Landscape Architecture and Civil Engineering

Focus: Landscape Architecture and Civil Engineering

Urban Wellness and the Public Realm in a Post-Pandemic World

by Michael Hunton

As a landscape architect and urban designer, I find that during my daily commute I cannot help but critique the designed world around me, especially the streetscapes, parks, and plazas. In the context of the ongoing pandemic and its implication for wellness, top of mind lately has been the question of how landscape architects can incorporate wellness design into what we do.

For many workplaces, the recent pandemic changed the way many people envision “going to work.” For me at least, not having to travel to work allowed for more time during the day for walking or jogging nearby as I began working from home. I was also able to visit the corner market more often to avoid crowds in larger stores. The most noticeable change in my work-at-home world is that there are more people around the neighborhood and in parks since there is less commuting.

In and outside of most offices, wellness became a common topic of conversation. Although some industries, such as

Plumley Village, Worcester, Mass. / Rendering courtesy of Lincoln Brown Illustration

Norwich University

Southpoint Park, Roosevelt Island, New York City / Rendering courtesy of Lincoln Brown Illustration hospitality, took a significant financial hit over the past few years, the architecture, engineering, and construction industry has been booming in numerous markets. In addition to stress caused by the pandemic, stress levels also grew because of increases in workload and overtime. Recently, however, a general acceptance and promotion of a healthy work–life balance and workday flexibility has, from a personal health perspective, perhaps been one of the greatest positive benefits of this pandemic.

In the urban designer’s toolbox, we already have design concepts that can address the need to strengthen wellness within local communities in a city network. Listed with each item here is a Langan project that incorporates strengthening wellness: • The 15-minute city is a concept, developed by Professor Carlos Morena in Paris, that envisions a city organized by neighborhoods where one can access most daily necessities within a 15-minute walk or bike. (Olive +

Wooster, New Haven, Conn.) • Placemaking and tactical urbanism create culturally rich public spaces that are inclusive and equitable especially within low-income areas. (Plumley

Village, Worcester, Mass.) • Complete Streets philosophies promote a pedestrian-first environment that recaptures the urban fabric for multimodal travel and safely accommodate people, pets, bicycles, and cars in order to increase physical health and encourage people to get outside. (Riverfront Master Plan, Middletown, Conn.) • Resilient planning encourages durable, lasting waterfront design that enhances habitat and allows for public access to the water using the Waterfront Alliance’s WEDG Guidelines (Southpoint Park, New York City, N.Y.) • Sustainability is inherent in all of these concepts above, encouraging green infrastructure to reduce the burden on stormwater systems and the overall carbon footprint by minimizing the need for vehicular travel and emissions to improve air quality. (Saugatuck TOD Master Plan, Westport, Conn.) With wellness at the forefront of designers’ minds, the future could be brighter for urban neighborhoods. The design-concept examples discussed above are not new to landscape architects and urban planners. But the pandemic emphasized our need to focus on wellness, and that need drives the urgency to incorporate these concepts into more and more design projects. It is up to us as urban designers to advocate for wellness by focusing on environment-healthy design and to educate the public about the benefits of that design. While observing our cities over the next few years, I will look forward to critiquing less of the old and applauding more of the new successful installations of urban wellness design. Michael Hunton, PLA, ASLA, WEDG is the New England Landscape Architecture + Planning Studio lead at Langan.

Colby College Athletics Center Receives LEED, SITES Certifications

Waterville, ME – Sasaki, along with Hopkins Architects, announced the Colby College Harold Alfond Athletics and Recreation Center has received both LEED Platinum and SITES Gold certification status. Awarded by the U.S Green Building Council, Platinum status is the highest LEED certification a project can attain. SITES Gold is awarded by SITES, a comprehensive rating system designed to distinguish sustainable landscapes, measure performance, and elevate value.

The 350,000sf Colby College building, which opened in August 2020, includes a multi-use fieldhouse with a 200-meter track and tennis courts, an ice arena, an Olympic-sized pool, a competition gymnasium for basketball and volleyball, squash courts, a strength and fitness center, and multi-purpose studios, supported by locker rooms, sports medicine facilities, and offices.

Chris Sgarzi, a principal architect at Sasaki and a leader in the firm’s sports practice, said, “Colby College is a demonstrated leader in sustainability and committed to maintaining its carbon neutral status, so this project was especially focused on the health and wellness aspect of both the environment and students, faculty, and staff who utilize the facility.”

Sgarzi added that core sustainability principles related to indoor air quality, daylight and views, thermal comfort, and building performance are seamlessly integrated into the facility and site design to meet project goals related to health, wellness, and optimal performance of body and mind. Colby College is one of only four campuses in the country to achieve carbon neutrality.

With guidance from Thornton Tomasetti, which served as the LEED and SITES consultant and saw the certifications through to completion, the project team was not only able to meet the enhanced LEED standard and certification, but do so within budget and schedule. The overall credits included the demolition and waste reduction stream of the former athletics complex, which required an additional year of work.

The combination of solutions developed in collaboration with Arup, which include daylight harvesting, air system energy recovery wheels, and a pool heating system powered by excess waste heat, enabled energy use reduction to 47% below the code baseline. Arup’s structural designers helped the team develop the most lightweight structural solution possible. The highly optimized design lowered embodied CO2 by approximately 800 tons by reducing the structure’s steel tonnage by 20% and lowering the volume of concrete required by 5% relative to more conventional design solutions. These solutions contributed to the project earning all 33 possible energy points in the LEED Platinum criteria and were also important in the pursuit of the SITES Gold certification.

The SITES standard was added to the project as a goal and completely new standard for the college. The team and the landscape architects, Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, and civil engineers, Sebago Technics, incorporated soil restoration and native wet and upland meadows to increase site biodiversity and manage stormwater through natural systems. This new landscape provides an opportunity for teaching, research, and recreation, while showcasing over 1 million sq. ft. of native plants.

The Harold Alfond Athletics and Recreation Center is the first SITES project in Maine and New England to obtain Gold-level accreditation. In its review, SITES noted exceptional achievement – 26 of a possible 30 points – in the Site Design-Human Health and Well-being category. In addition to serving the college, the athletic venues and site related amenities feature universal accessibility and are made available to local communities for their use.

The project team also included Con-

Colby College’s Harold Alfond Athletics and Recreation Center

sigli Construction Company, main contractor; HLB, lighting designer; Councilman-Hunsaker, aquatics consultant; B32 Engineering Group, ice consultant; and Jensen Hughes, code consultant.

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Colossale Siteworks Preps New Site

Aerial view of sitework underway at elementary school in South Windsor

South Windsor, CT – Colossale Siteworks, working for the Gilbane Building Company in Windsor, is currently setting the stage for the construction of a new 102,000sf elementary school.

According to Vice President Michael Colossale, “Getting the earthwork done to clear the entire 10 acre site was very challenging as we had cuts and fills in excess of eight feet; we moved nearly 50,000 yards of material to get the site prepped.” Draining the site properly was critically important too due to underground aquifers and the amount of water that need to be controlled during rains. “We kept that all under control with swales, pumps and check dams,” said Colossale.

Current work includes preparation for the 102,000sf slab and readying the site for utility installation that includes water, gas, electrical, sewer, storm drainage and retention basins. Future finish work will include installation of curbs, parking lots, sidewalks, a courtyard, and site furnishings.

Redniss Named AICP Fellow

Stamford, CT – Redniss & Mead, a land use consulting firm, announced that principal planner Richard Redniss, AICP has been named to the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) College of Fellows (FAICP) for his outstanding achievements in urban planning. The 2022 class is scheduled to be inducted into the College of Fellows at the National Planning Conference in San Diego on May 1.

Redniss previously served as president of Redniss & Mead. “Rick has a long track record of success working in very challenging environments. Rick’s professional work and his personal pursuits further demonstrate his commitment to the ethical responsibilities of a certified planner to the public, to clients, and to the profession and colleagues,” said Rebecca Augur, president, Connecticut Chapter of the American Planning Association (APA). “We were proud to nominate him for his sustained leadership in the planning field and for his lasting influence in crafting inclusionary zoning, promoting affordable housing, and fostering historic preservation and permanent open space in particular.”

“This is a well-deserved honor,” said Craig Flaherty, P.E., president of Redniss & Mead. “Rick has been an exemplary leader in the community and for the planning profession. His ideas and efforts applied through the planning discipline and his clients land use applications have literally changed lives and enhanced the communities where they are located. We are grateful for his continued contributions to our firm and our clients.”

Fellowship is granted to planners who have achieved certification through the American Planning Association’s professional institute, the AICP, and have achieved excellence in professional practice, mentoring, public and community service, and leadership. Redniss is the only Connecticut member being inducted into this year’s College of Fellows and will join one other practicing fellow in the state.

Richard Redniss

Creativity in Design to Enrich Lives

Canterbury School Campus Master Plan and Implementation

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From Adventure Playgrounds to The Modern Playscape

by Naomi Heller

During World War II, metals were diverted to build war essentials. The manufacturing of playground equipment ceased and playgrounds fell into disrepair. Oddly, post-WWII bomb sites created opportunities for play, allowing children to experiment with lighting fires, building structures, and manipulating materials from demolished buildings. This free- spirited play evolved into adventure playgrounds. In the mid-1940s, landscape architect Lady Allen of Hurtwood petitioned for the first adventure playground in London. These playgrounds featured an abundance of unconventional structures, discarded household objects, and loose materials. Aside from utilizing unusable land, the playgrounds acknowledged broader social issues. Responding to WWII horrors, adventure playgrounds were “little models of democracy.” Children collaborated together and seemingly created a socially conscious society through children’s play. In the post-war spirit of rebirth, questions surrounding creative play surfaced. In Amsterdam, architect Aldo van Eyck was commissioned with building a public playground in each of the city’s neighborhoods. His principal consideration was to safeguard children’s creativity. The playgrounds were woven into the fabric of public parks, squares, and derelict post-war sites. With no clear partitioning between these playgrounds and city life, he also aimed to provide appropriate social engagement for the children.

Responding to the Cold War, designers began to create novelty playgrounds that were dominated by fantasy sculptures.

These novelty playgrounds took on spaceship-themed structures. During this period, the manufacturing process for playground equipment also advanced, leading to more standardized pieces. During the 1970s, lawsuits against playgrounds arose. The era of the “standardized playground” began. In 1981, the Consumer Product Safety Commission published the Handbook for Public Playground Safety. Although safety regulations were important, the proliferation of identical-looking playgrounds incited public criticism and a decline in the use of public playgrounds. During the 1990s, efforts were made to Boston Nature Center in Mattapan, Mass. / Photo courtesy of studioMLA Architects fund play research to redefine the goals of the modern playground. The demand emerged to extend beyond standardized equipment to include spaces for people of all ages and abilities, with both natural and built environments. This trend toward inclusive play led to a shift in designing “playscapes.” The term was coined by Isamu Noguchi, whose playscapes blurred the line between fine art, landscape design, and childhood play. He believed that environments should challenge and inspire their users’ imaginations. One modern version of a playscape,

The Lollard Adventure Playground, 1955 / known as a nature playground, focuses Photo by Brian Brake, courtesy of Museum of New Zealand continued to page 31

Opening Doors Means Opening our Eyes

by Rick Jones

It would have been enough to simply go through the checklist that came with the comprehensive assessment: Add the handrails, ramps, curb cuts and door operations that help people with mobility challenges get around campus more easily at Cape Cod (CCCC) and Massasoit (MCC) Community Colleges. The campuses were two of many sites slated for site, landscape, pedestrian circulation, and entry improvements as part of the DCAMM Statewide Accessibility Initiative.

Instead, working closely with the civil engineer and landscape architect (for MCC: Nitsch Engineering and Crowley Cottrell; for CCCC: Brennan Engineering and Lemon Brooke), we developed comprehensive solutions that not only solve for MAAB, but address aesthetics, native plantings, and stormwater management.

Why?

“We put so much time and effort into making sure that people who are perceived as different understand what it would be like if they were normal,” says James Robinson, a recent Duke graduate with sight challenges who made a video about his experience. “But we rarely ever do the opposite; pushing those who perceive themselves as normal to understand what it would be like if they were different.”

The architect’s job is to “do the opposite;” to push ourselves into understanding what it would be like to swim in the “sea of difference,” as Robinson describes his experience, and then design places that meet those differences with intelligence and grace.

Empathy

This inclusive approach is known as universal design or designing for accessibility, or just plain old good design. Regardless of what we call it, it’s all about empathy. We have to imagine how all kinds of people with diverse abilities can experience the same place without compromise.

Every project that Jones undertakes embraces universal design concepts. Quite often, we are working on campuses constructed well before laws that govern universal access were enacted, which means we don’t have the luxury of starting from scratch.

Solutions within buildings are solved as part of renovations. Many buildings have had incremental updates that include improvements to accessibility in compliance with the law: bathroom updates, ramps, etc.

However, on a campus there is an illdefined limit outside the building where the accessibility scope stops. It is not a standalone building in a parking lot where you can draw a clean line. Campuses are networks of circulation, and we are often tasked with drawing these lines in ways that improve accessibility, while limiting scope to contain costs.

The all-important spaces between buildings are particularly plagued by impediments, whether the small moments of a single step or two, or the sweeping challenges of a sloped walk that exceeds code limits and runs for hundreds of feet. At the same time, sitework and landscape offer some of the best opportunities to achieve universal access and can be far less expensive than renovation or building new. Creatively manipulating a site can shape a system of access that everyone uses in the same way; raising the grade so that no stairs are required, for example.

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More than Accessibility

That’s why it was gratifying to work on these two campus projects whose primary motivation was improvement to accessibility in the landscape and circulation network that ties each campus together, offering the opportunity to solve for access in a way that also improved campus resilience overall.

While different in terms of culture, landscape, original design intent and so on, each underwent a systemic approach that looks at how the whole campus can benefit from improved access strategies. It starts by identifying areas of exclusion and ends with inclusive design that brings social and environmental benefits to all users, as well as economic benefits to the schools.

“I just want to be able to connect with people,” Robinson says. “It’s because I really live in your world that I need your help overcoming the distance between us.”

Architects, along with our colleagues in the landscape and engineering professions, have the opportunity with the built environment to help shrink the distances between people rather than magnify them. We would be foolish not to make the most of it.

Rick Jones, AIA, LEED AP BD+C is the founder and director of Jones Architecture.

Designing a Universal Playground on Top of a Closed Landfill

by Cheri Ruane

Universal (or inclusive) playgrounds can be defined as those that “enable and empower a diverse population by improving human performance, health and wellness, and social participation” (Source: University of Buffalo Center for Inclusive Design and Environmental Access). Universal playgrounds are designed to be used by children with special physical, emotional, or sensory needs, and their caregivers. They allow all users to enjoy the thrill of sliding, spinning, swinging, or other activities in ways that able-bodied children do with ease.

The new universal playground at Danehy Park in Cambridge is one such effort. The City of Cambridge worked with Weston & Sampson and a team of designers, engineers, landscape architects, and environmental scientists to design and construct this new playground. The facility is on a 0.75-acre, underutilized grassy site on top of a closed landfill that offers a convenient location, is close to other recreational facilities, and provides nearby access to public transportation.

Danehy Park’s universal playground design addresses the needs of both users and caretakers and integrates features that are attractive for people of all abilities and ages, while also focusing particularly on those who face a host of physical and cognitive challenges. We worked closely with a focus group of parents and other community stakeholders whose lives are connected to individuals with a range of capacities and abilities. The focus group was well positioned to help inform design solutions that would serve the specific needs of Cambridge’s population.

The team began by conducting a thorough site evaluation and holding coordination meetings with the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection. The team then performed geotechnical investigations and developed preliminary concepts. After refining those concepts and determining the preferred design elements, we developed schematic design plans and prepared construction documentation to put the project out to bid. Design and construction permitting occurred concurrently and was a collaborative effort with regulatory agencies. A key part of the project was overseeing construction activities and working with the contractor to respond to the inevitably unpredictable subsurface conditions of a closed landfill. The design process included collaboration with the local arts community, including an artist with

Children and their caregivers at Danehy Park

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Universal design elements include:

• Sensory/nature play areas • A play slope that makes use of the site’s high elevation point to engage and encourage climbing and rolling • A water play/splash pad area • Separate, accessible, and active play areas for children ages 2-5 and 5-12 while accommodating physical, sensory, and social needs • A primary entry area with parking and a drop-off zone, a secondary entry area, and inclusive circulation • Areas to accommodate gathering (both social and refuge) • Elements that offer a balance of sun and shade • On-site stormwater management features with educational signage • Protection of the existing tree canopy and new plantings in support of Cambridge’s urban forestry efforts

We designed the playground to work with the existing unusual landforms related to the landfill as well as custom climbing features inspired by the site’s historic uses. This created a unique sensory experience while also providing a place where everyone is welcomed and enabled to enjoy the simple yet important pleasure of play.

Cheri Ruane, FASLA is a vice president and design discipline lead at Weston & Sampson.