Landscape Architecture Portfolio

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE

MICHAEL ELIZABETH MOORE

ABOUT ME

After 15 years in the event and theater industry, I decided to switch my career to Landscape Architecture to enrich the environment and community. As a grant research assistant, I concentrate on community engagement, site planning, and planting for Paris, Texas. I learn quickly and am confident in taking on new projects. As a designer, I apply my past experiences with graphic and 3D skills as I pursue my master’s degree in Landscape Architecture. With this experience, I can confidently take a project from conception to production. My ability to communicate, both verbally and visually, is an asset that has helped me in the workplace and educational settings.

MAV TRACERS - 1st PLACE

During the first two weeks of our Spring Studio this year, I grouped up with a fellow landscape graduate student, Patricia Cerda, and three never-before-meet Sustainable Urban Design undergraduates: Alex Averco, Lekammrun Woods, and Amanda Nguyen. The competition brief requested students to design a long-needed plan to bridge the gap between the University of Texas at Arlington’s west and east sides of Cooper Street.

A challenging but enriching experience. Everyone contributed strengths to make this competition successful, leaving all our egos outside the studio. We focused

on analyzing the existing conditions and building a realistic, phased plan to be built upon by professional landscape architects, architects, city officials, and engineers.

03 04 02

OPPORTUNITIES 01 02 03 04

Expand community space for students, faculty, and staff, as well as the Arlington residence.

Chance to unite West and East campus as one united campus. Safely reroute pedestrians and bikers away from Cooper Street.

Increase safety and decrease noise pollution, contributing to better health for the community.

CONSTRAINTS 05 06 07 08

Cooper is a main arterial road from North to South, and temporary construction will affect traffic.

SCAN FOR WINNING BOARDS! 08 01

Any solution will be a substantial financial and maintenance cost.

Rerouting students, faculty, staff, and non-campus pedestrians and bikers during construction.

Existing trees on the West and East of Cooper Street need protection during construction.

Potential Green Pockets for rerouting pedestrian and biking circulation.

Mural on existing retaining walls - Phase 1Student Competition.

Terracing potential to reconnect Main Library to Texas Hall.

50-year old trees that need to be preserved from construction.

Expand campus for students, faculty, and staff, as well as the Arlington residence.

The goal is to create active, passive, and visual experiences between waterfowl and users, emphasizing ecology and experiential aesthetics. The varied topography and vegetation make forms that direct the user through the desired spaces. Three significant areas, the main pond/entrance, the overlook, and the prairie loop, have a direct link to the focal point, the aerated fountain.

After entering through the colonnade of trees delineating the central axis of the park, the user chooses to either experience the park pictorially (from the deck), actively (down the main path), or passively (the flanking gravel paths leading to the

secondary spaces). All seating is either large boulders or carved-out rock bench seating. The aerated fountain, a functional monument, provides filtration and oxygenation. The fountain orients the user with sound and visual sensory cues from all areas in the park.

NATURAL EDGE POND

AERATED FOUNTAIN ENTRY PAVING OUTER DUCK SWALES

BOULDER SEATING

AQUTIC PLANTS

LATIN COMMON TYPE FUNCTION

1. Protection

Taxodium distichum var distichum Bald Cyprus

Salix nigra Black Willow

Pontederia cordata Pickerelweed

Sagittaria spp. Arrowhead

3. Erosion contro TR

2. Shelter and Shade

1. Protection

2. Erosion contro TR

1. Filtration

3. Dragonflies BG

2. Waterfowl food

1. Aggressive

2. Waterfowl food BG

Hydrolea ovata Waterleaf

Echinochloa muricata Wild Millet

Potamogeton nodosus Longleaf Ponweed

1. Filtration

2. Waterfowl food AQ

1. Filtration

2. Waterfowl food GR

1. Filtration

3. Oxygenator AQ

2. Waterfowl food

STUDIO II PROFESSOR; LETORA ANDERSON SPRING 2022

Biophilic design seeks to connect our inherent need to affiliate with nature in the modern built environment. The purpose of The Pond Gallery is to create that connection with art and surrounding nature while creating a place for reflection and inspiration. Introducing natural lighting, relaxing sounds, and vegetation can enhance mental health and productivity.

There is one main space and two secondary spaces. Level One, The Lawn and The Gallery, the spaces stimulate while the rectilinear form directs movement and encourages socialization. Level Two consists of a series of ramps and patios for an additional second space that focuses on transition and small gatherings. Level Three is the most secluded and tranquil, but the main space and the users’ final destination.

The water feature directs focus with light and sound. The overhead skylight water pools allow translucent light into the gallery space. The vegetation transitions through the space as it would on a pond margin, from wet feet plants on level one in planters to dry-tolerant plants on level three.

BILLOWING PLANTS OVER RAILING

BIOPHILIC DESIGN - SYDNEY

VEGETATION WALLS

AQUTIC PLANTS

STUDIO I PROFESSOR; DR. JOOWON IM FALL 2021

“I want a money pit!”

“Sometimes I just want to be in a cave.”

“What if we had a race car track in the air for go-carts.”

“Let’s put in a Mcdonald’s, so there is always food.”

“Swings!”

“What is your dream courtyard?” The young minds at South Davis Elementary in Arlington, Texas, ignited with possibilities. The fundamental aim is to create a nurturing space for children to have the ability and freedom to learn, play, and explore.

The lack of design intent hinders the current use of the courtyard. Without direction and a flexible purpose, a purely open space can impede learning and relaxation. Designated, adaptable areas, such as planter-bed desks and a rain garden moat, allow creativity and education to flourish in a safe and contained environment.

I want the young minds at South Davis to have a sense of whimsy and function in their new courtyard with low maintenance and an environment to learn and create as top priorities.

PLANTING DESIGN PROFESSOR; DAVID HOPMAN SPRING 2022

This Taxonomy garden uses native and well-adapted plants for alkaline clay and the common soil condition for Blackland Prairies. With a focus on contrast in form and harmony in line, this taxonomy garden’s overall spatial characteristic is relaxed and not too wild or overgrown. The garden has interest and structure in the winter, showing mixed flowering, foliage, and structural interest yearround. Both sun and shade plants populate the space for the best effect and horticultural advantage. One focus is the butterfly garden with intermingled matrix, accent, and scattered plants.

The garden is at least 75% plants by square footage, and plants define spaces and enclosures with height, mass, and placement. Various plants form direct views and divide the space into smaller vignettes with nodes of refuge as points of interest and focus. The zones are horticulturally compatible and need water no more than once a week after establishment.

Michael

STUDIO III PROFESSOR; MICHAEL AVERITT FALL 2022

The site, located in Zhengzhou, a part of the Henan Province in China, is part of a broader greenway implemented as a segment of China’s larger initiative to reduce pollution and add ecological spaces to their rapidly developing cities. OTC is the developer, and they have decided to build an ecology center focused on education and art for the community. In just 20 years, 75% of China’s population is expected to live in urban environments. This rapid growth makes dramatic economic and creative ecological initiatives even more important.

What is creative ecology? We all know what ecology means: the relationship of organisms to one another and their physical surroundings; Creative ecology is just that, but looking outside the conventional box and coming up with unique solutions to unique problems while still adhering to ecology’s main principles.

Miyawaki Method is an example of creative ecology. The main principle involves planting a dense polyculture of climax trees in a relatively small urban area. Suppose the system is followed closely and responsibly in 15 to 20 years. In that case, there will be a literal forest, bypassing the century it naturally takes and recreating just the last 20 years of succession. China’s endeavor to plant trees is familiar; the Chinese government has been doing this for years. But the method has been mainly monoculture poplars. Planting the same species repeatedly in the same area is not sustainable and will eventually lead to significant issues involving death and disease.

Dense afforestation, such as with the Miyawaki Method, can be implemented on some square meters of space to improve the soil and living conditions for other farmed street trees. These street trees can be grown locally near the Miyawaki forest and transplanted to nearby rapidly built areas by the same developer. The cultivated street trees provide an economic incentive to maintain and care for the woods until they reach maturity. Once the street trees are transplanted, after about 2-3 years, OTC develops the remaining areas into social spaces for the community and art. The nearby mini-forests will attract fauna for the local community to view, but each can still have its own space.

Other benefits of afforestation and the Miyawaki Method are flood mitigation, more prosperous soil and biodiversity, groundwater development and restoration, and a beautiful environment for the local community in an ever-growing cityscape. By placing nature’s most substantial structure with a bit of creativity, all of China’s developing cities, and the world for that matter, can benefit from this method.

MINI - FOREST

MATURE URBAN TREES

RELOCATED TREES

ACCENTS

SERVICE ROAD

URBAN WETLAND

UNDERSTORY/PERENNIALS

PEDESTRIAN PATHS

ORNAMENTAL TREES

THEORY & HISTORY PROFESSOR; DR. DIANE ALLEN FALL 2022

An abstract, symbolic performance work to depict the raw emotion of displaced people in America. I used philosophical words from 5 great socially-minded Landscape architects: Frederick Law Olmstead, Clarence S. Stein, Garrett Eckbo, Laurie Olin, and Walter Hood.

Lawrence Halprin’s relationship inspires the movement with dance and the body in the landscape. The static represents the voices not heard, and the balloons represent hope, sometimes false, fragile hope.

The fabric is the symbol that ties us together and the perseverance we can withstand as a community. Do these philosophical words mean anything when confronted with real people, real problems, and a real future? Or are they just static?

Special thank you to Anastasia Malouf. Her courage, kindness, and openness to do this project with someone she just met are aweinspiring. She did not hesitate to help me, and I am so grateful.

WATCH NOW ON VIMEO!

“CHANGES” - LAZURUS - PERFORMED BY CRISTIN MILIOTI

ORIG. DAVID BOWIE

KEYWORDS & AI GENERATED ART

MICHAEL ELIZABETH MOORE

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE

GRADUATE - MAY 2024

EXPERIENCE

GRANT RESEARCH ASSISTANT

DEC 2022 - CURRENT

UTA - ARLINGTON - LETORA ANDERSON

> Assist in graphics for a grant project in Paris, TX.

> Drafting, rendering, & project report layout.

> Community engagement and finalize design.

FABRICATION LAB ASSOCIATE

JUN 2022 - DEC 2022

UTA - ARLINGTON - MAIN LIBRARY

> CNC lasers, routers, vinyl, 3D printers.

> Helped learners with design in Illustrator.

GRAPHIC & PRODUCTION DESIGN

APR 2011 - DEC 2021

STAGEWORKS - FORT WORTH, TEXAS

> Graphics & digital production

> CNC programing, and vinyl art.

> Managed the craft shop and laser projects.

> Renderings, budgets and shop drawings.

> Tech support and office management.

SCENIC PAINTING & SET DESIGN

MAY 2008 - DEC 2012

>Texas Christian University - Fort Worth, TX

> Kids Who Care - Fort Worth, TX

> Casa Manana - Fort Worth, TX

> Exclusive Events - St. Louis, MO

> PCPA - Santa Maria, CA

> Zach Theatre - Austin, TX

EDUCATION SKILLS

UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT ARLINGTON - TX

MASTER’S DEGREE- MAY 2024

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE

UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN - TX

BACHELOR’S OF FINE ART - MAY 2007

ART THEORY & DESIGN

STUDY ABROAD

UT ARLINGTON - SPAIN - PORTUGAL

MAY - JUNE 2021

ART THEORY & ARCHITECTURE

MICHAELANGELO INSTITUTE - FLORENCE - ITALY

MAY - JUNE 2018

FRESCO PAINTING

INTERNSHIPS

PCPA - SANTA MARIA - CA

2008 - 2009

SCENIC DESIGN & PAINTING

UT PERFORMING ARTS SHOP - AUSTIN - TX

2007 - 2008

SCENIC PAINTING

THEATRE & EVENTS PORTFOLIO