land • mark, winter 2014-15

water

land mark

CSU landscape architecture magazine / winter 2014

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1. samantha mock '14 2. john walker davis '14 3. shiva solaimanian '14 4. brittany ricketts '14 5. joe williams '14 6. courtney stasiewicz '14 7. matthew weiderspon '15 8. jane choi, assistant professor 9. drew button '14

Illustrations by Joe McGrane, Associate Professor 10

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17 16 18 10. matt bombard ‘15 11. taylor tidwell ‘15 12. kayleigh robinson ‘15 13. katherine womack ‘15 14. jessica doig ‘15 15. will kern ‘14 16. emily kotulak ‘14 17. katy miller ‘14 18. scott carman, instructor

EDITOR’S MESSAGE As Coloradans, we live in an environment that constantly reminds us just how helpless we truly are to resist the forces of nature.

As warm weather arrives each spring, locals are sensitive to drought conditions as weeks without rain can stretch into months, wilting farmers' crops in the field. Residents of the foothills can detect the slightest hint of smoke in the air, fearing news of newly-sparked forest fires. In the aftermath of wildfires, storms pose new threats, as mud slides and the accumulation ash in the reservoirs become the new concerns. Incessant rainfall a hundred miles away in the high country is concentrated into narrow mountain ravines with an unstoppable force that can spell disaster for those living along the Front Range. These occurrences are no longer a question of if, but rather when and where. The commonality, of course, is water, which always seems to be at the core of our relationship with the natural world; it's either too scarce or too abundant. Each year there are forceful reminders of our need to come to terms with these events if our fragile communities are to last.

Water, in all its manifestations, is the theme of this year's issue of land.mark. As a global concern, we have explored water and its impact on the shaping of places and experiences worldwide. Joe Williams ‘14 examines the role of hydrologic systems in landscape architecture in an interview with Bill Wenk, a leader in the design of environments centered on water infrastructure.

Drew Button ‘14 looks at CSU’s own backyard with an examination of Larimer County’s water infrastructure and its impact on our culture and economy. Finally, in a special section on education abroad, Katy Miller ‘14, Matthew Bombard ‘15 and Shiva Solaimanian ‘14 relate their experiences with the centrality of water in the lands they visited in 2013, from the rivers of central Europe to the fjords of New Zealand.

So grab a paddle and join us on our aqueous journey. We hope you enjoy the ride.

- Jane Choi, Managing Editor

the THE COVER: Rolled sheets of newspaper bearing descriptions of the devastating Colorado floods of September 2013 form a sinuous, riverine figure and evoke the form of bubbles rising through water.

Designed by Will Kern ‘14 BSLA, Shiva Solaimanian ‘14 BSLA and Drew Button ‘14 BSLA.

land • mark is the annual e-magazine of the Landscape Architecture Program at Colorado State University.

The contents herein were produced as a uniquely collaborative endeavor amongst interested students and faculty with a shared commitment to creating a forum where alumni, students and members of the landscape architecture community can have a greater voice and connection to our program. It aims to allow readers to stay apprised of newsworthy activities and events, to serve as a hub for current landscape architecture news, and to provide links to other sites of interest.

Each issue of land • mark celebrates a unique moment in time, a slice of the present at CSU, offering a glimpse into the focus and priorities of students, faculty and professionals. Thank you for being a part of our community.

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people

alumni news

studio works

news & events

feature articles

student awards

faculty news

education abroad

musings

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For more information and news from the Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, please visit our website at <hortla.agsci.colostate.edu> and ‘Like’ our Facebook page at <www.facebook.com/CSU.land.mark>

people â&#x20AC;˘ 3

THE L.A. PROGRAM Administration

Faculty

Stephen Wallner

Jane Choi

Department Head, Professor stephen.wallner@colostate.edu

Assistant Professor, Key Advisor jane.choi@colostate.edu

Kathi Nietfeld

Kelly Curl

Office Manager, Graduate Coordinator kathi.nietfeld@colostate.edu

Assistant Professor, Advisor to the Student Chapter of the ASLA kelly.curl@colostate.edu

Tracy Smith-Jones

Brad Goetz

Director of Undergraduate Advising tracy.smith-jones@colostate.edu

Professor bradley.goetz@colostate.edu

Sarah Solano

Patrick Martin

Account Manager sarah.solano@colostate.edu

Associate Professor patrick.martin@colostate.edu

Danielle Abeyta

Joe McGrane

Academic Support Coordinator danielle.abeyta@colostate.edu

Associate Professor j.mcgrane@colostate.edu

Merlyn Paulson Professor merlyn.paulson@colostate.edu

4 • news & events

PROGRAM

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Amy Rose Brobst Scholarship For the second consecutive year, a new STUDENT SCHOLARSHIP

01 in the CSU Landscape Architecture program was established. For more, see page 80.

EVENTS Google Earth Modeling Alumnus DANIEL TAL ‘98, author of two books on Google 02 SketchUp, returned to Fort Collins last summer to lead a workshop and modeling project for the CSU campus. For more information, please see page 17.

Presentations PETER J. HATCH, former Director of Gardens and Grounds at

03 Monticello in Charlottesville, Virginia and author of four books about the gardens of Thomas Jefferson, gave a talk on his experiences at Monticello and Jefferson’s garden designs to landscape architecture students in October.

JEFF RULLI, the GIS Mapping Manager for Larimer County, discussed his experiences during the High Park wildfire of 2012 when he was responsible for producing and coordinating Geographic Information Systems mapping technology and map products with local, state and federal emergency response teams in battling northern Colorado’s largest blaze on record.

JANA MCKENZIE ‘85, Principal of Logan Simpson, shared her professional experiences working on water infrastructure projects throughout the country with landscape architecture students. <www.logansimpson.com>

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news & events • 5

Colorado Chapter of ASLA MIKE MCBRIDE ‘04 and JENNIFER GARDNER ‘00 have recently

04 spearheaded efforts to strengthen communication and participation

among local ASLA members and students. This year was the first campus tour of historical, current, and future projects at CSU and hopefully the beginning of a new tradition in collaboration with the landscape architecture department. The tour invited CSU landscape architecture alumni to join current students in understanding what is behind all of the new designs being implemented on campus. To read more about what’s in store for the future, see page 17.

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STEM Landscape architecture students once again took part in a city-wide

05 STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) event

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with local middle schools. Events encouraging the study of these disciplines are held nationwide at various points throughout the year. For the 2013 event, members of the CSU Student Chapter of ASLA (SCASLA) taught students from Blevins Middle School about the fundamentals of landscape sketching and site triangulation.

Park(ing) Day For the second consecutive year, CSU’s landscape architecture 06 students, including EMILY KOTULAK ‘14 BSLA, KATY MILLER ‘14 BSLA and JAMES HANSON ‘15 MLA I, participated in PARK(ing) Day, a movement which began in San Francisco in 2005 that seeks to bring awareness to the importance of urban open space through the temporary transformation of public parking spaces into miniature ‘parklets’ for the enjoyment of passers-by.

Urban Lab A new initiative in the urban design of Fort Collins, the URBAN

07 LAB is a cooperative community of academics, professionals, city 06

officials, developers and the community, founded with the intent to create a common vision for the future of our city. The Landscape Architecture Program has been a key partner in this effort from the outset. For more information, see page 10.

Support the L.A. Program!

Please consider supporting the Landscape Architecture Program with a tax-deductible financial gift at <advancing.colostate.edu/HLA/GIVE> and note in the ‘Questions and Comments’ section that the gift is for the Landscape Architecture Program.

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6 • news & events

EVENTS L.A. Days 2013 , the program’s flagship event of the year, was again the highlight of the spring. This long-running, student-organized event brought some of today’s most prominent practitioners and academics to CSU’s campus for presentations and workshops.

Laurie Olin, 2012 recipient of the prestigious National Medal of Arts and principal of OLIN in Philadelphia and Los Angeles, gave an informative talk to students about his process for drawing and ideation. Olin also presented many of his inspiring recent works, including a rooftop design for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints Convention Center in Salt Lake City and Denver's own 16th Street Mall renovation. <www.theolinstudio.com>

Walter Hood, principal of Hood Design Studio in Oakland, California, has been uniquely focused on addressing the critical design issues of disadvantaged urban communities to improve quality of life for residents.

His firm is responsible for the design of many inspirational sites, both nationally and internationally.

In addition to groundbreaking community parks such as Splashpad Park and Lafayette Square Park, Hood is also responsible for more prominent works like the grounds of the new deYoung Museum in San Francisco's Golden Gate State Park. <www.wjhooddesign.com>

news & events â&#x20AC;˘ 7

James Lord, one of three principal landscape architects at SurfaceDesign in San Francisco, presented projects of varying scales across the country and around the world. Some of the well-recognized and stunning work they have recently completed includes the design for the Golden Gate Bridge Plaza in San Francisco, the Auckland Waterfront Park in New Zealand and the Museum of Steel in Monterrey, Mexico. <www.sdisf.com>

L.A. Days 2014 L.A. Days speakers for spring 2014 will include the following landscape architects: Willet Moss, CMG; Mary Margaret Jones (pictured left), Hargreaves Associates; Ken Smith, Mikyoung Kim, Mikyoung Kim Design. For updates, please see the SCASLA website. <lamar.colostate.edu/~scasla>

Bradley Cantrell, Associate Professor and Program Director of the Robert Reich School of Landscape Architecture at Louisiana State University and author of the awardwinning book Digital Drawing for Landscape Architecture, led multiple workshops for LA students, including an in-depth lecture on Grasshopper, an algorithmic modeling plug-in for Rhinoceros 3D. Cantrell also presented some of the cuttingedge projects his students at LSU are working on, including digital analytical models and animations of the changing Louisiana coastline. <www.design.lsu.edu/landscape>

Christine Reed, an Associate Principal at the Office of Cheryl Barton in San Francisco, presented recent work from the firmâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s nationally-recognized and quickly growing practice, which prides itself in the creation of sustainable sites, both in cities and natural areas. Reed spoke about many of the firm's projects, including the nationally-renowned and awardwinning landscape for the Bing Concert Hall at Stanford University. <www.toocb.com>

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Sam Coutts '13 BSLA, leader of the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) Program for CSUâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Student Chapter of ASLA, teaches 8th grade students from Blevins Middle School about the landscape design process.

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by Scott Carman, PLA, Visiting Instructor

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n a warm spring day in 2006, former University President Dr. Larry Penley was on a recreational bike ride with Fort Collins City Manager Darin Atteberry. As they pedaled along the Poudre Trail, they discussed the long-term future of Fort Collins and ways in which the City and University could collaborate more closely to help make Fort Collins the best community it could be. The result of that bike ride was the formation of UniverCity Connections, an organization dedicated to bringing the minds and energy of academics, city officials and other stakeholders together to work towards a better future. Subsequently, many individual task forces were set up within the organization to study issues ranging from arts and culture to

entrepreneurship to renewable energy. The Infill and Redevelopment Task Force was one of these groups, tasked with studying the ongoing development of the urban core of Fort Collins, stretching from the University north and eastward to the Poudre River. In group discussions about ways to better connect the various constituencies and expertise needed to ensure successful urban design strategies, the idea for the Urban Lab was born. From the beginning, CSUâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Landscape Architecture Program has been an integral part of the group, with Colin Day (a current graduate student), Brandon Parsons (a graduate of the program), Scott Carman and Jane Choi (both current faculty) occupying four of the ten seats on the steering

faculty news • 11 committee. Others on the committee include such local leaders as Brian Dunbar (CSU Professor Emeritus and Executive Director of the Institute for the Built Environment), Diane Jones (Fort Collins Deputy City Manager), Jana McKenzie (Principal at Logan Simpson Design), Todd Dangerfield (Project Manager for the Downtown Development Authority) and Lindsay Ex (Fort Collins Environmental Planner).

The Urban Lab is a unique organization in Fort Collins that recognizes the inherent challenges of quality urban planning. They seek to build partnerships, foster innovative ideas and galvanize support for a regenerative Fort Collins that goes beyond the model of sustainability that is today’s gold standard. One approach to regenerative design being studied at the Urban Lab is the LENSES Framework, a guideline developed at CSU’s Institute for the Built Environment (IBE) that embraces the triple bottom line of Nature, Society and Economics. The product of ongoing research at CSU’s Institute for the Built Environment, LENSES is an acronym for Living Environments in Natural, Social and Economic Systems. IBE is a partner in the Urban Lab initiative and brings with it formidable knowledge and groundbreaking research into the function and design of urban environments.

The Urban Lab convened its first event in August 2013, bringing together a broad cross section of Fort Collins city officials, design professionals, academics, developers, property owners and community members. The purpose of this charrette was to envision

Opposite: Interior view of attendees learning about Urban Lab’s mission and initiatives at the Open House event in November 2013.

Above Right: Detail of Urban Lab Balloon, lit from within.

Above: Community members gather in the old Goodwill Building in Old Town Fort Collins for the Urban Lab Open House.

Right: Attendees depart the Urban Lab Open House holding iconic glowing balloons received in exchange for contributing ideas for the future development of Fort Collins.

what role the Urban Lab would play in the future development of Fort Collins, hone the group’s mission and determine how best to impact city planning and next steps moving forward with potential outreach activities and open house events. Most importantly, it was to ensure that the Urban Lab would be organized in such a way that it could effectively meet the needs of all its constituents. The charrette was immensely positive and received the enthusiastic endorsement of all who participated.

Armed with this new mandate, the steering committee planned the first open house to introduce the Urban Lab concept to the general public and decision makers alike.

That first event was scheduled for November 1st for maximum impact and visibility, coinciding with the popular First Friday Art Walk events that are held in Old Town Fort Collins each month. Urban Lab occupied the old Goodwill Building on Walnut Street and transformed it into an urban design think tank for an evening, featuring screenprojected displays about Urban Lab’s mission, its ongoing projects and its involvement in the future planning of Fort Collins. One of

12 • faculty news Supported by grant funding from UniverCity Connections and the School of Global Environmental Sustainability at CSU, Professor Jane Choi’s graduate landscape architecture students collaborated with IBE and the Urban Lab to study this planning area and propose urban design approaches rooted in the LENSES Framework that can help shape the future of the area. Their creative and exciting ideas generated considerable buzz among the many charrette participants and visitors to the final presentations, including city officials and local developers.

In the coming months and years, the Urban Lab promises to grow into a position of critical importance in the future development of Fort Collins. The members of the steering committee look forward to convening many more charrettes, public lectures, design competitions, urban planning exhibitions and other events to continue the important dialogue that has been initiated. Throughout this projected growth, landscape architecture students, faculty and practitioners figure to play a prominent role in guiding the organization and building a collaborative, regenerative future for the Choice City.

the key components was a participatory art installation of glowing helium balloons covering the entire ceiling, a visual indicator of ideas contributed during the event, which were then disseminated out into Old Town as visitors / contributors of urban design ideas left the venue with balloons in hand, symbolizing the spread of these ideas into the community. Over three hundred unique ideas were collected that evening.

To keep up-to-date with goings-on at the Urban Lab and become part of the movement to improve the public realm, you can visit their website at <urbanlab.colostate.edu> and ‘Like’ their Facebook page at <www.facebook.com/UrbanLabFortCollins>.

“Turn College Avenue into a pedestrian mall.”

“Build pedestrian bridges over or under the tracks on Mason.”

“Introduce metered parking in Old Town.”

A real-time video projection of the contributed ideas played throughout the event, displaying a stock-ticker of the best crowd-sourced ideas that city residents had to offer. An interactive collection of these ideas has been compiled for the Urban Lab website and will continue to offer inspiration in the planning of new projects.

Eager to contribute to the ongoing development in Fort Collins, the Urban Lab has also begun participating in actual urban design initiatives in the city. The first of these is known as the ‘Mason UniverCity District’ and roughly encompasses the Mason Corridor and several blocks to the east and west from the Poudre River down to the southern edge of CSU’s campus. This part of town is seeing increased interest and development pressure as a result of the implementation of the new MAX Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) line on Mason Street. The Urban Lab’s involvement in this important initiative seeks to ensure that planning for this important district proceeds in a way that provides maximum benefit to the maximum number of Fort Collins residents, while employing regenerative planning practices that protect wildlife, natural systems and precious natural resources.

Left: Video, photos and information boards presented a plethora of information for visitors to consider at the Urban Lab Open House event.

Above: Professor Jane Choi’s graduate students, community members, policy experts and practitioners, discuss student proposals for the Mason UniverCity District in December 2013.

faculty news • 13

FACULTY NEWS

Visiting Instructor SCOTT CARMAN, Principal of Fort Collins based firm C2 | Studio, taught an advanced graduate-level studio entitled ‘Parks and Recreation’ that focused on the creation of an updated master plan for City Park in Westminster, Colorado. Students in the course engaged with Westminster city officials and helped shape the future of that city’s most important and heavily-used park. <www.c2-studio.com>

Visiting Instructors EMMANUEL DIDIER (top), Principal of Didier Design Studio in Fort Collins, and NICK DUNASKE, Director of Denver-based practice make-culture, taught courses for Assistant Professor KELLY CURL during her maternity leave during the spring semester of 2013. Both practitioners came with extensive professional experience and prior teaching appointments at University of Colorado Denver’s Landscape Architecture Program. <www.didierdesignstudio.com> <www.make-culture.com>

Assistant Professor JANE CHOI was a featured panelist for ‘Thriving Beyond Sustainability,’ a presentation of the School of Global Environmental Sustainability (SoGES) at CSU. The discussion focused on new trends in green building and ecologically sensible urban design from around the world. Professor Choi and visiting instructor SCOTT CARMAN also collaborated on a paper and presentation for the March 2013 CELA Conference in Austin, Texas. Entitled ‘Temporal Agents and the Power of Play in the Built Environment,” their research explored the connections between limited-duration urban events, environmental perceptions and civic engagement through the lens of all-ages play experiences. She was also chosen to be honored with a ‘Best Teacher Award,’ an honor bestowed annually by the Colorado State University Alumni Association. Each year, the association chooses six professors from throughout the University for this prestigious recognition. <www.sustainability.colostate.edu> <www.thecela.org/pdfs/CELA_2013_Proceedings.pdf> <alumni.colostate.edu/BestTeacherAwards/tabid/102/Default.aspx>

14 • faculty news

FACULTY NEWS Associate professor JOE MCGRANE was recently commissioned through the City of Fort Collins Art in Public Places Program to create an interpretive plaza entitled “Soldier Canyon Water Stories” along the Poudre River west of the city. He is working with Jason Messaros ‘02 of BHA Design and the City of Fort Collins Utilities Department. Professor McGrane also continues work on the Children’s Museum of Denver Outdoor Experience with Tina Bishop ‘82 of Mundus Bishop Design in Denver. <lamar.colostate.edu/~mcgrane>

Assistant Professor KELLY CURL exhibited her “Mined Landscape” photography at the CSU Lory Student Center as well as BHA Design. Her photography has been accepted into an Exhibit at the 2014 CELA Annual Conference, where she will also be presenting a paper entitled “Fiery Landscape.” Her research focuses on landscape reclamation in the Anthracite Coal Region of Pennsylvania. <hortla.agsci.colostate.edu/faculty/curl>

faculty news • 15

Professor MERLYN PAULSON has completed the third year of a four-year research project with the National Park Service in connection with the NPS pilot project “Park Transportation Investment Needs Analysis for Long Range Transportation Planning.”

The rollout application park is Golden Gate National Recreation Area, encompassing 23 scenic land parcels north and south of San Francisco that contain rare biological and cultural environments, including the iconic landscapes of the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz Island and Muir Woods. The pilot program methods consider capital investment, operations and maintenance strategies along with advance mitigation planning for climate change impacts and protection of natural and cultural resources as well as visitor experiences. Professor Paulson is working with Kevin Percival ‘83, Branch Chief of the NPS Washington Support Office for Facilities Planning and Jennifer Kovarik, Landscape Architect and Planner, NPS Washington Support Office for Facilities Planning, UCD Class of 2006. <lamar.colostate.edu/~mpaulson>

16 • alumni news

LETTERS David Sheldon ’00

AJ Hottman ’12

I have been with the Jerde Partnership <www.jerde.com> for 11 years, heading up the firm’s business activities for the Americas, Europe and the MENA regions out of the Los Angeles headquarters. As Vice President, my role is to develop relationships with prospective clients to help Jerde understand and articulate the clients’ vision for their projects.

I then help formulate a business proposal to bring that vision to life.

With my work, I have traveled to over 50 countries worldwide.

I graduated with an undergraduate in landscape architecture from CSU in 2012. I moved out to Chicago because of an offer from Wolff landscape architecture <www.wolfflandscape.com>. Our office is small (4-8 people) and works mostly in Chicago doing corporate roof decks, plazas, and streetscapes. Being just a year out of school, I am in a production role, creating construction documents and renderings for projects. I have learned a lot within a year and have been able to manage some smaller projects at the company.

I spend my free time with my wife and daughter in our home in Marina del Rey. I enjoy surfing, golfing and I’m an avid Denver Broncos fan.

Jennifer Gardner ’00 Justin Ackerman ’05 I worked for a couple of years in Denver as a landscape architect at DHM Design and decided to return to school to pursue my masters in architecture at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. There I worked on some great projects including an AIA award-winning design build in Marin County. We developed a prefabricated modular system for private backyard pavilions. We fabricated and designed all aspects of the project.

After graduating I went to work for a firm called Studio O+A in San Francisco, doing innovative workplace design. As I was working here, I noticed many similarities between all facets of design, especially community planning and workplace planning. This reignited my interest in landscape architecture and urban design. I then went to work for a small, but innovative firm in San Francisco, called Rebar. They started the parklet program and have been in the forefront of the guerilla urbanism movement for the last few years with the development of PARK(ing) Day and the parklet system. I worked on some extremely exciting projects with them and since, have been an independent contractor in California, working on a huge array of projects.

After graduating from CSU, I spent six years in Portland, Oregon working for Otten Landscape Architects doing landscape and irrigation design for commercial, industrial, municipal and park sites. While in Oregon, I took the necessary steps to become licensed in the profession.

In 2006, I moved back to Fort Collins and into a senior project management/ business development position at Land Architects’ northern branch office, where I primarily managed the design, planning and entitlement of master planned developments throughout Colorado and the Western United States.

After Land Architects closed up their northern office at the end of 2008, I decided to act on the advice of many friends, family members and colleagues and strike out on my own. I established Greenscape Designs <www.greenscapedesignstudio.com> in January of 2009 and have never looked back. In addition to owning a growing Landscape Architecture firm, I serve as the North Area Director for Colorado ASLA and If you can’t find me in the office, I am most likely out exploring the trails with my husband and 2.5 year old daughter.

We would like to hear from you! Send us a paragraph or two about what you’ve been up to. Your friends and classmates would love to know - and you can also get the word out about your latest personal or professional ventures. Email news to <CAS_Land_Mark@mail.colostate.edu>.

alumni news • 17

ALUMNI ENGAGEMENT Our alumni continue to engage CSU and collaborate to improve the future of the Landscape Architecture Program and better connect it with industry.

Colorado Chapter of ASLA

Google Earth Modeling Daniel Tal ‘98, author of Google SketchUp for Site Design, led a workshop for CSU landscape architecture students, teaching them how to build SketchUp models of buildings for insertion in Google Earth’s online database. Participants then took part in a 17-day project, modeling over 100 buildings on CSU’s main campus. These models have since been uploaded to Google Earth and may now be viewed in that application.

Mike McBride ‘04, CCASLA Communications Director and landscape architect at BHA Design Inc. and Jennifer Gardner ‘00, CCASLA North Area Director and Principal of Greenscape Designs LLC, have been working together over the past 14 months to establish a better connection to ASLA in Northern Colorado as well as strengthen the relationship between CSU and the professional community. Last December, they provided a space for displaying Professor Kelly Curl’s ‘Mined Landscape’ photography exhibit for a mixer between students and professionals and organized a social and studio tour in association with LA Days. In May, they organized a portfolio review for soon to be graduating CSU students, making local professionals available to critique and provide feedback on students’ portfolios as they headed into the world in search of jobs.

The schedule for the next few months looks similar to last year, with LA Days involvement and Portfolio Review. With the National ASLA Convention coming to Denver in the Fall of 2014, there will be many opportunities for Mike, Jennifer and the Northern Colorado community to come together with colleagues from around the country. <www.aslacolorado.org>

Student participants included: John Walker Davis ‘14 BSLA, Emily Harrison ‘15 MLA I, Zac Walrod ‘13 BSLA, Stephan Kansman ‘14 MLA II and Matthew Bombard MLA ‘15.

Google Earth screen captures show models of CSU’s Pathology Building (left) and Lake Street Garage, created by CSU landscape architecture students.

Join us!

All alumni, practitioners and friends of CSU’s Landscape Architecture Program are welcome and encouraged to participate in all events and workshops! To stay updated and learn about our upcoming events, please ‘Like’ our Facebook page at <www.facebook.com/CSU.land.mark>

18 • alumni news

q&a Alumni Interviews by Emily Kotulak ‘14 BSLA and Kayleigh Robinson ‘15 BSLA Our alumni have traveled far and wide and are shaping the built environment across the country and around the world. Meet three of our notable alumni and find out what they’ve been up to since leaving the program and how their careers and lives have been shaped by their time at CSU.

alumni news • 19

Bionic’s ‘Solar Terrain’ installation at the San Francisco Museum of Craft and Design.

20 • alumni news

q&a MARCEL WILSON ‘97 earned an MLA with distinction from Harvard’s Graduate School of Design in 2000, where he discovered his interest in innovative design and technology. His drive to create unique landscapes helped guide his professional journey, including becoming a Principal at Hargreaves Associates, lecturing in design and urbanism at UC Berkeley, acting as a board of directors officer for the San Francisco Park Alliance and establishing Bionic, his forward-thinking landscape architecture firm based in San Francisco. A rising star in the profession, his award-winning work has been featured in numerous national and international publications.

WHAT IS YOUR EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND AND HOW DID IT AFFECT YOUR CAREER CHOICES? When I was at CSU, I didn't know you could go to grad school for landscape architecture. I initially wanted to be in architecture until I started to learn more about Merlyn Paulson’s and Brad Goetz's grad school experiences at Harvard. It was then that I started to think more about design education, which turned me on to the directions you can take in the field. In the mid-90s, landscape architecture was still asleep and coming off a hangover from the recession. Practice wasn't exciting or engaging, it wasn't in the public consciousness at the same level as architecture. I recognized it as something seen with a lot of potential for growth, which translated into a whole world of possibilities. After graduating from CSU, I moved to New York City so that I could be in the middle of the design world. I started out working for New York City Parks, which then led me to attend graduate school at Harvard.

IN YOUR OPINION, WHAT IS BENEFICIAL ABOUT GOING TO GRAD SCHOOL? In undergraduate studies, I think students are overstimulated and just trying to absorb as much as they can. Grad school was a place to go and find focus. It forces you to choose and articulate your interests. Growing up around my father's lumber business my whole life, I understood landscape to be something that was handled and changed by the force of machines. I was interested in the technology of landscape, automation, and large scale systems.

In graduate school, I took architecture classes and robotics at MIT and wrote an independent thesis, all with an interest in the technological aspects of landscapes.

WHAT HAVE YOU FOUND TO BE UNIQUE ABOUT HAVING A FIRM LOCATED ON THE WEST COAST? In the San Francisco Bay Area, there are more landscape architects than anywhere else on earth. So there is incredible skill, it is very competitive, and many of the practices here are very established and have been around for a long time. Bionic is a cutting-edge design practice, and very different from the typical landscape architecture firm.

SO HOW DO THE DESIGN PHILOSOPHIES OF BIONIC HELP SEPARATE IT FROM THOSE LEGACY FIRMS? I think it's important to bring creativity to projects at any scale. The term bionic really says something about the world being a much more complicated space than the general public perceives. Bionic tends to attract a certain client looking for invention in some way, usually with ambition, a challenging site, or someone looking for a space with a specific response, and wanting something that has never been done before. So, how are we different? We operate across a wide range of scales and project types - from 100 square feet to 1000 acres. We offer big project experience, but we are inventive, experimental, and move quickly. And social responsibility is very much a part of our work.

ARE THERE ANY PAST EXPERIENCES ABOUT THE STUDIOS OR PROGRAM AT CSU YOU WOULD LIKE TO REMINISCE ABOUT? I spent every waking hour in the studio. I was a studio rat! When I didn't do that, I would try and go skiing and focus a lot of my time on my portfolio...that was really my life in undergraduate. I remember that with the lack of technology back then, we spent a tremendous amount of time computing because we had to go to several places on campus to access the software we needed. I remember being one of the first people who plotted a project from a computer.

I had to use Powerpoint to plot my boards because that was the only graphics program available in the lab where there was a plotter.

DO YOU HAVE ANY WORDS OF ADVICE FOR CURRENT LA STUDENTS? My main piece of advice would be for people to not look at landscape architecture as a resource for figuring out where the profession will be when you're

alumni news • 21

Overview rendering of Bionic’s India Basin project in San Francisco.

22 â&#x20AC;˘ alumni news

alumni news â&#x20AC;˘ 23 practicing. Look anywhere but to landscape architects to see what is new, changing, and what the role of the landscape agency will be and where it will go. To be terminally self-referential is fine for the service industry, but if you are only looking at what's already been done, you're not expanding; it is not stimulating and doesn't facilitate imagination. Imagination is the ability to look beyond what we already see and have been told. <www.bioniclandscape.com>

Left: Newly-planted roof garden for a new four-story LEED platinum office building in downtown Mountain View, CA. Above: Bionicâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s winning competition entry with West 8 for the Fort Mason Center in San Francisco.

24 • alumni news

q&a ANNA CAWRSE ‘09 earned her MLA at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design (GSD) in 2012. While studying in Cambridge, she co-founded the Harvard GSD Student Chapter of ASLA, worked as landscape architect for Harvard’s Community Garden, and gained valuable experience interning as a designer at Landworks Studio. Anna has also held positions at CSU’s department of Facilities Management and the Denver office of RNL Design, an international multi-disciplinary firm. She currently works at Design Workshop in Denver, where she has continued to hone her professional skills and find new ways to employ design in the betterment of her community and the world.

WHAT IS YOUR BACKGROUND AND/OR JOURNEY THAT BROUGHT YOU TO YOUR CURRENT CAREER? I grew up in small towns throughout America. My father works for the U.S. Forest Service, which meant that we moved every three to four years. This also meant that I lived near some of the most beautiful landscapes in this country. My backyard ranged from the Great Smoky Mountains to Yellowstone National Park. From a very early age, I was immersed in this wild landscape and grew to appreciate the importance of the land. It wasn't until I visited NYC with my family as a child that I saw the power and intricacies of cities. This immediately developed into a fascination and soon an obsession with cities.

I discovered the profession of landscape architecture before college and immediately knew that it was what I wanted to do. This was the perfect opportunity to couple both my love for the landscape and my obsession with the city. The rural landscape and the city continue to drive my passion for design.

DO YOU HAVE ANY OTHER SKILLS/HOBBIES (NOT NECESSARILY RELATED TO LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE) THAT HELP TO INFORM YOUR DESIGNS? Travel. I can't emphasize this enough. How does someone expect to design if they have never experienced the spaces they are attempting to create? I try and go on one big trip each year and visit projects that I've studied, experience why a space is successful, and in some cases, why a space failed.

My travel is not necessarily overseas and many times it is a trip to a part of the U.S. that I have never seen. This past year, I visited New Orleans, San Francisco, England, The Netherlands, Belgium, Copenhagen, Toronto, and Calgary. I love to travel.

WHAT IS SOMETHING VALUABLE YOU’VE LEARNED DURING YOUR EDUCATION (AT CSU OR HARVARD) THAT YOU THINK HAS HELPED YOU IN YOUR CAREER THUS FAR? To be open minded. Push the boundaries. Landscape Architecture is becoming much more than our predecessors ever imaged. How can landscape architects save cities from the rising sea level? That question was in fact the premise of a studio I took at the GSD. Using design to solve these big issues and questions is something that I will always keep in the back of my mind from grad school.

NOW THAT YOU HAVE JOINED A PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE, WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR PERSONAL DESIGN IDEOLOGIES? As design professionals, we need to make sure that our work is accomplishing the goals we had in mind. Following the maxim “what gets measured gets done,” I believe that Design Workshop’s measurement-based approach to projects provides a way to determine design goals and to know if those goals have been met. Using the Legacy Design method (an approach to design developed by Design Workshop) of incorporating different metrics in the fields of Environment, Art, Community, and Economics, we are able to plan successful projects such as Riverfront Park in Denver, which transformed abandoned rail yards into some of the most desirable real estate in the city. Since joining Design Workshop in 2012, I have become the Legacy Design Representative for the Denver office. <www.designworkshop.com>

alumni news • 25

Left: Plan view of Cawrse’s team’s awardwinning competition design for the ‘Bayou Commons’ in downtown Houston.

Below: Perspectival renderings of (clockwise from bottom) the amphitheater and boat landing, Bayou Court public gathering area, and Bayou Central Park lily pond.

26 • alumni news

q&a TIM ANDERSON ‘88 is a Principal of AECOM’s Denver office, leading the design of landscape projects around the globe. He graduated from the Landscape Architecture Program at CSU with distinction and earned his MLA at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design (GSD) in 1999. Prior to joining AECOM, Tim was a Principal at the San Francisco office of Hargreaves Associates and an Associate at EDAW in Denver.

WHAT IS YOUR FONDEST MEMORY OF CSU? Our class was extremely fortunate to have two Japanese architects as adjunct professors who had just finished the GSD with their masters in landscape architecture – Toru Mitani and Shun Miyagi. They sent a shockwave through the school with respect to bringing not only their recent education and enthusiasm, but also an intense focus and very different attitude towards design. The influence of those two and two lectures at CSU from Dan Kiley set forth the passion for design that I still carry today.

WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO STUDY LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE? I didn’t fully understand the breadth of the profession when I developed an interest. My interest grew out of landscape construction and working in a nursery. The more I gained an understanding of the range of scales, the blend of art, science and technology along with all the realms of communicating design, I was hooked.

WHAT DO YOU CONSIDER TO BE THE BIGGEST ACCOMPLISHMENT IN YOUR CAREER THUS FAR? For me, it’s not about any single accomplishment – it’s a series of accomplishments that I never seem quite satisfied with - because I want every new project to be new and significant. I think the biggest enemy for design is time pressure. I often find myself thinking “this would be really fun and this design (whatever it is) could be really fantastic if I wasn’t under so much time duress.” One project I’m particularly proud of, although it’s one of those projects that would have been even better with more time, was the Masdar Headquarters. The Masdar Headquarters is proposed to be the flagship project for a zero carbon energy positive community in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Although it was never realized as a consequence of the global recession, we created a design in a brief three weeks that reflected the region and culture under the most intense sustainability criteria imposed on any project in the world. If you have ever visited the Middle East, the most concerning aspect about the created landscapes there is that they are so foreign and placeless. I think we were greatly successful with the Masdar design, rooting the project in culture and place.

WHAT WAS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING YOU LEARNED IN THE LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE PROGRAM AT CSU AND HOW HAS THE PROFESSION CHANGED SINCE THEN? CSU gave me the fundamental skills to hit the ground running at my first job, although entry level candidates now are required to have an even broader and more rigorous technical skill set. Most candidates I interview are missing some key skills. When I was at CSU in the mid-to-late 1980’s, computers were just entering into the curriculum, but limited to word processing. CSU had a really strong emphasis on drawing, graphics and technical skills, which has been the key foundation in my career. These skills are still important today, although there is the additional demand for computer skills beyond basic CAD, including 3D computer modeling and high-level simulations. It is really difficult to find candidates with these well-rounded skills. There is a lot of competition for projects based on fees these days and we constantly look for ways to be more efficient. We have tightened our design process by having a strong conceptual-based design approach and immediately develop the designs in CAD and 3D modeling applications. We render our CAD drawings into graphic plans in Photoshop and our 3D models become interactive presentation tools. We also develop details in the 3D model and ultimately export them back into CAD for construction drawings. This has been greatly successful because three-dimensional construction drawings are easier for the contractor to understand – and contractors have complimented us on our details.

CSU also gave me an understanding of landscape as a series of systems, which was partially because CSU was at the forefront of GIS at the time. I rarely see student portfolios that demonstrate this understanding and we ultimately spend time training new staff in this

alumni news • 27

The master plan rendering for AECOM’s West Kowloon XLR Terminal in Hong Kong, the southernmost terminus of China’s high-speed rail network and a gateway to mainland China.

area. This is critical with the growing demand for high performing landscapes, similar to the pressures being put on sustainability with architectural building systems. This also relates to current thinking in Landscape Urbanism, which is simply a resurgence of how Olmsted and Ian McHarg thought about landscapes, in my opinion.

WHICH OF YOUR PROJECTS ARE YOU MOST PROUD OF? WHAT MAKES IT SO SPECIAL FOR YOU? I would say the landscape at 31st Street Park and Harbor in Chicago. It was a lot of pressure to do a meaningful design for a city with high expectations and sustainability requirements. The site is amazing, but there were a lot of complex issues – physical, social and technological. It is always a tremendous effort to get anything built, but this was an extraordinary feat. 31st Street was not only a park and public amenity, but also a working marina and boat storage facility. AECOM lead the project with over a dozen consultants, including marine engineering, architecture and the associated systems consultants. Our concept for the landscape drew from the historic dune ecology created by offshore winds on the edge of Lake Michigan. We wanted the dunes landscape to be the primary image for the site, engaging and blurring the boat storage facility. It wasn’t about architecture in the landscape, as much as architecture as landscape. And since we lead the project, we could propose that. One particularly challenging issue was balancing how much landscape we could put on the structure vs. the amount of expensive structural upgrades needed to support the landscape on the structure. There is a delicate balance with these decisions that impact not only the budget of the entire project, but also impact the design concept. In the end, I believe we balanced this fairly successfully.

WHERE DID YOU THINK YOU WOULD BE AT THIS POINT IN YOUR CAREER? HAVE YOU EXCEEDED YOUR EXPECTATIONS? I have far exceeded where I thought I would end up in the profession, although I have worked very hard to get to this point in my career.

It’s my passion for design that drove all the decisions I made in my career and I owe that to my education at CSU. <www.aecom.com>

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alumni news â&#x20AC;˘ 29

This aerial photograph of AECOMâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 31st Street Harbor project in Chicago was taken shortly before construction was completed early in 2012.

30 •

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Jim Leggit of studioINSITE leads students on a walking tour of Denver - part of CSU Student Chapter of ASLA firm visits. Here everyone reconvenes at Laurence Halprin's Skyline Park Fountain.

32 â&#x20AC;˘ feature articles

THE HEROICS of WATER INFRASTRUCTURE a conversation with Bill Wenk

by Joe Williams '14 BSLA

Bill Wenk is the founder and President of Wenk Associates in Denver, Colorado.

His firm is highly renowned for work in the restoration and redevelopment of urban river and stream corridors, the transformation of derelict urban land, and the design of public parks and open spaces. His firm has won a number of prestigious awards from highly acclaimed organizations since its inception in 1982. I recently had the unique opportunity to sit down and have a conversation with Bill about his personal philosophies and experiences. Wenk is perhaps best known for his work with stream and river corridors, specifically the manipulation of water infrastructure to create beautiful, functional and ecologically sustainable designs. I had the opportunity to talk with him about his work at his office in Denver.

feature articles â&#x20AC;˘ 33

Wenk draws his formal inspirations from the works of the great land

artists of the 20th century and Ian McHarg's "Design with Nature," although he believes that many of these ideals are too grand in scale to be successfully realized. Bill's childhood background in agriculture left him with a preference for more practical approaches to landscape.

But this functional approach wasn't always a priority in his designs. Bill recounts an experience he had early in his practice, working on a creek project in Colorado Springs. During the initial stages of the project, he noticed that a large portion of the creek channel design was being done by the civil engineers, while he was only designing some of the surrounding area. This experience galvanized Bill to pursue knowledge of mechanical and engineering practices so that the design of water channels could become an integral component in his designs.

As Wenk's opportunities expanded, he began to focus on what he termed "green infrastructure at a project scale," particularly on projects dealing with development in relation to water resources. In one prominent example, Wenk Associates took the highly eroded Shop Creek drainage basin and provided a monumental solution, involving highly innovative ecological restoration through the use of natural systems as infrastructure. To lend some perspective to this achievement, this was roughly thirty years before the term "green infrastructure" began to resonate within the landscape architecture community. A series of similar projects followed suit, including projects like Lowry Park outside of Denver, the Menomonee River Valley Redevelopment in Milwaukee and the Los Angeles River Revitalization Plan.

What gets Bill particularly excited about these projects is their tendency to pose new questions about park and infrastructure design. He sees it as an opportunity to push the boundaries of what is currently considered to be acceptable site design. As he amicably terms it, many policies and institutions have a "great idea, but we don't do that" mindset. One example of this appeared in a current project Wenk is working on, Confluence Park, along the banks of the Platte River in Denver. As in many of Wenk's designs, the public program is intimately connected Image credits: Wenk Associates

Opposite Below: Landscape architecture student Joe Williams talks with Bill Wenk at his Denver office.

Above and Right: Wenkâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Monomonee River Valley Redevelopment in Milwaukee, which transformed a postindustrial wasteland into an ecologically sustainable floodplain landscape.

34 â&#x20AC;˘ feature articles

to the hydrology of the site. One issue that came up during the design process was the question of river access for visitors and the possible public risk it presented. The conventional mentality prevalent in city government is typically one of risk avoidance at all costs, making water access an impossibility. However, Billâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s effective communication and a persuasive explanation of why this feature would be such an invaluable component of the park ultimately allowed for river access and other interactive water features to be included in the master plan.

Next, our conversation turned towards the new approaches to

natural systems within the design and planning communities that his firm helped to foster. Looking ahead to the future, Bill says he sees these ideas becoming very influential. However, the creation of truly functional green infrastructure requires conscientious site planning from the earliest design stages and major changes to current policies, which he foresees happening gradually as perspectives and regulations evolve over time. The Stapleton community, for example, is a redevelopment of a defunct airport northeast of Denver that Wenk Associates worked on and which Bill points to as indicative of future trends. Extensive site planning was an integral part of the creation of this community, and principles for the treatment of open space

feature articles • 35

and effective stormwater management were discussed right from the beginning of that project.

Reflecting on his current body of work, Bill does not regard his highly acclaimed stormwater gardens as an idealized form of green infrastructure. To him, they are project-scale versions of nature's true form, and many other firms are now following this approach. This trend is spreading through the profession like wildfire, but Wenk believes it needs to be applied with sensitivity to context in order for it to be effective. As he jokingly elaborated, "every city wants its own High Line, but that's just not feasible because every city is different."

Similar concepts can be applied to the streets of Denver, but such work would need to be specific to the context and climate of the Front Range.

Our conversation ended with a discussion about why the idea of creating this kind of landscape is important. Taking the broad view of a watershed or river system that flows from the Rocky Mountains to the oceans, then focusing in on every person and place affected along the way, it becomes clear that hydrologic systems at all scales dramatically influence our society. To Bill, the significance lies in realizing the heroics of these systems and bringing them to a human scale without losing their beneficial qualities. The projects that Wenk Associates builds embody this ideal and connect the power of water to human experience. Many people are inherently drawn to environments with water as a focal element and it is our responsibility to respect this resource beyond simply using it as a decorative element. As Bill concludes, we must understand the needs of society and combine them with ecological infrastructure to create a sustainably functional and beautiful world. <www.wenkla.com>

Opposite: Wenk’s Lowry Parks and Open Space, the redevelopment of a former Air Force Base in central Denver.

Right: Sketches and renderings from Wenk’s Confluence Park design where Cherry Creek meets the South Platte River in downtown Denver.

36 â&#x20AC;˘ feature articles

faded, not forgotten preserving Fort Collins' water heritage

by Drew Button '14 BSLA

feature articles â&#x20AC;˘ 37

I

have no fear for the future of Fort Collins, but I do for the important pieces of our past that I'm afraid will fade away. The monuments to the reason we settled here along this green belt so long ago should not be tossed aside. The reason is simple: WATER. In this arid climate, our water is our blood; life for our rich agricultural region, our economy, our recreation, our wildlife and our open space. The growth and development of our City over the last 150 years clearly would have been impossible without it. That is why in these times of rapid growth, we mustn't let our prosperity overtake our antiquity. I think as much as we may need a shift towards 'green' architecture and infrastructure, we must tighten our grip on the identity of the Old Fort Collins.

FORT COLLINS THEN Before Colorado was even a state in the union, settlers began to farm the area that would someday become Fort Collins and Larimer County.

Believe it or not, there were brief periods where northern Colorado was known to settlers as the 'rain belt' for the abundant moisture falling on the plains. In the late 19th century, an article was published in the Rocky Mountain News encouraging gold miners to move into farming, Opposite: A 1948 general highway, land parcel and drainage map of Larimer County, overlaid onto a photo of classmate, Taylor Tidwell, standing on a bridge connecting the Poudre Bike Trail to McMurray Natural Area, Fort Collins, CO. Above: A rainy day at Dowdy Lake, Red Feather Lakes, CO. Below: Aerial photos (left) Collindale Golf Course at Horsetooth & Lemay 1977 (right) Collindale Golf Course 2010.

38 â&#x20AC;˘ feature articles

rather than prospecting, stating that there was great value in owning and cultivating land. This would prove true for those that could hold and use the soil through periods of extreme drought, economic depression, and harsh winters. Farmers learned quickly that 'dry farming' techniques that conserved water coming from nearby streams would be essential to producing a profitable crop yield in years of drought and hardship. This adaptation led to the expansive and circuitous system of channels veining their way throughout Fort Collins and the plains of northern Colorado. In 1860, settlers near presentday Bellvue dug the first irrigation ditch to divert water from the Cache la Poudre River. This action was the first of many similar efforts by farmers looking to improve their yield.

Then, in 1862, Abraham Lincoln signed the Morrill Land-Grant Act, which granted public land for the establishment of colleges, and in

1870, Fort Collins was chosen as the site of the Agricultural College of Colorado. With this institution of higher education at its heart, Fort Collins was raised like a crop: green and plentiful.

FORT COLLINS NOW Hidden from view are the features of our predecessors' water infrastructure, often missed at the 40 mile-per-hour pace we keep in our growing little city. Before the Poudre River became the recreational corridor that it is today, locals relied upon the river as a critical water source for their crops; the lifeblood of a rich agricultural region. The river has since been dammed and bled multiple times during the creation of the Seaman and Horsetooth reservoirs that now serve as the principal water sources for the greater Fort Collins area.

Much of the region is now irrigated with more modern types of

feature articles â&#x20AC;˘ 39

infrastructure that shape the land with colossal form, from massive dams to hundreds of miles of water pipelines. Though time has marched on, the landforms and infrastructure from the early 20th century remain as an ode to simpler times. Just beneath Fort Collins' modern sprawling skin, there is a layer of history that if not inspected

Opposite Top: Poudre River spillway near Mulberry Avenue in Springer Natural Area.

Opposite Bottom: Long exposure night shot of Poudre River near McMurray Natural Area (touched with LED light paint).

Above: Area.

Man fishing on the Poudre River in Springer Natural

Below: Concrete tower and steel cable of conveyance flume bridge in Springer Natural Area.

carefully, will be missed. The ditches are still used and not only serve as irrigation channels, but reminders to Fort Collins residents that before the malls and the neighborhoods, there was corn, wheat, and hay.

A BRIDGE TO THE PAST As a part of Fort Collins' revitalization mission, the city is making an effort to improve the health of the Poudre River and the local industries that are so heavily reliant upon it (breweries, recreation and farming, in particular). Among the many Poudre River projects detailed on the city's website, one part of the plan is to install a trail connection on East Mulberry through a new natural area as one of the Poudre River improvements. The axis for this proposed connection is one of my personal favorite places in Fort Collins. An old lime-waste conveyance flume stands like a concrete giant with tendons of steel spanning the banks of the Cache la Poudre River. This viaduct was once used to

40 â&#x20AC;˘ feature articles

carry the by-product of sugar beet farming and processing across the river to a deposit site.

I discovered this bridge while riding along the adjacent Poudre Trail.

I bounced off the path into the tall grass and parked my bike close to the bridge. Climbing atop one of the towers, I found inscribed in the concrete C.W.L 1926. The bridge is at least 87 years old and would've been built during an era when local farmers began industrializing. Steel train wheels and recycled tracks were used in the construction of the bridge. It wears patches of off-colored paint lathered on to cover graffiti and bullet holes in its steel flume. Time has left its mark on this place.

The structure has created an identity for this place and a window into our city's hydrologic and agricultural history. This is one of the places

that the city has marked for revitalization; a place that I and other users of the east Poudre Trail have connected with. The setting is a hangout for fishermen, cyclists, joggers, raccoons, foxes, deer, blue heron, and carp. The banks are overgrown in places and laced with game trails in others. The city has already removed several large cottonwoods once used as anchors for rope swings and have posted signs warning passersby to keep off the bridge. After a bit of digging, I discovered that in fact, the City has turned to students in Colorado State University's School of Civil Engineering, to find a way to turn the old conveyance into a safe and useful pedestrian bridge. City officials in charge of natural areas and historic preservation understand that the bridge is visited frequently and see it as a liability since someone could easily fall while climbing around on the bridge. Rather than tearing down such an ingenious and historic landmark, the city will connect East Mulberry with the Poudre Bike trail by crossing this bridge.

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THE FUTURE Celebrating our historical artifacts and infrastructure will remind future generations to come visit this city that was built on water and raised on crops. The Fort Collins community has relied upon this river for so long and will continue to look after its wellbeing for as long as this city exists. Without a healthy river, the economy and quality of life now enjoyed in Fort Collins would surely struggle.

Colorado Water Conservation Board. The money will be used to complete deconstruction and restoration efforts along the river that will restore and protect stream flows and improve the river's aquatic ecosystem. As long as projects like these continue to be planned and implemented, the river's future will remain bright. As much as our river has taken care of us, we will take care of it. Fish will breathe, crops will grow, and beer will be brewed.

Continuing this work, the City of Fort Collins Natural Areas Department has partnered with the Colorado Water Trust (CWT) to remove an abandoned structure that disturbs the flow in the Poudre River. Local breweries like Odell Brewing Company, New Belgium Brewing Company, Funkwerks Brewery, Pateros Creek Brewery and Zwei Bruder Brewing have donated $37,000 in funding to supplement the $300,000 the CWT secured in a grant from the

<www.poudreheritage.org> Opposite: Old Fort Collins irrigation trench diggers along the Poudre River.

Above: Digital collage of possible bike path connection and ecological restoration along the Poudre River in Springer Natural Area.

42 â&#x20AC;˘

Students photograph the landscape in the countryside around Paris during their Education Abroad session in the summer of 2013.

• 43

44 • education abroad

education abroad / learning across cultures

One of the great strengths of CSU’s landscape architecture program has been the education abroad opportunities. On the following pages, students Katy Miller ‘14, Shiva Solaimanian ‘14 and Matthew Bombard ‘15 report on their discoveries and understanding of the critical role played by water in different regions and cultures.

education abroad â&#x20AC;˘ 45

46 â&#x20AC;˘ education abroad

VENICE'S RISING TIDE by This was going to be my first time travelling overseas, first time in another country, first time travelling alone, and I could hardly wait. I had spent nearly a year saving up and planning for this trip, and the time had finally arrived. As I sat at my gate at DIA, I was filled with questions... What am I getting myself into? Should I have done more research on the places I'm visiting? Did I bring everything I will need?

I triple checked that I still had my passport and international student ID card, and my suitcase just barely made the 50 pound weight limit, so I felt that I was probably going to be okay. Anything else that I might have forgotten I could buy overseas, I kept trying to remind myself. I was overly excited and yet had no idea what to expect all at the same time. After several quick sketches of planes landing on the runway and people waiting for flights, the announcer called for my flight to board.

This was it... ciao America!

Katy Miller â&#x20AC;&#x2122;14 BSLA

Though we would visit many amazing places throughout our trip abroad, Venice has always been at the top of my list of places I'd like to see. I have always been intrigued by the extent to which people had to go just to make this (now beautiful) city habitable. The city dates back to the 6th century, when fishermen settled the area by building fragile huts above the marshy mud flats.

Not long after, Italian refugees escaped to this harsh amphibious environment during the Lombard invasions of the Italian peninsula. The landscape greeted them with unstable conditions, including blankets of algae, slippery mud, and unpredictable tidal patterns, yet the settlers' ingenuity and determination allowed them to make life here possible.

After over 15 hours of travelling on planes, trams, and water taxis, I'd finally made it to Venice. The water taxi carried me and several other travelers across the Laguna Veneta, a bay in the Adriatic

education abroad â&#x20AC;˘ 47

Opposite: A gondolier giving a tour of the city to a couple of awestruck travelers.

Left: Campanile di San Marco, also known as the Venice Bell Tower, is one of the most iconic symbols of the city.

Above: One of the many beautiful assortments at Veniceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s daily fish market.

Sea, and into the city proper. The rustic Italian apartments along the canal all had small patios lined with an abundance of brightly-colored flowers, there was not a car in sight, and everybody walking the streets looked like they had stepped out of an old foreign film. Venice was without a doubt the most beautiful city I had ever seen.

In a place such as this, it became quite obvious the impact that water has on its citizens and visitors. It determines the way people commute through the city, their professional lives, their leisure time, and their general mindsets. During my stay, I had seen on several occasions wine merchants transporting their goods via gondolas, and fishmongers selling their daily catch near the lagoon. On the weekends, it is typical for Italian families to come together for a late breakfast of espresso and pastries followed by an afternoon of boating on the lagoon. I had two days until my courses were to begin, so I exited the water taxi

at the Rialto Bridge, located my hostel, and settled in.

"Coming early was a great idea," I thought to myself as I sat next to the canal sipping wine and dining on pizza fungai y prosciutto. The jet lag was really starting to set in, but there was no way I could miss out on my first evening abroad. I used this time to sketch one of the gondoliers waiting at the port for his next customers. I thought of how mundane this day might be for him, while from my perspective, it seemed so charming and intriguing. The gondolas are the longest-running mode of transportation in Venice, dating back hundreds of years. In a city where the 'streets' are waterways, it quickly became an essential vessel of transportation for both citizens and tourists.

Today there are many gas powered boats that carry passengers through the canals, but the gondolas remain as an iconic element of the city's charm and history.

48 â&#x20AC;˘ education abroad

After some much needed rest, I awoke the next morning to meet my two Balinese hostel roommates, Giddey and Weira. We decided to venture out together that day to take a tour of Venice. We made a quick stop by the farmer's market to stock up on some fresh fruits and cheeses, then bought a round trip ticket on the water bus. The route went from one end of the city to the other via the Grande Canal, so we had the opportunity to see many important buildings and to get an overview of the city's layout and structure.

Through our tour, we discovered that the city is built entirely upon a framework of alder wood stilts and platforms. Due to the unstable sand and clay soils that form the islands, this sixteenth-century foundation was necessary to provide structural support for all the buildings. While several minor repairs have been made over the centuries, the foundation has remained essentially intact since its inception. We learned that the water actually

protects the wood from the decay that would otherwise occur if it were exposed to oxygen.

On the third day in Venice, I was to meet up with the rest of my classmates from CSU to begin our studies. I turned in my hostel keys, said goodbye to Giddey and Weira, and headed out. As I met with a few classmates staying in the same hostel, it was already starting to drizzle, so we walked quickly to the Piazza San Marco where my professor and other classmates would be waiting. As we arrived in the Piazza, I realized that this must be a relatively low point in the city because there was already several inches of water beginning to accumulate.

The water kept coming as we waited for our group, and with no proper drainage, there was nowhere for it to go. Issues with Venice flooding are not unheard of, but we were told that this amount of water this late in the season is very rare.

Flooding became a major concern for Venice after

education abroad • 49

the Great Flood of 1966, in which strong southeast winds caused uncalculated changes in tides, resulting in a rise of over 6 feet in the mean tide.

Scientists have since attributed the increased frequency of flooding to a double whammy of natural phenomena: first, the city is slowly sinking and second, the melting polar ice caps are causing a rise in sea level. In 1975, it was determined that the sinking was largely a consequence of pumping groundwater from aquifers, and an aqueduct was constructed to resolve this.

The rising tides, however, present a much greater challenge. Various solutions have been proposed, but in 1989, the MOSE project seemed to deliver the most promising solution. MOSE, a reference to the Biblical parting of the Red Sea, is an acronym for Modulo Sperimentale Elettromeccanico, and involves the building of floodgates at the three lagoon entrances to the city. The gates measure up to 65 feet in length, 65-100 feet high, and 13-16 feet

wide, adding up to a huge multi-billion dollar project.

Environmental impacts have been closely scrutinized since the first phase of the project was completed in 2009. Some have expressed concern that there is an increased amount of debris and pollution that now collects in the lagoon, and question whether the overall ecological disturbance is too high a price to pay. At the same time, marine biologists studying the impact of the barriers have documented Opposite: Rialto Bridge spans the Grand Canal as I pose with my new friends Giddey and Weira on the shore.

Above Left: Fellow classmate, Drew Button, making the most out of a dreary day in the San Marco Piazza.

Above Right: Bird’s eye view of Venice from the top of St. Mark’s campanile.

Above: The start of the floods in the Piazza San Marco, Venice.

50 â&#x20AC;˘ education abroad

Photo credits: Katy Miller

education abroad • 51

increased growth of coral reefs at the entrance of each lagoon, showing just how unpredictable large scale projects such as this can be.

The MOSE project is expected to be completed by 2014 and until then, people seem to be making the best they can of the situation. The locals I saw seemed quite accustomed to carrying on their daily lives with the addition of galoshes or even a couple of waterproof trash bags secured around their feet. Only time will tell if innovative engineering projects such as MOSE will be able to save this ancient city, yet the perseverance they portray is certainly admirable, mimicking that same determination the founders of the city had when they settled here over a thousand years ago.

Through the course of our studies, we travelled on to Rome, Siena, Florence, Versailles, Mont St. Michel, Normandy, Paris, and several major villas and gardens in both Italy and France.

The experiences and knowledge gained from seeing the way other cultures thrive and how cities function was a crucial part of my education at CSU. The opportunity to visit medieval cities and gardens that have preceded and contributed so much of the rich history of Landscape Architecture all around the world was truly inspiring, and I cannot recommend it strongly enough to anyone considering it. <en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOSE _ Project>

Opposite: Rainwater accumulates in the Piazza San Marco, Venice.

Above Left: ‘Love Locks Bridge’ in Venice, where couples hang padlocks to symbolize their bonds of love.

Above Right: Rain falls in San Marco Plaza.

52 • education abroad

ALONG THE RIVER'S EDGE

by Matthew Bombard ’15 BSLA

PRAGUE BERLIN BUDAPEST VIENNA LONDON ISTANBUL

A W EB OF WATERWAYS SPU N TO GETH ER WITH TH E TH R E A D OF M ODER N LIF E. A W EB TH AT SUPPORTS, G ATH ER S, INSPIR ES, A ND EVOLV ES IN TH E FLOW OF TIM E, WITH TH E GROW TH OF ITS A DJACENT CITIES.

A lo ok d ow n t he Vltava R iver fro m t he east b a n k.

Ke e pi ng t he p u lse of t he city, t he Vltava gat hers as it c uts t h rough t he city, givi ng way to shops, rest au ra nts, pu bs a nd p a rk s, all m ovi ng to get her wit h t he flow of visitors, night a. nd d ay.

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education abroad â&#x20AC;˘ 53

PRAGUE, CZ

54 â&#x20AC;˘ education abroad

BERLIN, DE

Wa lk ways along c a nals in t he neigh b orho o d of We d d ing.

T hese c a n a ls bra nc h t h rou ghout B erli n, offeri ng u n iq u e circ u lation a nd a bre a k fro m t he u rb a n setti ng w h ile q ue nc h i ng t he t h irst of a nearby u rb a n gard e n.

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21.9

Black iron sho es li ne t he b a nk of t he Da nu b e R iver in Bu d ap est, co m m e m orating t he lives of t he Jewish p e ople who were br ut ally m assacre d by t he A rrow Cross M ilitia m e n du ri ng W WII. T he victi m s were ord ere d to li ne t he e d ge of t he Da nu b e a nd re m ove t heir sho es a nd were t he n m u rd ere d, t heir b o d ies left to t he river.

A p ow erfu l r e m i n d er of t he horrors of a nti-Se m itis m a nd t he i n hu m a n br ut a lity of w a r.

T he Da nu b e R iver brings t he Bu d a a nd Pest sid es of t he city .to get her, su rrou nd e d wit h b e autiful views a nd strong h istor y. T he Bu d a sid e on t he left lo ok s out over t he m ore d e nse, a nd bustli ng, Pest sid e of t he city.

BUDAPEST, HU

56 â&#x20AC;˘ education abroad

VIENNA, AT

Sw e e pi ng w ater w ays, t he D a nu b e a nd c o n necti ng c a n a l r u n t h rough Vie n na, p ainti ng a pictu resq ue b ackd ro p for t he adjace nt riverfront p a rk s a nd pu blic sp ac es. T he pristi ne w aters of t he Old D a nu b e (A lte D on au) provid e m a ny v a rieties of su m m er ti m e fu n,

i nclu d i ng T he Da nu b e flows fro m to t he Black Se a,

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b o ati ng, s wi m m i ng a nd fish i ng. t he Black Forest in G er m a ny d ow n c utti ng t h rou gh Bu d ap est.

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T he tid e of t he T h a m es on its w ay out, e x p osi ng t he b ones of t he d o ck s a nd pro m e n ad es li n i ng its shores.

T he T h a m es is ric h i n h istor y, i n scri b e d by ages of trad e, p ow er a nd p olitics.

Un like t he Da nu b e, t hough, you c er t ai n ly w ou ld n't w a nt to take a d ip in t he p ollute d T h a m es.

Nonet heless, it c onti nu es to offer c onve n ie nt circ u lation t h rough t he city, h igh lighte d by la nd m a rk s old a nd new.

LONDON, GB

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ISTANBUL, TR

A lo ok along t he Ga lata Brid ge, reac h i ng across to t he neigh b orho o d of Beyo glu.

T he u nd ersid e of t he brid ge is li ne d wit h r est au ra nts ser ving u p t he fresh c atc h of t he d ay.

T he B eyo glu shoreli n e giv es w ay to s w e e pi ng views of t he Bosphor us Ch a n nel.

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Photo credits: Matthew Bombard

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Fisher m e n t a ke to t he Ga lat a Brid g e i n Ist a n bu l n ight a nd d ay.

T he fish ing here acts m ore as a so cial activity t h a n for a ny t h i ng else, it se e m s.

T he brid g e crosses t he G old e n Hor n, a n i n let off t he Bosphor us reac h i ng b ack into t he Eu ro p e a n sid e of t he city. T he city is bustli ng, its at m osphere ch arge d by its rich c u ltu re a nd t h rongs of p e ople, convergi ng wit h t he flow of d aily life.

Eac h of t hese cities sh a r e a close c o n nectio n wit h t heir adjoi n i ng w ater w ays con nections t h at are si m ila r, yet d istinct. Each one h as its ow n stra nd in t he we b of life a nd its con nection wit h water. T hey all tell t heir ow n stories of water a nd its ties to t he su rrou n d i ng e nviron m e nt. W het h er d rive n by t he n e e d s of c o m m erc e, travel, ag ric u ltu re or industr y (or m ore ofte n t h a n not, all of t hese forc es), t hese cities h ave all b e e n sh ap e d by t heir ine x tric a ble li nk s to water.

ISTANBUL, TR

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identity in a broken world

by Shiva Solaimanian '14 BSLA

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C

ultures worldwide have identified themselves with the landscape and its intricate features for millennia. Be it an intentional force or not, the pendulum swings both ways - we shape it as it shapes us. In a rubble-strewn downtown, a living vein drifts quietly through the city of Christchurch, New Zealand, fighting for life.

Stricken with two earthquakes two years in a row, the heart of the city lies in shambles. A conglomerate of chain link fences, empty lots, deserted malls, dilapidated churches and broken concrete make up what used to be the most thriving city on the south island. A city lacking not only physical infrastructure, but also social - a vitality missing that inherently weaves its way through the backbone of any thriving city. What remains, however, is the sleepy but ever-flowing Avon River. Like most civilizations built up and around geographical features, the Avon drove settlement and trade, and freely shared its waters since Christchurch was founded. While people today float wistfully down the river on Venice-like gondolas guided by striped, outfitted boatmen, it historically served the native Ngai Tahu people for transportation and a means for cultivation of crops. Across time and cultures, it has created a sense of identity, whether as recreation, travel or vital resource.

Opposite: The Waimakiriri River, one of New Zealandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s braided rivers, that flows east from the Southern Alps through Christchurch to the Pacific Ocean.

While studying abroad at New Zealand's Lincoln University in the spring of 2013, I had the opportunity to take a landscape architecture course entitled Innovative Design. In it, we created plans for the future of Christchurch on a variety of scales - first an urban master plan, then a culturally important city block adjacent to the river. Victoria Square, formally called Market Square, served as a trading ground between European settlers and the Ngai Tahu. Perry Royal, a Ngai Tahu tribe member and local architect, spoke to our class one afternoon about his iwi's (tribe's) beliefs and expectations for the site, largely aimed at mending the ecological health of the Avon and revealing cultural values through landscape experience. What he said next produced a profound shift in my conception of the river. The landscape and the Ngai Tahu's sense of place were inherently intertwined, inseparable.

I was surprised and inspired. How do we create proper mauri (life force) within an urban setting?

How do we combine this with Christchurch's Colonial history? How will visitors experience the power of ka awatea (the light)? How has our collective vision of Christchurch changed from when it was first built in the 19th century? How would Papa o Otakaro (the Avon River) ecologically benefit from a revitalized design? Perry further explained how in a Ngai Tahu karanga (welcome ceremony), individuals introduce themselves as being 'born under the mountain of...' or coming from 'the river of...' People remain nameless until later - for that lacks importance relative to associating oneself with the landscape. While I, and the people of my culture, identify first by our name, followed by our

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Above Left: The quiet Avon River Above: Much of the city of Christchurch has become a stacked rainbow. Temporary infrastructure defines the CBD. Left: A deserted strip mall. Many of these existed downtown, lined with shops still displaying “Come in, we’re open!” signs.

Right: A twisted ribbon of rubble. Much of the inner city is dead and broken.

home city or state, they identify with landscape elements. It was a revelation.

So many questions began racing through my mind.

How was I, a mere visitor and outsider, supposed to convey these principles through landscape expression? I began sifting through my own experiences in search of a memory, a melody, a method - believing conclusions could be better reached by relating back to my own experience. I found that I, too, react to my natural environment more than I realized - from the ocean, to a waterfall, a hot spring, a lake, a brittle shard of ice. I realized every precious moment I'd had with New Zealand's water bodies revealed the mauri Perry had talked about. Looking back on my travel journal, this became clear:

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While hiking below snow capped peaks and above steaming pools in the west coast region: "I sit in the middle of a taffy factory, ribbons of copper, iron, and cream colored rocks." (1) "Like a rusted penny, the fiery waters glow and make their way downstream. These hot pools are exquisite. The heat of the earth's core bubbling at the surface. In itself it is so alive. Geothermal rising." (2) "Leaves caked in copper dust look like fossils glued to the streambed, anchored. This everchanging system looks archaic. It is old, but accumulates history by new materials morphing over time." (3)

1 2

Crossing the Cook Strait between the north and south islands: "...ocean ripples across the strait mirrored an ebbing rib cage, the breath and life of the earth. I can see the power water has on the earth. It's fluid, it's fleeting, but it is so strong..." (4) Hiking in winter at Lake Marian Fiordland National Park: "...we encountered this fine hair-like ice caked

3

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to muddy gutters that lined the trail in certain areas. So delicate, and bent over in miniscule ribbons, like a rainbow." (5) "...the edges of the lake were laced with a thin layer of ice, like brittle frosted glass. The way it shattered was brilliant.

So fragile but exploding fiercely at the same time." (6) All of these thoughts and experiences occurred independently of each other, each moment unique to itself, the connections unrecognized at the time. I now noticed the capability of the landscape to instigate inspiration.

Sometimes all it needs is a little help - to still be noticed when put on the back burner by modern-day society. What Victoria Square needed was a revitalization, drawing people to the river, and in turn it would reflect history, culture, and that sense of identity in this riparian thread woven into the urban fabric.

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I believe a recent lack of connection to nature has inhibited society's desire to care for it. I began thinking how it would be possible to create connections - an art of great delicacy, unique to landscape architecture. If the Avon was to be restored and protected for the future of its health and cultural significance to both modern and ancient cultures, our society would have to build a bond - something landscape architects cannot force, but can certainly encourage. It would be the difference between creating a moment of impact or not. Of weaving together that sense of place or not. Of formulating a notion of identity or not - the kind of identity the Ngai Tahu know intimately, but that we sometimes forget. <www.rebuildchristchurch.co.nz> <ngaitahu.iwi.nz> Photo credits: Shiva Solaimanian

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Undergraduate landscape architecture students log hours in the studio towards the end of the day.

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The following pages reflect the diverse body of work from some of our top students in the BSLA and MLA program from spring 2013.

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Prototype models for a foldable seatwall design for the Sherman Creek Esplanade in New York by Danling Hu ‘13 MLA II.

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Site Plan

Weekend Markets and Community Gatherings Through the warmer months, tents with crafts and locally grown produce will set up shop and hold weekend markets for the community. Amphitheater seating tucked against an adjacent grassy hillside allow for a variety of events, such as community meetings and concerts to occur.

Overpass Dog Park A fenced-in dog park and separate splash pad offer opportunities for the surrounding residents to bring their pets to the park and unwind from the cramped apartment life. Shadow walls also border both the east and south sides of the site, creating a buffer between railroad tracks and the park. Openings within the wall allow for unique shadows to be cast and views to still be present.

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MITCH TANCIK ‘13, BSLA ARAPAHO SQUARE PARK It was said when the High Line was constructed that it completely transformed the surrounding neighborhoods of New York City. Mayor Bloomberg noted that the High Line project had helped usher in "something of a renaissance" within the region. A similarly neglected site in Denver holds the potential to bring such a transformation to that city. Just north of Coors Field and the downtown core is a large vacant lot used as overflow parking for baseball fans. This large earthen lot is littered with bottles, broken glass and other waste. Focusing on the ideas of urban renewal and redevelopment, I looked towards history and culture for the backbone of my design.

What we now know as Denver first began at the confluence of Cherry Creek and the South Platte River, where the Arapaho Indians and a group of settlers began a trading camp in 1815.

Drawing on the Arapaho history in the area, I was inspired by an important part of Arapaho Indian culture, the wearing of a feather, to represent an individual’s freedom, power, wisdom, honor, trust and strength. Referencing the formal qualities of a feather, one main spine runs throughout the site with secondary circulation paths arcing away from this axis. Other elements within the park, such as bench lines, tree plantings, fountains and a variety of other park features, all branch out from the main path of circulation, further reinforcing this concept.

All Seasons Park As winter moves in, the splash pad fountains and weekend markets are replaced by an ice skating rink, with skate rentals and hot chocolate sold at the snack kiosk. Trees are decorated with holiday lights and winter festivals will enliven the space.

72 â&#x20AC;˘ studio works

East facing elevation of barbeque area, orchard, and meadow

North facing elevation of terrace and rooftop gardens

Aerial perspective of residence

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CODY MYER ‘13, BSLA SCULPTURE HOUSE The sculpture house is a large-scale residential project for architect Charles Deaton's ‘clamshell’ mansion just outside of Golden, Colorado on Interstate 70. Long an area icon, the space-age looking residence attracted film directors for movies like Sleeper and Charlie’s Angels. Though the building itself has caught the eye of many, the property it is built on is bare, with little vegetation.

Deaton said of the site, "On Genesee Mountain I found a high point of land where I could stand and feel the great reaches of the Earth. I wanted the shape of it to sing an unencumbered song.”

This notion drove my design for the landscape, paired with the futuristic style of the building. To fill the vast open space, different aspects of Colorado's beautiful environment were appropriated.

For example, groves of aspen were added, as well as an alpine garden, meadow grasses and a mountain spring. All of these elements were interlaced with hard angles and stepped terraces.

The final design reflects cts a space that respects both the environment and the iconic building by combining a self-sustaining, high-altitude hab bitat wiitth iconic grid-style architectural elements.

One of the first conditions of

Aerial perspective of meadow area and apple orchard

happiness is that the link between man and nature shall not be broken - Leo Tolstoy

Perspective of Aspen entry walk

Perspective of fire pit area at night

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Aerial view of the southern portion of the site, showing linear water channel connection to Pueblo Riverwalk, raised landforms, stepped seating, outdoor cafe and water tower play feature.

Site plan

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SAM BICKEL ‘13, BSLA PUEBLO RIVERFRONT DEVELOPMENT The Alpha Beta Meat Packing Plant was a meat processing facility in Pueblo, Colorado that closed in 1980. The site itself is 115 years old and has deep roots within the community. After its industrial uses had ended, it became a refrigerated warehouse. Now, due to a series of unfortunate events and a large fire in 2012, it is abandoned and classified as a blighted area.

I selected to design this site for my capstone project due to its prominence along I-25, adjacency to the Pueblo Riverwalk, and importance to a future CDOT I-25 realignment project. The plant’s importance and connection to the history and culture of Pueblo is undeniable.

View overlooking the meadow garden with water tower and redeveloped warehouses beyond.

Context model (left) and Site Analysis (below).

The water towers on the site function as a landmark in the city.

The children’s play area centers around a stained glass tower, which is surrounded by a splash pad. Adjacent to this is a picnic pavilion for parents.

The entrance experience to the site is bisected by a linear water feature that cascades off the building. This separates the space into two programmatically different spaces. On one side is the CSA and its greenhouse structure, on the opposite side is the farmers market plaza and parking garage.

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LAKEFRONT AMPHITHEATER Users may travel to the lakefront amphitheater for shows, fireworks, and other open space activities.

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DANLING HU â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;13, MLA II WESTMINSTER CITY PARK Sustainability was a key concern for me in the creation of an innovative and educational park for Westminster, CO. The design guidelines I established for this project included: -

Redefining traditional forms of playground structures Fostering education for young children through play Establishing a lakefront amphitheater with integrated food kiosks Using recycled plastic bottles to build an interactive splash park

AMPHITHEATER DESIGN PROCESS

SITE PLAN

LAKEFRONT AMPHITHEATER This space is not only an amphitheater but also a space for public speaking.

The amphitheater provides ample seating with available space underneath for kiosks and vendors to sell snacks and beverages.

PLAYGROUND AND LAVA CAVE DESIGN PROCESS

LAVA CAVE When children jump on a trampoline above the cave, their vibrations create a bubbling effect on a clear structure below, that is similar to a lava lamp. When inside the space, colorful bubbles surround the children. The structure is made of clear, recycled plastic and allows light to penetrate into the space and for parents to view their children. There is also a track on the ground for children to ride in moveable cars.

SPLASH PARK DESIGN PROCESS

SPLASH PARK The splash park is an innovative structure for children to learn to play with water, while learning to cooperate with their peers. Water flows through the entire structure with the roof creating screens, as well as mist effects. Automatic sensors on both structure facades will splash water rhythmically when the bottle-like structures completely fill with water. Shade trees on the perimeter allow parents to sit and watch children play in the park.

78 â&#x20AC;˘ student awards

EACH YEAR, the landscape architecture program recognizes the efforts of our talented and dedicated students with awards that are voted on by faculty and visiting distinguished critics. From an undergraduate program of over 100 students, the following individuals rose to the challenge and stood out in their contribution to the unique culture and exceptional reputation of the Landscape Architecture Program at CSU.

2013 ASLA Student Honor & Merit Awards National Award: Top seniors nominated by faculty; final selections voted by visiting jury of practitioners Sam Coutts presents to jurors at the Awards Presentation in May 2013. Jurors included: Jana McKenzie, Principal, Logan Simpson; Todd Mead, Principal, Civitas; David Gregory, Principal, Oxbow Design Collaborative; Anna Cawrse, Landscape Designer, Design Workshop.

Honor Award

Cody Myer

Merit Award

Sam Bickel

Mitch Tancik

Sam Coutts

Stephanie Larsen

Zac Walrod

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Outstanding Senior Award Top senior as voted by faculty

Stephanie Larsen

Mitch Tancik

Colorado Garden Show Scholarship Selected by Colorado Garden Foundation

Emily Kotulak

Exemplary Leadership Award Highest dedication to program as voted by faculty

Gerard Paul Monger Senior Award Highest academic achievement as voted by faculty

Ben Canales

Eric Kelly

Mary Taylor

Russell L. Butler II Memorial Scholarship Recommended by Butler family; final selection voted by faculty

Mark Allen Kauzlarich Memorial Award Highest academic progress as voted by faculty

Spencer Branson

Brian Horton

Katy Miller

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AMY ROSE BROBST MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP The Amy Rose Brobst Memorial Scholarship was recently established to honor the memory of alumna Amy Rose Brobst. Amy was a recent graduate of the Colorado State University Landscape Architecture program whose promising life and career were cut short by a tragic plane crash last summer. She was an extremely dedicated and hardworking designer who is remembered for her positive presence and attitude.

As a student, Amy bemoaned the lack of scholarship opportunities for landscape architecture students, something her parents remembered clearly when they chose this as a fitting way to remember their daughter. In meetings with department faculty and staff, they outlined scholarship criteria that they felt would best represent Amy’s interests as a designer; namely, the conceptual and poetic meaning that landscape designs can embody and communicate.

An emotional ceremony featuring the Brobst family was held in the CSU landscape architecture studios to mark the dedication of a scholarship in Amy’s honor to benefit students in the Landscape Architecture Program. Friends, family, students and faculty were all in attendance as Amy’s loved ones spoke about her life and shared personal stories that were an emotional reminder of how wonderful and extraordinary a young woman she was. A slideshow of Amy’s work was presented during the ceremony, reminding everyone of her incredible talent as a designer.

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Profile Amy Rose Brobst was born in Lexington, South Carolina on September 7, 1989. Amy’s family moved to Fort Collins, Colorado in 1990, when she was a little younger than 9 years old. This move fueled Amy’s passion for life; she was an avid skier and snowboarder who had a love of the outdoors.

Amy was enamored by the natural beauty surrounding her and she loved to hike and be immersed in nature. She was active in athletics all her life, participating as a youth in basketball, volleyball, soccer, track and even bowling. Amy attended Rocky Mountain High School where she played field hockey, and later went on to volunteer her time as a field hockey coach while attending college. As a student at Rocky Mountain High School, Amy came out of her shell and her positive attitude shined.

During her time there, her teachers Missy Wolf and Jay Dukart played an important role in helping her to realize her strong artistic ability.

Opposite Above: Amy at center with friends at the Grand Canyon during CSU’s summer studios.

Opposite Below: Austin, Amy, Doug and Judy Brobst Above: Landscape Architecture faculty, Jane Choi, Brad Goetz, Joe McGrane and Kelly Curl, among many others, witness the signing of the newly established Amy Rose Brobst Memorial Scholarship by Judy and Doug Brobst at the Awards Ceremony, Fall 2013.

Below: Amy’s studio projects.

In 2007, Amy attended Jacksonville University as a Graphic Design major. During her time in Jacksonville, Amy attended a lecture by a landscape architect that turned out to be a turning point in her life and led Amy to further explore the profession of landscape architecture.

Ultimately, Amy decided that landscape architecture would allow her to pursue many of her favorite activities, such as drawing, painting and designing, and would allow her to spend time outdoors. Amy decided to transfer to Colorado State University to pursue a major in landscape architecture.

Throughout Amy's time at Colorado State University, she was deeply involved in her studies and worked extremely hard to develop her abilities as a designer. Throughout her college experience, Amy held various summer jobs, all of which involved working with plants outdoors. Amy was always happy when she was outside working with vegetation and exploring her creative abilities.

In 2011, Amy took a year off from school to work for Lanoha Nursery in Omaha, Nebraska. There, she managed landscape installations and had the opportunity to perform some design work. Amy returned to CSU to finish her degree in July 2012 and graduated in December 2012 with a Bachelor's Degree in Landscape Architecture. In 2013, Amy returned to Lanoha, working as a project manger until her untimely passing on April 27, 2013.

For more information or to make a contribution to the Amy Rose Brobst Memorial Scholarship Endowment, please visit the following link: <advancing.colostate.edu/AMYBROBSTSCHOLARSHIP>

Amy Brobst's life was full of unique experiences and adventure and her love of people and environments allowed Amy to explore her passions in life through landscape architecture.

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Landscape architecture students listen intently during a presentation at Design Workshopâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Denver office.

84 â&#x20AC;˘ musings

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Pursuit

1 I felt your presence.

I knew you were here – deadened sounds and still rippled water pressed upon my ear rather than the acoustics of men and nature all around here you hold your own. and you without a sound left without a sound, without a sound.

2 and suddenly the earth lifted up my eyes the dulls complexed revealed and gilded – lustrous and rock Shout! for subtlety has won out what we couldn’t see has made our lives.

3 I wish this landscape could tell me what I’m looking for 4 muse waltzes in and suddenly I’m aware of my loneliness my knees trod in mud feet dry, caked but not cracked, callous music drones to make me aware of a deep rift rough night, not my day.

6 I saw the trees rustle/wave Blues like midnight forest green Clouds presenting silver black diamonds Clubs from the cool collected and flip no no no no, na na na na.

7 Is everyone around me weavers?

Tugging me this way, that.

Slowly spinning, a needle here, there.

But it’s time for me.

8 here I know water moves slowly it curves around 9 After a while ideas make me sick They cling to the rocking hull, building up. And I’m just so damn tired of scraping them off.

And I can’t help but collect the ones that grab me.

To confront the suckers becomes Plath – to sink and drown in a sea that’s just full of more ideas.

But who knows?

I just want to be, to have the glass broken and let the water spill me onto dry land.

To Realize Who You Are, where the corners aren’t swept but the canvas is beautiful, the design seamless.

It’s perspective after all?

The morning comes and though all is not new the wayfaring intellect, the soul, perceives a new Hope.

5 Silver nitrate Crystal clear blue, black, a desert.

Matthew Weiderspon (‘15 BSLA & BFA) loves the silence of snow, time spent with family and friends, riding in airplanes, wild nature, deep thoughts, and creating/designing.