the public sector more directly through advocacy efforts and design exploration. Mia supports designers at the firm to reimagine their city, even without RFPs or design competitions providing financial incentive to do so. From a disused train yard to intersections of the LA River with different rights-of-way, this concept work sparks new ideas and can offer an opportunity to share design thinking with policy leaders and community members. Recognizing the need for advocacy in landscape architecture, Mia promotes her ideas and values to the people who control policy writing and decision-making. She engages with political leaders and agency heads to change not only design outcomes but to encourage those who write the rules about development to think holistically and with design innovation in mind.

You need to be in tune, interested, and open to participating in civic enterprise to be able to offer services.

Mia Lehrer, FASLA, Studio-MLA

The strong advocacy ethic that Mia brings to the firm is something that was instilled in her from her youth. Growing up in El Salvador, she was intimately familiar with social inequity and the impacts of environmental degradation. In her family, if you could help, you did. That mantra has carried through the rest of her life as she moved through school and career from California to the East Coast and back. When gathering community input for projects, that means not only making space for the lived experiences of stakeholders, but also sharing design thinking and educating community members about the importance of specific design features. This knowledge sharing also extends to elected officials and public agencies as the firm works to bring its clients along on the project vision while advocating for the policy and process change that could make outcomes even better. From visioning and education to incubation and advocacy, Studio-MLA takes every opportunity to place advocacy at the heart of its practice.

Equity and Inclusion in Practice: SmithGroup

rory — Tue, 13 Nov 2018 13:55:52 +0000

Equity and Inclusion in Practice: SmithGroup

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The students recognized by SmithGroup's first annual Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Scholarships. Top from left: Jonathan Choi, Lorena de Almeida, Qudus Lawal; Bottom from left: Stephanie Onwenu, Everritt Phillips

In issuing the New Landscape Declaration, the Landscape Architecture Foundation made a commitment to strengthen and diversify our global capacity as a profession and to cultivate a bold culture of inclusive leadership, activism, and advocacy within our ranks. To promote these values, LAF is showcasing ways in which design firms are demonstrating leadership on issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Here we highlight SmithGroup’s work to build a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive profession from recruitment to leadership development.

SmithGroup is an integrated design firm with 1,300 employees working at 13 offices in the U.S. and China. Since the early 1970s, SmithGroup has included the landscape architecture firm JJR, first as a sister company and then as a fully integrated part of the firm since 2011. When updating the firm’s 5-year strategic plan in 2015, SmithGroup’s leadership, including Tom Mroz, FASLA, saw that it was important to name and make space for their values. Up to this point, SmithGroup had worked to address issues of inclusion, diversity, and equity in its practice and projects, but Tom says it was time to put them front and center. In the strategic plan, equity was recognized in the firm’s core values to bring attention and action to it. SmithGroup also hired Rosa Sheng as Director of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion to work with both employees and clients, because the firm believes “if you want to take action on something, put someone in charge of it.”

One outcome of centering equity at SmithGroup has been the launch of the firm’s Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Scholarships. Though inspiration for the program came from the firm’s Ann Arbor office and specifically focused on landscape architects, it was quickly recognized by other offices as an opportunity to connect with the built environment professionals of the future, and the firm elevated it to offer five scholarships at offices across the country. The first round of scholarships was awarded this summer and included two landscape architecture students. These scholarships, as Tom puts it, help design and engineering students to cross the finish line and graduate ready to practice. Through this program, the firm supports and mentors students from historically underrepresented demographics into professional life. In addition to a one-time financial award to help with tuition costs, awardees receive a paid summer internship with SmithGroup that offers hands-on experience and professional growth. Interns also have the opportunity to build mentoring relationships, both with SmithGroup’s employees and professionals outside of the firm. SmithGroup understands that mentors help their mentees see a path for themselves in the profession regardless of where they work.

Providing scholarships helps meet varying needs for today’s landscape architecture students, but it does not address the need to increase recruitment, both overall and for underrepresented communities. To recruit the designers of the future, SmithGroup is developing relationships and programs that introduce young people to landscape architecture and invite them into the firm’s work. However, Tom Mroz knows that one firm won’t solve the profession’s recruitment challenges. These programs are a start, but he hopes to build relationships with other firms, build capacity, and scale community outreach and professional mentorship opportunities. Collaborating with others to create a culture of belonging in the profession helps to “make the whole pie bigger for everyone.”

Attracting, cultivating, and retaining diverse designers is critical to the future of the landscape architecture discipline and our ability to solve the complex social and environmental problems confronting the world. Recruitment is only one piece of the puzzle. Diversity of experience is only valuable insofar as people feel their participation is desired and valued. SmithGroup has taken intentional action to create an inclusive environment, acknowledging that there will always be more work to be done. SmithGroup supports the agency of its teams to make their own decisions whenever possible, so inclusion can look different in the various offices. This allows each office to be more responsive to the needs of its employees. Rosa, SmithGroup’s Director of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, ensures that teams are on the same page companywide about how the firm’s values should be incorporated into management and practice and makes sure offices aren’t reinventing the wheel when looking to introduce new internal programs or client-facing education on these issues.

SmithGroup strives to include new voices in its work and promote closer ties and a culture of belonging in the workplace, from opportunities for individuals to policies tailored to each office to overarching goals overseen by the firm’s Director of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion.

What Does the Next Generation Want? Insights from the 2018 LAF Olmsted Scholars

rory — Thu, 08 Nov 2018 14:02:03 +0000

What Does the Next Generation Want? Insights from the 2018 LAF Olmsted Scholars

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LAF was excited to host many of the students recognized as LAF Olmsted Scholars for a conversation on the future of the profession. (LAF/Lora Reehling)

On October 18, 35 of LAF’s 2018 Olmsted Scholars gathered in Philadelphia for a recognition luncheon and leadership conversation to celebrate their achievements and discuss the vision they have for themselves and the profession. LAF Olmsted Scholars are landscape architecture students nominated by their colleges and universities for their exceptional leadership potential. These emerging professionals shared their concerns and aspirations, which congealed around five key themes. Established landscape architects should take note.

Work-life balance

Across the board, the Olmsted Scholars had concerns about work-life balance. As a whole, the group worried about what work schedules would look like and what impact that would have on their personal relationships and aspirations. Their hopes and anxieties are shared by many new graduates.

One father worried that he would be forced to choose between his career and his family at some point, and that his career would suffer because of this choice. It was particularly stirring to see family and child-rearing concerns being raised by the young men in the group. For a long time, family leave has been considered a women’s issue, yet it is not. Parents and families are made up of people of all genders, and they are looking to their workplaces to support them in not only their professional roles, but also the personal roles that enrich their professional practice.

Active mentorship

The 2018 Olmsted Scholars were excited about mentorship. They want to continue learning, asking questions, and expanding their knowledge and experience. There were many ideas of what mentorship might look like. One Scholar put forth an impactful paradigm of the mentorship she hoped to find: it was not be a single relationship but a culture that permeated the workplace. In this culture, everyone would mentor and be mentored; everyone would understand that learning is an iterative process that all parties need to take part in.

Another Scholar further highlighted there should be no place for shame in mentorship. She hoped for a relationship in which she felt comfortable asking any question, no matter how “dumb,” and in which she would be greeted with honest, empathetic feedback.

LAF Olmsted Scholars spoke with one another about their aspirations and hopes for landscape architecture. (LAF)

Empowering women, immigrants, and people of color

The Scholars’ discussion echoed and amplified reinvigorated LAF’s discussions of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace and in design. They reiterated the belief that people should be valued for their ideas and contributions, not their gender, immigration status, or the color of their skin. The Olmsted Scholars sought action to support not only working parents but their international peers and the communities that landscape architects serve that are often unrepresented on design teams. While they understood that there are structural problems at play, they recognized that everyone has the ability to create change through actions that fit their capacity.

Values-based practice models

The 2018 Olmsted Scholars were excited to put the theories and skills they’ve learned in school into practice! They hoped that their work will go beyond the standard scope of landscape architecture practice to address issues and work with communities that may not have access to the profession and for whom a landscape perspective is critical for creating holistic solutions. The Scholars discussed support for research and for marginalized communities as an opportunity to reach beyond practice and shape the knowledge and opportunity that will affect landscape architects and their clients and stakeholders for years to come. Whether pursuing research interests or pro bono/grant-funded project work, the Scholars saw these passions as a spark that will carry the profession into the future.

Advocacy beyond the profession

This class of Olmsted Scholars knows that opportunities to influence the built environment do not start or end at the boundaries of landscape architecture or the allied professions. They want to see landscape architects making the case to elected officials, agency heads, community leaders, and the public. Government leaders and staff are the implementers of public works, and community input can make or break a project. The Scholars identified these key stakeholders as needing to understand the value landscape contributes. Through targeted advocacy, they saw the potential for new champions of landscape architecture and landscape performance.

The 2018 LAF Olmsted Scholars are the leaders of tomorrow, but this discussion demonstrates they’re already thinking big today.

Perspectives: Jeffrey Hou

rory — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 20:07:11 +0000

Perspectives: Jeffrey Hou

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October 15, 2018

Jeffrey Hou, ASLA is professor of landscape architecture at the University of Washington. There, his work and research focus on issues of social and environmental justice including design activism, public space and democracy, and engagement of marginalized groups in design and planning.

What drew you to landscape architecture?

I would say education and a trip to a far-flung place.

Like many in the field, my professional education was first in architecture. As an undergraduate at Cooper Union and like the instructors who taught us (including A.E. Bye), we aspired to be nonconformists, to challenge the established norms and status quo, to take a radical stand on design and the profession. In retrospect, switching to landscape architecture was perhaps my way of being radical.

More directly, when I finished my fourth year at Cooper, I had a chance to visit Pongso-no-Ta’u, a small volcanic island southeast of Taiwan. The indigenous tribe on the island still retained two of their traditional, pre-modern settlements. Built on a complex, sculpted, terraced landform, the settlements provide protection from fierce winter wind while allowing for drainage, privacy, and other social functions. The experience was eye-opening and made me see the built environment beyond the lens of architecture. It drew me to landscape.

I went on to develop a design thesis on the disappearance of architectural sites in my final year at Cooper, worked on several projects in rural Taiwan after graduation, then returned to the States for my MLA study at Penn where Ian McHarg was in his last years of teaching ecological planning studio. What I learned at Penn opened another world for me. It enabled me to see landscape as dynamic systems and processes.

My interest in social issues then brought me to Berkeley, where I took classes in anthropology, planning, and participation. Working with Randy Hester, I got involved in environmental activism (to protect coastal wetland habitats in Taiwan) and learned that landscape architects could be agents of social change. My career path would have been very different had I not studied at Cooper or traveled to Pongo-no-Ta’u 30 years ago.

What is driving you professionally right now?

My professional and scholarly work has been driven by my interest in issues of social and environmental justice. The relationship between landscape architecture and social and environmental justice is twofold. On one hand, the environmental challenges that we face today are in essence social, political, and cultural. They require us to look beyond technical and rationalistic solutions. On the other hand, the impact of social and environmental catastrophes tend to weigh heavier in socially and economically disadvantaged communities than those that are more privileged. I see it as our ethical and professional responsibility to address the deep social and economic divides in our society as we deal with the impacts of climate change, access to clean water, air, and food, and other issues of equity and justice in the environment.

In addition to these issues, I am also interested in the agency of ordinary people in transforming and shaping the built environment. This stems from my earlier collaborative research on community gardening in Seattle in which we learned about the profound, collective efforts of individuals and communities in transforming not only sites in the neighborhood but also city decisions regarding parks, green space, and food policy. I carried this focus into my later work looking at public space and placemaking, including Insurgent Public Space (2010) and Transcultural Cities (2013).

Historically, landscape architecture has been viewed as a domain of professionals which dismisses the agency of citizens and communities despite the rhetoric of participation and engagement. By discounting the agency of the public, we lose our biggest ally in shaping the built environment. In my teaching, research, and practice, I try to focus on a model of co-production and co-creation that challenges the established paradigm and bias.

What challenges is landscape architecture allowing you to address right now?

By focusing on issues of social and environmental justice and the agency of individuals and communities, landscape architecture allows me to address the fundamental challenge of democracy. At this moment in time, nothing is perhaps more at stake, besides the planet itself, than our system of democracy. I am referring to not only the kind of politics we are currently faced with in the United States but more fundamentally the way our economy and socio-political systems are structured. In a recent book that I co-edited with my collaborator Sabine Knierbein, titled City Unsilenced: Urban Resistance and Public Space in the Age of Shrinking Democracy, we support the argument that our system of democracy is threatened by neoliberalism, a model of governance that favors privatization, austerity, and deregulation, while reducing the accountability of those in power. We further argue that public space can play an important role in mobilizing the public, provide a vehicle for political dissent, and hold the political institutions accountable.

Landscape architects can be instrumental in safeguarding public space and democracy. In our role as designers, we have a responsibility to advocate against the system of privatization. Through our roles as facilitators and activists, we can empower the public to take greater ownership of urban spaces. More specifically, through public engagement, we can build and enhance the capacity of citizens and communities in taking part in the political process to shape future policy and practice.

Landscape architecture may seem distant to politics and political processes. But it does not have to be, and in fact, it is not. What we do can be critical and transformational. Just think about what Olmsted and his contemporaries did more than a century ago in transforming American cities and making public space a cornerstone of our democracy (but not to repeat the displacement that those projects might have caused).

What challenge would you give emerging leaders?

I would challenge emerging leaders in our profession to do three things. First, become a leader not just in our profession, but also in society. Consider taking a more proactive role in addressing the grand challenges of our time, using your vision, knowledge, and skills that are absolutely relevant to addressing those important issues. This may mean becoming proactive in one’s community, district, or city, serving on public commissions, and even running for office. Only by taking a greater leadership role can our profession have a greater impact on our society and the planet.

Second, build a network of allies and supporters. Landscape architects cannot go it alone in addressing the critical challenges of our time or even in our day-to-day work. We need to reach out to others for their support and in turn have a greater impact. At the University of Washington in Seattle, although landscape architecture is still one of the smallest programs in the university, we have outsized influence and visibility, partly because of our ability to work with others and take leadership in creating cross-disciplinary teaching and research opportunities.

Third, challenge yourself to redefine the profession. To be a leader is to see ahead of others in terms of both challenges and opportunities. The one important challenge and opportunity facing the profession is its ability to respond to the complex intersection of environmental, social, economic, and political issues facing the planet. Addressing these challenges is a chance to redefine our profession and practice in the 21^st century. This is both our challenge and our opportunity.

Where do you think the profession needs to go from here?

The profession needs to scale up, reach out, and explore alternative models of practice. By scaling up, I mean not just expanding in size and numbers, which are certainly desirable, but also by projecting a higher level of relevance in relation to today’s social and environmental issues and challenges. How can the profession project a new relevance in the face of pressing issues such as climate change, social inequality, and diminishing democracy?

In terms of reaching out, the profession of landscape architecture can have a greater influence in the society if a greater proportion of the population understands and has a greater appreciation of the profession. It’s also important that the demographics of the profession better reflect that of society. To accomplish this, we need to reach out, not just through better marketing and publicity but to engage more substantially and substantively at both the community level and the level of policy discussion and development that reflects greater relevance of our profession to the public.

Finally, to move the profession forward, we need to explore new and alternative models of practice, beyond the predominant modes of private work and public projects. For example, to engage at the levels of community advocacy and policy discussion, the profession needs to explore ways to organize themselves differently and to identify new areas in which their professional knowledge and skills can be put to serving the society and the public. Recently, it has been encouraging to see the emergence of new practices such as Kounkey Design Initiative and the work of my colleage Ben Spencer and his new group Traction DAR. By addressing pressing issues of health, infrastructure, and social development facing developing communities through collaboration and activism-based practices, they suggest new directions for the profession.

Welcome 2018-2019 Board of Directors!

rory — Thu, 18 Oct 2018 21:18:12 +0000

Welcome 2018-2019 Board of Directors!

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Stephanie Rolley, who took office as LAF President during the Annual Benefit, makes closing remarks recognizing the LAF Olmsted Scholars in attendance. (LAF/You Wu)

The 2018-2019 LAF Board of Directors began its term on October 19, 2018 at LAF’s Annual Board Meeting in Philadelphia. Stephanie Rolley, FASLA, AICP of Kansas State University became President, succeeding now Past-President Adam Greenspan, ASLA of PWP Landscape Architecture whose tenure included the first LAF Symposium for Innovation and Leadership, the tenth anniversary of the LAF Olmsted Scholars Program, and unprecedented growth in the Foundation’s organizational capacity. Lisa Switkin of James Corner Field Operations became President-Elect following a year of service as Vice President of Leadership.

Director Brian Jencek became the new Vice President of Leadership. Five other officers continue in their positions on the executive leadership team.

Vice President of Education:
Kofi Boone, ASLA, North Carolina State University
Vice President of Research:
M. Elen Deming, DDes, FASLA, FCELA, North Carolina State University
Vice President of Leadership:
Brian Jencek, ASLA, HOK
Vice President of Communication:
Richard E. Heriford, Landscape Forms
Vice President of Finance:
Monte Wilson, ASLA, Jacobs Engineering
Vice President of Development:
Jim Manskey, ASLA, TBG Partners

Gerdo Aquino, FASLA of SWA, Jennifer Guthrie, FASLA of GGN, Richard Weller of the University of Pennsylvania, and Gayle Berens retired off the board at the end of their terms, which included a four-year extension for Jennifer. Nina Chase of Merritt Chase rotated off after serving a two-year term as an Olmsted Scholar representative, Vaughn Rinner, FASLA rotated off after serving for a year in an Ex Officio capacity as an ASLA Representative, and Bo Yang rotated off after serving a two-year term as CELA Representative. Thank you for your service!

Six new Directors joined the LAF Board, bringing experience and insights from a variety of landscape architecture practices. Andrew Zientek, a 2011 Olmsted Scholar, was selected for the open Director position for Olmsted Scholars. ASLA Immediate Past President Gregory A. Miller, FASLA will serve as an ASLA Representative, and Galen Newman, Ph.D. will serve as the CELA Representative. Welcome to the new Board members:

Sierra Bainbridge, ASLA, MASS Design Group
Natalia Beard, SWA Group
Tim Duggan, ASLA, Phronesis
Gregory A. Miller, FASLA, MRWM Landscape Architects
Galen Newman, Ph.D., ASLA, Texas A&M University
Andrew Zientek, Weiss/Manfredi

LAF is honored to have such an accomplished, passionate, and engaged board, and we look forward to working together to advance the vision laid out in our New Landscape Declaration. Thanks to all for your commitment and service.

Equity and Inclusion in Practice: Mahan Rykiel Associates

rory — Thu, 18 Oct 2018 02:52:21 +0000

Equity and Inclusion in Practice: Mahan Rykiel Associates

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Community members participate in an outreach event organized by Mahan Rykiel Associates for Eager Park in Baltimore, Maryland.

In issuing the New Landscape Declaration, the Landscape Architecture Foundation has made a commitment to strengthen and diversify our global capacity as a profession and to cultivate a bold culture of inclusive leadership, activism, and advocacy within our ranks. To promote these values, LAF is publishing a series of articles to showcase the ways in which design firms are demonstrating leadership on issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion, from providing targeted support for students and emerging professionals to seeking outside guidance and evaluation of internal policies. This article continues the series by sharing Mahan Rykiel Associates’ value-driven design work and collaborative theory of change.

Equity is hardwired into the DNA of Mahan Rykiel Associates, a 40-person landscape architecture, urban design, and planning firm headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland. In 1983, the firm was founded by Catherine Mahan. Catherine wanted to pursue her professional career and also have children at a time when many companies were unsupportive of working mothers. This motivated Catherine to start her own firm, which embodied the values she wanted to see in the world. Today, Mahan Rykiel’s leadership group continues to reinforce the values of equity, inclusion, and activism seeded by Catherine Mahan through the company’s ongoing commitment to addressing issues of gender inequality, structural racism, environmental justice, and equitable economic development in its hometown of Baltimore and beyond.

This manifests in Mahan Rykiel’s intentional pursuit of projects that align with its positions on equity and inclusion. The firm invests its marketing dollars to find and compete for projects that align with its values. From the Martin Luther King, Jr. Plaza in Newport News, Virginia to coastal landscape infrastructure that supports community resiliency in the home of Henrietta Lacks in Baltimore County, Maryland, Mahan Rykiel deliberately seeks out projects that engage disenfranchised communities in the design process to amplify their voices and build their collective capacity. Though design service contracts with explicit equity and inclusion goals may be few and far between, the firm brings their values to bear on every project by educating clients and leading purposeful design processes.

To that end, Mahan Rykiel employs tools and tactics geared toward inclusive engagement. Community meetings are orchestrated to occur at places familiar to and accessible for community members, such as community centers, churches, and schools. Accessibility at meetings means more than just locating them conveniently; Mahan Rykiel might also provide food, bilingual services, and opportunities for youth involvement. The firm supplements community meetings with interactive project websites that offer a transparent way for community members to learn about project details and provide direct input to the project team. The websites have yielded greater participation in Mahan Rykiel’s work. However, they have also raised questions for the firm, as they have seen digital engagement platforms skew participation results with overrepresentation of certain groups and underrepresentation of others. As a result, the company has worked to counteract these effects, organizing targeted focus groups from underrepresented demographics to ensure that all stakeholders have an equal voice. Throughout this iterative process, the firm learns from the community and works to ensure that stakeholders are informed and involved in the projects that impact their neighborhoods. Integral to this process, is client education, which strengthens firm-client relationships and lays the groundwork for future projects that address issues of equity, inclusion, and community participation.

Beyond these types of project-based pursuits, Mahan Rykiel invests in long-term initiatives aimed at supporting scalable social change in its hometown of Baltimore. Core to these efforts is a committed approach to collaboration that cut across the public, private, and non-profit sectors. In partnership with Francis Scott Key Elementary/Middle School in Baltimore, local community organizations, developers, and members of the business community, Mahan Rykiel transformed the school’s outdoor space into Project Birdland, an outdoor learning environment that supports urban song birds and biodiversity. The completed program and space at Francis Scott Key provides not only an opportunity for community involvement, but also an avenue for youth to explore science, math, and design in a hands-on way that affords opportunities for direct mentorship, skills development, and expanded self confidence in their own ability to shape the world around them and form positive associations with the local environment.

Mahan Rykiel employees and community stakeholders celebrate Project Birdland at Francis Scott Key Elementary/Middle School.

Outside the office, Mahan Rykiel empowers its staff to engage in a wide range of equity related issues, encouraging them to serve on nonprofit boards, grapple with public policy, and advocate for causes they believe in. The firm sees staff involvement in these outside endeavors as both a method of civic activism and an opportunity to gain a better understanding of local politics and partnerships. This contextual knowledge helps Mahan Rykiel plug into planning and design processes with a deep sensitivity to community desires and constructive connections that can be leveraged to support them. Through long-term, committed relationships that cut across Baltimore’s service sectors, businesses, government, and philanthropic communities, Mahan Rykiel is helping to transform what it means to be a progressive practice in the Mid-Atlantic and how design can be leveraged to increase access, equity, and inclusion in Baltimore and beyond.

It can’t just be a lone firm taking on equity and inclusion, addressing these issues requires a movement, a critical mass of firms working to promote justice in design. It takes a village.

Isaac Hametz, Mahan Rykiel Associates

More than anything, Mahan Rykiel centers its theory of change on collaboration. Though designers often want to be seen as the authors of beautiful, innovative works, creating places that work for everyone in a community requires partnerships, trust, and humility. Mahan Rykiel exemplifies this approach, and the firm’s experience can serve as inspiration for other firms looking to promote justice and inclusion in its design practices.