Elevation, Winter 2013

TRANSPORTATION

Winter

2013

in this issue + O’Hare International Airport – A Flight Path to Sustainability (PAGE 1) + Planning for the Joy of the Journey (PAGE 4) + How Observation Informs Design (PAGE 12) + Toward the Bloomingdale Trail (PAGE 13) + Making the Case for Landscape Architecture (PAGE 14)

elevation A QUARTERLY PUBLICATION OF THE ILLINOIS CHAPTER American Society of Landscape Architects www.il-asla.org

O’Hare International Airport – A Flight Path to Sustainability

By Dorothy Izewski // Chicago Department of Aviation (CDA)

Rating Program. Based on the concepts of LEED, this new program applied to civil engineering and landscaping projects, rewarding compliance with green airplane certificates.

hicago O’Hare International Airport is currently the second busiest airport in the world. For an airport that has been operating commercially since 1955, keeping up with industry growth and new aircraft development is a necessity but sustainability is a choice.

THE NORTH AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL TOWER IS THE FIRST LEED CERTIFIED AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL TOWER, AND APPROXIMATELY EIGHT ACRES OF GREEN ROOFS HAVE BEEN BUILT AT O’HARE.

To stay competitive in the changing aviation industry, the dated runway system at O’Hare needed to be modernized so the City of Chicago announced the O’Hare Modernization Program (OMP) in 2001. The OMP’s commitment to green construction practices led to the development of a Sustainable Design Manual (SDM) and Green Airplane

This program resulted in an innovative balanced earthwork plan, which eliminated the need to remove material off-site.

Cut and fill is carefully calculated and movement is minimized, reducing energy, emissions and cost. Recycled concrete, crushed on-site, is used as aggregate for

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Sustainable planting near O’Hare International Terminal 5

new concrete pours. The North Air Traffic Control Tower is the first LEED certified air traffic control tower, and approximately eight acres of green roofs have been built at O’Hare.

Implementing change is difficult, especially when there are regulatory and cultural challenges. An airport environment is governed by safety and security. The Sustainable Landscape Specifications used at O’Hare are based in part on the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Advisory Circular, “Wildlife Hazard Management at Airports,” to minimize wildlife hazards, particularly birds and small mammals.

Landscape that provides food or shelter to these animals must be avoided. This is in sharp contrast to what is promoted in the landscaping industry, where wildlife attractants are highly desirable. A very limited list of approved plants is provided by the [continued on page 14]

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news

Chapter Events + Highlights

This spring, be on the lookout for a new version of Folio, our annual awards booklet. We are making some big changes that we hope everyone will be excited about. Folio 2012 will be produced as an online publication, and because of the elimination of printing and mailing costs, the fee to win an award is now LOWER. Even more importantly, we can widen our distribution to a much larger audience, spreading word of these remarkable projects and improving awareness of our profession. As part of the green industry, and moving to become a more sustainable organization, roughly 165,000 sheets of paper will be saved by eliminated the print version of Folio. While Folio will be distributed as an E-book, and will be viewable with other past years of Folio and Elevation

From the Editors

W

elcome to the winter issue of Elevation! In this issue we focus on transportation, and how landscape architects (and architects) are involved with this type of work in a variety of ways. There has been significant progress over recent years; creating green streets, adding miles of bike lanes, developing walkable communities and improving roadways. As illustrated by the articles in this issue, however, the extent of landscape architectural influence reaches much further.

Take a look at how sustainability plays out at one of the nation’s largest airports, how

ELEVATION IS NOW DIGITAL! Visit www.il-asla.org to see this and past publications online whenever and wherever you want them.

Brought to you by Autumn Tree!

at IL-ASLA.org, the ability to order printed copies will still be available.

THE ILLINOIS CHAPTER OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS

On top of all of this, the next issue of Elevation will be dedicated to award winners and will also highlight firms and individuals that are doing volunteer efforts across the state. Did I mention that it will be in FULL COLOR!? For the volunteer piece, the goal is to collect a critical mass of stories and to share them with the national chapter who, in turn, can spread the overall story even further. We want to recognize the great efforts that are happening all around us and encourage others to join in.

Elevation has a circulation of more than 5,000 copies and is published quarterly

by ILASLA.

Please contact Stacey Leonard at ext-communications@il-asla.org to share your story.

THE MISSION OF THE ASLA IS “TO LEAD, TO EDUCATE, AND TO PARTICIPATE IN THE CAREFUL STEWARDSHIP, WISE PLANNING, AND ARTFUL DESIGN OF OUR CULTURAL AND NATURAL ENVIRONMENTS.”

Edited by Chris Jennette, and Stacey Leonard, designed by Nikolas Davis and Chris Jennette, and produced by IMAGO. PRESIDENT CHRIS GENT, ASLA PRESIDENT-ELECT CHRIS LANNERT, ASLA PAST-PRESIDENT STEVE HALBERG, ASLA

one of the most historic and famous roads in America fits in with today’s growing communities, and how as landscape architects we can make better decisions that affect the long-term health, as well as the spatial character and unique “feeling” of our streetscapes.

We would like to thank all that contributed to this issue, and welcome others to share their thoughts and interests in future issues.

We live in an increasingly mobile world, so whether you are sitting on a train, waiting at the airport, or have a moment to relax after a long drive, visit IL-ASLA.org to read your online version of Elevation!

TREASURER TONY QUINN, ASLA SECRETARY ALAN WATKINS, ASLA TRUSTEE KEVEN GRAHAM, ASLA EXTERNAL COMM. CHAIR STACEY LEONARD, ASLA INTERNAL COMM. CHAIR BRAD MCCAULEY, ASLA PUBLIC AWARENESS CHAIR NIKOLAS DAVIS, ASLA EMERGING PROFESSIONALS CHAIR LAUREN JENNISON, ASLA EDUCATION CHAIR KENON BOEHM, ASLA FELLOWSHIP CHAIR SARAH MARRS, ASLA ADVOCACY CHAIR PATTY KING, ASLA ASSOCIATION MANAGER SUSAN RAGAISHIS

TO JOIN ASLA OR FOR MORE INFORMATION: T 630 833 4516 P.O. BOX 4566 OAK BROOK, IL 60522

www.il-asla.org 3

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GOTO 2040 cover image

Planning for the Joy of the Journey

By Ferhat Zerin, AICP // Ginkgo Planning & Design, Inc.

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n 2010, the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) hired Ginkgo Planning & Design to create a series of iconic images for the GOTO 2040 Plan for the six-county region. A hundred years earlier, the Burnham Plan had included beautiful, timeless illustrations of a region growing along an intricate network of roads, greenways and railroads. We were charged with building on these classic ideas and illustrating CMAP’s vision of “Mobility” for the region as demonstrated in the 2040 Plan, “A modern transportation system is indispensable for our region’s future prosperity. To sustain our economy and quality of life, residents must be able to travel quickly and easily around our region

so they can choose from a wide variety of jobs and communities in which to live.

Businesses must be able to count on the timely delivery of their goods.”1 For the GOTO 2040 cover image (above), we concentrated on one region connected with a great transit system, placing bright dots on denser areas near train stations, places we know as Transit Oriented Developments or T.O.D.s. That more people should be able to live within walking distance of transit stops was a theme that resonated across all the 2040 images developed with the CMAP team (examples below). Together, we imagined a region with a modern Transportation System

Route 66 project concepts led by Ginkgo

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providing the best options for all modes of travel - walking, cars, bicycles, trains, buses and freight. These colorful, vibrant images also hoped to recapture the fun of the journey in a modern transportation system - the pleasure of a bus ride, the delight of the morning walk to the train station, the ride down lively roads and the bike ride to our beloved places.

If a road, a station or a trail was attractive and enjoyable, could it become a destination in itself ? Would people visit a place just to experience a great transportation system?

This question is guiding a new project currently being led by Ginkgo – a plan for a 25-mile section of Route 66, “The Mother Road”, an enduring icon of our national transportation framework. Stretching from Joliet to Braidwood in Will County, the Corridor Plan for IL 53 (Route 66) is an extraordinary collaboration between various municipalities, county officials, state officials, citizens and local stakeholders. The project hopes to create a well-connected, large-scale, multi-modal transportation network that can also help transform the area into a regional destination.

The “Mother Road”, Historic Route 66, follows a diagonal course across the country – linking hundreds of rural communities from Chicago to Kansas and on to Los Angeles, allowing farmers to transport produce and grain. By the 1930s, and the onset of the Great Depression, the road had become the major route for the trucking industry in the US. John Steinbeck coined the phrase, “The Mother Road” in his 1939 book “The Grapes of Wrath”, and the road was immortalized as a symbol of hope for thousands of families who packed up their belongings and headed west to California.

IF A ROAD, A STATION OR A TRAIL WAS ATTRACTIVE AND ENJOYABLE, COULD IT BECOME A DESTINATION IN ITSELF? WOULD PEOPLE VISIT A PLACE JUST TO EXPERIENCE A GREAT TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM?

of Historic Route 66. An extensive network of scenic byways and trails are being planned for people, bikes and horses, connecting the natural wonders of the area, such as the Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie, the Kankakee, Des Plaines and Illinois Rivers. We see a future for water trails for canoes, kayaks, boats, Duck Tours and Hot Air Balloon Rides, all tied to existing Metra and Pace services and the high speed rail that will run through the corridor.

With so many ways to explore this unspoiled part of Will County, we imagine families from all over Chicagoland will be coming here again to experience the reenergized “Mother Road”, and a future where a story such as this one will be common:

“A family wakes up early one Saturday and heads for the train station. This is no ordinary Saturday - today, the parents will unwind in an authentic Midwestern Prairie. Their children will enjoy local food and history, while getting some exhilarating exercise. As the Metra pulls into the end of the line in Manhattan, the kids race to the bike share station, impatient to pedal onto the Wauponsee Trail their friends have been praising. The trail is smooth and As the road grew in popularity and became the summer sun pokes through the thick leaves of known as “The Main Street of America,” landthe trees. The family rents an electric car from a marks of all kinds were built: gas stations, reslocal car share and drives to the Summerfest Parade taurants, souvenir shops, auto camps and iconic in Historic Braidwood. By now, the kids are huge artwork. Equipped with jobs, money and a car, fans of the Route 66 story, and want to see every post- depression and post-war families planned 66 attraction nearby. Wilmington’s Gemini Giant cross-country road trips to see all these fun sites. becomes their new, tall family friend. A stop at the A major national highway and truck route country’s largest inland port in charming Elwood that is also a charming Main Street – what a amazes the kids, and this is only the start of a difficult proposition in today’s planning world! memorable weekend…”

A significant length of the 25 mile section of Route 66 that we are looking into is now a four-lane high-speed state highway that also carries an extremely high volume of truck traffic to the country’s largest inland intermodal port in Elwood. Yet there are still small towns that have held on to the original charm of the Mother Road, like the Island City of Wilmington, where the road is still two lanes, winding through neighborhoods, a riverfront main street, and the Kankakee River. The iconic 28 feet high “Gemini Giant” statue still greets Route 66 tourists from all over the globe. Named after NASA’s Gemini Program, the giant symbolizes the optimism and fascination with the space race in the 1950’s.

Every year, thousands of tourists from Europe go on the Route 66 trip from Chicago to Los Angeles, lured by the mystery of a road that is almost synonymous with the American way of life, the freedom and adventure of the open road winding through real America. As we continue planning modern transportation systems for our region, perhaps we can aim to go beyond making our streets complete, multi-modal, and green, and also focus on making them truly memorable and joyful, like the historic Mother Road.

Ferhat Zerin, AICP, has over 20 years of planning and architectural design experience focused primarily on public sector projects, both in urban downtowns and the suburbs. As founder of GINKGO Planning and Design, Inc., she is committed to bringing quality planning services that prioritize long term public needs over private interests. Her work experience includes lead planner roles both in the public and the private sectors, from transit oriented developments, comprehensive plans and codes, master plans, and implementation. She is a strong advocate of bringing change to typical planning practices in the region— shifting from planning “diagrams” that cannot be built, to viable “designs” that can be realized.

The Plan is garnering support for its big transportation ideas to reenergize this 25-mile leg 1 CMAP GOTO 2040, Chicago Metropolitan Area Planning

The “Gemini Giant” in Wilmington, Illinois

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WATCH WWW.IL-ASLA.ORG FOR NEWS ABOUT THE NEXT BARTLETT SEMINARS EVENT.

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views

Let’s be the solution in 2013!

By Chris Lannert // The Lannert Group

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recently wrote a response to a letter by an allied professional suggesting sole leadership in the environmental design field. I would like to share an alternate vision. “It’s hard to make environmental services sexy in a culture that sees vegetation as a vague green backdrop, but without those air-cleansing, water-purifying, soilholding, heat-reducing services, sexy would be irrelevant, since we’d be dead. We as a profession should be persuading people that living landscapes are an investment for all. We need to design for maximum return from modest investments-a return that includes beauty, but also critical functions of life support.”

RATHER THAN COMPLETING FOR WHICH PROFESSION IS OR SHOULD BE FIRST IN THESE CHALLENGING ECONOMIC TIMES, LET’S BE FRIENDS (COLLEAGUES) AND MAKE THE ENVIRONMENT, PLACE, OR CONTEXT FIRST AND FOREMOST. Rather than completing for which profession is or should be first in these challenging economic times, let’s be friends (colleagues) and make the environment, place, or context first and foremost.

When we integrate our professional services, sustainability wins and should always be in first place. I suggest that is a better model (business, personal and ethical) than either position we could

find ourselves in separately. It could even be a New Year’s resolution to keep.

In a recent Crain’s article regarding the major Chicago architectural firm’s expansion into foreign markets, it stated that the key transition was “organizing transit and managing stormwater runoff ”. News alert, Chicagoland landscape architectural firms are already involved and delivering those concepts. Why does either profession have to be on top? Both professions starting point is the site, followed by construction. Neither has merit or purpose alone, nor should Architects, Civil Engineers, or Landscape Architects claim the sole position.

Sustainability and the environment is the big idea that will allow everyone’s (multidisciplinary professionals), little idea (contribution) to be incorporated. Olmsted termed his parks the “green lungs of the city”. Should we be doing less now? Let’s be clear, a good Architect is also the master of the site (environment).

Equally, a good Landscape Architect is the builder of the place (structures). Civil Engineers connect all professions into the ground.

Lets continue to work together for sustainability and not fret about our professional importance during this critical time, as the market place begins to recognize the importance of the planet’s survival.

Chris Lannert, President of The Lannert Group, founded the firm in 1982. Since the firm’s inception, he has built The Lannert Group into a nationally recognized landscape architectural, planning and community consulting firm. The firm enjoys an excellent reputation for combining technical expertise with artistic vision and has received numerous awards from the American Planning Association and the American Society of Landscape Architects. He is experienced in working with municipal planning departments, engineers, architectural firms, developers and corporations.

Lannert received his degree in landscape architecture and urban planning from Michigan State University. He is a member of the Urban Land Institute, American Planning Association, National Association of Home Builders, and the American Society of Landscape Architects. He is a past Board Member and President of the Landscape Architecture Foundation and a past member and Chair on the Illinois Department of Professional Regulations Board. Currently, he is the President Elect of the Illinois Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects.

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Kentucky Coffee Tree, 4” Caliper

Kentucky Coffee Tree, 7” Caliper

Princeton Elm, 5” Caliper

Princeton Elm, 6” Caliper

How Observation Informs Design: The Proof is in the Pattern

By Laura Knowles Verden // SmithGroupJJR

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hirty years ago, my college Landscape Architecture program took students on a field trip to see the “Last Chestnut tree in Iowa.” The statuesque tree stood at the crossroads of two gravel farm roads, which formed an almost celebratory ring around the 70’ tall tree in the middle of the flat, farmed prairie. The tree created a memorable place.

Its trunk was a hulking 6’ wide, but its limbs were starting to wither and staghorn.

It was a magnificent specimen, and I was saddened to learn that some years later the slow death of chestnut blight had finally overcome this once proud tree. Around the same time I learned the fate of the “Last Chestnut”, the Midwest was confronting a swifter, but no less deadly disease: Dutch Elm disease. The fungus was quickly transforming the Midwest’s parkway landscapes, once populated by the mature, cathedralcanopied elms, into landscapes characterized by smaller but fast growing green recruits; replacements out of a Nebraska nursery, the green ash. Today, we are experiencing yet another chapter of dramatic loss, as the ubiquitous ash succumbs to the emerald ash borer.

As landscape architects, we have a great impact on the selection and installation of plant materials that can transform the space of a streetscape, highway or parkway into a memorable place. Trees add that key third dimension that, when used collectively, can frame or canopy over into a “tunnel of trees”. As such, the images of loss described above should serve as an invaluable lesson to those of us who design.

Many of us consider our skill with plant material to be secondary to our confidence in designing hardscapes — so how can we be the (landscape) architect of our own improvement when it comes to plant material? Hint: Our predisposition as designers to read patterns is a real asset to developing understanding and confidence when working with plant material.

What can the patterns of tree growth and performance teach us? How can these observations make us better and more well informed designers?

Remember The Design Cycle: Investigate, Plan/Create, Implement, Evaluate. Most

of us operate professionally in the Plan/ Create and Implement modes. I suggest, however, that we must place more emphasis on investigation and evaluation; these are the most crucial steps in learning from the dynamic living community. If we believe that landscape architecture is the natural hybrid of art and science then these key steps are where we can invest our designs with science.

AS LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS, WE HAVE A GREAT IMPACT ON THE SELECTION AND INSTALLATION OF PLANT MATERIALS THAT CAN TRANSFORM THE SPACE OF A STREETSCAPE, HIGHWAY OR PARKWAY INTO A MEMORABLE PLACE. Practitioners focused on the science are as close by, professionally speaking, as City Foresters, nursery growers, research facilities like Morton Arboretum and Chicago Botanic Garden (Chicagoland Grows

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partnership), county extension offices, arborists, and the Illinois Nurseryman’s Association. As landscape architects, we should be open to exploring the work of our peer professions, asking questions, and observing.

We must also be open to learning lessons from where we may least expect them, such as behind the wheel of our car, or from our seat on the bus. Our Chicago area highways have some of the best experimental blocks of tree plantings for observation. CDOT’s original salt tolerant tree list was based upon the performance of trees along heavily salted Lake Shore Drive and is continually updated based on observation of subsequent planting installations in streetscapes and medians in the City.

Check out the heavy plantings on IDOT’s renovated Dan Ryan Expressway. These large tree blocks are living experimental areas that show us, for instance, how tender Redbud performs when compared to tough Japanese Tree Lilac. Similarly, look at IDOT’s work on the Eisenhower Expressway near Hillside, where thick tree plantings of 1” liners planted on 10’ centers went in with the highway renovation project, about seven years ago.

Outstanding performers in this rocky, salty area have been Catalpa, Honeylocust, and the surprising Kentucky Coffeetree. Contrast these observation areas with the nearly 20 year old planting along I-88 at Morton Arboretum’s southern perimeter, which over the years of my observations, told the sad story of aerial salt impacts, especially to evergreens in the buffer plantings.

WE MUST ALSO BE OPEN TO LEARNING LESSONS FROM WHERE WE MAY LEAST EXPECT THEM, SUCH AS BEHIND THE WHEEL OF OUR CAR, OR FROM OUR SEAT ON THE BUS. When drought visited the upper Midwest this past summer, it had a dramatic and observable result; the relatively quick death of many trees. If surviving parkway trees did not receive supplemental watering this past summer, the real losses will be even more dramatic in the years to come. When drought does not kill outright, it weakens. A weak 10

tree is a tree very inviting to opportunistic diseases like the soil-borne disease verticillium wilt, which kills by interfering with select sections of the root vascular system in a tree over time. The visible response: Large portions of crown will initially flag, then become devoid of leaves and growth over time. This condition is most often seen afflicting redbud and Norway and Sugar maples, sometimes up to 5 years after a major drought event. It is a slow death, and a tricky pattern to discern.

The important observation here is that tree performance is directly related to the stress or stressors of its living situation.

In boiling this down to usable information, we can note that salt related stress, drought stress, and diseases like verticillium wilt, are easily visible in the performance of the crown of a tree. First year plantings of oak, crabapple, and linden may exhibit a false positive for stress, reverting to normal growth in succeeding years, which is equally important to note.

The importance is in the pattern -- some species are more reactive than others to their stressors, and will collectively register it for us to observe and learn.

While landscape architects are powerless to control the occurrence of conditions such as drought, we are in an advantageous position to effect a positive growing situation as we design for streetscapes and roadway conditions. That design responsibility requires us to educate our design teams on considerations such as the shortcomings or scarcity of suitable soils, and to impress upon them the importance of installing realistic and survivable depths of soil for plantings.

Similar to environmental stressors such as drought, insect stressors such as the Emerald Ash Borer and the Asian Longhorned Beetle are now well known by landscape architects and our peer professionals as tree killers. But many other insect infestations are more benign. The science of Integrated Pest Management teaches us that insect populations are cyclical. Japanese beetle has outdone itself in the past five years, and their foliar grazing has reduced the vigor of many a susceptible Linden. This is an indication that we are in high cycle for this pest. While the local beetle population is likely to reduce in 5-10 years’ time, we can aid in the reduc-

tion by temporarily avoiding planting their desired foods, so as not to contribute to the problem. And while elm breeding programs have finally provided several new resistant elms for our use, some are still tasty to small flea weevils. The result of this weevil grazing is a mild disfigurement to the foliage, not death. Integrated Pest Management teaches that the incidence of flea weevil infestation occurs during drought years. Again, our tree choices should be influenced by observing and learning from these patterns, so as to avoid future problems and create resilient and sustainable designs.

WHILE LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS ARE POWERLESS TO CONTROL THE OCCURRENCE OF CONDITIONS SUCH AS DROUGHT, WE ARE IN AN ADVANTAGEOUS POSITION TO EFFECT A POSITIVE GROWING SITUATION AS WE DESIGN FOR STREETSCAPES AND ROADWAY CONDITIONS. To recap, how can the patterns evident in our leafy canopies teach us and inform our design skills?

Picture: Mentally toggle back and forth between the juvenile and mature images of the trees you are specifying. Many of the juvenile elm hybrids look nothing like their elm parents. Princeton and New Horizon Elm appear tall and slender until they reach 5” caliper, when they begin to mature into their arching canopy form. Get to know the seasons of life of your trees.

Anticipate and Predict: We don’t need to be scientists, but we do need to invest our designs with the products of science and post construction observation. Known diseases and insect pests can affect trees on a sliding scale from killing, maiming, and disfigurement. Get to know what triggers each of the vectors of decline in a tree.

Diversify: No tree is perfectly suited to drought, flood, and salt, or is resistant to all diseases or insects. Diversity creates interest

and protects our streetscape from catastrophic species attrition. Consider use of trees that are worthy growers, and tolerant of nature’s insults, even if they do experience some seasonally disfiguring effects. Consider populating your designs with smaller blocks of trees of similar growth forms instead of long linear monocultures. Try at least one new species of tree that you may not be familiar with each project. Watch and learn.

Nurture: Assess planting locations and conditions. If clay subsoil or gravelly soils are the starting point, understand that they may be the trigger for a drought response. So make sure that suitable topsoils are available in generous depths surrounding tree rootballs. 12” is passable, but 18” would be optimal. Design planting situations for success, not failure.

Plan for change. Understand that the form and character of trees will change as they mature. Assume that there will be both longevity and attrition. Consider that some design situations, like heavily salted highways and streetscapes, are best suited for a 10-15 year horizon design, while others, like local roads and turfed parkways may be suited for a 50 year horizon.

As landscape architects, we can become better designers and stewards of the natural environment if we learn to hone our observation skills. The lessons to be learned are all around us if we open our eyes and explore. The proof is in the pattern.

(This article dedicated to the memory of our departed colleague, Charles J. Crump, whose body of work on transportation projects exhibited the joy and love of designing for people, plants, and a sense of place.)

Laura Knowles Verden is a degreed Landscape Architect and Associate at SmithGroupJJR. She has designed landscapes for nearly 40 streetscape and median projects in the City of Chicago, including Wacker Drive, South Michigan Avenue, Ashland, Irving Park, and South Halsted Streets. Her well-rounded transportation portfolio includes IDOT, ISTHA, METRA, and municipal work. Laura credits her love of plant material to mentoring by author and professor, Gary Hightshoe, and Tony Tyznik, FASLA, ret.

Morton Arboretum.

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Making the Case for Landscape Architecture

By Terry Warriner Ryan, FASLA Chair // ASLA Marketing Committee

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ast October, the ILASLA Marketing Committee hosted a meeting with Chapter members to hear Barbara Deutsch, FASLA, discuss the Landscape Architecture Foundation’s (LAF) Landscape Performance Series and to encourage members to submit project applications prior to the deadline for 2013. The meeting was attended by almost two dozen members, including faculty from IIT. The Landscape Performance Series (LPS) is an online interactive set of resources to show the value of sustainable landscape solutions and provide tools for designers, agencies and advocates, in order to quantify benefits and make the case for sustainable landscapes. The LPS currently includes over 60 case study briefs of high-performing projects. The LAF’s unique research collaboration process (called Case Study Investigation: CSI) matches selected practitioners with funded faculty-student research teams to document the benefits of exemplary high-performing projects.

Identified as a priority, the ILASLA Chapter Marketing Committee will be promoting those projects that successfully matriculate through the LAF/CSI program, with the intention of producing a book for sale at the 2015 ASLA Annual Meeting in Chicago. However, a critical mass of projects is needed.

The deadline for submittal of applications for 2013 was November 30 and we are pleased to announce that a total of ten projects were submitted by Illinois firms, nine of which are for projects in Illinois.

Provided they all qualify, this meets our stated goal of at least nine projects per year needed to amass a sufficient quantity of projects worthy of publication. We are also very pleased that both IIT and

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UIUC have submitted applications to participate in CSI teams.

The Marketing Committee will be anticipating the results of the application process, but in the meantime, we will be assisting LAF in the raising of funds to facilitate the CSI teams, as well as investigating other means to publicize the existing LPS projects done by Illinois firms.

THE LANDSCAPE PERFORMANCE SERIES (LPS) IS AN ONLINE INTERACTIVE SET OF RESOURCES TO SHOW THE VALUE OF SUSTAINABLE LANDSCAPE SOLUTIONS AND PROVIDE TOOLS FOR DESIGNERS, AGENCIES AND ADVOCATES,IN ORDER TO QUANTIFY BENEFITS AND MAKE THE CASE FOR SUSTAINABLE LANDSCAPES. If you are not familiar with the Landscape Performance Series, please go to www.LAFoundation.org and navigate to the Landscape Performance Series. To get an understanding of the LPS/CSI process, review the categorization, take a look at a few case studies and think about how your projects might become a part of this body of work. You can search for projects by Illinois location, but you will find that there are works by Illinois firms that are out of state, too.

We have a lot of work ahead of us. Even though the deadline for 2013 has just recently passed, please consider submitting a project application this fall. The Marketing Committee would like to have very wide participation in this program.

If you considered submitting something this fall but found the time deadline impossible to meet or the application too difficult, please contact Terry Warriner Ryan at marketing@il-asla.org to discuss your future application submission.

Terry Warriner Ryan, FASLA, is a partner and licensed landscape architect at Jacobs/ Ryan Associates, www.jacobsryan.com. She is a former Illinois Chapter Trustee and is currently the Chair of the ILASLA Marketing Committee.

New parks will be access points to the Bloomingdale Trail.

Toward the Bloomingdale Trail ILASLA’s Professional Enrichment Series: The Bartlett Seminars, recently presented “The Bloomingdale: Tracking Progress on Chicago’s Next Great Park,” a presentation by Beth White, director of the Chicago Area Office of the Trust for Public Land, and Ben Helphand, president, Friends of the Bloomingdale Trail and executive director of NeighborSpace. Following are highlights from their presentation.

• The Bloomingdale Trail, which will transform an unused elevated rail line on Chicago’s Northwest Side, will stretch nearly three miles from Ashland, in Wicker Park/Bucktown, on the east to Ridgeway, in Logan Square/Humboldt Park, on the West. It will run along Bloomingdale Ave., which is a few blocks south of Armitage.

• The Bloomingdale will be nearly twice as long as New York’s famed High Line.

• Having received 22 proposals from around the world, the selection committee chose a team whose lead landscape architect is Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates.

• Art has been a longtime feature of the elevated rail line that will become the Bloomingdale, with murals on its walls dating back to the 1970s. To ensure that art will remain a prominent feature, the design team includes a landscape-scale sculptor. The goal is to make the trail a living work of art.

architects developed full-size models of portions of it. These “physical vignettes” were key to the charettes’ success.

• 85,000 people live within a half-mile of the future trail.

• Developing the Bloomingdale will cost $91 million, more than half of which will be privately funded. Currently, $50 million is in hand.

• One of the keys to bringing this dream of local residents to reality is that they have continued to generate interest in the project through publicity, special exhibits and other means – even during lulls in direct action related to the trail.

• Public participation has been central to the plan’s development. To help members of the public envision the trail during public charettes, the landscape

• On a fast-track, the trail will open as a transportation corridor by the end of 2014. Amenities will be added by the end of 2015.

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A Flight Path to Sustainability [continued from page 1] USDA Wildlife Services for use at airports and the idea of vegetative green roofs adjacent to the airfield was considered unthinkable. The Chicago Department of Aviation (CDA) championed a sedum blanket green roof for the North Air Traffic Control Tower (NATCT) Base Building since sedum is not considered a wildlife attractant. The vegetative green roofs built at O’Hare have been very successful and the FAA is very receptive to additional installations. Severe storms over the last two years have damaged various standard roofing systems requiring costly repairs; none of the vegetative green roofs have been adversely impacted by these storms, and they continue to thrive.

SUSTAINABILITY AT CHICAGO’S AIRPORTS IS GUIDED BY THE CDA SUSTAINABLE AIRPORT MANUAL - A LIVING DOCUMENT THAT INTEGRATES AIRPORTSPECIFIC SUSTAINABLE PLANNING AND PRACTICES INTO ALL AIRPORT FUNCTIONS The CDA continues to work with the USDA to expand the list of approved plants. By proposing maintenance plans of shearing spent flowers so they are not allowed to produce fruit and thinning branching structures to prevent roost-

ing, plants like Viburnum and Cornus have been conditionally approved. This has allowed for more diverse planting. As maintenance is also an issue, existing annual beds have been reduced by about 20 percent and perennial beds have been expanded into former turf areas, providing layers of seasonal color since 2009. This creates a rich backdrop for colorful annual edge planting. Drip irrigation has replaced traditional irrigation in reconfigured beds, reducing potable water consumption.

Rosemarie S. Andolino, the CDA is committed to the triple bottom line of sustainability – people, planet and profit. The OMP’s SDM has been expanded into the Sustainable Airport Manual (SAM), which is revised annually and now includes airport Planning, Operations and Maintenance, and Tenant and Concessions. Transportation

UNDER THE LEADERSHIP OF CHICAGO MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL AND CDA COMMISSIONER ROSEMARIE S. ANDOLINO, THE CDA IS COMMITTED TO THE TRIPLE BOTTOM LINE OF SUSTAINABILITY – PEOPLE, PLANET AND PROFIT.

Over the past three years, the southwestern corner of O’Hare International Airport has been developed to accommodate additional runways. As part of this development, a landscaped buffer has been built in Bensenville.

About 18 acres of green space has been completed with sustainable plantings including tall fescue, ground cover, perennials, shrubs and trees. No irrigation system is used at this site. has a significant impact on the environment, Between 2010 and 2012 about 150 mature and by working with stakeholders, tentrees were salvaged from demolition sites and ants and concessionaires, that impact can transplanted into this green space, as well as be mitigated. HMS Host manages various other locations at O’Hare. Salvaged river rock restaurants at O’Hare. Besides implementhas been used as decorative edging at various ing healthy food options, it collects coffee sites to create a buffer from winter salt damgrounds for off-site composting and has age. Mature evergreen trees were harvested introduced biodegradable packaging for its and the branches, rife with pine cones, were ‘To Go’ menu offerings. Used grease is colused in the decorative winter displays near the lected and recycled into biofuel. The Urban Terminal Buildings.

Garden in the Rotunda mezzanine grows fresh herbs which are used in select airport Under the leadership of Chicago Mayor restaurants and are available for purchase Rahm Emanuel and CDA Commissioner in “To Go” containers at O’Hare’s Farmers Market. Thus, the travel experience for passengers is enhanced, and it makes good business sense to the concessionaires.

Also available for purchase at O’Hare concessions are Beeline bath and body products, made from the honey harvested at the O’Hare apiary. This first on-airport beehive farm was installed in 2011 on undeveloped land on the far eastern side of O’Hare, and produced 1,200 pounds of honey from 28 beehives. It has expanded to 50 beehives in 2012. The honey is harvested and processed by ex-offenders who get a second chance and job training through a partnership between CDA and the North Lawndale Employment Network (NLEN) – Sweet Beginnings Division.

The CDA continually explores different ideas for potential implementation at O’Hare.

Urban Garden in the O’Hare Rotunda

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Recently, the City of Chicago issued for bid, Sustainable Vegetation Management Grazing Services. A shepherd and grazing animals will be employed to control brush overgrowth on remote sites at O’Hare that pose difficulty for heavy equipment. This pilot program will provide a more environmentally-friendly way to clear brush than motorized equipment at a significantly reduced cost, and is scheduled to begin in spring 2013. San Francisco and Atlanta-Hartsfield International Airports, among others, have used grazing animals for this same purpose.

The need for greener solutions is growing in the aviation industry. In 2009, the CDA hosted its first Airports Going Green Conference, an annual event that brings together airports, airlines, cargo carriers, federal agencies, concessions and airplane manufacturers to share sustainable initiatives and discuss lessons learned. Boeing is actively testing biofuels in commercial aircraft, and strongly believes this is the future. We take a good look at our industry and collectively

challenge ourselves to improve our operations, design and construction practices and community outreach. The SAM is a living document that evolves from the valuable input of the Airport Going Green Conference participants. The latest version can be found at www.airportsgoinggreen.com What does the future hold for O’Hare International Airport and what is our sustainable path? Possibilities include: an on-site recycling facility, solar field for on-site renewable energy, consolidated rental car facility with a greywater carwash, and an alternative fueling station. These are all things to look forward to, and are detailed in CDA’s sustainability report and plan, A Sustainable Path. Sustainability, once a choice at O’Hare and other airports, is proving to be an asset as well as a necessity, as we navigate the 21st century.

Dorothy Izewski, R.A. has worked for the Chicago Department of Aviation at O’Hare International Airport as a Supervising Architect for the past 15 years. Her responsibilities have included the management of Terminal building maintenance, design review of renovation projects, and construction coordination. In 2009 she began working on the Landscaping and Exterior Seasonal Decoration Programs. Sustainability has been a constant consideration on all projects. She is a registered architect in the State of Illinois and received her professional Bachelor of Architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago.

174,442 SF green roof at the Fedex Sorting Facility at O’Hare

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