2014

5 Questions with Dan Herman

rory — Thu, 18 Dec 2014 20:24:40 +0000

5 Questions with Dan Herman

teal

December 18, 2014

Dan Herman, ASLA co-founded Rabben/Herman design office in 2000. Over the last 20 years he has specialized in the leisure and entertainment industry having worked on themed visitor attractions, hotels and resorts, and mixed-use entertainment centers for all of the major entertainment companies, including Universal Studios, Paramount, Warner Bros., Disney, and Lego.

What are you drawing inspiration from right now?

I recently read the book Think Fast Think Slow by Daniel Kahneman, and it has had the most profound effect on my mindset about how I think through a project and for all phases of project implementation. In very simple terms, Kahneman illustrates how we use our “fast brain” which is instinctive and emotional to reach easy conclusions rather than use our slow brain, which is logical and deliberate. Our brain would prefer to not spend the effort to think through a problem carefully, analyze the data, and study multiple alternatives to identify the best answer. The book gives example after example how this happens in all phases of life, and it deeply affected how I have tried to not take the easy way out in identifying solutions to our clients’ problems, dealing with people, in selling our proposed solutions, and in my everyday life. With the background of the book, I can identify when I am slipping into the easy answer and force myself to really think through the problem. It is really an outstanding book that offers insights into everything we do.

What potential for sustainability most excites you on one of your current projects?

We are currently working on the master plan for a large project in Dubai, and the client insisted from day one that the design feature a significant size lagoon (62 acres at final build-out). Our client was not to be convinced otherwise, so the design team searched for ways to make the lagoon both the feature that the client desired and something that we could feel good about from a water use and sustainability standpoint.

We also knew from experience that other lagoons constructed in the region were not successful. They were expensive to maintain and operate and sometimes needed operational expertise that was not available. Many existing lagoons suffer from algae blooms, and some projects are eliminating constructed lagoons completely. We needed a solution that was as natural and self-maintaining as possible.

Our office worked closely with the Dubai-based, multi-disciplinary office of Halcrow and, through their parent company, we had the opportunity to work with the very talented environmental engineers of CH2MHill. David Austin of CH2MHill understood and embraced our goals immediately, and we worked together to develop concepts to create as sustainable a water body as we could achieve.

On this particular project, we had the opportunity to pipe seawater to the site rather than use groundwater and deplete the local aquifer. CH2mHill then proposed using a reverse osmosis (RO) treatment system that would allow the introduction of beneficial fish and plant life to keep the lagoon oxygenated and functioning as a natural system. To ensure that the lagoon’s water quality was good enough to avoid foul odors and control algae growth, the salinity at the discharge point must stay at approximately 40,000 mg/L total dissolved solids (TDS). Salinity management is the driver for supply cost. If water supply salinity is low, little volume of water is needed to continually flush excess salt out of the lagoon. If water supply salinity is high, then high volumes of water are needed to flush out excessive salinity. Data received to date indicated that groundwater salinity was low enough to enable discharge to evaporation ponds for Phase 1 of the project. In future phases, discharge volumes will increase to maintain salinity within acceptable limits, making evaporation ponds impractically large. The team proposed that we create saltwater wetlands as habitat areas for local migratory birds. David was familiar with the man-made salt-water wetlands at Al Wathba in Abu Dhabi and he used that as a model for ideas for our project. We proposed using these wetlands as open space areas for adjacent residential development.

In the design of the lagoon, we examined wind pattern and shade patterns to use design to try and reduce the amount of evaporation. We explored different plant materials that would help cleanse the water and contribute to the habitat opportunities that the salt-water wetlands would create.

What do you need to know, but you don’t know right now?

That is a pretty long list, as it seems like every day I need to know more than I do. The example of using water in the desert as a feature element presented more opportunities to learn than one could imagine. But what I would have really liked to know was how to convince my client that we could have developed a better option in the first place.

I’d also like to know more about the most current research, technologies, techniques and soils for planting in urban environments or on-structure conditions. Twenty-five years ago an on-structure project was unique; today it seems like every urban project has at least one roof garden or on-structure condition. For example, we recently completed a project in Las Vegas and the concept was to create a green oasis in a very urban environment. What is the best way to ensure that trees can not only survive but prosper and grow to their full size and life span?

Another problem that has challenged me for a long time: How to help clients that cannot read drawings provide meaningful insights and comments on the plans we prepare? Many clients contribute only superficial comments to our plans and then are disappointed when the project is built — only then do they realize that they had really important criteria that needed to be incorporated into the design. Or they “fast think” and chose the easy answer only to realize too late that they have chosen the wrong direction, and the results are less successful than they could have been.

What advice would you give to emerging leaders in the profession?

Great projects are based on great ideas. Search for great ideas, and don’t let the ease of digital graphics overwhelm the need for really unique ideas and solutions to problems. With today’s computing power and software, we can spend a relatively short time analyzing a problem and developing a solution, and then we can develop a really compelling presentation to share with and convince our clients. It seems to me that digital graphics can convince clients that everything is solved and resolved and that the proposed solution is really good, when in fact the presentation is really good but the ideas may not be.

What challenge would you give to emerging leaders in the profession?

Always think big, even on your smallest projects. I recently read an interview with a very distinguished landscape architect, and he seemed to dismiss small projects. I say, even small projects are important. A 10,000 sf playground in an underserved neighborhood is vital to provide physical activity for children and serve as a community focal point for social interaction. Maybe the planting design can provide a lesson in water conservation that residents can take home to their own gardens. Small transformations can make a very large difference, so think big. Whether you are designing a playground or community garden or whatever your challenge is, make sure you take two steps back to look at the big picture, to see all that this project can be and make sure that you do your part to make it successful.

The Rabben/Herman design office was founded in 2000 by William Rabben and Dan Herman. Both Principals had a desire to focus on design and to work with clients who appreciated the difference landscape could make to their projects, the people who used their projects and the communities those projects are located in. We maintain a small and dedicated staff, many of whom have been with the office almost since its opening. The firm works throughout the western U.S. and internationally in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Recent projects include the LINQ in Las Vegas, Marina Park in Newport Beach, CA and Dubai Parks and Resort in Dubai, U.A.E.

Any opinions expressed in this interview belong solely to the author. Their inclusion in this article does not reflect endorsement by LAF.

5 Questions with Steven Spears

rory — Tue, 16 Dec 2014 19:54:03 +0000

5 Questions with Steven Spears

teal

December 16, 2014

Steven Spears, ASLA, PLA, AICP is a principal and partner with Design Workshop in Austin, Texas. With 15 years of professional experience, he has designed significant projects in the realm of parks and plazas, streets and corridors, trails and greenways, campuses, resorts, communities, and residential gardens. He is a national leader in performance-based design.

What are you drawing inspiration from right now?

My current projects are the source of great inspiration, particularly those that focus on the delicate balance between humanity and ecology. My focus is primarily in inner-city areas where natural landscapes are being pressured toward exhaustion by human activities, resulting in urban green infrastructure projects. I am constantly faced with the questions of what are the limits and how can humanity and ecology coexist.

I have always felt a connection back to my Midwestern roots — spiritually, emotionally and in my project research. Lately, I have developed a renewed infatuation with Jens Jensen, who during the nationalist movement shifted our focus away from European models of landscape design, which were in vogue at the time, to valuing the natural “Prairie Style” landscapes of the American Midwest. Design Workshop’s Houston Arboretum and Nature Center (HANC) project, which we are partnering on with Reed Hilderbrand, involves the reestablishment of native prairie and savannah landscapes so I am having my team read Jensen’s Siftings as well as Jens Jensen: Maker of Natural Parks and Gardens (Creating the North American Landscape) by University of Michigan School of Natural Resources faculty member, Bob Grese. I also just saw the fantastic new documentary about Jensen, The Living Green. I am blessed to have this great connection with the Midwest landscape, much like Jensen.

I am fortunate to have grown up in the Midwest, my house across the street from a cornfield, camping with my family, exposed to all forms of nature. The region of my childhood and the constant exposure to nature defines who I am and why I am the person I am today. Now that I am a parent, I am rereading Richard Louv’s Last Child in the Woods and thinking about how my projects can facilitate people’s reconnection to nature. We are restoring the prairie at HANC so that children who haven’t yet been born will experience the beauty of natural landscapes and learn that getting dirt under their fingernails is encouraged!

What potential for sustainability most excites you on one of your current projects?

I am incredibly excited about the ASLA Chinatown Green Street project, which our firm won through a national call this spring. The fact that this project is being championed by our national professional organization and is located in the downtown of our nation’s capital puts significant pressure on it to achieve the highest levels of sustainability and to serve as a model for streets and streetscapes all over the country. Washington, D.C. has made initial steps toward sustainability, mostly through stormwater, due to requirements from the Environmental Protection Agency and issues of combined sewer overflows.

We are trying to use the site and political frame of the location to make serious progress in sustainability within the local D.C. government and to expand beyond the exclusively stormwater lens. We are creating an “ASLA method,” setting the agenda for the project through environmental, social, economic and aesthetic lenses, and establishing measurable goals so that performance can be evaluated. We are using SITES and Greenroads certification targets to meet or exceed the city’s Sustainable DC Plan and to advance the discussion in areas such as stormwater management, lighting and energy use, urban forestry practices, shade provision, urban wildlife, and urban heat island reduction.

This project involves just a touch of politics! But this is something landscape architects must embrace to demonstrate our value to policymakers at the city and national levels. This streetscape will be an international demonstration project of comprehensive sustainability validated by multiple highly-respected programs and agencies. I am proud to be an ASLA member and supporting our national organization with this endeavor.

What do you need to know, but you don’t know right now?

Design Workshop’s Legacy Design approach looks at design opportunities and outcomes in four key areas — environment, community, economics, and art — to achieve sustainable places. The more and more I get my head into the art side of what we do, the more I realize there is incredible opportunity for landscape architects to advance thinking on designing with the human senses in mind.

Scientists are confirming direct links from the senses to memory. There is so much to discover about the connection between human senses and how people use space, form memories of a space, and choose whether to return to a space or not based on memories of comfort/discomfort. Human sensory design is a key component of the design process and I am keenly interested in this and want to know more. How can designers use the human senses and their relation to memory in a provocative way? More importantly, how can this be measured so that it becomes the research avenue of a design process?

What advice would you give to emerging leaders in the profession?

Landscape architects have an opportunity to positively or negatively impact a profound number of people, most of whom they will never meet. This comes with enormous responsibility and should not be taken lightly. The work we do is for others; we need to be extremely selfless to make extraordinary projects happen on their behalf. Design isn’t about you, it’s about someone else.

But that isn’t what we learn in most design schools wherein very competitive environments we are absolutely focused on our individual ideas. Emerging leaders need to be sure they have turned away those habits from school and checked their egos at the door. Put yourself out there and give all you can for a community that you will never truly know or live in or be connected to beyond the project.

Intuitive based design is fading away. When research, measurement of performance and science are coupled with excellence in form-giving composition, rich designed environments emerge. By doing this, it forces the design process to yield to the larger context, thereby allowing intuitive or individual preferences of a designer to not necessarily be the driver of decisions.

What challenge would you give to emerging leaders in the profession?

I charge emerging leaders to be advocates for change — in their firms, in their communities, at the state and national level. Step out of your comfort zone of being a consultant or scholar, and play an active role in your community. Think more broadly about who you are and how you can be impactful. You are rich with knowledge. Landscape architects have often been called stewards of the environment. Broaden that mandate and become good stewards of community and society as well, not just in your professional role, but as a citizen making a difference.

Design Workshop is a landscape architecture, land planning, urban design, and strategic services firm with over four decades of experience. The firm is committed to creating provocative places that meet today’s needs and that are sustainable environments for all time. To do so they practice a methodology called DW Legacy Design®, a proprietary process that seeks to imbue every project with a balance between environmental sensitivity, community connections, artistic beauty, and economic viability. Projects that achieve this harmony are enduring places that make a difference for clients, society and the well-being of the planet and leave a legacy for future generations.

Any opinions expressed in this interview belong solely to the author. Their inclusion in this article does not reflect endorsement by LAF.

Welcome 2014-2015 Board of Directors

rory — Mon, 01 Dec 2014 22:08:26 +0000

Welcome 2014-2015 Board of Directors

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The 2014-2015 LAF Board of Directors began its term on November 21 at LAF’s Annual Board Meeting in Denver. Mark Dawson, FASLA of Sasaki Associates took the reins as President, succeeding Jacinta McCann, FAILA, FASLA of AECOM, whose international and multi-disciplinary perspective helped LAF to broaden its focus and reach. Kona Gray, ASLA of EDSA became President-Elect.

Director Jennifer Guthrie became an officer and Laura Solano assumed a new role, with three other officers continuing in their positions on the executive leadership team.

Vice President of Finance:
Jennifer Guthrie, FASLA, Gustafson Guthrie Nichol
Vice President of Communication:
Laura Solano, ASLA, Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates
Vice President of Education:
Kristina Hill, PhD, Aff. ASLA, University of Virginia
Vice President of Research:
Forster Ndubisi, PhD, FASLA, Texas A&M University
Vice President of Leadership:
Lucinda Sanders, FASLA, OLIN

Bill Main, Hon. ASLA of Landscape Forms retired off the Board after six years of service, including a term as President in 2012-2013 and a year as Vice President of Communications. Nate Cormier of SvR Design Company left the Board after four years, two of which he was Vice President of Communications.

Director and Past President Chip Crawford, FASLA of Forum Studio left the Board after ten years of extended service, but will transition to head the LAF Board Emeritus group. Ginger Murphy, ASLA of the United States Department of Agriculture finished her four-year term as a Director. David Malda of Gustafson Guthrie Nichol rotated off after serving a two-year term as past Olmsted Scholar representative, and Thomas Tavella, FASLA rotated off after serving for a year in an Ex Officio capacity as an ASLA Representative.

Seven new Directors joined the LAF Board, bringing experience and insights from landscape architecture practice, the development sector, industry, and academia. Kate Tooke, LAF’s 2011 National Olmsted Scholar, was selected for the open Director position for past Olmsted Scholars. ASLA Immediate Past President Mark Focht, FASLA will serve as the ASLA Representative. Welcome to the new Board members:

Gayle Berens, Urban Land Institute
Susannah Drake, ASLA, AIA, dlandstudio
Mark Focht, FASLA, Philadelphia Parks & Recreation
Richard Heriford, Landscape Forms
Peg Staeheli, FASLA, SvR Design Company
Kate Tooke, ASLA, Sasaki Associates
Richard Weller, University of Pennsylvania

The vision, passion, and thought leadership of this group was evident in the three days of lively meetings and events held in Denver. We look forward to their active participation to help LAF increase impact and prepare for the foundation’s 50th anniversary in 2016. Thank you for your service!

5 Questions with Marieke Lacasse

rory — Mon, 01 Dec 2014 20:41:48 +0000

5 Questions with Marieke Lacasse

teal

December 1, 2014

Marieke Lacasse, ASLA is a Principal at GGLO in Seattle. She co-leads GGLO’s Landscape Team and is accustomed to large integrated design teams with heavily involved community participants. Her practice focuses on understanding the end user, intentional ideas and meaning, design excellence, innovation, and impeccable project delivery.

What are you drawing inspiration from right now?

I get inspiration from a multitude of channels — digital and social media, books, movies, lectures and by walking around my city. On the digital side, I receive content from and interact with multiple design groups on Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter. I follow the Cultural Landscape Foundation, Building Green, ArchDaily, CoDesign, LAF, LAM, Harvard Design Magazine and Design Intelligence. I check in every couple of days to keep up on trends.

With regard to books, I try to have a pretty varied assortment of things to read on the bus, lately: Silent Spring by Rachel Carson, an environmentalist classic; Thinking in Systems by Donella Meadows, an eye-opener on Earth’s minute resources and our current trends; The Craftsman by Richard Sennett, a reminder of our work and ethics; and a few leadership books: Fierce Conversations and The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. I’m just starting Community: the Structure of Belonging by Peter Block. All of these books were referred to me in the past 6 months or so, and I’m experiencing direct applications and use for their theories in my work.

I try to catch a lecture here and there but mostly watch TED talks on design and sustainability in the evenings when I have a moment. I recently returned from the U.S. Green Building Council’s annual Greenbuild conference, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Last, I make sure I keep up with the new development and improvements that are happening in my home city of Seattle. The city is the fastest growing city in the nation, and an influx of projects has transformed neighborhoods at various scales. I usually make it a point to visit these transformative projects with my school-age daughters, and can experience it through their eyes as well. It’s great for inspiration!

What potential for sustainability most excites you on one of your current projects?

Sustainability at a district-scale is the most exciting to me currently. EcoDistricts take a holistic approach to advanced sustainability that improves neighborhood performance over time. They reduce pollution, increase efficiencies and natural partnerships, restore ecosystems and improve communities.

A great example of this is the Capitol Hill EcoDistrict report, completed in March 2012 through Capitol Hill Housing with a grant from the Bullitt Foundation. The team adopted performance areas (Community, Materials, Water, Energy, Habitat, and Transportation) to establish overall intent and specific goals, calculated baselines and researched synergies with city-wide targets. The EcoDistrict team then provided recommended targets for the Capitol Hill neighborhood and looked at strategies to reach the Ecodistrict’s objectives. Most importantly, the Ecodistrict will measure progress in the environmental performance areas over time.

Two years after the issuance of the report, we are exploring the catalytic heart of the EcoDistrict, a multiple site TOD project (currently in the proposal stage). This project intends to reference the EcoDistrict work and target some of the strategies: reducing carbon emissions, conserving potable water, promoting biodiversity and creating an equitable, healthy and vibrant community.

Furthermore, the Capitol Hill EcoDistrict has created a governance entity, complete with a dedicated Steering Committee and an Executive Director that manages current opportunities and priorities for implementation. GGLO is a founding Steering Committee member.

I’m also extremely interested in implementing a biophilic design approach in certain projects, particularly in senior housing with memory care. Many studies confirm that biophilic design or access to nature has measurably positive impacts on all residents. In memory care, the impacts are even greater: reduced stress levels, lower blood pressure, and best of all, improved cognitive functions and enhanced focus.

What do you need to know, but you don’t know right now?

Measuring what matters and determining the appropriate metric warrants deeper investigation. How can we expand on the appropriate metrics for health and wellbeing in the built environment or measure productive landscape and indicators of design to foster social cohesion? I want to start incorporating more data collection in our site analysis in order to establish a baseline and see measurable before and after improvements.

Since 2006, GGLO has been diligent with the implementation of building performance evaluations for Seattle-built projects. These evaluations highlight strategies to reduce energy and water use — but also see occupant behavior as a key variable. These evaluations have highlighted issues in building operations, and have resulted in positive changes for the maintenance, long-term operation costs and potential for design to support sustainable behavior.

Recently we have incorporated open space post-occupancy evaluations and are learning a few things about our designs, which we can use to promote effective implementation of active design principles in the future.

What advice would you give to emerging leaders in the profession?

Approach design collaboratively from a sustainable systems approach and learn Revit! Our office is making the transition for the Landscape staff, and most projects are modeled in 3D. GGLO is an integrated practice with Landscape Architecture, Urban Design, Architecture, and Interior Design services. Working collaboratively on dense, complex, urban-infill projects, it is imperative for us to work in Revit to achieve the results we are seeking.

Other software, such as Grasshopper, is enabling our teams to analyze sites, intersection density and viewsheds with great accuracy and has been instrumental in our data gathering. Learning various tools (GIS, Grasshopper, Rhino, etc.) makes your set of skills more valuable and delivers more targeted design results.

Keep the juices flowing. Be present, thinking, designing in everything you do: when you cook dinner, garden, play, relax, and especially when you’re taking a walk. Don’t turn off your brain; keep being inspired by your life, friends, environment, and your work. Many things about my daily work are completely mundane, but the little things that I do all week long contribute enormous amounts of inspiration for me and filter into the way I approach design.

What challenge would you give to emerging leaders in the profession?

Keep pushing yourself to be better, to learn more things, and to ‘walk the talk’. It’s important to live sustainably if that’s the core of what you do. Bike to work, reduce your waste, compost, volunteer. Take your role as a landscape architect seriously: the products and materials you specify have a very real impact on the environment. Use sustainably-sourced materials, select locally-sourced native plants and materials. Incorporate urban agriculture in your projects and think local. Design to make it easy for users to act responsibly.

Volunteer when you can, give your time to your local ASLA chapter or to sustainable groups in your region. Participate in grass-roots efforts for your community — it is often hard work, but the results are extremely rewarding!

GGLO is an integrated design firm practicing Architecture, Interior Design, Landscape Architecture, Planning, and Urban Design. The firm believes they have an opportunity and responsibility to play a lead role in designing, creating and sustaining community — places where people thrive. The research-based approach and integrated practice is focused on improving the relationship between people and place. GGLO’s designers work across scales and project types to create holistic neighborhoods, buildings, and public places.

Any opinions expressed in this interview belong solely to the author. Their inclusion in this article does not reflect endorsement by LAF.

5 Questions with Peter Hummel

rory — Mon, 24 Nov 2014 20:46:12 +0000

5 Questions with Peter Hummel

teal

November 24, 2014

Peter Hummel, FASLA is a Principal Landscape Architect at Anchor QEA in Seattle. He has over 30 years of experience focused on designing shoreline projects that serve people and benefit the environment. He thrives in an interdisciplinary setting and appreciates the contributions of environmental planners, scientists, engineers, landscape architects, and other professionals.

What are you drawing inspiration from right now?

In terms of projects, I’m inspired by Millennium Park in Chicago, the water cleansing urban spaces that Kongjian Yu’s firm Turenscape has designed in China, and former industrial/military sites turned into new landscapes like Magnuson Park in Seattle. I have also been inspired by The Nature Conservancy’s shift in emphasis from strictly biodiversity to looking at how meeting human needs can lead to support for conservation and restoration. In terms of reading, I found 1491, New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles C. Mann challenging my ideas about sustainability and what is “natural” in North, Central, and South America.

What potential for sustainability most excites you on one of your current projects?

I’m excited about the ability of coastal areas to be more sustainable in the face of sea level rise. One project we have worked on for the last 13 years is the Seahurst Park Ecosystem Restoration, 10 miles south of Seattle, where we removed 3/4 of a mile of bulkheads and rebuilt the park and utility infrastructure to be more resilient. I am very interested to see how this project performs in the coming years.

What do you need to know, but you don’t know right now?

There are lots of unknowns with climate change. What will the world be like in 25-50 years? — it will be very different, but the specifics are hard to predict. How much will the seas rise? Where will all the displaced people from other countries and this country go? Where will we get our freshwater as snowpack disappears in the west? These are important challenges for our society and our profession to help address.

What advice would you give to emerging leaders in the profession?

Be patient, be persistent, learn as much as you can from those around you, and take opportunities as they present themselves. Look for new ways to live and work in a changing world.

What challenge would you give to emerging leaders in the profession?

How can we draw on science as the foundation for making our work more ecologically beneficial, and how can we partner with engineers in helping us implement our projects to be more functionally sound and sustainable? How can we make a creative contribution to solving environmental problems that scientists and engineers are charged with, while defining a meaningful role for our profession of landscape architecture?

Headquartered in Seattle, Anchor QEA is a nationally recognized environmental and engineering consulting firm that specializes in aquatic, shoreline, and water resource projects. The 350-person firm has offices across the U.S. and a strong track record of planning, designing, and implementing award-winning waterfront projects. Anchor QEA brings a full range of landscape architecture, engineering, science, environmental planning, and construction management services and is recognized for developing attractive, sustainable, cost-effective, environmentally sensitive, feasible solutions.

Any opinions expressed in this interview belong solely to the author. Their inclusion in this article does not reflect endorsement by LAF.

Olmsted Scholar Feature: Rediscovering Colombia's Fucha River

rory — Mon, 17 Nov 2014 22:10:10 +0000

Olmsted Scholar Feature: Rediscovering Colombia's Fucha River

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By Viviana Castro, 2014 National Olmsted Scholar Finalist

A river that was valued once as a source of life is now channelized to control its contaminated waters, with people fearing it and perceiving it as sewage rather than a natural resource. Rediscovering the Fucha River involves exploring the opportunities of the river as a public space, creating a vision that can change the perception of the river and demonstrate how people can experience its regeneration.

I began this exploration as my senior capstone project with the goal of understating the potential of urban river restoration in Latin American development. Studying this river in particular, however, brought up many aspects that brought a different value to the notion of restoration, where first there needs to be a rediscovery.

Fucha — Muyscubum for “the great female” — was one of the sources of life for the Muysca tribe in the area of Bacata (now the city of Bogotá). The Muysca had a close relationship with the river, seeing it as the place of birth for all life forms. However, as Spanish settlement began to take place, the river was used as a hydraulic source for industries developing in the twentieth century. With this change, the waters began to degrade and the river began to be seen as a source of disposal. Even the term Fucha today can be confused with the Spanish vernacular fuchi, which is a way to describe a bad smell.

The river begins with high water quality as it flows down the steep mountain ranges but begins to degrade as it enters the urban core. By the time it reaches its last stretch, the river has lost its oxygen levels and has received waste from multiple polluting sources.

I interviewed people around the river edge, asking them about their impression of the river. People commented on the constant flooding, contamination, and waste disposal into the river, and compared their experience of the river in the city to the rivers in the countryside, where activities such as paseo de olla (traditional family picnics) take place around the river. How can our culture, and the built environment, contribute to the restoration of the river?

The Rediscovering the Fucha River vision utilizes public spaces as the way to encourage a new attitude towards the river. It takes into account four general scenarios found along the one-mile stretch that repeat along the river edge and illustrates how open spaces, residences, industries, and even how the surrounding truck parking lots can contribute to the restoration of the river.

By illustrating the river through time, we can show the steps that can be taken to help its regeneration. It can begin by allowing and encouraging the river to be observed, demonstrating its value and potential through art and recreational elements. With time, the river can be approached, and eventually, it can be appreciated in its natural state.

The Fucha River runs the risk of losing its meaning and natural function if it continues to be treated as it is today. Rediscovering the Fucha River involves understanding its meaning from the past, its role today, and what it will mean for the future. Overall, this vision aims to serve as an advocacy tool towards reconsidering the value of the Fucha River within the current development of the city. This river was part of our historical values and can be restored to bring our close traditional relationship with rivers to the city. In Bogotá, we can also have a paseo de olla. Let’s recuperate our Fucha River.

To see the full Rediscovering the Fucha River report, visit: http://issuu.com/vivianacastro0/docs/resdiscover_fucha

Viviana Castro recently graduated with a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture (Summa Cum Laude) and a minor in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Florida. She is currently working at Dix.Hite+Partners in Longwood, Florida.

Olmsted Scholar Feature: 1936 Olympic Village - At the Intersection of Preservation and Renewal

rory — Wed, 12 Nov 2014 22:11:25 +0000

Olmsted Scholar Feature: 1936 Olympic Village - At the Intersection of Preservation and Renewal

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By Katia Rios, 2014 University Olmsted Scholar

Just west of Berlin, Germany, adjacent to a village in former East Germany, lies an often overlooked yet significant landmark. Essentially an abandoned landscape, the remnants of the 1936 Olympic Village evoke a powerful past that dates back to one of the darkest periods in Germany’s history. The Nazi government conceived and built this roughly 130-acre complex to house the 1936 Olympic athletes, including the legendary Jesse Owens. It was transformed into a military base during the Second World War, and taken over by the Soviet Union as a sports training camp for its military. Finally, after the reunification of Germany, the landscape was abandoned with uncertainty as to its future. Only recently has it been rehabilitated to serve as an outdoor museum and witness to Germany’s past.

The 1936 Olympic Village is not only an emblem of Germany’s history but also a unique example for understanding various topics in landscape architecture. As an abandoned landscape, the Olympic Village is a great opportunity to understand time’s influence on infrastructure and landscapes, in the context of environmental processes, deterioration and decay, and ecological resilience. The site provides the opportunity to explore the issues of cultural and historic landscape preservation, and the unique balancing of preservation and revitalization or renewal. As a public space, issues of community involvement are brought to the foreground and bring to light opportunities for public engagement. The 1936 Olympic Village lies at the intersection of these issues and allows a unique example for understanding landscape architecture’s role in addressing these site conditions and the issues inherently embedded within this site.

My Master’s Report dealt with this complex site under these premises, bridging the gap between the depth of the past with the possibilities for the future. The design outcome allows history to come to the foreground while simultaneously planning and envisioning a revitalized purpose for the Village. Its intent is to provide visitors with a comprehensive history of the site, allowing them to reflect, process, and understand that history, and ultimately enjoy recreational opportunities within a large, ecologically-rich landscape. The design fosters a sense of exploration, allowing visitors to create their own experience within this unique place that has an incredible potential to become so much more than it is now.

Beyond the 1936 Olympic Village itself, the focus on a former Olympic Village site comes at an opportune time, in the midst of discussions around the future of the infrastructure and impacts of the most recent Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia. The 1936 Olympic Village is a reflection of the challenges of integrating Olympic Villages and Olympic infrastructure back into the folds of community after the Games have left. There is great potential for an examination such as this to answer similar questions for other abandoned Olympic Villages around the world. The uncertain futures of Olympic Villages highlight the issues surrounding redevelopment and reuse of infrastructure involved in such temporal and short-lived events. The discrepancy between the investment of host cities into the creation of Olympic sites, with the short-lived nature and fleeting use of these sites warrants more attention. Landscape architecture, in this context, provides an effective strategy for working through these discrepancies and contradictions.

Link to Master’s Report: http://blur.by/1uDde4Z

Katia Rios (Gedrath-Smith) completed her Master of Landscape Architecture from the University of Arizona in May. She now works as an intern at Gustafson Guthrie Nichol in Seattle, Washington, launching her career in landscape architecture.

In Remembrance: Joseph J. Lalli, FASLA

rory — Sat, 01 Nov 2014 21:12:51 +0000

In Remembrance: Joseph J. Lalli, FASLA

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We were deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Joe Lalli on October 25, 2014. Joe was a great friend and supporter of the Landscape Architecture Foundation (LAF) and was a key force in building the organization and developing what have come to be signature programs for us.

Joe served on the LAF Board of Directors from 2004-2009. During that time, he was Vice President of Development for 4 years, creating the annual Sustainable Destination Sweepstakes and raising over $145,000 for LAF with an EDSA match to its employees to build the EDSA Minority Scholarship. Through his Board service and ongoing leadership with EDSA as a Founding Sponsor, Joe helped to develop and enhance LAF’s renowned Olmsted Scholars Program.

“Joe is a very special person who has touched my life and LAF in a very meaningful and extraordinary way. He had such a giving and gentle but powerful way about him and a sensitivity that manifests in his work and the EDSA culture. Joe led and sustained a culture of philanthropy and giving back that is the heart and soul of EDSA. LAF wouldn’t be who we are or have accomplished what we have for the betterment of all without him,” said LAF Executive Director Barbara Deutsch, FASLA.

More about Joe’s life and legacy can be found at:

Olmsted Scholar Feature: Park City: Re-Creating the Essence of "Park"

rory — Wed, 29 Oct 2014 21:13:44 +0000

Olmsted Scholar Feature: Park City: Re-Creating the Essence of "Park"

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By Ryan Coghlan, 2014 University Olmsted Scholar

Today over half the world’s population lives in cities. With this number set to grow to over 80% by 2050, how best to grow cities has become a problem global in scope. Combined with land shortages, this growth has frequently lead to densification, and with it, increased strain on local resources and the environment. Left unchecked, this strain has the potential to threaten the long-term health of both society and the environment worldwide.

Throughout the modern era, parks have been vital to combatting the negative effects of such densification. Having historically been viewed as distinct from the surrounding city, parks have been able to perform functions that are forbidden elsewhere in urban environments. By taking on a variety of social, cultural, and more recently, ecological roles, parks have helped reinforce the systems that densification strains, allowing cites to grow and thrive over time. Today, however, the very land shortages and resulting densification that is creating the need for more parks also makes it impossible to create them as they have traditionally been conceived.

Inevitably defined in relation to the city in which it is used, “park” implies specific physical forms, functions, and values. By re-creating these qualities throughout the city, we can, in essence, reconceptualize the city itself as a park. Such a city would have all the qualities of “park”, but permeated throughout rather than in discrete spaces. Through this approach, the city fabric could assume the roles that parks have traditionally played, allowing the city to continue growing and thriving.

For my graduate thesis, I developed a framework and design approach that could help this reconceptualization of the city as a park to occur. To study how this might be done, I examined Vancouver, Canada and how the basic qualities of the city’s successful parks – for instance, their spatial properties, plant palettes, and hydrological features – allow them to perform their roles within the city. Using this analysis as a guide, I then proposed four design prototypes that added these qualities to common urban spaces such as streets, alleys, and apartment buildings, such that the resulting spaces could perform both their existing roles and those of parks.

By creating ways for common urban spaces to perform both their current functions and those of “park,” densifying cities can continue enjoying parks’ many benefits despite their shrinking land base. By focusing on the qualities of parks, rather than their specific forms, we can begin to create new park forms appropriate for the dense urban environments of today. Given the extent of urbanization today and the ways parks’ benefits mitigate the effects of densification, this work I hope will ultimately help lead to more sustainable and healthy urban environments.

Ryan Coghlan received his Master of Landscape Architecture from the University of British Columbia in May 2014. He currently is helping develop a schoolyard design guidebook for parents and schools while working for the Vancouver School Board and University of British Columbia. He recently moved to London in the United Kingdom to pursue his career in landscape architecture.

Olmsted Scholar Feature: A Grand Tour of Contemporary Planting Design

rory — Tue, 28 Oct 2014 21:15:28 +0000

Olmsted Scholar Feature: A Grand Tour of Contemporary Planting Design

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By Ben O’Brien, 2014 University Olmsted Scholar

I can trace my moment of epiphany to a park tour in New York City in the summer of 2012. I was visiting with my grandmother, and the first day was devoted to the High Line. I had read every article, I had scrutinized the plans, but when I first stepped onto the old railway I was overcome, and it wasn’t because of the paving. It was because of the plants. The High Line showed me, like no other designed landscape had, the immense power of planting design. Plants became my joyful obsession, and after graduating, I felt that a “grand tour” was in order. I had to see more places like the High Line. And so it was in early September of this year that I found myself on a plane bound for England.

From the justifiably famous Piet Oudolf’s latest masterpiece for the Hauser and Wirth Gallery in Somerset, to the late Christopher Lloyd’s magnum opus at Great Dixter; from James Hitchmough’s billowing meadows and prairies at the University of Oxford Botanic Gardens and the London 2012 Olympic Park, to the remarkable subtlety of Henk Gerritsen’s gardens at Waltham Place and Dan Pearson’s poetic entry garden at London’s Garden Museum — over the course of two weeks, I was witness to an incredible range of contemporary planting.

Whether you’re weaving through the subtly contoured paths of an expansive field of flowers in Somerset, scanning the east London skyline from a ridge clothed in wildflowers, ducking and dodging luxuriant masses of plants at Great Dixter, or strolling along the cloud-pruned hedge of boxwood at Waltham Place as Mexican feather grass tickles your shins, each landscape is an experience to be savoured. In the spirit of Olmsted, these are “work[s] of art, designed to produce certain effects upon the mind of men.” Buzzing with life (human and nonhuman alike), these gardens are places with a tremendous degree of multisensory, immersive richness. Their soul gets into you and demands a slow contemplation that more superficially planted, soulless landscapes can never do. It is beauty with substance and it is a beauty that can only be achieved by people who approach their craft equipped with an encyclopaedic knowledge and vocabulary, but most of all a deeply genuine love of plants.

Through listening to Oudolf lecture at the opening of his newest garden, meeting with Hitchmough at the University of Sheffield, and from chance encounters with American designer Adam Woodruff and Waltham’s head gardener Beatrice Krehl, I was able to gain special insight into the philosophies and methodologies of these different but equally passionate plantspeople. The lessons these gardens and their creators teach are critical to both an improved, more thoughtful and rigorous approach to planting design, and to the practice of landscape architecture as a whole.

My travels reaffirmed my belief that an intellectual approach to planting design, grounded at once in science and art, is necessary if landscape architecture is to achieve its full potential as, to borrow from James Corner, an agent capable of producing and enriching a truly sustainable culture. The future of this small but important niche within the larger profession is bright, and I’m excited to play a role in its continued evolution.

Recommended reading:
Planting: A New Perspective by Piet Oudolf and Noel Kingsbury
Dream Plants for the Natural Garden by Piet Oudolf and Henk Gerritsen
The Dynamic Landscape edited by James Hitchmough and Nigel Dunnett
The Living Landscape by Rick Darke and Doug Tallamy
The Know Maintenance Perennial Garden by Roy Diblik
Principles of Ecological Landscape Design by Travis Beck

Ben O’Brien graduated with a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture (With Distinction) from the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada and is in the process of establishing his own ecological design studio. Ben’s long-term goal is to work as a planting design consultant in partnership with leading landscape architects and urban designers.