JESSICA SUZANNE ROUNDY master of landscape architecture
WORK SAMPLES process
drawing samples
1.1 Graduate Thesis: Dissolving Topographies 1.2 Graduate Studio: Urban Systems
4.1 Grading Plan 4.2 Planting Plan 4.3 Detail Sections 4.4 Data Mapping
built work 2.1 Lopez Island Residence 2.2 Common Ground Sustainable Community 2.3 San Miguel de Allende Residence 2.4 El Rincon Community Center
published work 3.1 ArquiTK 3.2 Metropolis 3.3 Feed Forward Feedback
resume
process
process 1.1 Graduate Thesis Dissolving Topographies: Coastal Markings in a Dynamic Edge Condition
Advisor: Karen Nelson As a dynamic edge, the dissolving terrain of the coast creates a fluid environment in which the nature of resources must be critically examined. By framing this condition, first perceptually and then physically, the edge becomes spatial while continuing to fluctuate as an active condition. Upon closer investigation of this natural coastal process two distinct edge conditions emerge, each with a particular scale of time and space: the tidal edge and the fresh/saltwater edge. This landscape becomes an active field addressing both transitory and bound conditions. In order to defend the cultural and ecological habitats present on site, topographical interventions reinterpret the traces of a Naval Base as a cultural structure to facilitate the framing of edge conditions on multiple scales.
CONCEPT The Dynamic Edge: My individual process typically begins with concepts rooted in scientific principles. In order to begin framing the dynamic edge, a lens for reading boundary conditions must be established. Only once the perception of the boundary has been framed can physical interventions be designed. The lens with which to read the dynamic condition of the coast is based on five concepts: fluidity, natural processes, terrain, edge, and frame.
ANALYSIS Investigating Site & Systems: Along the shoreline of Prudence Island, on the site of a former United States Naval Base, a series of abandoned bunkers form a cultural infrastructure within a larger ecological network of coastal wetlands. The pressure points between competing systems have been mapped and extruded as sites for interventions.
DESIGN PROPOSAL Topographic Interventions within the Dynamic Edge Condition: A series of site-specific topographic interventions frame the dual systems of the coast by extruding terrain along the proximity of fresh and saltwater systems. Via a path network the berms link to the larger scale landforms of the re-activated bunkers. By facilitating recreation and enriching ecological habitats, the dynamic edge can at once be inhabited and defended.
process 1.2 Graduate Studio Urban Systems: Dilution as Conduit Between Urban Infrastructure and Natural Systems
Professor: Elizabeth Hermann This project investigates dilution as a medium to connect urban and natural systems in the form of waste water treatment. The elements of water, circulation, and movement are addressed by using filtration as a process that responds to ecological and cultural conditions. Systems are actively engaged by realizing waste and water runoff as raw urban materials and by capitalizing on such unseen resources. In a broad sense urbanism in this project takes on the attitude of a dualistic balance between concentrating density, in terms of existing and proposed infrastructure, and expanding natural systems, in terms of both passive and active open space.
ANALYSIS Mapping Systems: Due to site and program being a given in the studio process begins with analysis and in this instance was conducted through interdisciplinary collaborative research. This map conveys the relationships between waste, population growth, pools per capita, aquifer depletion, and bedrock. Working simultaneously in two and three-dimensions was critical to gaining additional insight into these complex relationships. CONCEPT Mapping Fluid: My individual conceptual design work is rooted in the systems explored during the analysis stage. The decision making process begins in this phase through testing how to move water across the site. The conceptual design of the site is also based on gestures derived from preexisting urban forms or directionality found in the site’s context. DESIGN PROPOSAL The Salt River Institute for Advanced Study in Water, Structure, and Appropriate Desert Dwelling: The final site plan is based on a cycle of water which is collected from multiple sources and diluted through a series of processes. Visual clues play a vital role in the site being an active educational experience. The water cycle is purposely exposed for this reason. The northwest portion of the site is developed in detail as the water cycle begins and ends here, offering the greatest educational experience, resulting in a focused density of public program and space.
built work
built work 2.1 Lopez Island Residence, 2009-Present Landscape Design & Installation San Juan Islands, Washington State Project Architect: Miller|Hull Partnership This modern single-family home sits strikingly above a meadow and within a homestead orchard. The landscape design seeks to blur the edges between the meadow/orchard and the contemporary spaces directly adjacent to the home through the use of grading and a plant palette based in grasses. Color is introduced with vibrant grasses to play off of the highlighted siding, echoing the introduction of bright green and orange to the otherwise metal and glass building by introducing the same colors to the existing evergreen and gold landscape. The scope of work included siting of the driveway and paths, grading plan, designing and installing an enclosed garden and entry gardens, and continual restoration of the meadow and orchard.
built work 2.2 Common Ground Sustainable Community, 2007-09 Construction & Landscape Design Lopez Island, Washington State Project Architect: Mithun The Lopez Community Land Trust’s Common Ground Housing Cooperative has won numerous awards for it’s sustainable design and living features such as straw-bale and natural plaster construction, solar power, permaculture, rain gardens, bioswales, and net-zero energy and water consumption. The scope of work included a construction internship, first in site-preparation to install infrastructure for both potable and non-potable water systems and to site structures; next to lead a team of interns in construction of the homes. I then worked directly for the Co-op to alleviate drainage problems through a new grading plan and implement low-cost landscape elements such as fencing and stonework.
built work 2.3 San Miguel de Allende Residence, 2009 Landscape Design San Miguel de Allende, Mexico Project Architect: GAMHA Arquitectos This residence is sited within the compound of a small ranch in the Guanacaste region of Mexico. From the porch the view unfolds layer by layer beyond the walls, through fields, groves, and mountains. To capture the same effect of unfolding, layered spaces the planting beds have been graded to include lomas, or mounds. By using a single plant palette across the site it has a sense of unity while the meandering paths and lomas help create individual spaces and destinations. Native drought-resistant plants were implemented in order to be lowmaintenance and fast to establish in the local climate. The scope of work included grading and planting plans, completed on and off-site.
built work 2.4 El Rincon Community Center, 2008 Design/Build El Rincon, Dominican Republic Instructors: Kyle Bergman & Sandy Lawton, Yestermorrow School In three-weeks time a team of students from the United States worked with local El Rincon citizens to design and build a new entry for their Women’s Center, which houses community events and an eco-tourism venture. Our main goal was to make the site both physically and visually accessible by implementing new circulation for both pedestrians and vehicles, and open gathering areas framed by fabric-formed retaining and seating walls. In addition to the entryway we also plumbed an existing cistern, the sole local source of water, and delivered it to a clean, street-side water plaza.
published work
Nombre del Proyecto: Casa Voris Ubicación: Ejido Guerrero, San Miguel de Allende, Gto., México Proyecto Arquitectónico: GAMHA Arquitectos Arquitectura de Paisaje: Jessica Roundy Superficie: Construcción 150 m2, Terreno 2 ha Fotografía: Geraldine Adeath M.
published work 3.1 ArquiTK Año 9 No. 52 (April 2010) Landscape Design Credit
published work 3.2 Metropolis Magazine Vol. 29, No. 7 (February 2010) Letter to the Editor
p. 2-3 prologue text p. 144-7 process models, photograms, sketches & artist’s statement
3.3 Feed Forward Feedback Rhode Island School of Design Graduate Process Book 2009 Contributing Writer & Artist
p. 86-7 interview
p. 4 introduction text
published work
Feed Forward Feedback Excerpts: p. 2-3 prologue text*: SHARED TERMINOLOGY -> This fall we asked grad students to share the terminology of their respective disciplines for the method they use to first develop a new concept. Architecture students use a “parti;” graphic design students “mind map;” ID students “prototype;” and if you’re in the glass department you “scratch and sniff.” Through this discussion two things happened: first, we translated terms particular to our own individual departments into a common language familiar to our entire RISD community. By doing so, words and ideas converged in a way that created a new glossary of terms, one that actually transcended disciplines. JESSICA ROUNDY >> PRIME MINISTER OF THE GRADUATE STUDENT ALLIANCE
p. 4 introduction text*: PROCESS TEAM >> This publication attempts to identify the ways in which RISD graduate students develop their work and how they define the creative process. When we look at the act of making across disciplines, we begin to identify themes, not necessarily based on a student’s department, but rather rooted in commonalities: materials, tools, or concepts. Feed Forward Feedback examines RISD’s process in a purely interdisciplinary way. Similar to how RISD graduate students created a new glossary of terms in the fall, here we have worked to create a new taxonomy of work--based on methods and materials rather than department or discipline. In these pages process becomes defined in terms of narrative, action, or object. As graduate students at RISD, we develop a unique and varied skill set that bridges mediums and dissolves conventional boundaries. The process book aims to capture the variety of ways in which those skills instigate and inspire out work. The following pages contain our process of collection and distillation. In Feed Forward we act as archaeologists, visiting your space and documenting place, objects, words and desktops. We hope to align thoughts and ideas through a visual juxtaposition of disparate spaces and text. Feedback is the culmination of all of your submissions, a place in which to reflect upon all artifacts discovered in Feed Forward and to find amongst them a generative value in their synthesis. PROCESS TEAM: JESSICA ROUNDY >> PRIME MINISTER OF GSA; CHARLOTTE POTTER >> AMATEUR ARCHAEOLOGIST; JOHN O’KEEFE >> AMATEUR ARCHAEOLOGIST; LUCAS ROY >> DESIGN CONQUISTADOR
p. 87 interview: “How do cultures and ecologies shift the balance of a self-sustaining island and how can design intervene to reset it?” JESSICA ROUNDY >> LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
“I’m studying cultural and ecological balance to determine what Prudence Island needs to be self-sustaining--in other words, what needs to be contained and bound versus what transcends the dynamic edge of it’s shoreline. Some of the big issues are seasonal--the difference between winter and summer populations and resources. What an island can sustain on its own, especially when you have population in flux, critically effects resources. Part of the Process is looking at what exists. I have been looking as a lot of derelict sites--old infrastructures, bunkers-questioning how we can repurpose infrastructure that has been left behind. If you step way back islands are an endangered species as far as landform goes. But if you consider them as a terrain they are connected to everything that surrounds them.” p. 147 artist’s statement: [114-116] JESSICA ROUNDY >> LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
114. process as: layering... PROCESS IS a series of layering; extracting individual elements, evaluating them, and piecing them together into a new form; this takes on a literal construction in the discipline of landscape architecture with topographic models; often, moments within the greater accumulation of layers reveal more than the final composite itself; it is as much about how to piece things together as how they will settle. 115. process as: evolution... PROCESS IS an evolution; it captures the way in which a concept is able to morph/evolve/shift/ change; in this way a single concept can transcend material or form; counter to having a formal or set way of doing things, it is fluid/dynamic in its nature. 116. process as: investigation... PROCESS IS an investigation; my work evolves through layers and multiples scales; I am interested in creating space itself that captures a process of layering and accumulation with an ever changing delineation; I come at this study from both macro and micro scales, examining Narragansett Bay as well as single droplets of water. *Text based on a presentation to the RISD Board Of Trustees given by Jessica Roundy, Fall 2008
drawing samples
drawing samples 4.1 Grading Plan (AutoCAD) Stormwater in Site Design, Demonstration Project Materials & Technology III, RISD, 2009 The proposed grading for the site of this Middle School facilitates the further development of two existing swales, provides access to the river, and returns the south portion of the site to a evenly sloping field for recreation. As a design concept pedestrian and water circulation are linked in order to support education and recreation. The two systems are located in close proximity to one another to allow students to traverse the site parallel to the network of stormwater planters and then between the two swales. In this regard the route of the water runoff should serve as an educational tool. An educational platform at the beginning of the path down to the river helps facilitate this. Best management practices are employed across the site to collect, filter, and direct stormwater runoff . Stormwater is collected from the rooftops of both existing and proposed structures and filtered through flow-through and infiltration planters, and is directed across the parking lot into a bioswale which connects to the river.
drawing samples
Cornus serica Red-Osier Dogwood
Adiantum pedatum Maidenhair Fern
4.2 Planting Plan (AutoCAD) Lopez Island Residence Entry Garden Built Work, 2010
Gaultheria shallon Salal
Arctostaphylos uva-ursi Kinnikinnick
Ilex crenata ‘Compacta’ Compacta Holly
Mahonia nervosa Low Oregon Grape
Mahonia aquifolium High Oregon Grape
Polystichum munitum Sword Fern
Vaccinium ovatum Evergreen Huckleberry
Aquilegia formosa Red Columbine
This planting plan introduces bright color to an otherwise evergreen palette in order to delineate pathways and direct visitors to the two points of entry of the house: breezeways painted in red-orange and chartreuse-green. Red (Imperata cylindrica) and green (Nassella tenuissima) lines are extended in the form of grasses from oblique angles where the colors of the breezeway siding are visible from the entry landscape. The pathways are sited along these lines so that the grasses at their sides visually lead to house with their color. The structure and texture of the grasses also make them stand out amidst the native evergreen shrubs and groundcovers which comprise the rest of the planting plan. To extend the concept of the entry garden into the larger landscape, the red line continues beyond the path which bisects it with native plants whose features turn red during various seasons (Cornus serica, Aquilegia formosa, Vaccinium ovatum) so that a portion of the red line remains visible stretching into the landscape year round.
Imperata cylindrica ‘Rubra’ Japanese Blood Grass Nassella tenuissima Mexican Feather Grass Panicum virgatum ‘Hanse Herms’ Red Switch Grass
drawing samples 4.3 Detail Sections (AutoCAD) Construction Details in Public Space Materials & Technology II, RISD, 2008 A series of various wall typologies form the constructed language within a proposed park setting as a repeated design element. The various wall typologies to be incorporated throughout the park include walls that are freestanding, retaining, seating, and planters. The walls are a critical tool both conceptually in order to define space and functionally in order to stabilize the sloping site. The two most common wall typologies across the site function as retaining walls and seating walls and provide planting beds or functional space on the side of the slope which they retain, adding value in their multiple programmatic functions.
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Delineating Flow Patterns with Hydrology Tools Principles of Hydrology, Brown University, 2009 a. flow direction b. flow accumulation c. stream network d. stream order e. watershed delineation d.
drawing samples 4.4 Data Mapping (ArcGIS & Microsoft Excel) Presenting Spatial/Temporal Precipitation Data Principles of Hydrology, Brown University, 2009 This report analyzes the spatial and temporal character of precipitation data in the area of the South Platte River Basin. Initial inspection of the data set identified dominant spatial features to be the elevation of stations and percentage of coverage, and temporal features to be mean monthly precipitation and annual precipitation. By charting the data set, it illustrates that precipitation peaks during the summer months in a relatively uniform curve, implying a monsoonal cycle. The presentation of data attributes with symbolization illustrates the dominant spatial features in the hydrological climate as a concentration of high annual precipitation averages corresponding to both the density of streams and the highest elevations within the region. A pattern is established with data points along streams that show a gradual increase in annual precipitation averages with proximity to either an outflow or convergence point.
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jessica suzanne roundy 681 lopez road lopez island, wa 98261 jroundy@g.risd.edu 206.595.6473
EDUCATION Rhode Island School of Design Master of Landscape Architecture, 2010
Providence, RI
Thesis: Dissolving Topographies: Coastal Markings in a Dynamic Edge Condition
Claremont McKenna College Claremont, CA Bachelor of Arts, Art History; Minor in Leadership, 2004 Thesis: Searching for a Sustainable Architectural Style: A History of Residential Architecture’s Dialogue with the Environment
INTERNSHIPS & EXPERIENCE Lopez Community Land Trust Construction Intern, 2007-09
Lopez Island, WA
Completed site-preparation, construction, landscape design, grading and landscaping for the award-winning Common Ground Housing Cooperative designed by Mithun.
Design Arts Group, Inc. Intern & Landscape Designer, 2005
Los Angeles, CA
Designed a rooftop garden, critiqued office design work, and created a catalog of product information.
The Miller|Hull Partnership Architecture Intern, 2003
Seattle, WA
Collaborated with staff to produce models, presentation boards, awards submissions, publications, and as-built drawings. Created a database for products.
dA Center for the Arts Intern & Assistant Curator, 2003
Pomona, CA
Managed publicity, oversaw related classes, and coordinated delivery of pieces for a show. Completed in conjunction with a research project on civic leadership.
SKILLS Design Broad experience in landscape design ranging in scale and scope from residential to urban with an emphasis on ecology, process, systems, integration, and collaboration.
Creative Mixed media modeling, hand drawing, hybrid drawing, collage, book and publication arts, digital photography and abstract analog photographic techniques.
Trade Concrete, timber-frame, straw-bale, and natural plaster construction, siting, grading, stonework, fencing, planting and pruning.
Programs Adobe CS4: Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign; Auto-CAD, 3DS Max; Arc-GIS; Sketch-Up; Rhino; Microsoft Office: PowerPoint, Excel, Word.
ACHIEVEMENTS & ACTIVITIES Volunteer, Fish & Bird Field Surveys, Fisherman Bay Marine Health Observatory, 2010 Volunteer, Website Development, Lopez Locavores, 2010 Student Leader of the Year/Student Leadership Scholarship, RISD 2009 Prime Minister, Graduate Student Alliance, RISD 2008-09 Project Coordinator & Contributing Writer, Feed Forward Feedback, RISD 2009 Student Representative, Search Committee for the Dean of Students, RISD 2009 Student Representative, Trustees Committee on Student Life, RISD 2008-09 Teaching Assistant, Department of Landscape Architecture, RISD 2007-09 Minister of Records & Communication, Graduate Student Alliance, RISD 2007-08 Landscape Architecture Department Liaison, RISD 2007-08 Member, Respond|Design, RISD 2007-08 Team Unity Award (Co-ed Team Captain), CMS Track & Field, 2003-04 Four-Year Letterman, NCAA Track & Field, CMS 2000-2004 Editor-in-Chief, The Ayer, CMC 2001-02