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JAN 2020 / VOL 110 NO 1 US $7 CAN $9

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE

SNOW FLOW

On and off the slopes with Ecosign

BREACH BORN Calgary’s Bow River finds its way again

SET THE STAGE Robert Royston’s icon revived

LANDSLIDE 2019 Live with nature or else

THE MAGAZINE OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS

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LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE

THE MAGAZINE OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS

LAM 8 INSIDE 10 LETTERS

40 PRESERVATION

Theater Revival Updating Robert Royston’s beloved Quarry Amphitheater in Santa Cruz, California, meant adding a few modern conveniences the landscape architect never imagined.

BY LYDIA LEE

18 LAND MATTERS

FOREGROUND 22 NOW

54 GOODS

From the Ground Up Outdoor surfaces with depth.

BY EMILY COX

Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center uses landscape to cast a wider net; resilient riverfronts arrive in heartland Kansas; an about-face on bay fill in San Francisco; and more.

W ARCHITECTURE AND LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE

EDITED BY TIMOTHY A. SCHULER

4 / LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE JAN 2020

“ WE DESIGNED IT TO FLOOD THIS IS WHAT’S SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN.” —BARBARA WILKS, FASLA, P. 80

FEATURES 62 HEAD FOR THE HILL Ski slope design has grown from early beginnings in cozy alpine towns to the main attraction of new megadevelopments in China, thanks in part to the mountain resort planners of Ecosign.

BY JESSICA BRIDGER

80 NO PLAN IS AN ISLAND When Barbara Wilks, FASLA, and Mark Johnson, FASLA, and their respective firms teamed up to redesign a care-worn island in the heart of Calgary, they let the Bow River make the big moves.

BY BRIAN BARTH

THE BACK 102 THERE IS NOWHERE ELSE TO GO Landslide, the Cultural Landscape Foundation’s annual campaign to raise awareness about endangered landscapes, this year focuses on Living in Nature.

BY JONATHAN B. JARVIS, HONORARY ASLA, AND THE CULTURAL LANDSCAPE FOUNDATION

110 BOOKS

Fill in the Blanks A review of From Fallow: 100 Ideas for Abandoned Urban Landscapes by Jill Desimini.

BY GALE FULTON, ASLA

124 ADVERTISER INDEX 125 ADVERTISERS BY PRODUCT CATEGORY 136 BACKSTORY

Canopy Companions Eighteen trees stay standing amid a muscular wood shelter in Beijing.

BY BRADFORD MCKEE

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE JAN 2020 / 5

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE THE MAGAZINE OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS

EDITOR Bradford McKee / bmckee@asla.org

The art of the ski hill, at Weissfluh Mountain in the Swiss Alps, page 62.

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BACK ISSUES 888-999-ASLA (2752) Landscape Architecture Magazine (ISSN 0023-8031) is published monthly by the American Society of Landscape Architects, 636 Eye Street NW, Washington, DC 200013736. Periodical postage paid at Washington, D.C., and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to Landscape Architecture Magazine, 636 Eye Street NW, Washington, DC 20001-3736. Publications Mail Agreement No. 41024518. Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to PO Box 503 RPO, West Beaver Creek, Richmond Hill, ON L4B 4R6. Copyright 2020 ASLA. Subscriptions: $59/year; international: $99/year; students: $50/year; digital: $44.25/year; single copies: $7.

Landscape Architecture Magazine seeks to support a healthy planet through environmentally conscious production and distribution of the magazine. This magazine is printed on FSC® certified paper using vegetable inks.

The magazine is also available in digital format through www.asla.org/lam/zinio or by calling 1-888-999-ASLA.

ASLA BOARD OF TRUSTEES PRESIDENT Wendy Miller, FASLA PRESIDENT-ELECT Tom Mroz Jr., FASLA IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT Shawn T. Kelly, FASLA VICE PRESIDENTS Keven Graham, FASLA Kona A. Gray, FASLA SuLin Kotowicz, ASLA Jeanne M. Lukenda, ASLA Dennis R. Nola, ASLA Marq Truscott, FASLA SECRETARY Curtis A. Millay, ASLA TREASURER Michael D. O’Brien, Honorary ASLA TRUSTEES Aaron A. Allan, ASLA Shawn Balon, ASLA W. Phillips Barlow, ASLA Robert D. Berg, ASLA Jonathan Bronk, ASLA Kevin W. Burke, FASLA David H. Contag, ASLA Amy Cupples, ASLA Jitka Dekojova, ASLA Patrick F. Dunn, ASLA Michele Elfers, ASLA Scott V. Emmelkamp, ASLA Melissa M. Evans, ASLA David Flanagan, ASLA Jonathon Geels, ASLA Nick Gilliland, ASLA Tina Gillman, ASLA Thomas A. Hall, ASLA Gail L. Henderson-King, ASLA Jonathan Henney, ASLA Chester B. Hill, ASLA Jim Jackson, ASLA Lucy B. Joyce, ASLA Jenn Judge, ASLA Omprakash M. Khurjekar, ASLA Randy Knowles, ASLA Joy M. Kuebler, ASLA Marieke Lacasse, ASLA Timothy W. May, ASLA Bradley McCauley, ASLA Danny McElmurray, ASLA Baxter E. Miller, ASLA Cleve Larry Mizell, ASLA Jennifer Nitzky, ASLA Holley Bloss Owings, ASLA Jeff Pugh, ASLA John D. Roters, ASLA John P. Royster, FASLA Cheri Ruane, ASLA Jan Saltiel-Rafel, ASLA Stephen W. Schrader Jr., ASLA Jean Senechal Biggs, ASLA Brian H. Starkey, ASLA Judith Stilgenbauer, ASLA Adam A. Supplee, ASLA Robert B. Tilson, FASLA Patricia M. Trauth, ASLA Thomas J. Whitlock, ASLA Andrew Wickham, ASLA LAF REPRESENTATIVES Barbara L. Deutsch, FASLA Stephanie A. Rolley, FASLA NATIONAL ASSOCIATE REPRESENTATIVE Tyler Richburg, ASLA

PARLIAMENTARIAN Kay Williams, FASLA

6 / LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE JAN 2020

JESSICA BRIDGER

NATIONAL STUDENT REPRESENTATIVE Jacoby E. Gonzales, Associate ASLA

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INSIDE

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CONTRIBUTORS GALE FULTON, ASLA, (“Fill in the Blanks,” page 110) is the director of the School of Landscape Architecture at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. You can reach him at gfulton@utk.edu.

“Cities will continue to produce vacant landscapes and other marginal territories that fall outside the professionalized vision of many landscape architects, but this landscape is fertile ground for social and environmental innovation.”

LYDIA LEE (“Theater Revival,” page 40)

is an architecture and design writer in the San Francisco Bay area. You can reach her at lydia@lydialee.com.

“The rock face that forms the backdrop of the amphitheater is stunning—the wilderness really takes center stage here, which you can’t tell so well from the photos.”

GOT A STORY? At LAM, we don’t know what we don’t know.

If you have a story, project, obsession, or simply an area of interest you’d like to see covered, tell us! Send it to lam@asla.org.

Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @landarchmag and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ landscapearchitecturemagazine.

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8 / LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE JAN 2020

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LAM

LETTERS

/

MORE ‘EXCITING STUFF’

C

learly, Thaïsa Way, FASLA, set off some alarm bells in the mind of Roger Deweese, FASLA, (Exciting Stuff, Letters, November). He complains that Way is judging the history of our country and of Dumbarton Oaks by today’s standards. He seems annoyed that Way wants to “bring out these histories and stories” highlighting race, identity, and difference in equity at all, let alone at a historic estate. In expressing his disgust, he mixes up what the interviewer, Brad McKee, and Way are saying, in an apparent attempt to show how silly and misguided these politically correct liberals are.

He questions how Way’s “purposefully vague studies” will benefit our profession and society—but Way was referring to broadening the scope of Dumbarton Oaks’s research proposals, not to any studies. She is asking how people think about the environment, the place—not just about design, painting, and poetry. What is so terrifying or offensive about expanding the range of what landscape scholarship addresses?

Deweese refers to a team of historians Way is putting together, including, heaven forbid, “English (not American) historians.” Here Way was talk-

TARO AKUTAGAWA, TOO

T

hanks for the great article on Taro Akutagawa (November). We’ve just completed the master plan for Kubota Gardens here in Seattle. Fujitaro Kubota began the family-run nursery and landscape business in the early 1920s and operated on site starting in 1927. Fujitaro built demonstration gardens on the property that highlighted his design and construction skills, which still exist today. World War II dealt a blow to the business when, in February 1942, the family was forcibly sent to the Minidoka Internment Camp in Idaho.

Returning to their property in 1945, Fujitaro and his son Tom re-established the landscaping business and rebuilt their reputation for quality design and contruction work for both private and public clients. After Fujitaro’s death in 1973, Tom and his son Allan continued to run the family

business from the property until 1987, when the City of Seattle bought the 20 acres of gardens to preserve them as open space.

In researching the background of Japanese designers in the United States, we had thought that Fujitaro was an outlier given that his training was in agriculture, not formal Japanese design. Your article shows that this is not the case. The similarities between Taro and Fujitaro Kubota’s careers are remarkable, although Fujitaro was about 20 years older. I would like to hear if there are other examples of non-classically trained Japanese garden designers working from the 1920s through the 1970s in the United States.

DUANE DIETZ, ASLA JONES & JONES ARCHITECTS AND LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS SEATTLE

10 / LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE JAN 2020

ing about work she did at the University of Washington, facilitating the sharing of university resources to support the city and region of Seattle.

What “came as no surprise” was that the needs include affordable housing, environmental justice, climate change, and data responsibility.

We Europeans took the land from people who had other ways of seeing it and interacting with it, and we imported (as cargo) other people to build it. In exchange for the land and the labor, we brought so-called advanced civilization. Now we find that our way is wrecking the planet, which as of now we need to survive.

Being “woke” isn’t just about political correctness; it’s about truth, and it’s about figuring out how to live and practice. I for one am glad Dumbarton Oaks is judging history by today’s standards and working to shape a more inclusive future.

Are these misrepresentations deliberate, or do they just represent thinking clouded by angst? It’s hard not to see reflections of our political moment, especially when Deweese says that “the last thing our society needs is a continuation of enslavement controversies continued from our last administration.” Is he saying that ZOE EDGECOMB, ASLA we need to go back to ignoring the CHARLOTTESVILLE, VIRGINIA contributions and concerns of African Americans and other nonwhites, now that the trial of having a black president is over? Should we only judge our decidedly incomplete history by the standards of whatever we learned in our youth and whatever validated our sense of ownership of this country? Should our landscape scholars stick to aesthetic concerns and the accomplishments of Great LAM welcomes letters from readers.

White People?

Letters may be edited and condensed.

Please e-mail comments to LAMletters Many people still believe that it’s the @asla.org or send via U.S. mail to: responsibility of “others” to assimilate and conform to the American Way as AMERICAN SOCIETY defined by white Europeans. But the OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS history of our landscape is as compli- 636 EYE STREET NW cated as the diverse origins and belief WASHINGTON, DC 20001–3736 systems of the people who call this place home. We can’t go back to telling the stories of our landscapes only from the point of view of European Americans. That’s not just because Euro-Americans are losing majority status. Believe it or not, Mr. Deweese, many of us hunger for a more complete and just history, even if it means a loss of privilege and power.

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/LETTERS

AN OPEN LETTER ON CLIMATE ACTION This month, LAM is running the text of a recent petition signed by hundreds of landscape architecture students and supporters that urges ASLA to increase its focus on issues related to climate breakdown. The list of signatories is complete as of late November 2019. The petition can be found online at aslaadapt.com. Following the petition is a letter of support from members of the CEO Roundtable, an independent group of principals who represent major landscape architecture firms. Finally, LAM is printing the response to the petition by ASLA leadership.

Open Letter to: Shawn T. Kelly, FASLA, President of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), President-Elect Wendy Miller, FASLA, the ASLA Executive Committee, and the ASLA Board of Trustees

W

e are living through a climate crisis. This crisis has grown out of a socioeconomic system that depends on the intensive extraction of

Grant Huber (Texas Tech University) Shafiqah Musbar Musa (International Islamic University Malaysia) Iqbal Shah (International Islamic University Malaysia) Anthony Castagnoli (2IM Group) Jill Desimini (Harvard GSD) Zane Colvin (University of Arkansas-Fayetteville) Tessa Anais Crespo (Harvard GSD) Adrian Tenney (Cal Poly Pomona/MLA) David P. Burch (University of Wisconsin-Madison) Katherine Bulin (University of Illinois UrbanaChampaign) Johanna Barthmaier-Payne (Rhode Island School of Design, Department Head) Rosalea Monacella (Harvard GSD) Eric Marshall (University of Wisconsin-Madison) Zhiyao (Shu) Riley Sholes (UC Davis) Lisa (University of Wisconsin-Madison) Jingzi Cui (Harvard GSD) Kongyun He (Harvard GSD) Kate Orff (Columbia University) Sydney Rae Conaway (Harvard GSD, MLA1 2020) Jing Yan (Harvard GSD) Deanna Lynn (University of Oregon) Scott Spencer Jackson (University of Pennsylvania) Erin Rice (NYC Parks) Yu Hang Leung (University of Illinois UrbanaChampaign) Danielle Toronyi (OLIN/NC State alum) C. J. Horton (Cal Poly SLO) Roberto Astudillo (University of Michigan) Wenpei Wang (CLA Landscape Architecture) William Metcalf (University of Minnesota) Alexa Vaughn-Brainard (OLIN) Rosa Zedek (PennDesign) Justin Richardson (CLA Landscape Architecture) Scott Laffin (University of Kentucky) Alex Holt (Ball State University) Thomas Charney (Michigan State University) Matthew Beck (Temple University) Scott Shoemaker (UCLA) Billy Fleming (University of Pennsylvania, Ian L. McHarg Center for Urbanism + Ecology) Mary Taylor (Harvard University) Sam Valentine (Harvard GSD) Rujuta Naringrekar (City College of New York) Sam Valentine (Harvard GSD) Moulshree Mittal (Harvard GSD) Sarah Zou (Harvard GSD) Andreea Vasile Hoxha (Harvard GSD) Laura Dieguez (University of New Mexico) Chris Samoray (University of Maryland)

the Earth’s resources, ultimately driving our planet’s life-support systems to their limits. Furthermore, we recognize that ecological breakdown and global inequality are symptoms of the same process; environmental degradation greatly overburdens those with less money, power, and resources. Although we recognize that the threat of climate change and the damage it inflicts are certainly invoked within our profession, we

Alexandrea Samoray (SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry) Miguel Vargas (Washington State University) Jessica Colvin (University of California, Berkeley) Luiz Lam (Florida International University) Krista Doersch (University of Washington) Heather Parker (University of Washington) Elizabeth Fabis (Cornell University) Monica Rourke (Cornell University) Zongying Peng (University of Georgia) Samantha Hausermann (University of Arizona) Lauren Iversen (University of Washington) Jessica Greenwood (Reynolds Community College) Nahal Sohbati (Topophyla) Julian Heikel (Leibniz University of Hannover) Michael Todoran (The Landscape Architecture Podcast) Abigail Long (Temple University) Jocine Velasco (University of Washington) Hsin-Mei Chang (Temple University) Angeles Margarida (University of Texas at Arlington) Elena Naccari (University of Texas at Arlington) Nikki Simonini (University of Texas at Arlington) Bonnie Blocker (University of Texas at Arlington) Niveditha Dasa Gangadhar (University of Texas at Arlington) Kathleen Isabella Stanford (University of Texas at Arlington) Lauren Wardwell (University of Texas at Arlington) Matthew Thornton (University of Texas at Arlington) Tricia Mikal (University of Texas at Arlington) Jodwin Surio (University of Texas at Arlington) Michael Shuey (University of Texas at Arlington) Josiah Miller (University of Texas at Arlington) Melissa Brown (University of Texas Arlington) Yanling Mo (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor) Sasha Anemone (Cornell University) Hannah Van der Eb (Harvard GSD) Aaron L. Lewis (Iowa State University) Kevin Scholfield (Arizona State University) Elizabeth Ferguson (Arizona State University) Kimberly Korioth (SUNY ESF) Bryce Lloyd-Hahn (UMASS Amherst) Marina Recio Rodriguez (Harvard GSD) Victoria Sanders (The Ohio State University, College of Social Work) Cornelia Overton (Rhode Island School of Design) Elsa Stoffel (Kansas State University) Jordyn Kloss (Iowa State University) Blake Sweeney (Iowa State University) Grace Mader (Kansas State University) Priya Ramakrishnan (The Ohio State University) Ryan Berry (Kansas State University) Sutter Wehmeier (BASE Landscape Architecture)

12 / LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE JAN 2020

are concerned with how these words are acted upon. As design students deeply invested in the future of the world’s landscapes and their ability to sustain life, we have come together from across the United States to call on ASLA to strengthen its commitment to addressing the most serious challenge of our times. While we applaud ASLA’s recent efforts to support climate change resiliency through the Blue Ribbon Panel, we believe that now is the time for the profession to do more: to take actionable measures that follow in the footsteps of the Landscape Architecture Foundation’s recent New Landscape Declaration as well as ASLA’s own Code of Environmental Ethics, conference proceedings, publications, and internal communications. This is not a time to be

Cara Gunzelman (Kansas State University) Zachary Fawver (Kansas State University) Madison Wulfkuhle (Kansas State University) Allyssa Gray (Kansas State University) Isaiah Krieger (Harvard GSD) Sara Steenbergh (University of Michigan) Jacob Lightman (Rhode Island School of Design) Lydia Cloak (Iowa State University) Julia Kappelman (Kansas State University) Andrea Fager (Iowa State University) Paden Chesney (Kansas State University/MLA) Adrienne Emmerich (Rhode Island School of Design) Huaiwen Zhang (Rhode Island School of Design) Jiawei Lin (Texas A&M) Kayla Murgo (Rhode Island School of Design) Mary Martin (SUNY ESF) Abigail Schafer (Iowa State University) Darryl Vallejos (University of New Mexico) Megan Adams (Iowa State University) Mallory Sage (Iowa State University) Miriam Jakel (Iowa State University) Crystal DeWulf (Iowa State University) Clare Kiboko (Iowa State University) Kellie R. Murtle (Iowa State University) Haley Weinberg (Kansas State University) Kyle Anderson (Auburn University) William Marcos Gonzalez (UMass Amherst) Annette Guan (Cornell University) Janet Torres (University of California/PhD) Ian R. Finn (UMass Amherst) Alex Wayland (Auburn University) Ke-Ping Kuo (Northeastern University) Maura Robitaille (UMASS Amherst) Ke-Ping Kuo (Northeastern University) Christopher Ramage (UMass Amherst) Anna Kellerman (University of Massachusetts, Amherst) Nigel Cummings (UMass Amherst) Ted Duffy (UMass Amherst) Ankur Choudhary (UMass Amherst) Zach Numan (UMass Amherst) Rachel Newman (UMass Amherst) Mackenzie Yeager (Kansas State University) Ramon Solis (Rhode Island School of Design) Hollis Moore (University of New Mexico) Gabriel Raab-Faber (University of New Mexico) Heather Forde (Boston Architectural College) Mary Mays (University of New Mexico) Natalie Schneider (University of New Mexico) Evita E. Rodriguez (Harvard GSD) Adriana Garcia (Cal Poly Pomona) Lawrence Walker (University of New Mexico) Neil Heacox (Cal Poly Pomona)

apolitical or to bargain for minimal gains. This is a time to work toward a bold vision for the future of our planet. We ask that ASLA: 1. Endorse and Help Define the Green New Deal We call on ASLA to join the conversation around the Green New Deal and to advocate for the centrality of landscape architecture to its very definition. We cannot claim to take on resiliency and mitigation as a central mission without joining this key conversation. The Green New Deal offers an incredible opportunity for landscape architecture to express its values on a national legislative stage, and the legislation’s bold charges leave room for all professions to come to the table to help give it form and make it actionable. Together

Laura Dieguez (University of New Mexico) Dustin Elston (Auburn University) Xander Miller (The Ohio State University) Jules Ceaser (UC Berkeley) Jesus Gomez (Washington State University) K. Thatcher Gerike (University of Virginia) Juanita Ballesteros (UC Berkeley) Michelle Ford (The Ohio State University) Sarah Cervenka (The Ohio State University) Erin Kerney (Boston Architectural College) Eva Roos (University of Michigan) Yiyuan Wang (University of Michigan, School for Sustainability & Environment) Ava Cheng (Cal Poly Pomona) Ferrell Sullivan (Auburn University) Lorena Garcia (Cal Poly Pomona) Tyler Cloud (The Ohio State University) Neha Srinivasan (University of Michigan) Ashley Truitt (University of Michigan) Conner Bruns (Kansas State University/MLA) Elizabeth Martinez (University of Tennessee, Knoxville) John Doyle Pritchard (University of Michigan, School for Sustainability & Environment) Tong Shen (Harvard GSD) Jose Guadalupe Gutierrez (Cal Poly Pomona) Zhuyu SHi (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor) Terra Weiland (University of Michigan/MLA) Sarah Peterson (University of Michigan) Chuyi Yin (University of Michigan/MLA,MS) Leen Shamlati (UC Berkeley) Alex Wayland (Auburn University) Tong Shen (Harvard GSD) Katharine Stowe (University of Texas at Austin) Sophie Elias (Harvard GSD) Sadie Gurkin (Auburn University) A. L. McCullough (University of Pennsylvania) Hannah Kaiser (Cal Poly Pomona/MLA) Denise Martinez (Louisiana State University, MLA/LA) Jessica Yuan (Harvard GSD) Dana Hills (GSD Harvard) Chelsea Kashan (Harvard GSD) Ignacio Martinez Avila (Washington State University) Jessica Love (Harvard GSD) Hongxiang Chen (UC Berkeley) Blake Enos (Cornell University) Anna Dansak (Auburn University, CADC) Lauralee Williams (Harvard GSD) George Chan (Boston Architectural College) Elena Juodisius (SUNY-ESF) Brittney Seman (Cal Poly Pomona/MLA) Morgen Ruby (Cal Poly Pomona/MLA) muriel replogle (California State Polytechnic University, Pomona)

Lauren McKenna (Cal Poly Pomona) Dani Slabaugh (Cal Poly Pomona) Adam Mattingly (Cal Poly Pomona) Lily Dendy (Auburn University) Barry Lehrman, ASLA, Associate Professor (Cal Poly Pomona) Michelle Shanahan (Cal Poly Pomona/MLA) Linley Green (Cal Poly Pomona/MLA) Adam Terreri (Cal Poly Pomona/BSLA) Adrian Tenney (Cal Poly Pomona) Josiah Pearson (Washington State University) Laurel Skinner (Cal Poly Pomona, MLA) Jin McFarland (Cal Poly Pomona BSLA) Robert A. Douglass (Cal Poly Pomona, MLA) Mackenzie Cejka (Oklahoma State University) Katherine Ackerman (Cornell University) Madeline Kirschner (Louisiana State University) Rhiannon Neuville (University of Washington) Daniel Rose (The University of Tennessee, MLA/MArch) Daniel Rose (The University of Tennessee, MLA/MArch) Scott LeBoeuf (Boston Architectural College) Lindsey Douglas (Boston Architectural College) Washie Khan (Boston Architectural College) Meredith Juliana (BSLA) Daniela Coray (Boston Architectural College) Carolina Carvajal (BSLA) Jared John Brocklehurst (The Ohio State University) Trae Watson (Auburn University) Taylor Chavers (Auburn University) Zheyu Liu (University of Virginia) Matthew Cowan (University of Tennessee) Seth Zanoni (University of Tennessee) Margaret Gallagher (University of Texas at Austin) Shea Smitham (Salad) Hanah Goldov (UC Berkeley) Alevtina Sideleva (UC Berkeley) Mark Lees (Washington State University) Anna McKeigue (City College of NY, CUNY) Kara Holekamp (The University of Texas at Austin) Elyna Grapstein (University of Georgia) Colin Chadderton (Harvard GSD) William Baumgardner (Harvard GSD) Charlie Weber (University of Texas at Austin) Taylor Fehmel (Louisiana State University) Katharine Shirley (University of Texas at Austin) Matthew Charles Poche (LSU RRSLA) Delaney McGuinness (LSU RRSLA) Taylor Fehmel (Louisiana State University) Matthew Charles Poche (LSU RRSLA) Delaney McGuinness (LSU RRSLA) Alison Maurer (Harvard GSD) Connie Trinh (Harvard GSD) Andrew Berger (Cornell University)

we should step up and call for the mobilization of public resources to transition from an economy built on exploitation to one built on dignified work and clean energy for all.

The history of landscape architecture demonstrates the discipline’s long advocacy for robust public assets that ensure environmental justice, from Olmsted onward. We must reassert landscape’s ability to influence our understanding of nature’s relationship to society in this crucial political moment.

2. Assert Our Commitment to the Public Realm At a time when the public realm is suffering from considerable disinvestment, ASLA must affirm the values of social justice and public dialogue. We must actively stand Yaoxin Li (UC Berkeley) Gillian Kuhnhausen (The University of Texas at Austin) Julia Rice (Harvard GSD) Roberto Ransom (Harvard GSD) Jacob Krafft (Oklahoma State University) Blake Enos (Cornell University) B.G. Dixon (Boston Architectural College/Smith College) Jacoby Gonzales (Oklahoma State University) Robynne Heymans (National Student Representative to the ASLA Board of Trustees) Sarah Dornner (City College NY) Avee Izabel Oabel (The Ohio State University) Michael Ahn (Harvard GSD) Alexandra DiStefano (Harvard GSD) Abby Jamiel (Harvard GSD) Cecilia Huber (Harvard GSD) Walter Grondzik (Ball State University) Kymberly Ware (Harvard GSD) Molly McCahan (The Ohio State University) Amy Goettle (dwg.)

Kymberly Ware (Harvard GSD) Polly Sinclair (Harvard GSD) Andrew Curtis (Cornell) Camille Thoma-Fill (UC Berkeley) Celestino Jr. Arroyo (UC Berkeley) Michelle Kim-Anh Vo (UC Berkeley) Scarlet B. Rendleman (Harvard GSD) Brendan M. Ayer (The Ohio State University) Gracie Villa (Harvard GSD) Molly A. Butcher (UC Berkeley) Bruce Haglund (University of Idaho) Edyth Jostol (Harvard GSD) John J. Aslanian (Harvard GSD) Jaline E. McPherson (Harvard GSD) Othman Ktiri (The Ohio State University) Julia Prince (UC Berkeley) Angela Wheeler (Harvard GSD/PhD) Arielle Lawson (Hunter College) Kari Roynesdal (Harvard GSD) Evo Sadowsky (Co-owner of Blue Ribbon Lady Landscaping) Oluwatosin Alliyu (Harvard University) Victoria Torres (Harvard GSD) Sarah M. Doonan (Harvard GSD) Maya Nagi (Harvard GSD) Charles Burke (Harvard GSD) John David Wagner (Harvard GSD) Elif Erez (Harvard GSD) Jan Voitehovich (Harvard GSD) Sydney Pedigo (Harvard GSD) Tong Shen (Harvard GSD) Maria Vollas (Harvard GSD) Michael Tsapos (Texas Tech University)

against development practices that further socioeconomic inequity, such as gentrification, greenwashing, and resource consumption.

Building toward this future means making hard choices. It means collectively refusing work that goes against these principles as well as promoting work that is in line with this vision. Making these decisions requires an awareness of existing policy and the power of advocacy.

In order to have a seat at the tables where these conversations are taking place, landscape architects require ASLA to advocate and be actively engaged in policy change.

ture is taught and practiced. In order to maintain professional credibility, we need to be able to articulate how climate change affects the landscape; we must speak effectively to massive biodiversity loss as well as political and economic stresses on conservation, rehabilitation and restoration of lands, species displacement, and increasing social inequity. While this knowledge enters curricula in ad hoc ways, dedicated coursework on climate change taught by scientists and policy professionals is not yet an explicit requirement of academic programs. As licensed professionals, our mandate to create safe environments for the public demands 3. Advocate for Climate Science in an understanding of how climate Curricula and Licensure change will alter our communities ASLA is in a powerful position to and how we must aim to do no furinfluence how landscape architec- ther environmental harm. Armed

Lauralee Williams (Harvard GSD) Géraud Bablon (Harvard GSD) Yoni Carnice (Harvard GSD) Jasper Leong (Harvard GSD) Yuru Ding (Harvard GSD) Shira Grosman (Harvard GSD) Eric Van Dreason (Harvard GSD) Andrea Hansen Phillips (University of Virginia) Aakanksha Chandak (UC Berkeley) Skylyssa carville (University of Guelph) Quinn Howard (University of Guelph) Evan Wrigley (University of Guelph) Andrew Spears (University of Virginia) Melita Schmeckpeper (University of Pennsylvania, Landscape Architecture) Zihan Zhu (University of Pennsylvania) Martin Holland (University of Guelph) Sarah Lindbergh (UC Berkeley) Xiaoyue Wang (UC Berkeley) Jan Russell (GreenSpring Institute) Andrew Souders (The Ohio State University) Matthew Tucker (Earth) James Lamb (University of Guelph BLA) Beth Bray (University of Guelph) Madeline Szkobel-Wolff (UC Berkeley) Alexandra Lillehei (PennDesign) Diego Romero Evans (UC Berkeley) Aidan Finelli (Ohio State) Karla Mendoza Damken (UC Berkeley) Eleanor Frey (The Ohio State University) James Andrew Billingsley (UPenn) Kanchan Wali-Richardson (Harvard GSD) Leah Kahler (University of Virginia/Master of Landscape Architecture candidate) Colleen Brennan (University of Virginia/Master of Landscape Architecture candidate) Isabella Frontado (Harvard GSD) Karissa Campos (Harvard University) Jack Isles (Architecture Association) Mrinalini Verma (UPenn) Andy Lee (Harvard University) Michael Cafiero (Harvard GSD) Christian Edward Kochuba (University of Virginia) Rebecca Hinch (University of Virginia) Brian Davis (University of Virginia) Dunbar Carpenter (University of New Mexico) Yanghao Tian (University of Virginia) Ki Yau (UC Berkeley) Cynthia Miao (UC Berkeley) Kirk Gordon (University of Virginia) Karl-Jon Sparrman (University of Virginia) Emma Mendel (Harvard GSD) Sophie Maguire (University of British Columbia)

Sarah Swanseen (University of Southern California) Caroline Gagne (University of Pennsylvania, Landscape Architecture) Deborah Kaitlin Lenahan (UC Berkeley) Oliver Atwood (University of Pennsylvania) Benjamin Hackenberger (Harvard GSD) Sean Geygan (University of Virginia) Chris Feinman (PennDesign) Nell Crumbley (Cornell University) Sara Harmon (University of Pennsylvania) Karen M’Closkey (University of Pennsylvania) Madeleine Ghillany-Lehar (University of Pennsylvania Weitzman School of Design) Allison Nkwocha (University of Pennsylvania) Yu Cheng (University of Virginia) Maria Grina (University of Minnesota) Dane Carlson (Harvard GSD/UNOPS) Janie Day Whitworth (University of Virginia) Carly Choi (The University of Texas at Austin) Zihao Zhang (University of Virginia) Trecia Cintron (The Ohio State University) Micaela Camozzi (UC Berkeley) Uzair Siddiqui (UC Berkeley) Ziyun Yuan (UC Berkeley) Beatrice Bui (UC Berkeley, College of Environmental Design) Steve Austin (Washington State University) Ellen Warfield (The Ohio State University) Logan Woodruff (UC Berkeley, College of Environmental Design) Yazmine Mihojevich (Harvard GSD) Benjamin Breger (UMass-Amherst) Andrew Polefrone (Knowlton School of Architecture, The Ohio State University) Danielle VonLehe (University of Southern California) Tara Singh (UC Berkeley) Dana Davidsen (UC Berkeley) Shane Sullivan (Northeastern University) Zack D. (UC Berkeley) Fabiha Fairooz (UC Berkeley) Hagen Hammons (King County Metro) Brandon Yip (UC Berkeley) Jingwei Jiang (University of Virginia) Sarah Bolivar (Harvard GSD) Heidi Loosen (UC Berkeley) Sara Jacobs (University of Virginia) Chelsea Kilburn (Harvard GSD) Xiao Cheng (University of Texas at Austin) Michaila Adrian (The Ohio State University) Heather Corcoran (UTSOA) Yi Zhang (Columbia University) Daria Kieffer (UC Berkeley) Declan Devine (The Ohio State University)

with this knowledge, we can have a voice when making crucial decisions about the future of the built environment.

By giving a strong voice to design’s role in the climate crisis, ASLA can do more than stand for the future of landscape architecture; it can stand for the future of life in all its diversity. A publicly stated commitment to this issue, changes to core pedagogy and practice, and political advocacy are crucial first steps in this effort.

This is just the beginning. Let us be strong partners in this fight.

Victor Rico Espinola (Harvard GSD) Joel Seidner (Harvard GSD) Zachery Hammaker (University of Pennsylvania) Emily Bunker (University of Pennsylvania) Andrew Polefrone (Knowlton School of Architecture, The Ohio State University) Nina Lish (Columbia University) Adeline Belsby (UC Berkeley) Molly Gasparre (The University of Texas at Austin) Jacob Polstein (Harvard GSD) Colin Martinez-Watkins (The Ohio State University) Colin Hall (The Ohio State University) Lucia Aguiar (The Ohio State University) Rosalie Starenko (The Ohio State University) Nicklaus Fawver (The Ohio State University) Ed Taylor (University of Virginia) Fanke Su (University of Virginia) Bradley Cantrell (University of Virginia) Jiajing Lyu (University of Virginia) Bo Li (University of Virginia) Daphne Caron (University of California, Berkeley) Victoria Freeman (The University of Texas at Austin) Sam Gebb (UC Berkeley) Adrianne Kartachak (The University of Texas at Austin) Kelsey James-Kavanaugh (The University of Texas at Austin) Po Yi Lin (University of Virginia) Leena Cho (University of Virginia/Arctic Design Group) Yuwen Zhou (University of Virginia) YutongWu (University of Pennsylvania) Alex Broad (UC Berkeley) Jane Le (University of Virginia) Abby Fuller (Northeastern University) Jian Shi (University of Virginia) Diana Saenz (UC Berkeley) Bingling Xu (University of Virginia) Katherine Rossi (University of Virginia) Fanke Su (University of Virginia) Theodore Teichman (University of Virginia) Moyan Chen (UC Berkeley) Jiaqi Wang (University of Virginia) Shaoyu Chen (University of Virginia) Terrence Ngu (UC Berkeley) Ian Dobbins (Northeastern University) Sam Gebb (UC Berkeley) Vincent Agoe (UC Berkeley) Yangqianqian Hu (University of Virginia) Reid Farnsworth (Univeristy of Virginia, School of Architecture) Mina Fardeen (UC Berkeley) Rachel Smith (The Ohio State University) Xena Sanchez Torres (University of California, Berkeley) Liz Camuti (SCAPE)

SIGNED IN SOLIDARITY, A COLLECTIVE OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE STUDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES

Gaelle Gourmelon (University of Virginia) Sean Kois (University of Virginia) Erin Rudemiller (Unknown Studio) Margaret Baldwin (Unknown Studio) Taryn Wiens (University of Virginia) Carolyn Corl (University of Oregon) Zaneta Hong (University of Virginia) Carolyn Corl (University of Oregon) Jingjing Lai (University of Virginia) Koby Moreno (Harvard GSD) Jonathan Kuhr (Harvard GSD) Hannah Chako (Harvard GSD) Evelyn Heather Courtenay (University of Virginia) Danica Liongson (Harvard GSD) Brenna Castro Carlson (UC Berkeley) Marley Renner (The Ohio State University) Chloe Nagraj (University of Virginia) Anna Darling (University of Pennsylvania) Kelsey Wakefield (Rhode Island School of Design/ CMG Landscape) Grace Adams (University of California, Berkeley) Amy McCosh Leonard (UC Berkeley) Julia Wilson (University of California, Berkeley) Nicky Bloom (University of Washington) Jena Tegeler (Harvard GSD) Anastasia Piacentini (Northeastern University) Bianca Rabbie (Northeastern University) Anastasia Piacentini (Northeastern University) Matthew Grosser (University of Washington) Diego Rentería (UC Berkeley) Caitlin M. Squier-Roper (University of Pennsylvania) Maria Fernanda Gonzalez (University of California, Berkeley, College of Environmental Design) Hannah Chako (Harvard GSD) Meghan Kanady (UC Berkeley) Sarah Coleman (The Ohio State University) Genie Bey (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) Taylor Johnson (Syracuse University) Sue Choi (University of Tennessee, Knoxville) Zoe Holland (Harvard GSD) Dylan Anslow (Harvard GSD) Mackenzie Wendling (Kansas State University) Anthony Dye (Morgan State University) Katie Pitstick (University of Pennsylvania) Nina Mross (University of Washington) Kira Bre Clingen (Harvard GSD) Félix de Rosen (UC Berkeley) Sarah Fitzgerald (UC Berkeley)

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE JAN 2020 / 13

LAM

/LETTERS

SUPPORT FOR THE STUDENT CLIMATE PETITION November 17, 2019

L

andscape architecture students across the country are taking a leadership position on the critical issues of climate action as reflected in their open letter to ASLA and the “ASLA Adapt” initiative. The CEO Roundtable strongly supports their efforts. The next generation is asking us to work more cohesively, to be

more holistic, to be forward thinking, and to lead on climate issues. We agree that ASLA can step up and push public policy and legislation to address the critical issues of carbon neutrality and our global future by investing in green infrastructure and resilience. It is our opinion that the national ASLA should respond

positively to this student initiative by supporting the aspirations and core principles of their letter, directly supporting the Green New Deal, asserting our commitment to the public realm through diversity, equity, and inclusivity, and advocating for climate science curricula and licensure.

We ask that the magazine publish the

open letter to ASLA from landscape architecture students. We are committed to working with ASLA, the Landscape Architecture Foundation, and others to help translate these aspirations and core principles into effective policies and actions.

Signed, CEO Roundtable Members:

GERDO AQUINO, FASLA SWA GROUP

KATHRYN GUSTAFSON, FASLA GUSTAFSON GUTHRIE NICHOL

KATE ORFF, FASLA SCAPE

CHERYL BARTON, FASLA OFFICE OF CHERYL BARTON

JENNIFER GUTHRIE, FASLA GUSTAFSON GUTHRIE NICHOL

TOM OSLUND, FASLA OSLUND AND ASSOCIATES

IGNACIO BUNSTER-OSSA, FASLA AECOM

JOSEPH W. HEALY, AIA WRT

LUCINDA SANDERS, FASLA OLIN

JAMES D. BURNETT, FASLA OJB LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE

GARY HILDERBRAND, FASLA REED HILDERBRAND

MARTHA SCHWARTZ, FASLA MARTHA SCHWARTZ PARTNERS

ANDREA COCHRAN, FASLA ANDREA COCHRAN LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE

DOUG HOERR, FASLA HOERR SCHAUDT

DOUGLAS SMITH, ASLA EDSA

SHANE COEN, FASLA COEN + PARTNERS

MARK JOHNSON, FASLA CIVITAS

KEN SMITH, FASLA KEN SMITH WORKSHOP

JAMES CORNER, FASLA JAMES CORNER FIELD OPERATIONS

MARY MARGARET JONES, FASLA HARGREAVES ASSOCIATES

JAY SWAINTEK, ASLA PWP LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE

MARK DAWSON, FASLA SASAKI ASSOCIATES

MIA LEHRER, FASLA STUDIO-MLA

BILL WENK, FASLA WENK ASSOCIATES

CHRIS DIMOND, FASLA DIMOND INC.

SIGNE NIELSEN, FASLA MATHEWS NIELSEN

14 / LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE JAN 2020

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LAM

/LETTERS

ASLA’S RESPONSE TO THE STUDENT CLIMATE PETITION

R

ecently, a collective of landscape architecture students from around the country crafted an open letter to ASLA’s leadership about how ASLA and the profession may continue to respond to the ongoing climate crisis. “As design students deeply invested in the future of the world’s landscapes and their ability to sustain life, we have come together from across the United States to call on ASLA to strengthen its commitment to addressing the most serious challenge of our times.”

The students outlined their concerns in a series of short- and long-term demands that call on the profession to address climate change by strengthening its advocacy efforts, bolstering its post-secondary and professional educational curricula, standing for environmental justice, and promoting landscape architecture projects globally. ASLA applauds the students for making such a bold and powerful statement and is pleased that their demands mirror ASLA’s goals and accomplishments.

ASLA wholeheartedly agrees that publicly asserting the Society’s commitment to mitigating the climate crisis is a critical step. Since 2018, ASLA has made over 20 public statements on climate change or related public policy issues. Further, ASLA is the only design and building industry organization to have signed

the We Are Still In declaration to LAAB Accreditation Standards. Faccommit to climate action in accor- ulty, students, ASLA members, and dance with the Paris Agreement. nonmembers were encouraged to use this opening to advocate for a More importantly, in May 2019, the strengthened climate crisis curricuASLA Board of Trustees unanimous- lum in university programs. ly passed a new policy on Climate Change and Resilience to announce On the professional education side, the Society’s stance on the climate the 2019 Conference on Landscape crisis clearly. The policy rationale Architecture featured two general states, “Landscape architects have the sessions and roughly 28 education responsibility to apply their educa- sessions specifically on climate tion and experience to protect natural change and resilience. ASLA also ecosystems and social infrastructure has significant climate change, resilthrough practice, advocacy, educa- ience, and sustainability resources tion, and research. Existing policies, for landscape architects housed on its codes, and practices may not be ad- website. In addition to those explicitequate for dealing with the climate ly related to its Smart Policies report, change effects and thus need critical there are reports and tools devoted to evaluation and revision at a global, climate change mitigation, resilient national, state, and local level.” design, green infrastructure, sustainable transportation design, sustainAs the student collective points out, able urban development, sustainable adopting sound post-secondary and residential development, and three professional educational curricula tool kits for sustainable planning and that address the climate crisis is es- design projects. The Kresge Foundasential. They note that “dedicated tion’s report, Professional Societies and coursework on climate change taught Climate Change, named ASLA one of by scientists and policy professionals only nine national organizations that is not yet an explicit requirement of adopted a holistic approach to educatacademic programs.” These students ing the public and its members about and other interested stakeholders climate change. have a fast-approaching opportunity to influence landscape architecture There is no doubt that the visionuniversity curricula. From Novem- ary work of landscape architects is ber 1 through December 15, the at the forefront of addressing the Landscape Architecture Accredita- climate crisis. The winners of the tion Board (LAAB) hosted a public 2019 ASLA Professional and Stucomment review period for the 2016 dent Awards clearly demonstrate the

16 / LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE JAN 2020

profession’s ingenuity in addressing this issue, as well as a myriad of design, environmental, and social problems. There currently is no separate awards category for resilience and sustainability based on the principle that those concepts should be goals for all projects. To emphasize this core value of the profession, submissions starting in the 2020 cycle will be required to specify the degree to which their projects and plans address issues of climate change and resilience.

ASLA is extremely proud of its work on addressing the climate crisis. Of the 18 concerns highlighted by the student collaborative, ASLA is already working on or has achieved 16, with a couple currently unachievable due to state licensure laws or antitrust prohibitions. However, there certainly is more work to be done, particularly in collaborating with our industry sister organizations, tackling environmental justice, and increasing intergenerational involvement.

ASLA encourages all students and emerging professionals to participate actively in this vital conversation. They are part of the generations who will take up the mantle of boldly addressing the crisis and continuing the profession’s work of saving our planet.

Let us be strong partners in this fight!

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LOUDER T

he ASLA Conference on Landscape Architecture in San Diego in November was my 10th, and it had an energy, a sense of welcome upheaval, unlike any I recall. A number of us on staff heard the same from members who have attended for 20 or 30 years. Gina McCarthy, who gave the first big address, hit the spot like hot coffee. As a former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency administrator under President Obama and now a professor at the Harvard Kennedy School, McCarthy has the environmental crisis at her fingertips. But she located the thing that plagues American society most: a “loss of the sense of community.” Difference has forever been a headwind in fixing collective problems nobody wants around. The slide into hardening enmities, the easy divisibility of the citizenry, is not helping.

So it was especially heartening to see the students rising up about climate breakdown. A group of them began a petition online in the fall to push ASLA to become far more vocal in climate leadership and advocacy. More than 500 students have signed on as of late November. You’ll find their call to action and the signatures in our Letters section on page 12.

During the meeting, LAM received a letter from members of the CEO Roundtable, an independent group of landscape architecture firm principals, that states their support for the student petition. We’re more than glad this month to print the petition, the roundtable’s letter of support, and ASLA’s response to the petition, which originally appeared on the society’s website and has been edited only for time factors.

One immediate outcome was an open forum ASLA arranged at the San Diego conference to invite students to speak out about what their professional organization should be doing to confront climate chaos now and over the long run. It was a far cry from times earlier when this magazine and this page would ring various alarms on the climate crisis. Those writings brought letters from members telling the magazine more or less to shut up about climate—and also brought LAM reader survey responses on the subject meant to be brutal had they not been so clueless. I can’t recall if a single CEO wrote in with an alternative rejoinder.

18 / LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE JAN 2020

So I bow down to the students and thank them with all my heart for caring about climate, and also for caring enough about their profession, which has had more awareness than assertiveness, to remake it around the most important problems of our time.

Much credit also goes to the Landscape Architecture Foundation, which in 2016 began a concerted push to rediscover the roots of landscape architects’ deep environmental commitments going back 50 years—and which has kept the advocacy alive ever since. The McHarg Center at the University of Pennsylvania has emerged as a galvanizing voice on the real emergencies we face, and how unified solutions such as those proposed in the Green New Deal could restructure the suicidal economies we have built for the modern world. And the Cultural Landscape Foundation, which recently announced a major landscape architecture prize named for Cornelia Hahn Oberlander, FASLA, a climate warrior of uncommon sense, has placed a lens on the places we stand to lose to the effects of climate change in its latest Landslide campaign. LAM, once again, is a media sponsor of Landslide, and this year’s selected sites can be seen starting on page 102.

ASLA is seeking a new CEO after the departure of Nancy Somerville, Honorary ASLA. I owe a large amount of gratitude to Nancy for having hired me in 2010. In nine and a half years of working with Nancy, she asked me to do maybe three or four things, all of them brilliant. One was to create The Landscape Report, an e-newsletter that members receive from LAM twice a week, which has proved more successful than I imagined.

Another was that we begin translating select pieces to Spanish each month on our website. Nancy was also immediately supportive of investing in the publication of YOUR LAND, a supplement for young readers, in 2017, which continues to redound in its reach and engagement. I have told friends over the years that working for Nancy was like not having a boss, because she knew I have thousands of bosses in you, the readers.

BRADFORD MCKEE EDITOR

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FOREGROUND

KYLE JEFFERS

SANTA CRUZ, CALIFORNIA

Robert Royston’s much-admired amphitheater undergoes a 21st-century renovation, in PRESERVATION, page 40.

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE JAN 2020 / 21

FOREGROUND

/

NOW

EDITED BY TIMOTHY A. SCHULER

REACH OUT

THE LANDSCAPE OF THE NEW ADDITION TO THE KENNEDY CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS EMBRACES THE CITY.

D

ABOVE

The new REACH performing arts landscape connects the Kennedy Center with both the Potomac River and the monumental core of Washington, D.C.

uring his presidency, John F. Kennedy said that a challenge of this era is to “further the appreciation of culture among all the people.

To increase respect for the creative individual, to widen participation by all the processes and fulfillments of art.” Although this quote has long adorned one wall of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., the center is still often viewed as a temple for elite arts patrons, disconnected from a broad swath of the city’s residents. That disconnect may finally be changing with the opening of the REACH.

22 / LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE JAN 2020

The REACH is a flexible and inclusive arts space that offers a visual counterpoint to the imposing, symmetrical lines of Edward Durell Stone’s 1971 building. Designed by Steven Holl Architects on an extension of the Kennedy Center campus, the building’s bright white titanium concrete walls bend and curve upward on a prominent green space overlooking the Potomac River. The landscape rises to the occasion, with a series of Sedum “swoops” that go from flat to vertical, adding to the sculptural, playful quality of the space.

Designed by Hollander Design Landscape Architects, the REACH’s landscape is a green roof for a studio, rehearsal, and performance facility that has both underground and aboveground elements. The landscape’s 4.6-acre footprint includes about 130,000 square feet of public gardens and paths, which offers year-round spaces for performances, strolling, and lounging, with a seasonal plant palette that becomes a performance in itself. “This idea of seasonality translates nicely into the idea of the movements of a symphony, where we’re moving

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FOREGROUND

/NOW

ENTRY PAVILION

EVENTS PAVILION

RIVER PAVILION

REACH AXON SOUTH TERRACE

GINGKO GROVE

KENNEDY CENTER

says. “We had to come up with the living version of that beautiful white titanium concrete.”

CONNECTION TO ROCK CREEK TRAIL

from high points to quiet points,” of hydrophilic mineral wool as the says Edmund Hollander, FASLA, grade angles upward. A responsive the firm’s president. irrigation system regulates water flow, pressure, and temperature and Among other seasonally inspired can empty itself before a yearly frost. plantings—redbuds in spring, ver- “We really wanted the swoops to be a bena and coneflowers in summer— monochromatic tapestry,” Hollander the REACH includes a ginkgo grove with 35 trees to honor the 35th president. The ginkgoes’ bright yellow leaves tend to fall all at once in late autumn, like a curtain—an abstract nod, Hollander says, to Kennedy’s assassination in November 1963.

RIGHT

Marked by dramatic Sedum swoops, the REACH landscape is a complement to aboveground structures and a functional green roof for underground studios.

Because of the dramatic change in grade of the swoops, the designers had to choose a variety of Sedums that would read as one blanket by varying the growing media and irrigation scheme as the grade increased. A cellular soil confinement system helps with stabilization above a 50 percent grade, with an increasing amount

24 / LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE JAN 2020

STEVEN HOLL ARCHITECTS, TOP; @JENNIFERXJENNIFER, BOTTOM

POTOMAC RIVER

Most important, the landscape is designed to have a democratizing effect on the Kennedy Center, drawing people from all walks of life.

To facilitate this, a new pedestrian bridge connects the REACH to a riverside walkway that leads to the monumental core of downtown Washington, D.C., just to the south.

Patios and casual seating further invite people to engage with the space. “Instead of one front door, you’re invited in from several different points,” Hollander says. “It’s a societal change.”

FOREGROUND

/NOW

LEFT

Providing access to one of the state’s few navigable rivers, this four-acre park in Derby, Kansas, replaced a public works facility.

THE OCCASIONAL BATH

T

A SMALL KANSAS COMMUNITY TRANSFORMS A PUBLIC WORKS FACILITY INTO A FLOODABLE PARK.

Nick Staib, ASLA, PEC’s lead landscape architect on the project, recalls that initial site conditions were dismal. Deicing salt and heavy equipment had left the soil contaminated up to depths of 25 feet, and lead was present from when the property had served as a police shooting range. Even the topography had been heavily manipulated. “Over the years, they had just kept adding more asphalt and pushing it out to the river to where, when we took the site over, there was a 16- to 18-foot sheer drop straight down into the river,” he says. “There One of three major park projects was probably three to four feet of asphalt in places.” recently completed or in the works by the city, the $4 million Warren To open up views to the river and create a more Riverview Park complements a more naturalistic edge, PEC removed much of the earth urban, family-friendly downtown and asphalt that had been added over the years,

BY TIMOTHY A. SCHULER

26 / LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE JAN 2020

he notion that cities should “make room for the river” with resilient landscapes has permeated the United States, reaching even small metropolitan areas in the heartland. For a new four-acre outdoor adventure park in Derby, Kansas, a middle-class Wichita suburb that is home to about 25,000 people, the landscape architects at Professional Engineering Consultants (PEC), an engineering firm with offices in Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Colorado, undid decades of infrastructural accretion at a Public Works Department facility along the Arkansas River to create a landscape that accommodates periodic flooding.

PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERING CONSULTANTS

park by providing opportunities for outdoor recreation, including camping and kayaking. The Arkansas River is one of the few public navigable rivers in the Wichita area, and the Derby site had been identified in the Arkansas River Corridor Access Plan as a potential access point. When the Public Works Department moved to a new facility, the city began the process of transforming the site into a riverfront park, which today includes a lodge for private events, a picnic shelter, and a ropes course-inspired play feature. The park projects are paid for by a half-cent “Derby Difference” sales tax, approved by voters in 2013.

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/NOW

ABOVE

Durable materials and a terraced design allow Derby’s riverfront park to be inundated when the Arkansas River is at flood stage.

RIGHT

The park has flooded several times since it opened, including for five weeks in May 2019.

burying and capping the contaminated soil beneath the new parking lot. Access to the river is provided by sinuous, limestone-edged terraces and a spiral concrete ramp that curlicues down to create multiple launch points for watercraft, depending on the river’s water level.

In flood conditions, portions of the ramp, the terraced area, and a rocky bioswale planted with bald cypress are submerged, as the public saw just days before the park opened in October 2018.

Since then, the park has been inundated several more times, including for five weeks in May 2019. Some residents raised concerns about the flooding, thinking the park had been poorly designed. Steve White, Derby’s director of parks, says the city is working to educate the public about the nature of resilient, floodable

28 / LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE JAN 2020

landscapes. In general, White says, the park has performed as designed. Hardscape materials, including the path’s solar-powered LED lights, have fared well, as has the park’s Patriot Bermuda sod, which flourished even after five weeks underwater. “I found that rather amazing,” White says.

Staib says the only challenge has been silt deposition. To reduce the potential for scouring, the access ramp was sited in an area where floodwaters would naturally eddy. But when the water slows, it deposits sediment. In May 2019, after the floodwaters receded, Derby was left with a foot and a half of silt. But Staib says the city has devised a simple solution for the problem: “They just bring a fire hose down, hook it up to a pump, and start hosing the silt back into the river.”

TIMOTHY A. SCHULER, EDITOR OF NOW, CAN BE REACHED AT TIMOTHYASCHULER@GMAIL.COM AND ON TWITTER @TIMOTHY_ SCHULER.

BILL FALES PHOTOGRAPHY, TOP; CORI DODDS/CITY OF DERBY, INSET

FOREGROUND

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FOREGROUND

/NOW

DE MOTORING DETROIT

BY JEFF LINK

A ABOVE

Detroit Square is a pedestrian-friendly plan to link 12 of the city’s cultural institutions.

conceptual plan selected as the winning proposal in the DIA Plaza | Midtown Cultural Connections design competition aims to unite 12 legacy institutions in an 83-acre pedestrian-friendly cultural district.

The plan, Detroit Square, is the work of the Paris-based landscape architects

30 / LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE JAN 2020

Agence Ter with Detroit-based Akoaki, rootoftwo in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Harley Etienne, an assistant professor of urban and regional planning at the University of Michigan.

The plan proposes a linear outdoor promenade that allows for shared programming and provides infrastructure for stormwater management— potentially defraying costs of a controversial stormwater drainage fee. A proposed “data jockey booth” would give artists, cultural institutions, and the public access to LED lighting, a sound system, and open-source environmental data to host ephemeral stage productions.

Olivier Philippe, a founder and director at Agence Ter, says the team’s vision is “about creating an arts district by amplifying the successful programs and activities that are already on site. The design attempts to produce shared amenities and assets for novel forms of activation, Perhaps the most compelling aspect driven by the arts.” of the plan is the way it manages

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FOREGROUND

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DETROIT SQUARE MASTER PLAN

N

An ecological buffer zone offers plantings, stormwater handling, and biodiversity.

people. With 700,000 people in the city, it’s not as heavily trafficked as it could be...and it’s very difficult to cross,” says Etienne. “This would give pedestrians greater dominion over the street and make it easier to walk between institutions.”

Building support for the $75 million project will be a feat, especially in a city that is climbing out of bankruptcy and whose urban identity is predicated on the automobile. But the May Woodward Avenue was widened in 2017 opening of the QLine, a 6.6the [1930s] for a city of [1.6] million mile streetcar route that cuts through

32 / LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE JAN 2020

the district alongside Woodward Avenue, suggests that deeply held local convictions about the preeminence of cars are poised for change.

“There are very serious expectations in Detroit about auto mobility, auto culture, auto autonomy, and a lack, for the time being, of public transportation,” says Anya Sirota, a co-principal at Akoaki. “We’re designing not only an urban strategy, but a strategy for transforming the perception of what the urban realm can accommodate and produce.”

AGENCE TER

ABOVE

the dominance of the automobile in Detroit’s transportation network. A road diet for a section of Woodward Avenue that separates the Detroit Institute of Arts and the Detroit Public Library would narrow the road from six to four lanes. The lane reduction would open room for a circular pedestrian plaza where landscape cues, such as asphalt treatment and sidewalk height, would serve as a signal to motorists to slow down.

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FOREGROUND

/NOW 1849

1965

2020

SEA CHANGE RISING SEA LEVELS PROMPT A TURN FOR A BAY AREA REGULATORY AGENCY.

BY LISA OWENS VIANI

hen Sylvia McLaughlin, Catherine “Kay” Kerr, and Esther Gulick asked the public to send bags of sand to California legislators in the 1960s to protest the paving and filling of San Francisco Bay, they probably couldn’t have imagined a future in which any type of fill would be desirable. More than five decades later, with sea levels rising, the Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC), formed in 1965 as a result of the women’s advocacy, recently amended its Bay Plan to allow for projects that create habitat and increase resilience at the water’s edge.

“The change stems from our ongoing assessment of how we need to do business in light of sea-level rise,” says Megan Hall, a coastal scientist with BCDC who worked on the new policy. “It was a very big pivot from what BCDC was originally built to do.”

The Bay Plan, mandated by state legislators and the governor in 1969 under the McAteer-Petris Act, describes how fill harms the bay’s ecology and sets forth guidelines for protection. Proposals for projects involving any fill in bay waters, including 100 feet inland from the shoreline, must apply for permits

34 / LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE JAN 2020

Head Park. “There are so many varied conditions along that stretch of shoreline,” Conrad says. “We’re still in the early planning stages, but there are areas where fill will help us create important habitat Because much of the San Francisco while also reducing wave run-up.”

Bay is hemmed in by development, with little room for marshes to mi- At India Basin, Bionic is working grate landward, as they do naturally, with BCDC on permits for a project the new policies give designers more that will include eelgrass beds, floatflexibility to create or expand habi- ing wetlands, and a bioengineered tat in areas previously not thought reef. And GGN is working on an possible, such as in bay mudflats. adjacent site, replacing a hardened “The challenge of creating a dynamic shoreline with a cobble beach and ecosystem is that you have to work new tidal marsh; both projects may in the footprint of where that ecosys- involve some fill. tem will function,” says Gena Wirth, ASLA, a design principal with SCAPE N. Claire Napawan, an associate proLandscape Architecture. Her firm fessor of landscape architecture at is designing a pebble dune that will the University of California, Davis, reduce flood risk and protect habitat credits scientists, landscape architects, and the public with shifts in along the bay’s eastern shoreline. approach. “I think most of these sea Pamela Conrad, ASLA, a principal changes in environmental policy are at CMG Landscape Architecture, is community driven. The science helping lead the design of the San has been really consistent for Francisco Waterfront Resilience Pro- decades. What we’re seeing is gram, which began as a program to landscape architects become strengthen the safety of the city’s sea- better advocates for the role walls but has now expanded to de- of science in building resilveloping a variety of resilience ideas ience. We’re seeing commufor 7.5 miles of shoreline stretching nity groups coalesce behind from Fisherman’s Wharf to Heron’s wanting change,” she says. from the BCDC. Prior to the new plan amendment, with a few exceptions, BCDC would not approve any project that included more than a minor amount of fill in the bay, even if it was for habitat restoration.

ABOVE

A 1950s plan promoted by the U.S. Department of Commerce would have filled 325 square miles of San Francisco Bay, turning it into a river by 2020.

BELOW

The bay was filled for industry at Hunters Point in the 1950s.

BAY CONSERVATION AND DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION, TOP; DON LONGANECKER. BOTTOM

W

/NOW

Australia. Of the design competition’s 160 submissions, the winning scheme was the only one that prioritized the public space over a building, and the final design blurs the boundaries between architecture and open space, with a dramatic, glazed entrance triangle that leads down to the main library space and a six-story glass tower that juts upward from the ground, creating a visual relationship between the library and the city around it.

a time when both public space JOINT EFFORT At and public libraries are being IN SYDNEY, A NEW PUBLIC LIBRARY AND PLAZA ARE TREATED AS A SINGLE, PERMEABLE SPACE.

redefined, Sydney’s Green Square Library explores the symbiotic potential of marrying the two. Designed by Studio Hollenstein, Stewart Architecture, and HASSELL, the roughly 30,000-square-foot library, which won the 2018 Architecture Review International Library Award, is largely subterranean, with a pair of glazed jewel boxlike structures that rise from a two-acre paved plaza and an equal number of spaces that appear as voids in the ground plane.

A sunken garden suffuses the subterranean library with natural light but also presented a number of technical challenges.

The crisp geometries of the aboveground elements—seen by the design team as abstracted play blocks—are echoed by the landscape elements, including a circular sunken garden, which suffuses the subterranean space with natural light while serving as an open-air venue for story time. Where much of the plaza is open to maximize flexibility, the sunken garden provided the landscape team an opportunity to create something whimsical, says Jason Cuffe, a senior associate and landscape architect in HASSELL’s Sydney office, who led the site design with Felicity Stewart of Stewart Architecture. The garden is full of contrasts, with bright swaths of aubergine Alternanthera juxtaposed with native crow’s nest fern, matte-leafed Dichondra, and delicate Australian violets. A wood boardwalk curves through the space, and the reading nook is accessed via irregularly shaped granite stepping-stones.

The library sits next to a major train station and serves Sydney’s Green The sunken garden also was, by far, the most Square neighborhood, one of the larg- challenging aspect of the project, Cuffe says. est urban redevelopment projects in “We’ve essentially got a garden that’s six meters

36 / LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE JAN 2020

LEFT

TOM ROE

FOREGROUND

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FOREGROUND

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LIBRARY TOWER

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OUTDOOR AMPHITHEATER

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DATA TOWER ARTWORK

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WATER PLAY

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underground,” he says. Half of the garden receives full sun, while some portions receive none and others vary with the seasons, limiting which species the team could use.

Incidentally, the garden also created a “swimming pool” for stormwater. To ensure the library does not flood, the space is graded so that water drains toward the edges of the garden or to areas beneath the walkways, then to a tank system that can handle up to

RIGHT

HASSELL worked to create a welcoming entrance that engages the street despite a significant change in grade.

38 / LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE JAN 2020

12 hours of rainfall. To avoid using all wet-tolerant plants, HASSELL developed a highly permeable soil mix and subtly mounded some areas of the garden to create a greater variety of soil conditions.

Outside of the sunken garden, HASSELL added a trapezoidal lawn along the axis created by the library and the amphitheater and ringed the plaza with trees, a series of benches and chaises longues, and an ephemeral fountain. The goal is to provide opportunities for library activities to bleed into the civic realm and vice versa, which already has begun to happen. “Libraries today are really about public life in all its facets, which the plaza is too,” says Matthias Hollenstein of Studio Hollenstein.

“They’re sort of the indoor-outdoor equivalent of each other.”

HASSELL, TOP; TOM ROE, BOTTOM

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FOREGROUND

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PRESERVATION

THEATER REVIVAL ROBERT ROYSTON’S 1967 QUARRY AMPHITHEATER HAS BEEN CAREFULLY REBUILT IN ALL ITS MODERNIST GLORY.

L

ABOVE

In Robert Royston’s Quarry Amphitheater design, no two adjacent rows are parallel.

ike the classical theaters of Greek and Roman antiquity, Quarry Amphitheater at the University of California, Santa Cruz is an open-air venue with tiered seating. But what would the Greeks and Romans have made of the irregular rows, with their off-kilter angles? Even to modern eyes, the amphitheater’s erratic form comes as a surprise. Designed by the noted California landscape architect Robert Royston, the 1967 Quarry Amphitheater is as much a work of

40 / LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE JAN 2020

environmental art as a theater. The amphitheater had been closed for more than a decade owing to disrepair and reopened in 2017 after an $8 million rehabilitation master-planned by the Office of Cheryl Barton (OCB).

Among the guiding principles, according to the OCB plan, was to improve it “without compromising the intimate, immersive, spiritual, and ‘magic’ quality of the landscape experience and the quirky spirit of the historic amphitheater design.”

The amphitheater is contained within the seemingly wild and untrammeled 2,000-acre UC Santa Cruz campus, which was master-planned by the landscape architect Thomas Church and the architect John Warnecke in the mid-1960s. Buildings are nestled on slopes within towering redwood groves, and roads wind around ravines. To provide a large gathering space for commencement and other events (the campus has no stadium), Church earmarked

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Quarry Amphitheater would combine Royston’s expertise with public parks, an aesthetic strongly influenced by modern art, and growing environmental awareness. “When you look at the Royston portfolio, you see this shift from the 1950s’ art- and pattern-driven gardens to ones that pay more attention to the specifics and ecology of the place, like Quarry Amphitheater,” says JC Miller, ASLA, a coauthor of the first biography of Royston, which is forthcoming from the University of Georgia Press.

TOP LEFT AND RIGHT

An early aerial view, showing the craggy topography, and the original amphitheater in 1972.

BOTTOM

Sections and details from the 1967 plan.

an abandoned 1800s-era limestone quarry for an outdoor theater. In his rough sketch, the stage is set deep into the quarry, with seating for 4,000 in a long fan shape bordered by quarry walls. To design the theater, Church recommended Robert Royston, who got his start working for Church in the late 1930s.

42 / LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE JAN 2020

By the time Royston’s firm—which was Royston, Hanamoto, Mayes & Beck at the time—received this commission in 1966, he had created numerous notable parks, including one of his best-known works: Santa Clara’s Central Park, with a biomorphic lake and a playground with a 3-D maze of concrete cubes.

To highlight the rugged rock formations of the old quarry, Royston made a critical 90-degree shift in the orientation of the amphitheater from Church’s initial sketch. The craggy, 100-foot-high quarry wall became the backdrop, with a ninefoot-high boulder defining stage right. Royston further accentuated the jagged rock faces by designing a raised stage and seven tiers of seating with distinctively asymmetric lines instead of curves and bringing in materials that kept the space as

COURTESY UINVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SANTA CRUZ, SPECIAL COLLECTIONS, TOP LEFT AND RIGHT; DRAWINGS BY ROYSTON, HANAMOTO, MAYES & BECK, 1967. COURTESY UCSC PHYSICAL PLANNING AND CONSTRUCTION, BOTTOM LEFT

FOREGROUND

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FOREGROUND

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ABOVE

The amphitheater was upgraded with Wi-Fi access, improved accessibility, and on-site stormwater management.

naturalistic as possible. He created 13 rows with seat walls, low retaining walls made out of railroad ties of differing lengths and joined at differing angles. Paved with decomposed granite, no two adjacent rows were parallel, and an individual row might vary from five feet wide to 15 feet wide—for both aesthetic and practical reasons. “Bob wanted to keep the feel of the quarry itself in the design and thought rows of different widths would create some big areas and small areas, so you could ad-lib the seating and bring in tables and chairs,” says Harold Kobayashi, FASLA, a former president

44 / LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE JAN 2020

of Royston Hanamoto Alley & Abey.

Kobayashi was a new staffer in 1966, supervising the quarry construction to ensure that the design intent was implemented correctly.

Royston’s vision did have its tradeoffs. The stepped aisles didn’t line up between rows, so navigating between rows required a little concentration. Looking out from the stage, it was hard to know where dead center was given that the stage edge wasn’t square with anything. In the biggest departure from conventional theater design, the space was clearly not designed for maximum seating

capacity. Royston’s seat walls had room for 1,665 people; with stadiumstyle seating, the same space could have accommodated 3,000, according to studies in the OCB plan. And the prominent boulder obstructed views from nearly 90 seats. When university members contemplated removing it, Royston insisted that the rock stay put as a critical component of the design. “He was carrying on the early 20th century tradition of designing outdoor theaters for enjoying the landscape, as well as enjoying the performance,” says Linda Jewell, FASLA, a University of California, Berkeley professor

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FOREGROUND

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“THERE WAS A HUGE EMOTIONAL CONNECTION WITH THE SPACE AT ALL AGE LEVELS.” —CHERYL BARTON, FASLA

emeritus in environmental design, who is currently working on a book titled Gathering on the Grounds: Experiencing Landscape in the American Outdoor Theater. With its casual seating and sublime natural elements, the amphitheater feels like a park when not in use, as opposed to an empty space, waiting for a performance to bring it to life.

ABOVE

An aerial view from 2018.

After it opened, Quarry Amphitheater became the campus’s main event space, hosting notable speakers including Buckminster Fuller and Angela Davis. It was the site of a number of protest rallies and teach-ins, as well as a psychology class dubbed “Suntan Psych,” in which students would

46 / LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE JAN 2020

But the amphitheater’s rustic, lowbudget construction—it was built for $82,600, or about $635,000 in today’s dollars—was also prone to failure. The redwood seat walls were anchored directly into the dirt with long, steel spikes, and water pooling around the spike holes and ponding in the seat tops promoted decay. The hillside at the back of the amphitheater had begun to erode and shed rocks, imperiling people below. By 2006, it was unsafe to use and the university stopped holding events there. It also had a few deficiencies that limited its practical use. The stage was essentially dirt, with only enough electrical power to run a basic sound system, and the access

road was too steep for larger trucks, so equipment occasionally had to be brought in using handcarts.

The amphitheater’s forlorn condition became a priority in 2013. The university hired a team led by OCB to provide a vision for the facility. Although project approval from the state historic preservation office (SHPO) was not required (UC campuses operate independently of SHPO), the consensus of the community was to retain the original design. “There was a huge emotional connection with the space at all age levels,” says Cheryl Barton, FASLA, the founding principal of OCB. “It was clear that so many people craved an intimate place to be quiet and contemplative.” The feasibility study outlined a two-phase plan.

The first phase, now complete, was the rehabilitation and minor upgrade.

A future expansion phase, estimated to cost $10.7 million, calls for new lobby and support buildings.

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/PRESERVATION

LEFT

The team stabilized the eroding slope at the back of the amphitheater with steel mesh.

RIGHT

The accessible pathway to the stage and lower tiers is paved in concrete instead of decomposed granite.

The university structured the rehabilitation as a design/build project, for which the contractor was responsible for delivering the proposed design for the stated price in the bid—an increasingly popular approach in the United States, particularly for educational facilities.

“Whatever we designed needed to have a 50-year life, so the challenge was how to build something you know wouldn’t last that long, especially under the trees and in the fog,” says Robert Norbutas Jr., ASLA, a senior associate landscape architect at Siegfried Engineering. To compete for the project, Siegfried Engineering, based in Stockton, California,

48 / LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE JAN 2020

teamed up with the architectural To help re-create the tiers accufirm Dreyfuss + Blackford from Sac- rately, the team laser-scanned the ramento, California. site, creating an exact 3-D model of existing conditions. They removed The OCB plan recommended that the old railroad ties and excavated replacement seat walls have wood the rows to pour shallow concrete tops and concrete bases, and the foundations before installing the team’s winning submittal added new new seat walls and rows paved in refinements for further longevity. decomposed granite. An additional The new benches have a base of row of benches at the top level exboard-formed concrete, stained to pands the seat wall capacity to 2,080 resemble weathered wood. The red- without disfiguring the original dewood seat clips onto the base via a sign (adding folding chairs allows custom bracket system, allowing the another 600 to be seated). Rather seat to be replaced without rebuild- than try to replicate the redwood-tie ing the wall. And the bracket system stairs, the team installed concrete has no bolts on top, which reduces stairs, stained beige to match the the chance of wood rot. decomposed granite paths and also

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FOREGROUND

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FOREGROUND

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STAIRWAY DETAIL SECTION

STAIRWAY DETAIL STEPS

ABRASIVE NOSING AT TREAD DETAIL

50 / LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE JAN 2020

The most noticeable change is the addition of galvanized-steel handrails for the stepped aisles, required by code. Modules integrated into some of the slender handrails supply Wi-Fi service for 2,000 users. Wi-Fi, a particular request from the student body, encourages the use of the amphitheater as a casual hangout. On a sunny afternoon in early October, Jaswinder Singh is among a handful of students taking advantage of the quiet space as a study spot. “It’s really nice to be in nature, with trees all around,” he says.

Wireless connectivity has also come

in handy for events as well. During a recent talk for which no screen had been set up, attendees simply paged through the presentation slides on their phones.

Following the OCB plan, the team also worked to improve the accessibility, safety, and functionality of the venue. Previously, people in wheelchairs could effectively reach only the top level of the amphitheater, but a new path provides access to the stage level and lower tiers, and 22 accessible seats and associated companion seats are distributed throughout the tiers. The regraded road allows large trucks with stage equipment and emergency vehicles to get right up to the stage, which is equipped with the necessary switchgear to support professional lighting and audio.

The decomposed-granite stage has

SIEGFRIED ENGINEERING

increase their visibility. “It was a very sensitive project, because it had to balance the need for functionality with preserving what Royston created— there were a lot of details to be worked out,” says Jason Silva, an architect and principal at Dreyfuss + Blackford.

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FOREGROUND

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“NATURE IS SO POWERFUL, BOTH IN ITS LAND UNDULATIONS AND IN THE TREES.” —ROBERT ROYSTON IN LAM, 1986

ABOVE

The restoration retains the original design’s essential elements, including the boulder that Royston fought to preserve.

been upgraded with a concrete slab, which contains a concealed trench for running feeder cable, along with engineered footings to hold a removable stage canopy. (In a blow against asymmetry, the footings are aligned to the true center of the house.) To

52 / LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE JAN 2020

manage all stormwater on site per university and state regulations, the team added naturalized bioinfiltration areas, including a bioswale tucked discreetly behind the giant boulder. And the eroding hillside at the back of the amphitheater has been stabilized with

Royston, who died in 2008, reflected on his body of work in this publication’s November/ December 1986 issue, and his words could apply directly to Quarry Amphitheater. “My personal approach is to have a strong underlying structure because nature is so powerful, both in its land undulations and in the trees,” he wrote. “I recently dragged out my early drawings. They were very interesting because I don’t want to change any of them. Those beautiful perspectives that we do are not eyewash: that’s the way it will look, only better.”

LYDIA LEE WRITES ABOUT THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT IN THE BAY AREA.

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FOREGROUND

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SUBMIT DO YOU HAVE A NEW PRODUCT THAT YOU WOULD LIKE TO SEE IN GOODS? SUBMIT YOUR IDEAS TO LAMGOODS@ASLA.ORG.

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE JAN 2020 / 55

FOREGROUND

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ARDESIE

The Ardesie paver is a part of Belgard’s new porcelain paver collection. This style combines the natural look of slate with the benefits of porcelain, creating a durable surface that is resistant to frost and stains. These pavers can also be installed without the use of grout or adhesives.

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FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT WWW.BELGARD.COM.

56 / LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE JAN 2020

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FOREGROUND

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XYLEM

The dimensional Xylem stone panel brings a botanical charm to vertical surfaces. It measures 24 by 48 inches and comes in four varieties: Graphite Gray Granite, Crèma Limestone, Taj White Marble, and Pristine White Marble. Pattern customizations are also available.

COURTESY ANOMA

FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT WWW.ANOMASTONE.COM

58 / LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE JAN 2020

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FEATURES

CALGARY, ALBERTA

A restored river breach creates opportunities for a varied public park, page 80.

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE JAN 2020 / 61

HEAD FOR THE HILL

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LEFT

The design of ski areas is intensive and highly specialized.

ECOSIGN HAS BEEN DESIGNING SKI RESORTS FOR 40 YEARS, BUT A WARMING PLANET AND NEW MARKETS IN ASIA KEEP THE WORK INTERESTING.

BY JESSICA BRIDGER

I

T IS LIKELY YOU HAVE NEVER HEARD OF PAUL MATHEWS, BUT IF YOU SKI IT IS PROB ABLE THAT YOU HAVE BEEN ON A SLOPE THAT HE HAD A HAND IN DESIGNING.

JESSICA BRIDGER

In 1975, he founded Ecosign Mountain Resort Planners, “Ecosign” being a portmanteau of ecology and design. Whistler, the downhill and backcountry ski hub in British Columbia, has been his home turf since the 1970s, and Ecosign has worked on more than 400 ski resorts around the world.

Mathews was responding to the state of skiing in the 1970s when he founded Ecosign. Ski areas had evolved over the years, some growing from adhoc paths down the sides of mountains into massive areas, choked by car traffic on the weekends, full of stairs and narrow, poorly designed ski slopes, or pistes, with disorganized ski villages at their base. Infrastructure was insufficient; environmental degradation was rife. Some resorts were made by tearing

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where they have mountains, snow, and incomes that are rising,” Mathews says.

Skiing has a way of generating obsession. It is an all-encompassing activity, requiring complete attention with the reward of adrenaline, all in a sublime landscape. The pitch and roll of a welldesigned piste can be a magical thing. Although many resorts tout their kilometers of ski slopes, depicted on maps as simple color-coded lines, the actual quality is much more important than the quantity. This quality is determined by the mountain, which cannot be moved (much), as well as through proper planning and, later, maintenance and grooming.

What is a weekend sport for some can become a consuming passion for others. A ski enthusiast

TOP LEFT

Following the path of Paul Mathews is something many skiers have done without knowing.

ABOVE

A site visit to the Andermatt-Sedrun project revealed new rail connections and a view of the fabled Gemsstock mountain, home to Andermatt’s expert terrain.

JESSICA BRIDGER

into the landscape, moving large amounts of rock and soil, cutting excessive numbers of trees, ignoring flora and fauna. Few undertook adequate transportation planning to handle weekly visitor flows. Other ski areas suffered from fragmented ownership, with multiple operators in single small town or village settings, hampering the investment needed to keep facilities modern and ensure longevity and employment. Four decades after founding Ecosign, Mathews knows what to do with both challenges—how to plan for sustainable futures and growth and how to establish completely new ski resorts in places that have none. The company is about 20 people and includes landscape architects, architects, engineers, soil scientists, and MBAs, among others, who work around the world from Ecosign’s base at Whistler. “There is lot of work in China, the Balkans, Turkey—anywhere

BELOW

Andermatt’s development depends on better linkages of the ski areas.

JESSICA BRIDGER

since childhood, Mathews graduated from the University of Washington in Seattle with a degree in forest ecology and two years of landscape architecture study under his belt. He had dreamed the dream of any ski obsessive—skiing all the time, whenever or wherever. He realized the dream not by becoming a ski bum, minimally employed and chasing powder, but by founding Ecosign. He had a vision—to make skiing better, more balanced ecologically, and more sustainable, all years before that was a buzzword. Ski resorts require holistic thinking, especially if they are to be sustainable for the people and towns that they’re in, the visitors, and the environment.

re-vegetation, create drainage,” Mathews says.

Under that rubric, the mountain’s given conditions determine where slopes can and cannot run, following the Ecosign method. “One of the first things we do on any project is we get an environmental overlay,” including flora and fauna. “For 45 years we’ve taken the position to avoid any rare or endangered species habitat,” says Mathews, long before legislation required it in many places.

The design process for the ski slopes in most Ecosign projects begins with topography, hydrology, soil, and solar-exposure mapping. They both source and commission studies, and use tools The roots of ski-resort design are the slopes and such as GIS and LIDAR mapping. “We need to the lifts that serve them. “We try to not do heavy know as much as we can; the quality of mapping construction and just use natural terrain, use and analysis is the foundation of everything ↘

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE JAN 2020 / 65

KLEIN MATTERHORN SLOPE/TERRAIN CAPACITY ANALYSIS

LEGEND EXISTING LIFT SKI POD STRAIGHT LINE SLOPE

SLOPE 0 8% 8 25% 25 45% 45 70% 70% +

ECOSIGN

N

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KLEIN MATTERHORN SKI AREA MASTER PLAN

LEGEND EXISTING LIFT PROPOSED LIFT REMOVED LIFT EXISTING SKI SLOPE PROPOSED WIDENING OF EXISTING SKI SLOPE PROPOSED SKI SLOPE

ECOSIGN

N

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE JAN 2020 / 67

“WE’RE NOT DESIGNING HIGHWAYS THOSE ARE THE WORST.” PAUL MATHEWS

→ we do,” says Ryley Thiessen, the president of Eco-

Early mornings reveal the hard work of the maintenance teams— and reward with a view to Parsenn and the Swiss Alps beyond.

Following these rounds of analysis and initial design, the Ecosign team heads to the site for an on-slope evaluation, armed with inclinometers that measure the angles of the slopes and GPS units to mark up their maps and check their

68 / LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE JAN 2020

JESSICA BRIDGER

OPPOSITE

sign and a landscape architect who will lead the next generation of the company. In the following step, they study the topography to identify what Ecosign refers to as “terrain pods” where slopes can be laid out. In plan, the pods look like blobs drawn over the topography, and designers sketch out the possible ski slopes, informed by the mapping. Glacial till is most often their base. Solar exposure can make or kill a slope, as the sun at full exposure can at best create slush and at worst destroy ski-slope snow. “We look at the amount of terrain, the soil, then we have one to seven classes of skiers. We have a maximum steepness for those abilities,” Mathews says. “We assume a maximum of 25 percent of the terrain pod will be usable.” From this quarter, a rough design for the ski slopes can be drawn, and lifts specified based on the expected number of skiers per hour.

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ZERMATT ROTHORN

70 / LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE JAN 2020