2012

New CSI Video Features Research Fellows

rory — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 20:44:00 +0000

New CSI Video Features Research Fellows

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LAF Research Fellows are leading the way in helping students find funded research opportunities and providing critical professional development through LAF’s Case Study Investigation (CSI) program. The program’s benefits extend beyond research assistants, and also provide savvy marketing and advocacy tools for practitioners making the case for sustainability.

In a new video, LAF Research Fellows discuss CSI, and highlight some of its merits for students, researchers, firms, and the landscape architecture discipline. Click here to view.

”It’s not just an academic conversation, and it’s not just a practice conversation. This is the time, not to sit on the sidelines, but to get in.”
- Kristina Hill, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Univeristy of California Berkeley

”We need to prove to the rest of the world that we can do those other functions well, and successfully, and over time, and just as reliably as a hard solution.”
- Alexander Robinson, Assistant Professor, University of Southern California

”You are upraising a new generation of experts on understanding and measuring performance.”
- Jessica Canfield, Assistant Professor, Kansas State University

”Academia can help make that bridge, to make research more readily available to the profession and to clients.”
- Nancy Rottle, Associate Professor, University of Washington

”It’s a unique bridge between practice and education – for students, and for the faculty, and for the firms.”
- Bo Yang, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Utah State University

Olmsted Scholars Program: New $15,000 Undergraduate Award

rory — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 20:41:00 +0000

Olmsted Scholars Program: New $15,000 Undergraduate Award

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LAF is pleased to announce a new $15,000 award for undergraduate students as part of its renowned Olmsted Scholars Program.

“The new award will recognize the high level of talent and leadership potential present in undergraduate programs,” said LAF Executive Director Barbara Deutsch, FASLA.

To date LAF has recognized 175 Olmsted Scholars. With the new award for undergraduate students, LAF will increase the number of Olmsted Scholars recognized each year and further strengthen its commitment to cultivate the next generation of leaders in the profession.

The new $15,000 award complements the existing $25,000 award, which will now be available only to graduate nominees. Previously, undergraduate students competed with graduate students both for their school’s nomination and for the national award. Up to three graduate and three undergraduate finalists will be selected with each receiving $1,000.

“LAF is delighted to offer such a significant financial award exclusively for undergraduate students,” said Deutsch. ”We are grateful to the sponsors who are making this award possible through their continuing pledges. LAF is pleased to recognize Toro, EDSA, HOK and OLIN for their continuing support of the Olmsted Scholars Program.”

University nominations are due to LAF by February 15, 2013. Full applications are due March 15. The first $15,000 prize will be announced in May and awarded at LAF’s 28th Annual Benefit on Friday evening, November 15, 2013 in conjunction with the ASLA Annual Meeting in Boston.

Welcome 2012-2013 Board of Directors

rory — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 19:46:48 +0000

Welcome 2012-2013 Board of Directors

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The 2012-2013 LAF Board of Directors began its term on September 28 at LAF’s Annual Board Meeting in Phoenix. Bill Main, Hon. ASLA of Landscape Forms took the reins as President, succeeding Lucinda Sanders, FASLA of OLIN, whose leadership was essential in helping the Foundation plan strategically for future growth. Jacinta McCann, FAILA of AECOM became President-Elect.

Nate Cormier, ASLA of SvR assumed a new role as Vice President of Communications with the four other officers continuing in their positions on the leadership team:

Vice President of Finance:
Mark Dawson, FASLA, Sasaki Associates
Vice President of Development:
Gregg Sutton, ASLA, EDSA
Vice President of Communication:
Nate Cormier, ASLA, SvR Design Company
Vice President of Education:
Kristina Hill, Ph.D., Aff. ASLA, University of Virginia
Vice President of Research:
Forster Ndubisi, Ph.D., ASLA, Texas A&M University

Kathy Garcia, FASLA of the City of Del Mar retired off the Board after five years of service, including a term as President in 2011 and two years as Vice President of Finance. Her legacy includes leading the organization during a time of significant restructuring and growth. Glenn Walters, ASLA of Design Workshop also left the Board after five years, and Jonathan Mueller, FASLA rotated off after twice serving in an Ex Officio capacity as an ASLA Representative.

Nine new Directors joined the LAF Board, bringing experience and insights from design firms, industry and academia. David Malda, LAF’s 2009 National Olmsted Scholar, was selected for the second of two recently created Director positions for past Olmsted Scholars. The Board also created a new Ex Officio position for the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (CELA) Vice President of Research, currently held by Ming-Han Li. Welcome to the new Board members:

Paul Bambauer, Ironsmith, Inc
Ignacio Bunster-Ossa, FASLA, Wallace Roberts & Todd
Christopher Fannin, HOK Planning Group
Adam Greenspan, ASLA, PWP Landscape Architecture
Ming-Han Li, Ph.D. PE, PLA, Texas A&M University
Susan Hatchell, FASLA, Susan Hatchell Landscape Architecture
David Malda, Gustafson Guthrie Nichol
Allyson Mendenhall, PLA, Design Workshop
Laura Solano, ASLA, Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates

Through their vision, leadership, passion, and active engagement, Board members are directly responsible for the health and impact of LAF and its programs. Thanks to all for your commitment to serve and contributions toward achieving LAF’s mission!

Olmsted Scholar Feature: Landscape Architects and the Microbrewery Renaissance

rory — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 20:01:55 +0000

Olmsted Scholar Feature: Landscape Architects and the Microbrewery Renaissance

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By Lee Streitz, 2012 University Olmsted Scholar

The renaissance of microbreweries is underway. In the last thirty years, there has been a 1700% increase in the number of independent breweries in the United States. Similar to when the number of wineries and vineyards increased dramatically in the late 1990s, independent brewery growth offers the profession of landscape architecture tremendous opportunities to shape these spaces to ensure that they too become sustainable and choice outdoor destinations.

Unlike wineries though, the growth in the number of independent breweries has not been paired with an increase in sales. This dichotomy means that more breweries are competing for a share of a shrinking market, causing the field to become more competitive.

Because of the increased competition, there appears to be a need for breweries to distinguish themselves from their competitors and build customer loyalty through positive, environment- based memories. Research has demonstrated that flagship stores can be valuable tools in strengthening customer relationships and distinguishing one’s brand from competitors (Think of the flagship Apple and REI stores).

While traditional Bavarian biergartens are charming outdoor spaces, which are enjoyed by many, they do little to distinguish themselves from each other. If designed thoughtfully, breweries’ industrial locations could function well as pilgrimage flagship locations, offering a range of dynamic experiences that balance the needs of customers, the environment, and the industrial needs of a brewery.

But why are landscape architects particularly important in shaping brewery locations? Why not charge architects or interior designers with the industry makeover? The quick answer is water.

The brewing industry uses a substantial amount of water in their daily processes. While breweries vary widely in their water efficiency, when calculated liberally, a brewery may produce as much as ten pints of wastewater for every pint of beer. This wastewater has long been considered a nuisance by the brewing industry. Many local water municipalities charge high fees or outright reject brewery wastewater into their systems, as the total suspended solids (TSS) count of particulates may be too high for their system, or the pH levels and temperature may be outside of allowable standards. This means that many breweries have to treat their wastewater onsite through mechanical means prior to sending it down the drain.

With the use of innovative ideas by landscape architects, wastewater can be treated onsite, used to create habitat, and reclaimed to irrigate planted areas on the brewery site, bringing both interest and
sustainability to the space.

Prior to graduation in May, I completed a master’s report at the University of Arizona that examined the use of industrial locations as outdoor amenities for both the brewing industry and their patrons. My project specifically looked at a former gasworks plant in Berlin, Germany to examine its design potential as an industrial adapted reuse project into a brewery, beer garden, community amenity, and dynamic outdoor space. The report also examined the use of constructed wetlands as a means of onsite wastewater treatment that could also create wildlife habitat and function as a community amenity.

After graduating from the University of Arizona in May 2012 Lee moved to San Francisco where he is working as a design associate for Carducci & Associates near Fisherman’s Wharf. Coincidentally, one of his first projects with the firm was working on the design of a brewery and beer garden associated with a Whole Foods in the Bay Area.

Olmsted Scholar Feature: Reframing the Argument for Sustainability

rory — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 20:04:11 +0000

Olmsted Scholar Feature: Reframing the Argument for Sustainability

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By Peter J. Ellery, 2012 University Olmsted Scholar

One of the most difficult tasks we face as professionals charged with shaping the environment is convincing our clients, and indeed the public at large, of thinking more sustainably. While this argument has ebbed and flowed in response to political and social conscience, it has been mostly moot in influencing any large-scale social change. This is in spite of the consequences now being seen in some areas of the world and scientific forecasts that paint an even bleaker future. So why is this sustainability argument highlighting our self-demise not working?

In response to this issue, art and architectural historian Dr. Rodhri Windsor-Liscombe, suggests, “The arguments for sustainability tend to be excessively technical or technocratic, preoccupied with instrumental or technological solutions, cast in cataclysmic narrative or disconnected from individual behaviour. Each provides opportunities for the average citizen to either detach themselves from the problems and potential solutions or to expect others, be they corporations or governments, to correct the situation.” If we continue to frame this argument using strategies that emphasize cataclysmic or punishment-based “stick” scenarios to threaten us, is change likely?

We currently use a “pathogenic” or disease management approach when arguing for sustainability and changes to the general public’s behavior. This approach emphasizes the identification and treatment of the problem, along with the consequences we face should the problem continue unresolved. In contrast, a better approach might be to utilize a “salutogenic” perspective to promote sustainable choices and behavior change. This perspective emphasizes environmental choices and behaviors because of the inherent value they provide, rather than what they help us to avoid. Central to this approach is the framing of the sustainability argument so that it falls within the general public’s sense of coherence. This involves presenting the argument to the public in a way that is meaningful, manageable, and comprehensible to them.

For the sustainability argument to be meaningful, it has to allow the public to see the value in making these decisions. For example, rather than using scientific or economic concepts like carbon footprint, or carbon credits, that have little meaningful value to the general public, consider highlighting the positive rewards that result from sustainable choices. This could involve showing how a green roof helps businesses save money in terms of heating and cooling costs, and for some, this might be the right motivation needed to make this choice. However, the general public will also respond to rewards that are intrinsic to the environment as well. For example, the argument for a green roof or space around a building being dedicated to vegetation and trees only, becomes much more compelling if you emphasize the smell of the garden in spring, the view of the garden from overlooking office windows, and the opportunity for those working in nearby areas to have lunch and relax in a shaded, park setting.

Second, the ideas offered in sustainability arguments must be manageable. They have to fit within the public’s life patterns and daily routines. The public is unlikely to walk or ride a bicycle to work in locations where vehicular traffic is a safety issue, the weather is extreme in either heat or cold, or if the distance is excessive. For those required to wear a suit as part of their job, even providing shower and changing facilities at work may not be enough if they do not have the extra time needed for the commute or to bathe and dress in their daily routine. Emphasizing strategies and design features that address these concerns, and yet still fit within the public’s existing lifestyle is essential to successfully arguing for sustainable behaviors.

Finally, we have to consider what the public finds comprehensible to their way of life. For example, it is not that the public is against the idea of wind powered energy systems. As Steffen Danborg of the Danish Wind Industry Association explains, the public in general is very supportive of wind-powered energy. The concern, in many cases, lies in the locating of windmills and windmill farms that generate this energy. It is simply difficult for some people to accept such an intrusive addition to their current understanding of the environment in which they live. As a result, arguments like noise, electro-magnetic interference, and visual eyesore (either real or perceived) are used in the “not in my backyard” counter arguments, which often lead to legal action and delays in wind power development. Interestingly, research shows public opinion changes in a positive and accepting direction, once people become acclimated to the presence of the wind turbines. The moral here is that our sustainability arguments need to consider the amount of change that those involved will need to accommodate (again, either real or perceived), and either introduce the change slowly so that acclimation can occur, or use a less intrusive approach so that change occurs within parameters of our understanding of the world in which we live.

The essential point being made here is that we need to change the way in which the case for sustainable development is presented. It is time to acknowledge that the current cataclysmic threat or “stick” approach to the sustainability argument has provided little motivation for change in public behavior, and instead, more meaningful, manageable and comprehensible strategies are necessary to get this sustainability “mule” moving in the right direction.

Peter Ellery is in his final year of a Master of Landscape Architecture degree at Ball State University. His thesis explores the expansion of educational opportunities through environmental design and looks at how an effectively landscaped environment can both enhance and extend the primary school curriculum of a Building Tomorrow Foundation Primary School in rural Uganda.

Olmsted Scholar Feature: Making Connections - Science, Urgency, and Opportunities

rory — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 20:09:06 +0000

Olmsted Scholar Feature: Making Connections - Science, Urgency, and Opportunities

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By Matthew Gonser, 2012 University Olmsted Scholar

Our built environment reflects how and what we learn and what we believe is important to convey. The physical plan and its operations should embody our sustainability values. Also, “Students aren’t dumb.”

This quote, from my boss, Dr. E. Gordon Grau, the Director of the University of Hawai‘i Sea Grant College Program (UH Sea Grant), preceded the above declaratory principles during a 2-day conference held this past August at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa (UHM). The conference, which focused on rainwater catchment, was organized by UH Sea Grant with the support of the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) and the Center for a Sustainable Future. One of the many outcomes from this 2-day event was a statement of principles and list of potential pilot projects that reflect the science, urgency, and opportunities for optimizing our water resources here in Hawai‘i. Certain principles and projects spoke directly to the role of the University in demonstrating forward thinking and prudent activities as they relate to education, planning, design, and operations of our facilities and grounds.

We at the University have the privilege to conduct research, educate, and dream. But it should also be acknowledged that our facilities have as much influence on students (if not more) as what they are being taught in the classroom. That is, are we walking the proverbial walk?

UHM is located at the opening of Mānoa Valley on the island of O‘ahu, Hawai‘i. As the flagship campus of the public UH system, and one of O‘ahu’s greatest users of municipal water, UHM has the obligation to lead and demonstrate innovative solutions and practices to manage our constrained resources, through any number of activities: efficiency of fixtures, rainwater catchment, education and conservation efforts, stormwater retention and recycling for non-potable uses, etc. To that end, it is not only the responsibility of students to push for moving beyond status quo practices, but so too should faculty and staff (while still towing a fine line between advocacy and disrespect for a collective University operation).

An aspect of my position as an extension educator is making connections: to connect knowledge with users, research with application, and people with people. I am in the fortunate position of helping those with energy and resources connect with those who are interested in learning, collaborating, and contributing additional resources. Though UHM does not have a Landscape Architecture (LA) program, it does have faculty members with LA degrees (including two new hires that began this semester in the Department of Urban & Regional Planning and in the School of Architecture, respectively). It also has a variety of expertise and a culture that understands the necessity of seeking out others to co-produce with.

From just two days of faculty, staff, students, government officials, and trade experts sitting, talking, and listening, we have realized shared interests and a willingness to support each other. One manifestation is developing an entry into the EPA’s Campus RainWorks Challenge, a student competition for innovative green infrastructure design on campus. A target project is the ambitiously named “Sustainability Courtyard”. This conspicuously verdant and busy courtyard, with food vendors, a free bike pump, art installations, and a student-managed edible garden, provides the opportunity to highlight the science, urgency, and opportunities for optimizing our water resources.

With a diverse team of designers, scientists, engineers, and artists involved, the project also demonstrates the fruitfulness of working together. As the campus updates its Landscape Master Plan and Drainage Plan, a student supported vision for conservation, re-use, and celebration of water resources could be an important step in the continued efforts for the campus’ physical plan and operations to embody our sustainability values.

Since March, Matthew has held the position of Extension Faculty, Community Planning and Design, with the University of Hawai‘i Sea Grant College Program. His work includes research for and organization of workshops, conferences, publications, and other outreach and education materials for (and in cooperation with) citizens, community groups, non-profits, and public agencies, focused on livability, sustainability, and resource management issues in Hawai‘i.

Olmsted Scholar Feature: Revitalization, Reuse, and the Productive Value of Landscape

rory — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 20:13:50 +0000

Olmsted Scholar Feature: Revitalization, Reuse, and the Productive Value of Landscape

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By Brett Kordenbrock, 2012 University Olmsted Scholar

Within my undergraduate studies, I had the opportunity to work at the Niehoff Urban Design Center, an extension of the College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning at the University of Cincinnati. Here, studios gave way to an understanding of how urban spaces functioned, neighborhoods were marginalized, and futures were drawn up by various stakeholders. In these studios, we explored one of Cincinnati’s best-kept secrets, Over-the-Rhine. It is here that I found myself entranced by the community’s positive outlook, their collection of Italianate Architecture, and burgeoning potential.

Today, the wheels are in motion and advocates are tapping local and collective resources to re-envision Over-the-Rhine and the Brewery District, which are growing into a thriving community of artisans, business start-ups, and beer barons. To see these visions realized has given me hope for other fledgling communities in our most sacred urban areas.

I like to draw on these experiences for a number of reasons. I believe that it is fundamental for all designers (and humans) to understand how our cities operate socially, culturally, and environmentally, why our neighborhoods succeed and fail, and how urban life can both empower and excite so many. I have explored these very questions within my design education at the Knowlton School of Architecture at Ohio State University.

The choice to enter landscape architecture had been in the works for some years, but it was not until my first studio that I realized landscape architecture was an appropriate setting in which urbanism could be understood, explored, and tried. Since then, my program has supported my growing focus on the productive value of landscape, its ability to operate in non-traditional spaces, and the role biophysical and human ecologies play in the development of site strategies and interventions. I have explored these topics through competitions, seminars, and research-based studios.

These efforts have been best realized in the award-winning project, Augmenting Systems: Strategies for Ecological Intensity at the Picway Power Plant, which reutilized outputs from a coal-fired power plant near Columbus, Ohio. Strategies included: reutilizing warm combustion process water for a 365-day waterfowl environment, reorganizing current cut/fill strategies to thicken ash impoundment caps thereby increasing ecological and biomass potential as well as human habitation of certain areas, thickening and elongating existing hedgerows to capture migratory animal populations, and sequestering carbon dioxide through vertical algae farms — a phase introduced as part of the plant’s biomass operations. The project also resulted in a 2050 Vision for the Columbus Metroparks whereby sites like this and other residuals of urban processes become the new prototype for a productive urban park system.

Since becoming a 2012 University Olmsted Scholar, I have had the opportunity to work on a community garden and hoop-house project. In this collaborative studio, led by Professor Katherine Bennett, we explored both the potential modularity of food production at varying scales (from personal to family to neighborhood) and co-habitation ideologies among human and non-human species within an agro-ecology framework. Today, the gardens and hoop-houses stand tall at the Godman Guild in the Short North East Neighborhood of Columbus, where they will serve as common areas, outdoor classrooms, and experimental stations for a growing number of residents in need of access to healthy and local food.

As I enter my final year of graduate school, I will focus my efforts on urban waterways, specifically the in situ ecologies and conditions of channelized rivers. All too often we see responses eradicate existing ecologies to make way for a “naturalized” condition. So, I ask, why does our response to channelized rivers look the same, project to project? Are novel ecosystems as valuable as their “naturalized” counterparts? And, more specifically, how can a channelized river like the Mill Creek in Cincinnati use existing ecologies and conditional anomalies to re-value and re-tool both itself and its adjacent communities?

Over the summer Brett Kordenbrock held an internship with Peter Walker and Partners. His Augmenting Systems/Picway Power Plant project was selected for the International Exhibition at the European Biennial of Landscape Architecture in Barcelona in September 2012. He is entering his final year of his graduate education in Landscape Architecture at the Knowlton School of Architecture at Ohio State University.

Olmsted Scholar Feature: Landscape Architecture Accessibility and Communication

rory — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 20:16:09 +0000

Olmsted Scholar Feature: Landscape Architecture Accessibility and Communication

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By Lucy Wang, 2012 University Olmsted Scholar

Frederick Law Olmsted is famous for many things — his title as “Father of Landscape Architecture,” his park designs, his belief in the social utility of natural scenery — but he was also a huge advocate of ensuring that parks remain accessible to everyone in the States, rather than a select, wealthy few as had been the case in Great Britain.

So, it is in part thanks to Olmsted that many urban parks remain in the downtown public realm, accessible by foot and public transportation. Visit your city’s local public park, and chances are there’ll be a wide cross-section of the urban population. Public access, however, is only part of the equation in determining the accessibility of landscapes.

How do people first become aware of the green spaces around them?

Media coverage from newspaper outlets and cable news do a huge service in promoting new parkland, however, what’s most interesting to me is what social media can do for promoting the awareness of green space, and ultimately, lead to a better public understanding of landscape architecture.

A shining example of this can be found on Yelp, a site where anyone can be a published critic. And though it’s mostly known for restaurant reviews, I’ve used Yelp many times to discover nearby parks. It’s refreshing to hear about what works and doesn’t work by someone who actually passes by or uses the park every day. Other social media, such as blogging on T umblr and tagged photographs on Facebook also help unearth the “hidden gem” parklets and urban gardens. Grassroots initiatives like the open-source “guerilla wayfinding” project in Raleigh, NC can also reconnect communities with their surroundings.

Using a variety of communicative mediums to spread the knowledge of green space not only leads to a greater discussion and awareness of the history and uses of landscapes but can also instill a sense of land stewardship and responsibility. Proper signage, media coverage, reviews and blogging are ways to engage a general audience. A greater interest in public space and parks will also lead to a greater understanding of and appreciation for landscape architecture.

Enamored by travel and the accessibility of information on the Internet, I’ve started on a project to increase awareness of landscape architecture. In late August, I embarked on an eight-month trip across North America on bus and train to look at landscape architecture that is accessible by foot or public transit.

Using a website (www.landscapevoice.com) and social media platforms, I hope to showcase landscape architecture sites, firms, and university programs I visit along the way. I’ll use word of mouth, social media, and online databases such as The Cultural Landscape Foundation’s What’s Out Thereto help track down which sites to visit.

I’ve chosen North America (not including Mexico) partly because compared to Europe and Asia, there seems to be less coverage of its designed landscapes. It’s my hope that people who visit or live in the cities I travel to can then use the site as a resource to discover green spaces in their urban backyards.

Lucy Wang is a recent graduate of the University of Maryland’s BLA program. Having just finished a 7-month internship with EDSA, she is embarking on a self-funded, 8-month journey around the U.S. and parts of Canada to study landscape architecture, sustainability, and public transit systems. You can follow her on her Landscape Voice website, her informal tumblr page, or send her an email at landscapevoice [at] gmail.com.

Olmsted Scholar Feature: Illuminating the Intangible - Projects in Experimentation and Risk-Taking

rory — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 20:21:23 +0000

Olmsted Scholar Feature: Illuminating the Intangible - Projects in Experimentation and Risk-Taking

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By Tera Hatfield, 2012 National Olmsted Scholar Finalist

While preparing to apply to graduate school, I dog-eared well-worn works by Raymond Carver, T. S. Eliot, John McPhee, John Cage and Robert Smithson. Carver and McPhee illuminated intersections between obscure processes and marginalized places. Eliot, Cage, and Smithson introduced me to the poetics of entropy and the possibility of directed, open-ended designs that might serve as catalysts for future change. Much like the landscape architect, such artists grapple with communicating intangible processes and experiences, exploring new configurations and forms derived from underutilized and unseen conditions in language and the environment.

I believe the landscape is both a place of experimentation and risk-taking. Since being recognized as a National Olmsted Scholar Finalist, I’ve designed two projects that provided the opportunity for such experimentation. The projects book-ended my final year of graduate school and fell on disparate sides of the design spectrum. (“Decoding the Tiber” is a highly conceptual competition entry, while the “Supershed” is a fully constructed dwelling.) However, both strive to visualize the unimagined, to interpret ecological and social changes via transformative landscape design.

Last fall, I was the recipient of a fellowship to study the Tiber River. The Tiber, caged by 20-ft travertine embankments, is rejected as a social space by most Romans. My work was based on a competition to design a museum, traditionally a static entity, dedicated to the river, a system that is constantly in flux. The design specifically responds to a significant lack of environmental data on the Tiber and its heavily bounded site conditions. “Decoding the Tiber” situates post-industrial sites as data collection and decoding points, as well as newly productive space.

An urban river research center decodes the uncertain ecologies of the Tiber — a testing space for researchers to connect in the lab and on the water to provocatively engage the river and its urban narrative. This decoding is illustrated in designed stormwater data pools, their radical colors linked to water quality at other testing sites along the Tiber, changing temporally based on the health of the river. Opportunities for active physical exploration of the Tiber by Romans is a ways off; therefore, the design presents a digital iPhone application entitled “Tiber Decoder Ring” in which the dots and data between upstream and downstream are connected digitally (forecasts and real-time feeds). Users also have the ability to map their own intersections and investigations of the Tiber, graphically connecting users to their contextual surroundings.

This past spring, I participated in the award-winning Howard S. Wright Neighborhood Design/Build Studio taught by Professor Steve Badanes. The NBD team designed and built two tool sheds, a solar greenhouse, and a community classroom space, that served the varied needs of the University of Washington Farm, Seattle Youth Garden Works and the Hardy Plant Society of Seattle. The project is located on the perimeter of the Union Bay Natural Area, a 74-acre center (and former county dump) dedicated to the study of urban agriculture, ecological restoration and sustainability.

After an initial client meeting and feedback period, the integrated design process unfolded quickly with the decision to combine the varied client programs into a unified and cohesive structure in order to preserve space for outdoor education and habitat. This decision, in conjunction with a high degree of responsiveness to site conditions, became the foundation for the studio’s design strategy. With the nickname “Supershed,” the combined structure became the NBD studio’s most unique project to date, with a total area of 459 sf despite a budget of just under $11,000.

The design strategy utilizes a technically ambitious articulated king post truss system (and modular wall panels) that serve to address the client’s security and program needs while maximizing important site opportunities regarding light/sun exposure (solar greenhouse and daylit tool sheds), natural ventilation, rain (roof-water capture devices) and southern views of restored wetlands and Union Bay (classroom). All of the structure’s cladding is either salvaged from on-site materials (e.g., doors constructed from used concrete forms, twig fence organic material sourced from discarded university ground cuttings) or locally-sourced and donated, reclaimed cedar (for the classroom). The 12-week project was recently nominated for an AIA Student Award.

This spring, Tera Hatfield finished a clerkship with Gustafson Guthrie Nichol and received her Master's Degree in Landscape Architecture from the University of Washington. Her collaborative capstone project, focusing on entropic systems and mapping indeterminacy, was selected for the International Exhibition at the European Biennial of Landscape Architecture in Barcelona in September 2012. Upon completing a summer internship at ADX Portland as a fabrication assistant, Tera moved to Boston where she intends to find a position with a local design studio.

Olmsted Scholar Feature: Landscape-Oriented Zoning for Rosario, Argentina

rory — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 20:24:54 +0000

Olmsted Scholar Feature: Landscape-Oriented Zoning for Rosario, Argentina

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By Fadi Masoud, 2012 National Olmsted Scholar Finalist

The subdivision and transformation of agricultural lands to suburban decentralized developments is a symptomatic condition of the territorial edge of cities worldwide. By appropriating a micro-watershed landscape approach to the creation of subdivisions at the peripheral edges of cities, the hydrodynamic agrarian condition is envisioned to become the driver for a novel, resilient, and flexible landscape-oriented type of zoning and land use provision.

Recognizing the ineffectiveness of dated jurisdictional and normative planning tools in dealing with contemporary urbanization concerns, “landscape-oriented zoning” represents an alternative model for suburban developments on greenfields. With the micro-watershed as the unit of subdivision, landscape-oriented zoning promotes integrated and responsive built-form typologies as well as decentralized infrastructure on operative open space provisions.

As part of an option studio at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design, I collaborated with Mariusz Klemens on a project to deal with the territorial front and agrarian front of the City of Rosario in Argentina. Bracketed by two small rivers marking the north and south limits of the city, the site for this project has been defined by the Urban Plan Rosario 2007-2017 as the New Strategic Territorial Front. The flatness of the Argentine Pampas, much like many greenfield zones in any expanding city, is subject to dated artificial and jurisdictional land use separation, zoning, and subdivision. This practice of parcelization of land for the building of new suburban subdivisions does not take into account the extreme hydrodynamics of these seemingly flat agricultural lands.

Our project uses the site’s existing micro-watersheds as a land subdivision mechanism and planning tool for these types of suburban fringes. Analysis showed that the current regional and local infrastructure does not respond to any of the existing environmental and social conditions. Its centralized configuration provides ineffective water and waste management, especially in high deprivation zones. To address this, the project uses the natural drainage patterns to clearly demarcate micro-watersheds that run along and through the site. Rather than following a normative planning approach to land subdivision and land use, the project appropriated these flow lines as potential units for a landscape-driven zoning and parcelization regime.

Since the site is currently not serviced by the centralized waste and water municipal network, the project proposed a new decentralized configuration of infrastructure by utilizing existing topographic and hydrologic conditions to allow for a new typology of fully adaptive and flexible built form and open space system.

Super-imposing this new micro-watershed-driven regime on top of a suitability zoning plan led to a type of a symbiotic land use zoning that protected the most arable land from development and allowed for the most floodable areas to become points of collection and treatment. The integrated rapport between new land subdivision mechanisms, suitability land use designations, a decentralized wastewater infrastructure, and responsive and adaptable built form typologies creates the ingredients for novel forms and patterns of urbanization on the suburban edge.

Fadi Masoud was appointed as a Visiting Fellow (2012-13) at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design where he just completed his Post-Professional MLAII degee. Fadi will continue his design and research work on the cross-section of landscape and planning, especially in places of extreme hydrological regimes and transboundary conditions.