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CONTENTS M AR C H 2 00'

VOLUMIE II

• NUMBIER l

LAND MATTERS

113

115

LETTERS

124

RIPRAP

Sweet Danish design, crops climbing the walls, suburbia frowns on aioy/ul display, and news tidbits you can use. Editad by Linda Mclntyr.

PRACTICE

Iso

Manv DCl'eellOnS

These ~ndscapc architecture students earned their degrees stde by side, but since then they have gOlle off in many different directions. What can other young landscape architeCfJ learn /rom their experienceJ~

Edited by Daniel J08t,

Assoclata "av. LANDSCAPES OF COMPASSION 152

Recoining Unbroken A cathedral offers a garden to sex abuse victims. By Pat ... Ornat.ln PLANTS 166

Roots Erst Technology dmgned to unearth

land mines can be used to transplant trees. By Deborah Howe, .... v.

ON THE COVER

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TECHNOLOGY 164

As If It's Always Been

Planning for Water DemallCls Digital dota helps make better decisions_ By Jam ... L. Sipea, ASLA, and

Mickey O'B.I"n

The retrofit 0/a disused fai/loop amid revitalize central Atlanta. By Jonathan Lerner

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What docs this xl.'riscapc garden teach us about amscroiflg water in the desert? By R_hel Hill, Student ....u.

. l land supe Arehlhtture

BUYER'S GUIDE INDEX 1105

PRODUCT PROFILES 1116

Parenting a Garden A seaJide garden ill Southern Caltfomia has gone through a number 0/ changes as the owners make it their OWI/.

OESIGN 180

MUC H ZOot

1104

Why did dejigning the

By Ron Henderson, ASLA

Ring oJ Green

AD INDEX

WaIhingtoll Monument groulldr have to wait 120 years/or terrorist aUacks

to make it seem necessary?

PLANNING 1 74

DISPLAY

By Daniel Jost, Associate ASLA

OPINION

1120

Whar Will Save The Subw路bs? On subdividIng McManslons and other i mlOvaf;ve solutions to declining suburbs. B), Alii..". A.leff

or or

THE MAGAZINE THE AMERICAN SOCIETY LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS

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WAS ANGRY TilE LAST TIME I was on the National Mall for anything relaced co policies. Thac was exactly cwo years ago, when I joined che mass procesc of cens of chousands of ocher Americansagainsc (he warln Iraq (Land Maners, March 2007). \'{fhac adifference an election makes. TIle mood on January 20 was one of mass jubilation, and from my perch on the flank of the \'\fashingron Monument, I could catch glimpses up and down the mall. There, 1.8 million Americans-the largest crowd this city has ever seen- stood shoulder to shoulder in the freezing cold under that bright blue sky, all of us awai ting the inauguration ofBarack Obama as 44th pres ident of the United States. \'\f hen our new president finally began to speak, his opening remarks were sobering, even challenging. He spoke of"dlis wimer of our hardship" in a falcering economy. He told us chat "che ground has shifted" and that we need to make hard choices and prepare che nation for che demands of a new age. Lacer, waxing eloquent abouc our liberty, he reminded us chac people of every race and faith "can Join in celebration auoss this magnificent mall." But is che National Mall really magnificent? As J stood chere on char chrilling morning, yes, "America's Front Yard" seemed a mass gachering place like no other. After all, it's steeped in the history of our nation's capical, from Pierre L'Enfant's conception for an axial open space strecching from the Capirol to the Potomac River, through the McMillan Plan thar established its baroque sense of monumental grandeur, to Martin Lmher King's "I have a dream" speech- and Obama's inauguration. But what aboutday-to-day use? My friends at Project for Public Spaces (PPS) have relegated the mall to their Hall of Shame , charging char ic "is experienced mosc1y as a place to move

throug h between destinations," lacking outdoor cafes, movable chairs, and other PPS-style amenities. And in cruch, there may noc be a lot for tourists to do on the mal l excepc walk from one museum or monument co anocher. Still, chere's a fair amount of activicy for locals along che tWOmile-long corridor when che weather is decent. J happen to walk across the mall at lunch ro one or another of the adjoining ,gardens almost every weekday, and J usually see a Frislx""{' game going on. T here's ki te fly ing on weekends and ball h'"J.mes in the shadow of the \X!ashington Monument. In the summer it hosts events such as the Smithsonian Folklife Festival and July 4 fireworks. All this activity is the reason the grass on the mall is so patchy and the soil so compacted. More seriously, the mall is in need of repairs co its infrastructure (see "Pall Over the Mall," April 2(07). T heseextend fur beyond resodding the lawns-for example, the TIdal Basin seawall ac the T homas Jefferson Memorial has sunk nine inches in (he past year and needs ro be replaced. Apparently, Obama thinks the mall is imporcal1( to our national idel1(ity, because he included $200 million for it in his economic stimulus package. As I write this, Congress hasdiminatoo that funding. Given other funding oeedssuch ascreating jobs and recharging a faltering economy, should the mall be a funding priority for the first year of the Obama administration?

~ ,\A ~~~ J. William "Bill" Thompson, PASLA Editor / blhmnpsoll@as/a.rJrg

MARC M 20 0t LandsCipe

Architecture

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LETTE S Would You Pray in This Garden?

priest said at a retrea t I attended several years ago: Regarding prayer, there are different degrees. A man asked a priest, "Father, is it acceptable to pray while I smoke?" T he priest answered, '·why, yes, of course.·' Then the man asked, "T hen is ic all right to smoke while I pray?" T he priest answered, "Heavens, no!"

9/11 Memorial forgets Landscape Quality

invitation co pray or meditate should be 10-

SUSAN SUDDJ IAN,

HE 911 I PENTAGON MEMORJAL("The Pentagon Memorial Story,·' January) is a perfen example of why memorials should never be designed and implemented until 20 to 30 years after the evem. Time and perspective are required to translate the event into a meaningful memorial thar wililasr the ages.

mced and designed with due mnsiderarion to its purpose. Some of the most magnificent omdoor spaces for prayer and meditation are rhe simplest and most mnnecred to nature, withom [he requisite srames, memorial benches, ofocherembellishmencs. One shining example IS the Thofncruwn chapel in Arkansas. Thorncrown, with irs invisible glass walls and loca-

STUDENT AFFILIATE ASLA

CHARLES A. WARSINSKE , ASLA

CaPi/o/a, Ca/ij(f/"t/ia

Seatile

HAVE TO AGREE with your assessment of the "prayer garden" (land Maners, Febru-

ary). Although I believe prayer isa very perSOtlal maner and can be done und(-rany conditions (how aoom the soldiers on the frunt

line in Iraq, for insrancf'--where's their garden?), r agree that a garden intended as an

cion in the wtxXis, all bur disappears inco rhe essenceofspirit chut connects (he visicor with rhe place.

HOUGH [ HAVE no particular knowledge of che Diocese decision making, che onl y racionale J can work ouc is chat che space is abo ut Pope J oh n Paul II, not the

COMMEND THE DESIGN CREATIVllY of this memorial, alchough che design metaphors may be lost on the average visitor. TIle one thing the visitors surely won'r miss is rhepoor-qualicy landscaping. \'{Then J first viewed images of the design concept III the May 2003 LI\i\I, I was impressed. T he pleasing images of shade-covered pachways wich symbolic memorial benches and fountains stuck in my head. I was chen dis.'lppoinced to see the phocos of the completed plaza aanuary) wich virtually no green space and only scattered crees thac offer little shade. Anyone who has spent cime outside on a hoc D.C. summer day knows that the lack of shade will make a space highly uninviting, especially one comprising mostly hard surfaces.

" When will our profession learn how to successfully incorporate trees into the landscape? "

AnQ(her place I have visiced, alone in December, was Hamilcon Pool- a nature preserve/park just west of Auscin, Texas. Ic has a natural clamshellshaped cave wich a somecimes dripping, somecimesgushing wacerfall and emerald pool chac evencually Row co che Pe<Jemales R iver. Ic is about a mile hike from the parking lor co che pool. Much like walking a labyrinch, che woodsy walk down co che pool starts the unwinding of mental chatcer, unci I, reaching che safety of the clamshell cave, che visicor is so enchanted with the beauty of the place, all worldly cares evaporate. The sense of renewal and peace that come from quiet contemplation and praye r is what will draw a person coa prayer garden. Any quiec space chac makes a visitor feel safe, protected, and yes, connected will always be a perfect place to pray.

p raccice of prayer. TIle garden is p ublic because J ohn Paul II was a public pontiff. But whac if the focus were prayer? Could a designer of che postmodem era express che philosophy of prayer and provide for ics practice? TOM STURCH , ASLA Tampa, F/(fI"ida

CATHY ING H AM, ASLA HOIIJ/on

s A CATIIOLIC CONVERT, it is disappointing to learn of a "prayer garden ·· dedicated to our dear Holy Fatber that has a location and access chat are less than ideal. Your quote of our Lord is appropriate, I think, and reminds me of something a

PeltlJOI Memorial,

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MUC H 2 0 n

LlInd&caPIIArcbitllcturll l 15

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LETTERS This lack ofquaJiry landscaping might be expected on a projcn with a tightly

constrained budget, but in this case $22 million was spent on the memorial. It seems that some of chac could have been invested In sizable shade crees to provide some immediate design and miuoclimare benefits. While the paperbark maples they used afC my personal f.worite for year-round beumy, in this space they are undersized- noe to mencion that many of the individual trees are of very low quality. When Benjamin Forgey writes, "Youobserve the wonder of the young paperbark maples," I have to quescio n whether he was wondering if rhe crees were

the obvious problems with its trees? Did no one notice that many of the trees in the photos were dead? \Xlhy was there on ly one murageous woman who played the role of the child in this moclem retelling of The Emperor', NewClotM while the landscape architects played the parts of the tailors and the em peror's murt iers?

carefully designed benches, paving pattern dividers, and water features with their buttress roots placed too d ose to these objects. T he facwrs that led w the initial decl ine and future failures of trees in this space are evident from the first design ideas and continued through the entire process. It was not a specification or detail flaw, not poor maintenance, but a fun d amental lack of understanding of how trees grow. When will we learn- and until we do should we mnrinue to be entrusted with rhe design of spaces that include trees?

" I am not talking about buying your way into sustainability with expensive and complicated site features but changing construction, design, and cultivation practices. "

still alive. At lease a half dozen are clearly dead in the phmos, and many appear to be stressed, poorly branched, or of such aqualicy thac no landscape architect should be selecting chern uea nursery. even if the trees were specimens, there are not nearly enough of them ro provide any meaningful shade for at least another decade. It appears that so much fOCus and budget went into the metaphorical bench strucrures and complex foumain systems that rhe simple aspect of landscape quality was left as an afrerthought. TIlis serves as a reminder to landscape architects that the quality of t he plants has a tremendous impact on how people will view a finished project.

T hank goodness fo r the unnamed woman with the insight to realize her husband's tret: might die. In one of their few smart arboriculrural decisions, the design team wisely implemented a dramatic reduction in the number of (Tees. One hundred more crees in thiS space would have created a [Tee canopy with serious light competition shortly after plaming, setting up many of the conditions that contributed ro the fuilureofDan Kiley's NCNB Plaza in 't'lmpa, Florida. O n opening day, most (Tees were highly stressed with nearly 20 percent of dle trees in the phomsdead ordying. T he trees that do survive will likely push over or displace the

JAMES URBAN, FASLA

Annapolis, /IIaryl,:md

Is Sustainable Design Affordable? ES, SUSTAINAIlLE DESIGN can

Ybe cost-effective for the average

home owner and the commercial developerCGreen H ouse in the City," January). I am not calking about buying your way Into sustainability wlth expensive and complicated site features but chang ing construction, design, and cultivation practices. This staTts wirh ground break ing and dealing with compacted structural fill and perched water rabIes and extends co proper plant selection and creating a habitat for beneficial organisms. And how about designing landscape ecosystems that will not need commercial fertilizers or pestic ides? N ow that is sustainable. JEFF SI-IIMONSKI

i\liallli

[NCE 1993, my practice has focused on resourceefficient landscapes. I promote the use of native and adapted plants and incorporate water conservation, low pest icide and fertilizer use, and wildlife habitat in virtually every project. Sometimes dients ask for these, and sometimes they do not even notice. T he great majority of my projects are middle-class residences. I have developed a market niche for this type of landscape design, and my clients largely select me because they know I use these techniques. T hey are happy

JEFFREY T. St..IITH, ASLA

BrJghtfJII, AlirhJgan

I [EN W[UQUR profession learn how [Q successfully incorporate trees into the landscape? \'Vhy do we praise ourselves for agonizing over the details of sculptural form, paving, lighting, and water features while we ignore the wake of dead and dying trees tha t follows the completion of so many designs? How can this magazine tell the "story" aOOut the Pentagon Memorial without discussing

MUC H 20n

Landsnp. Architecture

117

LETTERS to have landscapes that look good while only being irrigated once or twice a month during the summer, a rarity in our region. T his approach has ke p t my practice profitable for almost i 6 years. Increasingly, other landscape architects (and even landscape designers) consult with me on plant selection and design. MICHAEL PARKEY, ASLA

Dallas E RUN UP AGAINST THIS ISSUE time and again with both commercial developers and home owners. Our most effective tack is to have information available about the long-term savings and reduced impact on the environment. Ifhomeownersordevelopers can put a dollar benefit to the added COSt, they will be more likely to approve the design. As we work in thedesen, water savings are a no-brainer for us. W/e have been doing it here for years. That doesn't mean there isn't room for education and improvement, though. Anyone who has any great ideas on sel ling the concept to developers, I'd love to hear them!

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FTEN PEOPLE THINK ABOUT "affordability" in entirely the wrong way. A lot of green roof projects, for example, are ruined by effons to save money on installation (using inexperienced firms based on low bids) or maintenance (not doing it at all or relying on low-cost contmctors who aren't fami liar with the particulars of a green roof). In too many projects, on roofs or at grade, "design" eats up the lion's share of the resources w the detriment of the longterm health of the landscape. By "design" I mean putting conceptual aesthetics ahead of what will actually work on the site. In this context "bad design" could mean allocating too many resources to upscale materials and accessories and not enough to soil analysis and preparation. It could mean a swath ofhardscape dotted with tree boxes that look cool but are too small to give roots enough air and water. It could mean specifYing a manicured lawn for an area that will

see high traffi<: but not thinking through how to prevent soil compaction. It could mean specifying the wrong plants for the site's soil or conditions be<:au5e they have the right "look" (or perhaps are "native" according to a broad definition). It could also mean expressing these bad ideas in beamiful, bil lable-hour-intensive

"Sustainability should not be a gimmick. It should be among the first principles of creating or restoring alandscape." renderings that capture a cl ient's imagi nat ion withom addressing potential tradeolrs or long-term COSts. 111ese kinds of problems are the resul t of near-term thinking, which should be anathema to peopleaeating landscapes-wh ich are, after all, systems comprising living things. Susrainability should not be agimmick, a goal for a subset of earnest designers, or a line item to be potentially "value engineered" our of a project. It should be among the first principles of creating or restoring a landscape.

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LINDA I\.·ICINTYRF If/ashillgIOIl, D.C.

AM A SENIOR STUDENT oflandscape architecture at {he University ofR hode Island. "1l1TOughout the fall semester my studio designed a sustainable homestead in which we were to incorporate as many sustainable elements as we could practically fit into the design. Elements such as solar panels, wind turbines , rain gardens, cisterns, gardens for growing food, and composting were common among all the designs. As it was a student project, we were given no budget, but I think we approached it very realistically. In your ed itorial you quoted a landscape architect saying, "It"s not practical for everyone to p ut in a $35,000 wind turbine," and I completely agree. These things are expensive and nO[ everyone can afford them. This brings me to the issue of whether small-scale sustainable projects are for landscape architects or landscape designers. Having worked with landscape contractors!

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LETTERS designers [ would have to lean toward them on th is one or leave it to the home owners. Simple things like composcing, replanting your lawn, and growing your own food in vegemble gardens are a great Starting block for any home owner to be more sustainable. Rain barrels aft another option for slISwinabil it)' in the average home. T here is a market in "greening" the home landscape. However, landscape af-

••

"Is sustainability affordable? Yes-not the major elements but the small things that can start this world toward being 'green' and allow future generations to live here." chicecture, co me, is more chan small-scale home landscapes. So my answer (Q che ride "IsSuscainabilicy Affordable?" is yesnot the major elements buc [he small things chac can scarr chis world toward being "green" and allow future genemt ions to live here. KYLE DEUTSCH

Unil'CTIily ()f Rhode IJft/nd

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FOUND MYSELF W ISHI NG to know more about the grocery situation cited in Daniel Jost 's article "Degrees of Preservation" Uanuary). The owners of Thomas Church 's home offourdecades can be commended for their (temporary) willingness to live without a parking space. I wonder if they will eventually be willing or able to adapt to this situation: I suspect that there are places to buy perishables within walking distance, and by the evidence of the trolley in one image, public transjxmation may get them closer to the door than their automobile. Europeans, even those of upper classes, use carts to carry items over cobbled streets, and many live pretty de-

l:ent lives withom owning a car at all. (And here in the United States, people who live in the exurbs deal with the transportation of ice cream by keeping a cooler in the car.) T he Damkrogers have an opportunity not only to preserve an important garden intact, but also to take a step toward alcerIng {he unsusminable lifesryle that has grown up around the automobile. I truly hope they are able to avoid the iron IC si mation of deliberately purchasing a historic property only to destroy it to al:commodate a car! ZOE EDGECOMB, A SSOCIATE ASLA

Charloffest'i/le. Virginia

Royston Amphitheater Remembered INDI NG so MANY R.EFERENCES to

the San Francisco Bay Area in cheJanuary LAM reminds me how fortunate we are here to have such a bounty of professional approaches to our landscape environment. \'7henever r am on che Un iversicy of California, Berkeley, campus, I make it a point co prowl che lobbies of che College of Environmencal Design to encouncer student projects chat give me hope ehac new professionals will concinue to keep and improve our wonderful surroundings. T he former Deparcmenc of O rnamenml Horticulture indeed! One minor correccion: The Royston Am phicheaceron page 50 isae che University of California, Santa Cruz, nO[ Santa Clara. Over 40 years ago r packtxl wich ochers on those benches, chen rose ae che words of speakers on 1960s causes. r crossed that stone "s eage" to accepe my diploma. r wacched screakers dart ouc from che redwood trees at graduations a few years later. In the 21st century the Quarry (as it is locally known because behind che seage is a former limestone pit) continues to host events official and ad hoc. BRUCE HOLG ERS

Santa Cmz, Ca/ij()7'"llia

Pro Bono Landscape Architecture

Itured

N LAND MAITERS (October) you feaGrant Jones, FASLA, and his work in giving back to his community and asked whether other landscape architects were working pro bono these d1YS. r wanted to share widl you some of the things my firm is doing. Even though we are small, we do get our firm engaged in various pro bono

INIRltlI SltlllY II LlIDStAPllICHllltlS ili III SlillllW, WISHIIiIII, 212-111-2#4 路IIX 212-111-2215 MA RCN 2009 Landscape Architecture

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projects every year to giw back, (0 particijXlte and engage with community on a local level, and as I»lT of our educuionaJ process (to better understand (he relati ons hip betv.'tetl ecology, an, and construction). Our most recenr project is a native habitatlrain garden for a local elementary school that is 100 percent sustainable indud ing zero waste (hnp:lfdixie.uboolrdill gartk,J.blogspot.coml). It wi ll celebrate irs one-year annive rsary rhis December. Everyone in our office got involved in design, communication, and PR presenra[ions; community, school , and school distfiCt outreach; funding; organization and construction of rhe community weekend workdays; compi ling an educational sus-

[ainability binder for rhe reachers to use for

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outdoor classrooms; locating salvaged materials (the pavers were all recycled from our marerials room and from some local projecr sires); and designing dl(' educarional b log for rhe school's use. \VIe also are using rhe project internally as a research case study project to rest warer conservarion principles, soil healrh principles, and soon (including some of the susrainable sires initiative metrics), These projects and a few orhers on our web si re (ll 'lllu;npdw.fOm) in rhe ··giving back" section are nor of a grand scale, bur if we can inspire orhers to imitate our acrions, enrich our local environments, or, as in rhe case of this school, inspire learning

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environments that hig hliglH reg ional beauty and habitat. then it is a b ig plus in my m ind.

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Due Credit ATHEWS N IELSEN IS delighted to see the Hudson River Park (January). have a correnion: On page 64, the piece stares char Hudson Ri,'er Park is 10cared across FDR D rive. Instead H udson River Park is in fact located across from rhe West Side H ighway/ New York State Roure9A. Also, I uuuc h rhe project credits.

M\VIe

PROJECT CREDITS: Owner. H udson Rl\'er Park Trust, New York City. Prime landscape architect: Mat hews Nielsen LandSGlpe Architects PC, New York City. Civil and struc· tural engilteefS: \Veid linger Associates, New York C iry. MEl': W esler Cohen, Amityville, New York. Marineengineen: H alcrow, New York Ci ty. lighting design: Fisher Marantz Swne, N ew York City. Irrigation design: Northern Designs LlC, North H aven, Connec ticut. Sculptor: M ark Gibian, Brooklyn, New York. ERIKA AIESE M AT IIEW S NIELSEN LANDSCAPE ARCl-ltTECTS

N tw Fork

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A sfifrlllff 路 irrealllnr look (/ tl路 tl

BY L I N D A '\l c l ,\ :Tr Il E

DANISH MODERN

steel play against the greenery and the mellow brick of neighboring Kristine Jensen won the fifth Rosa Barba European Landscape buildings. At night the space comes Denmark park scores f um/Jean award. Award for her N icolai Kulrurcenrer alive with a Aamboyant neon display on a building adjacent to the stage, project , which transformed an uninviting school playground in the city of Kolding into an arrracriw and [he zones within the space are loosely outlined with glowing mul tifunctional cultural space. The award, honoring thehest land- whi te thermoplastic dots. scape projects built in Europe owr the past four years, was presentIn her presentation,Jensen cited as inspiration a quote from 18thed last autumn at the European Landscape B iennial in Barcelona. cenrury architect Marc-Antoine Laugier, who said ofdesigning IXll"ks The project comprises a lawn and garden for playing and relax- (and cities), "Regularity and strangeness are needed, correspondenation, a circular stage, a terrace for patrons of neighboring cafes, ces and antitheses, accidents that vary the picture, great order to the and a multifunctional square. Industrial materials such as Cor-"Ien details, but confusion, clashing, and tumult in the whole:路 ANISI I lANDSC..APE ARCI nITCf

Grounds for Play, and More

C.ntact linda Mc i ntyre at 24 1 LandscapeArchitecture

fIIA_e H 2001

ImCI"tJft @ dS/J

Oft

Jlih

landscape structures'

WHERE INNOVATION COMES TO LI FE Evos;" ou r unique playsystem for kids 5 to 12+ years old, now has a companion for kids ages 2 to 5 ca lled Weevos:" Evos and Weevos toget her offe r age-appropriate cha llenges that f lex kids' muscl es and stretch t heir imag inations. What's mo re, we b uild each wi t h environme nt ally p referable mat erials and p racti ces. To learn more about how Evos and Weevos enhance children's lives while honoring the environment, visit playlsi.com/ad/ evQs-weevos. BETTER PLAYGROUNDS . BE TTER WORLD.'· Cl2009 Landscape Structures Inc. CIACLE 12' ON A£.;.O£A SElMCE CARO OR 00 10 >ffi'P Ji I NFO , HOT"'S.COM.'2Jo1Ql-'~ 1

Students plant winter crops at the Miguel

Contreras learning Complex, a downtown high school, left. Architect Robin Osler designed the installations, below, to be eye路 catching as well lIS horticulturally correct.

ing's Food Chain Project sracks tomatoes, broccoli, and mher edibles in six-foottall interconnected containers, scaling walls at fuur locations in L A.'s Central VERTICAL VEGGIES City East- the area aifenionately known to locals as Skid Row. The system is the brainchild of Rochester, New York 's Green l iving Technologies. O riginally developed as a pitched-roof assembly to complement the company's expertise in greening Aat In d(!U!11tOWtl L A. , urban fanners are climbing tbewalls. roofS, the modular arrangement was adapted to vertical installations both indoors and Out with a minimum of mcxlification. fnTTl-! THE AMBITIOUSGOALofending hunger within ourgenerarion, Los Angeles-based nonprofit Urban Farming seeks to stalled with an automated irrigation system designed by Robin fit] every wmseJ metropolitan nook with edible crops. Ies efforts O sler of Elms lie Osler Architect, the vertical vegetable gardens typically have focused on reinven ting vacant lots as open- were clad in reqrcled sminless steel rather than the usual aluminum . access community gardens, bue a new initiative cakes citified agricul- T he August 2008 inaugural plantings were well developed to ture to new heights. Making use ofexisting technology, Urhm Faml- weather the summer heat, dlOugh fuwre crops will enjoy a full life cycle in situ. The project'S first sites-the \'V'eingart Center, the Rainbow Apartments, the l.A. Regional Food Bank, and the M iguel Contreras l earning ComplexUBSCRIBERS AND MEMBERS of the American Society of landsupe Architects will soon hawe the all promise to bring food d irectly to the option of reading their magazine in a digital format. Zinio.com, a global online publishing and distribution company, will begin offering bndsc.~ Anhituwre magazine on its site in April, folks who most need if. Alter training, local residents and students, all of whom in concert with National landscape Architedure Month. are encouraged to sample-and shareDigital issues of LAM will be searchable and search engine optimized, the frui ts of their iaoors, tend the cmps. increasing the magazine's usefulness for research and archiving. Interac路 live and multimedia capabilities will also be embedded in the digital is路 This unfenered access is at dle heart of Urban Farming's mission. O ffering sues, allowing readers to link directly to relate-d online information. Digital subscriptions may be purchased for $44.25 per year and single Fresh Food for che People without preissues may be purchased for $5.25 each. Members and subscribers with condi t ion is central to its ethos, and e路mail accounts on file with ASLA will receive the April issue in digital making use of the cicy's unlimited format for free. Current members and subscribers may choose to receive the magazine in digital headroom expands on thac notion. Acformat when it is time to renew their membership or subscription. In addition, linio will archive cording to P rogram Director J oyce past issues of LAM going back to May 2006 and offer them for single-copy purchase. L'Ipinsky, "People can just walk up and The new digital LAM will be featured under both the Home and Garden and the Trade Magazines harvest and eat the food. TIley"re not recategories on the Zinio web site, increasing the Yisibility of the magazine-and the professionquired to work on the garden to beneto prospective readers. fit. You just rake the food if you need it. 'nlere's nothing to steal."'

Crops as High as an Elephant's Eye

Landscape Architeclure Magazine Goes Digital

26 1 LandscapeArchitecture

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Association Puts Kibosh On Welcome And Good Fortune

Freedom 0/expresJion not incl"ded ill the bylaws.

sssss

N TRADITIONAL Hindu

culture, akolam isan in-

tricate geometric design,

temporarily inscribed at [he threshold [Q [he home. Fleetingly formed of rice

flour, the kolam is intend-

ed co invite and welcome guests and gOCK! fortune. Bur in rhe rigidly con-

erolled culrure of a Norchern Virginia sulxlivision, a kolam can be an invitation

Balasubramanian trod aless confrontational path: With great reluctance, he obscured the kolam wtth numerous coats of black paint

forconcroversy and a linchpin forargumencs about religious expression. L1sc year Ram Balasubramanian adorned the driveway of his home widl a brilliant red and white ko!am, part of a traditional coming-of-age feee for his 14-year-old son. Rain was expected for dle day of dle ceremony, so rhe design was rendered in paint

racher than flour. T he South Villages Homeowners Association, however, felt the kolam conflicted with its vision of suburban harmony. It demanded that Balasubramanian remove the design and imposed a $10 fine for each day that it remained. Reluctant toedipse the potent symbol, Balasubramanian kept the kolam, and the fees rapidly accrued to the maximum of $900. H oping to avoid conflict , Balasubraman ian spoke to his neighbors; an informal survey of20 residents indicated unanimous suppOrt, but the association was unmoved. Although he isn't a man who seeks the spotlight, local and national media caught wind of the controversy, and

Balasubramanian found himself at the center of an outsized controversy. "'It was all one innocent step after the ocher, which created a much bigger issue," he said. H ome owners and their associations have clashed in court over religious symbols ranging from mezuzahs to unapproved Christmas displays. Bur in spite of numerous offers of pro bono legal services, Balasubramanian trod a less confrontational path: With great reluctance, he obscured the kolam with numerous coats of black paint. T hough disappointed, he was phi losophical about the outcome. "\'Ue have a lot ofcompromises because of the totally di\'erse culture here:' he reflected. "At the same time, we do not want to be looked upon as troublemakers." TIle homeowners' association was less inclined to bend, remaining steadfast in its demand that Balasubramanian pay the $900 penalty for his unauthorized expression of piety. - JOSH UA GRAY

Ram Balasu bramanian covered his celebratory kolam under pressnre from his home owners' association.

28 1 LandscapeArchitecture

ANOSCAPE ARCNITECTlIRE students interested in two of our current national obsessions-green jobs and infrastructurecan get a jump on the working world with the International Federation of landsca pe Architects IIFLAI annual student design competition. The theme of this )"ear's contest, held in conjunction with IFLA's 46th World Congren in Brazil, is "Green Infrastructure: Landscape, Infra structure, and People for Tomorrow." The competition is 46th IFLA WORLO ~ CONGRESS open to indi¥iduals or groups of up to five . Winners, wh o will receive cash prizes as well as certificates, will be announced at a ceremon)" during the October conference in Rio de Janeiro. The deadline for entries is August 18. IFLA is also seeking multimedia submissions from practitioners, ac ad emics, and students on green infrastructure. Submis· sions can take the fOml of experimental design projec ts and critiques, research, written or photog raphic essa)"s, digital ani· mations, or films. The deadline for submis· sions is March 31. For details, vi sit www.46IFLA2009.com.br.

fIIA_C H ZOOI

TOP JOB

Landscape Ar'chitecture Deemed One of This Year's Greal Careers NE MAGAZINE U.S. News ~nd World Repori, in its annual sUrYe}', named land· snpe architectu re one of 2009's best careers, citing the profession's satisfying

mix of artistry and science and low ower· head for wannabe entrepreneurs. San}, landscape architects, according to the arti cle, should consider specializing in ecolog· ical restoration or worlling in China.

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E ALl TOOK THE SAM.E w<xxly plane and site engineering classes rogerher. Side by side we spent late nigh ts in the smdio at Cornell University, hovering

over drawings that were duc the following morning. Bur today, approximately four years after we graduated with our bachelor's de-

grees, we've gone in very d ifferent directions-

bmh professionally and geographically. What are the first few years in the profession like for recent landscape architecture graduates? [ decided to ask myoId classmates. While most are still wo rking in (he field, [he sore of work they do isquite varied . And a few people are no

longer working at design firms at all. One is now a JXlITncr in a catering business, another works at a donor's office, and a few people are pmeticing or studying related fields. TIuough the m iracles of modern technology (aka Facebook), J was able co leave messages with everyone in my studio m hort. I asked them to tell me about the paths they have taken since graduation and the lessons they've learned along the way {hat might be helpful for {h is year's gmduating class. Eleven people responded, and th is is what they wrote.

These Illildscape lli'chitecture students earned their degrees side by side, but since then theyâ&#x20AC;˘ have b"one off in 111llilV , different directions, What Cllil other young landscape lli'chitects learn fro111 their experiences? Edited by Daniel Jost, Associate ASLA Yoen WORK AS A CAD MONKEY HELPS YOU EAl~N YOCR EMPLOYER'S TRUST. Sarah Donato

HOK t San Francisco

y JOB HUNT BEGAN during my final semester of senior year. r was obsessed with fashioning the most amazing lX>rtfulio---one that would show the world that I was an edgy, skillful young designer w ith tons of am bition and creativity. I spent a lot of time thinking about color palettes 30

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and what shape it would take. Looking back on the hundreds ofhours-nQ[ to mention dollars-I spent, I now realize that my focus was completely misguided. I was so concerned with making something that looked cool that I lost sight of the purpose of a portfolio: to highlight your best work and show your technical skills. During my final months in school, I wrore letters, made phooecalls to principals, and dragged my overrhought portfolio all over N ew York City. My assertiveness paid off. I ended up with three job offers, and I accepted a job with the HOK Planning Grou p. Only th ree days after graduation, I began my new professional career.

You might say I starred out as a CAD monkey, but it really wasn't as bad as it sounds. A lthough my work consisted primarily of noncreative AutoCAD and Photoshop wo rk , moving between the tWO programs as frequent ly as possible allowed me to never feel trapped or pigeonholed. This work was the first step in earning my em ployer's trus t, and, eventually, I earned the right todo more creative work as well. By creative work, r mean anything from new CAD details to final plant and material selections to conceptual design. l l le conceptual design phase is refres hingly very similar to the process we used in colleh>e, where a layer of trace and diagrams

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1 finally manifest into a cohesi ve and grounded desi g n direction. H owever, there was cerrain vocabulary that was never included in my education- and I'm ralkingabour basics. [ didn't know the difference between schematics, design development, and constl1Jction documents. At first , it seemed like people were constanrIy speaking in code and using acronyms fit for the CIA, not a design finn. I asked q uestions and kept my ears open all the time, and eventually I learned how to talk the talk. H owever, it would have been helpful if some of th is office terminology was introduced in swdio classes or at least in our professional practice class. Afterspending tWO years in I-IOK's New York office, I decided m move to San Francisco. My boyfriend, who was also a landscape architecture major at Cornell , is a San Fmncisco native. l uckily for me, HOK has many offices throughout the United States, including a successful location in San Francisco. T hey offered financial assistance in my move and allowed me about four weeks to travel before starting my new job. Staying with the same company made [he transition to a new city much easier. Starting at the San Francisco office I was new, but not foreign . I already knew some of the people I was working with and the company's CAD standards and professional protocol. I have been working at the San Fmncisco office for close to two years now. Working here has allowed me to realize what had been lacking in my career; I was suddenly 3 2 1 LiindscapeArchitecture

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"I asked questions and kept my ears open all the time, and eventually I learned how to talk the talk." a part of a ream that made me excited m come to the office and intemct. \'芦hen entering the field, you must be discern ing about your future work environment. After all, you will spend more time with your coworkers than with any other people in your life. Fostering relationships with the people you work with will give you the motivation to work m your full potential and will ultimately advance your career. l ife at I-IOK is dynamic. My roles at the office include consultant coordination, gmding, drafting a sketch into AumCAD, conceptual design, and fielding a myriad of cl ient requests. Some days are gone in a single heartbeat- rushing to submit a progress set of drawings or anxiously coaxing the color plotter to hurry up and spit out a rendering before someone leaves [he office for a client presemation. O ther days are more leisurely, spent in in-house design meetings , researching t he latest in skate stops, or assessing a project's t EED (leadership in Energy and Environmemal Design) status. I no longer discredi t the seemingly ordinary task of designing the score join ts of

1-1 AD BEEN INTENT on becoming a !andscapearchitect since my junior year of hig h school. It was my dream job--no other field of work blended my imerests so well. Bur a year and a half after graduation, I was working in retail. T.1.king a numbet offine arts classes during my last semester had left little time to gather my work into a portfolio or look for a job during my final semester. After g raduation , I headed home to Syracuse to resume work at a clothing store, where r had been a seasonal employee. I thought this was an ideal arrangemenr at the t ime. I could live at home rent free (thanks, Mom and Dad) and dewlop my portfolio so that I could land a job at a dynamic firm that I really wanted to be a part of. However, the portfolio ended up on the back burner as I moved up the ladder at the clothing store. A year passed, and I found myself traveling across the country to train employees and support new stores. They began tmining me for a management (X>Sition. r was honored but also concernedwas this how I was going to spend my life? Then, suddenly, I had a word-of-moUth opportunity to interview at a well-respected central N ew York fi rm. I dusted off my portfolio and readjusted my focus: My goal was to work as a landscape architect , and that had not changed despite the sidetmck in retail. T he interviews went well, and I received many compliments on my strong work samples. However, they kep t me on the fence for months. l l le firm was concerned with my !ackof CAD experience in an office setting, and they S<1.id they d idn路t have the resources to

train me. While I was at Cornell, I had worked a number of summer jobs and internships that I thought would prove valuable in getting a job. I worked at a land scaping nursery to learn plams; for a nonprofit in Boston that manages urban wildlife areas, community gardens, and outreach programs for inner-city youth; and even for a fledgling landscape architecture firm dOing administrative and marketing tasks. But for them this was all overshadowed by my lack of experience as aCADintem. \'V'hile they tried to decide whether to hire me, I decided to refocus my job search. Maybe someone else would value my other experiences more. I cold-called a couple of "dream firms" that were working on engaging, complex projecrs. I even arranged a few office visits in Boston (which I envisioned as a mecca of design and planning) to learn about these offices and how they funcrioned. As luck would have it, a small, yet very busy, planning and design firm named rhe Cecil Group in Boston was looking for an enrry-Ievellandscape designer ar rhe rime. They wanted someone with a designheavy background, and my fine arts concentration fit the bill. Being a small office, chey also wanted someone who cou ld be flexible and help OUt with various tasks when ochers were stretched. I was exci red about the opporrunity [Q work with other types of professionals, and a steep learn ing curve didn't scare me. \'7hile they told me

"One landscape arcMect I met had actually taken eight years before returning to the practice." it would have been ideal to have a stronger background in CAD, the principals at the Cecil Group also saw my lack of office experience as an opportunity: T hey could train me to create conscruction drawings and plans in their own style. A year and a half after graduating , I finally had the chance to work in my own field. The Central New York firm eventually offered me the position as well, bm I chose to move to Boston for che design environment chat promised a larger range of projects. Since starting at the Cecil Group, I've worked on design development for rransitoriented pedestrian improvements, landscapeconsrruccion drawings for an old mill complex being renovated into condos, and site layouts and renderings for several waterfronr parks. I've also attended a handful of public meecings to faci litate and lead group discussions, mosc recently for a village master plan in Rhode Island chat our firm has been working on. Occasionally J"II assist with site analysis, area calculat ions, and graphics support for the planners. I've

become quite comfortable wo rking in CAD, and I've been able to bring the plant knowledge I developed a t school and working in the nursery to numerous planting plans. Looking back on my job search, one thing that did surprise me was that none of the firms J spoke with were nonplussed by mystint in retail. A few principals I spoke with mentioned that there were others in their offices who had taken a less conventional route into the profession. One land scape architect I met had actually caken eight years before returning to the pracrice. So my advice fo r new graduates is don't worry if you can't find a job in landscape architecture immediately.

"ltWORMATIONAL INTERVIEWS ARE INTERVIEWS. " Linda Ciesielski GRADUATE STUDENT

Boston

WOULD REC01..rMEND using the summer after graduacion to do something unconventional; you will not have the rime once you begin work. Four weeks after graduation, I was teaching conversational English in China. Th rough Bridges fo r Education, a program that organizes language camps for teenagers in a number of cou ntries, I had che chance co learn about another cu lture and see places I miglu never have seen otherwise. Before I wem [Q China, I began looking inca offices in Porrland , Oregon. I wanred to learn from and be a part of the city synonymous with green building and thoughtful planning . I also wanced co live someplace where I did not need a car, which would be difficult if I scayed in \'7estern New York. I put a lot of time into my portfolio in May, June, and August. The last semester at school was demanding,and I found I didn't have enough time to scan projects and refine work. Creating a portfolio is a project in itself. I didn't set a deadline for myself-so I definitely spent too much time on perfecting rhe format and [he graphics- but I wanted it to be the best I could make it. I knew it would be my foot in the door in a city where I had no connections. T hen I began calling

MUC H 2 0 n

LlInd&caPIIArcbitllCturll 1 33

PRACTICE offices and sending off cover letters and copies of my (X>rrfolio. By Seprcmber, I'd landed two interviews in Portland. I flew out for a week, scayed with relatives, and called nearly every landscape architecture or planning office in (Own and asked for an office visit. By playing the "out-of-towner" card, I was able to visit five additional offices for informational imerviews. Informational interviews are imcrvi{"ws. Even ifan office is currently not hiring, it may be in che furure. From these informational meetings, I was pulled aside and offered rwopositions if! was still looking for work in a few months. Afrer chis trip, I also had twO concrete job offers from my more formal interviews. I wok one and moved to Portland in O Ctober. I learned a great deal in the first cwo months. [ have to thank Professor Marv Adelman for his sire-grading courses ac Cornell, because r was soon encrusced wirh

34 1 LiindscapeArchitecture fIIUC H 20 U

doing most of rhe grading at the offi<:e. I was working in a seven-person firm, whi<:h provided che opportuniry (Q learn many differenc casks; J wasn'c simply a CAD monkey. I was able codesign, grade, build models, visir sires, and meee wich diems and subconsulrams.

Bue afrer a few monrhs, r began co feel restless. From school, I was used co learning new rhings every day- bur rhis was nor happening at work. Socially, ehe small office was also Ii miring. I was the youngest by 10 years. Being in a new ciey wirh older coworkers was isolating and was one of

"Being in anew ci~ with older coworkers was isolating and was one of the factors that prompted my move."

the factors that prompted my move to t he Bay Area the following summer, where several friends were living. I was hired by a firm focused on planning and urban design with a number of smarteariy and mid-20s staff. Staff makes such a difference! I was persuaded to join the office because at the second interview, I met the entire staff and learned their backgrounds. I was also able to speak to a young sraff member on my own after the meeting. It was the beSt interview experience I have ever had, and it won me over. I persuaded them to give me five weeks unti I my starr date, then, for a few weeks in July, J worked on my friend's furm in Maine. It was great to be physically engaged with the earth again. It seems natural to be outside working in the summer; I wish I had stayed longer! At the planning office, I did agrear deal of research and writing. J enjoyed the change from construction documents, and J liked being at the from ofa project, creating the framework for how something could proceed later. However, J was often frustrated

by planners' design na·ivete-bike paths traversing 20 percent grades, inadequate s{XK:e fOr trees, or infrasrrunure chat would likely require g reat site disturbance. I missed builders and figuring om how to work with the puzzle of the landSl"ape. J also realized how limited we are as designers. Policy has by far the g reatest impact on the landscape. As designers, we can create and improve places, but these disparate parts don't necessarily make a whole. I think this finally resonated for me in California- but it naturally grew oue of extensive rra\'eI and work experiences in

the United States and abroad. In unincorlx>rated counties throughout California·s dry Central Valley, subdivisions spring up on agricultural soils, often equipped with large fountains and oversized infrastructure. It is obscene--and s.-ully it happens allover. The scale oflandscape abuse across the United States and most of the world is something that designers working on individual projects can·t fix. Last full I began graduate school for a master of city planning at the MassachusettS Institute of Technology, focusing on environmental polICY and planning. In order to see policy change, a great challenge lies in connecting people to theirenvironment. My intention is toenhancedialogue around natural resources and link local knowledge to policy through partiCipatory media and storytelling. To those JUSt emering the job market, I'd encourage you to rake chances, follow your convictions, and express your WIllingness to learn new things. L1.ndscape architecture teaches systems thinking, and r am grateful for my education.

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"ALL OF TI-lE KJ'JOWLEDGE YOU NEED TO REALLY GROW CA1 '\f'T BE LEARNED TflHOuC I r PRACl']CE ALONE. " Josh Egnatz, AffUlate ASLA

MICHAEL VAN VUKENBURGH ASSOCIATES'

New York

I APPROACHED GRADUATION,

with the spec拢er of student loan payments on the horizon, there was Ercle

doubt in my mind I wanted and needed to find a paying job right away. Immediately after graduation, I worked for Egnatz Associates, my father's archirecmre office in central Massachusetts, doing site lay-

outs, grading, and garden design. \Vhi[e [he work was rewarding, r realized that to participate in my preferred type and scope of work, I needed to work in a landscape architen's office. In rhe fall, I visited landscape architecture firms and dropped off resumes and electronic portfolios. J interviewed with

firms in Boston and New York, one of which was Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates (MVVA), a New York City firm whose design ethos and office culture 36 1 LiindscapeArchitecture fIIUC H 20 U

seemed likeagoud fit for me. After a handful of interviews, I was ollerecl a job. In December I moved to Lower Manhatcan and scarred work in their New York office as a junior designer. Over the past three years, I have worked on at leasc 30 projectS, 10 of which I am closely involved with. These projects include public parks, campus landscapes, and private residences. T hey range in size from a 2,500-square-foot garden for an elementary school to an SO-acre waterfront park. From preparing RFQs to perfonning punch list inspections , I have contributed to all phases of project development, and I look forward to this summer when several more of these projects will be in the ground. The work has been rigorous. 111ere is a sense of urgency with every task I perform, which supports a steep learning curve and rapid professional growth. It is humbling to look back at when I starred at MVVA, building mooelsand creating miniature (fees, to what my responsibi lities have become in three very quick years. Since January 2008, I"ve been aseniordesigner,and while I continue to build design and presentation mooels, I also manage an institutional project , lead the pn:xiuction of design/construct ion documents, perform construction observation, and prepare project prop<l5als. I am in the process of taking the L'Indscape Architecture Reg istra t ion Exam.

One of my short-term professional goals is to become licensed, and I am fortunate to be working for a firm that has placed an emphasis on exposing me to the wide range of knowledge needed fur this exam. But all of the knowledge you need to really grow in thIS profess1On can路t be learned through practice alone. To expand my knowledge, I have found myself dedicating a considerable amount offree time to reviewing profess1Onal journals. Also, I've continued to explore the builtenvironmem. Frequent weekend safaris into the mountains to climb, hike, ski, Of golfarean integral parr of my life. T he flood of smells, textures, and colors renews my spirit and encourages me to be a bener designer. My most pleasant surprise about chis profession is learning how liberated the individl1al is to follow his or her own track- so long as that individual is fueled by desire, educat ion, work ethic, and character. As this arricle shows, there are many roads one can cake in this field , and I am chus far th rilled with the ones I have taken.

"'THERE'S u SUALLY NOT A HANDBOOK ... Btl I' THAT ALSO MEANS YOU IlAVE OPPOHTUNl11ES TO IMPROVE TrnNCS." John Knowlton OEHME, VAN SWEDEN & ASSOCIATES '

Washington, D.C. IllLE IN COLLEGE I was aware of some common complaints against landscape arc hitects. I often heard people related to (he profession saying , "landscape architects don路r even know their p lants ..路 Th is rang in my head as if they were saying landscape arc hitects are ignorant, barely even knowing the basics of theirowfl profession. I knew I didn't want to be that guy. I took my firs t jobatasmall tomediumsized design/build compafly in northern

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PRACTICE New Jersey, where [ had interned the summer before graduating. I was anxious to get out from behind my srudiodesk, and I knew this job would give me hands-on experience in rhe daily operations of construction. O vernight, I became a manager in the (ompany-designing residential landscapes, meeting wirh cliems, estimacing jobs, supervising crews, and coordinating rhe scheduling. [n school [ assumed chat whatever com pany [ worked for would have all their processes perfected so chac things would run smoothly ... however, this is not always the case. In myexperience, companies don 'r have everything figured our, and there is usually nor a handbook available telling you how (0 accomplish casks chac will be required. Bue chac also means chac you will have opportunities to improve things. For inseance, every mornmg we were responSIble for geccing all checrews loaded up wich

che supplies and cools chey would need for rhe day. To do rhis, I needed to know who would be working wirh whom and what chey would be doing. This sounds easy enough, but che schedule was nowhere to be found- ir was aU in my boss's head! I ofcen found myselffruscraced and lacking any understanding of whac needed co be

accomplished. Tn an effort co puc us all on rhe same page, I devised a plan and boughr a large dry-erase board, dividing ir inco a nve-week calendar where we could noce rhe crews and our schedule. This way anyone looking ar rhe board could easily understand whac was co be accomplished on any given day.

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38 1 LiindscapeArchitecture MUC H 20 U

"At both companies, n took some time to learn what elements of design pleased each boss." Working at a design /build company was an invaluable experience because J was able to experiment with different plams, seeing [hem grow and someti mes die. I was also able to develop a well-rounded sense of landscape architecture, learning nor only design, bur how [0 estimate JObs, write proposals, work with cliems, and handle accounting. But after cwo years in [he design/bui ld sector, I felt it was time to move on (0 a professional design firm. With [he helpand encouragement of my wife, J tackled what felt like the daunting [ask of putting a \xmfolio together and applying for a job. From {he rime J had been in school, [he thought

ofconstrllctinga \xmfulio had intimidated me, mostly because I wasn't confident re.garding what one should even look like. After waiting some months and going through interviews, I accepted a job offer with Oehme, van Sweden & Associates in Washington, D.C., in August 2006. (A bit of advice fo r those moving to a new ci ty- be sure to ask for your moving expenses to be reimbursed.) Working in a professional fi rm was a bit imimidating at first because I had not used AutoCAD since school and I only had one semester of tmining. Also, at both companies, it took some time to learn what elements of design pleased each boss. At first, we had signifimntly different perceptions of how spaces should look and function and what's involved in the general design process. r have found the best way to overcome these diffilUlties IS to design "through your boss's eye ... My final word of advice for currem Students is to leam and master the many skills a landscape architect is required to know. Take the time to understand what is being

taught. Learn how to draw and use line weights. Master grading, know your plants, and develop an understanding of general construction techniques and processes.

"E VENTUALLY, I FOL-:'\lJ) THE RlCHT FIT. '" Rebecca Francisco

CHILD CARE RESOURCE' Chittenden County, Vermont INeE GR.ADUATI NG from college, [ have worked for a few landscape architecture firms looking for the right fit, but found it hard to find a position that allowed me tocominue working with all the skills and design interests J had developed throughout my studies. Eventually, r found the right fit outside a fi rm, in the nonprofit sector. r have completed two AmericoTJ)S terms of service with the Vermom Youth Conservation Corps, and I am now working for Child Care Resource in Chinenden County, Vermont.

MUCH 2009 Landscape Architecture

1 39

PRACTICE Rebecca FrlIncisco visiting Paris

r found it easy [Q find a job right our of college. I spell( a few weeks polishing up my portfolio, sent it out, and soon had a number of offers. I am really good with compurerprogmmssuch as AuroCAD, GIS, and Phoroshop , whICh made me a desirable candidate. H owever, being good at something doesn't guarantee you'll like it. J think it is extremely easy [Q get pigeon-

"I chose to change fields to get back to the aspects of landscape architecture I originally loved."

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holed early on In your career and very hard roget out of that. \'Qhen you are limited to one task for months on end, it can be very frustrating , and I found it hard to stay invested when the on ly challenge was the long hours (at one firm I often worked 50 to 60 hours per week). I chose to change fields to get back to the aspects of landscape architecture l originally loved: working with real people in the communities they care about and effect ing change that will help create stronger and more beautiful communities. I now work primarily in community organizing and education and coordinate service learning projects and an educational b'ardening program. T he one aspect of my education that

has most affened who I am [Oday was working wi th rea.! stakeholders on real projens. Gening m know communi ty members and helping them to anain what they need and wam in their mmmunities has become the ultimate goal of my caret'r. Although my title IS no longer landscape architect, I still feel thar I am very much a parr of the fi eld. My advice for recent grnduares: To be successful you have to swim in a stream that is going in the direnion you need to go. Jr's okay to l{:t go of your idea of what you had planned for yourself if It is not taking YOll wh{:re you want [0 g o. To cominue along the path [ have starred , I am considering graduate school to study public administrnrion. I hope to expand my capabi lities [0 influence the public sector and instigate positive change in the communities I work in.

"THE SIMPLEST PATH lS'I~r ALWAYS THE BEST. " Jon Ernsberger NEW YORK CITY DEPARTMENT OF PARKS & RECREATION' New York

s I APPROACHED GRADUATION , I had a number of worries. \'V'ill I like {he "reality" oflandscape architecture? Do I real ly know anything useful ? rf I commit to a job, will I have time or energy left for anything else ? (Like being in a rock band , for instance,. ,) I knew that I was done with school. I was sick of studying and writing papers , and r liked the idea of getting something physical ly accomplished. Also, there was something almost blissful in the thought that when you come home from work, no matter what, rhe rest of the day belongs to you. Beyond that r didn't really know what I wanted. I was rescued bya professor of mine who is also a one-man firm. He needed an assistant, and getting that job was prerry simple. I never even created a resume. Bur the simplest path isn't always the best. At that job, I spent halfof my time doing unimaginative CADlPhotoshop work and the o ther half doing construnion on a "gret'n " addition to my boss's home. \'V'hile my CAD skills wert im proving, I just wasn't excited by what I was working on, and I wondered

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PRACTICE if I really was cm om for land scape archicffm rt'. I needed a change, so r decided to leave Irhacaand explore the \'(fese Coast. I flew co Vancouver and took a train down rhe coast, stopping at various cities on the way. While I enjoyed rhisadvcnrure, I did not fall in love with any of the places ' saw on my travels. Discournged, I moved in with my parents in Endicott, New York, hoping co "recollect myself," as they say. I had some rapport with a smal l landscaping business where I had worked as a laborer during summer breaks , and they took me on as onc of cwo landscape desig ners. Here, I worked on a number of fun projects, bue chere was rarely anyone around ro reach me anything. At times, r was all bur mak ing things up on rhe fly and crossing my fingers . There was so much J didn't know how ro do, and chere was a lor of pressure co deliver steady work ro che labor side of che business. I made some preccy bad mistakes chere. O ne rime J called for six cubic yards of soil when the job needed more like 26. O n the same job chey gOt cheir Bobcac stuck in a swampy area that I had failed rowam chern about, and our company had to rent more equipment co gec it our. For a differenc client, J gOt huscled precty good. The job had promised to be the biggest of the season. I spent a great deal of time on the design, meeting wich the clients a numberof times, but we never got the job. Instead, the cl ients took all my design ideas and chen hired someone else. My bosses were all very understanding. Buc ac che end of the season events coincided to take me in a different direction. \'{fork naturally comes ro a close with the onset of che cold for che landscape team , and it was a good time to CUt loose gracefully. A friend invited me to sublet a room in NYC for a short time until the true tenant returned. I thought J was staying for only a few months, so J got a job at an art store, thinking it would be a short-term thing. 42 1 LiindscapeArchitecture

fIIA_e H 2001

"One pleasant surprise was that after less than ayear with Parks, I was actually designing somethingapocket playground in Greenwich Village." However, che ocher tenant never came back co claim che room , so I Stayed , and nine months later, I found myself still working at the art store. I scarced ro chink about geccing a more permanent job. After this lengthy break from landscape architecture r was nervous about returning to the scene. r wondered what an employer would think of this hiatus, and I was worried that my skills had already begun rodull with time. Two and a half years after g raduacing I wrote my first resume. 'nuough a former college classmate I got an interview with a giant firm that J am glad rejected me. T he rejection was mutual. T hen during a miniature reunion at a bar in Manhattan, I learned about openings at the NYC Department of Parks & Recreation . I liked the idea of designing parks and playg rounds, and J knew several people working there already. I was interested!

J believe my friend may have worked a little magic behind the curtain. She must have cold her manager that I play guicar and a liccle abouc my musical caste, because he had her ask me if r could supply some guicar cablature for a Nirvana song wich my resume. I'm nor sure if chis really helped me gec an interview, but I chink ic was my pon:folio that secured the job. r d created a new portfolio mixing projeccs from school chat showed my interescs with projects from che landscaping company t hat showed my practical abilicies. My interviewer Sttmf([ genuinely interested in what I was showing him, and r ve been working here since. One pleasant surprise was that after less chan a year with Parks, I was actually designing something- a pocket playground in Greenwich Village. Being the project manager/designer meanc I would be responsible for everything from conceptual design ro bid documents. In Parks a lot of people have ro approve your design. You have co be flexible and willing co explore a lot of alternatives. Somet imes what you think is a great idea is waved aside, which can be frustrating . But ultimacely I found that the design is changed for the better most of the time. r m grateful ro be in a posi tion where J can get hel p and g uidance from those who have been here longer than J have. And while rm currently not in a rock band, J have time to write and play music

frequently, My work load varies, but sometimes I come home from work and find that a significant portion of the day does indeed belong to me,

My GRADliATE EDUCATfON HELPED ME ESTABLISH A NICHE . Jeannette Compton, Associate ASLA NEW YORK CITY DEPARTMENT OF PARKS & RECREATION' Hew York

GRADUATED A SEMESTER EARLIER

than most of my classmates and went straight to grad s<:hool at Cornell's Urban Horticulture Institute, focusing on susminable urban design, Earning a master's degree at the same school where I'd goaen my bachelor's degree allowed me co really hit the ground running, I already had an adviser and a good idea of what my thesis would be focused on: the scormwater benefits of green roof design, I finished up my thesis in August 2006, A month later, I started a full-time job at

the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation as a landscape architect intern. While having a master's degree didn't pay off right away- I came in at the same time and rate as those with bachelor's degrees in the class below mt'--the experiences it provided have since benefited me greatly. Having an understanding of stormwater management and green roof design based in ("(-search allowed me to rake responsibility for additional projectS beyond my design assignments. \'<'hen the mayor's office put together a task force on stormwater management, [was able to participate in a valuable way. TocIay, I am the project manager/ fellow for Parks's partnership with the Design TTlist for Public Space to create "H igh Performance Landscape Guidelines,"

"Once people know you are passionate and willing to put in the time, more opportunities will follow."

which will encourage New York City to take a more holistic and systems-based approach to creating parks. I also research ways to increase the sustainability of ongoing projects, and I am an active member of various committees, including Parks's green roof committee, its Sustainability Group, and the mayor's Climate Change Policy Group. This is all thanks to my graduate education. My first few months at Parks were pretty typical. I spent them putting cogedlfr contract documents for other designers, but soon afterward ' was in charge of two construction projeccs for a designer who had left, and' quickly took on smaller design projectS as well. Parks is unique in that there are many smaller projects that younger designers can tackle and learn all the steps in the design process. , expected th IS, but , was surprised by how much designers can infuse their own personal interests into a projecr (within the parameters of the project, of course), My own emphasis on natural plantings, sustainable materials, and storm water management can be seen throughout my designs. T his opportunity for exploration seems unusual compared co many private firms. One project that I am particularly proud of was my work for the Schoolyards m Playgrounds Initiative known as PlaNYC I worked with the scudent council at Public School 138 in the South Bronx to do site analysis, taught che kids about plant selection so they could chex>se their own planes, and gave [hem a "budget" of points co determine what type of play equipment they would like. Within this design I also incorporated other priorities ofPlaNYC such as directing S[Qrmwater to continuous tree pits and increasing canopy cover and shading, T he project ended up being the first co be completed under the initiative, and the mayor attended the ribbon cutting. Of course I"ve made a few mistakes along the way. One of the most imJXlrtant lessons you will learn in an office is the value of spell check. Once, I missed a typo on a shop drawing, and that resulted in an eight-foot granite monument MUC H 2 0 n

LlInd&caPIIArcbitllcturll 1 43

being installed with the word "Swedlish" instead of Swedish. T he funny part was somehow rhe Swedish consulate found OUt that Sweden was mentioned and wanted to arrend rhe ribbon curting. \VJe managed to have an engraving company come in and fix the erching in situ, bur I will proofread very carefully rhe nexr rime I wrire something in granite. I've also learned how lirrie can be covered in school. It is impossible to learn everything about site construct ion in college. You gec a basic understanding, bur a working knowledge of materials and construction comes with time and experience. I know I have a long way to go, and I am constantly talking with people who have been doing this work for a long time and learning from them. That said, some things have changed over the years. Don't feel sheepish when people who "have been in this business since before you were born" tell you chat something must be done a parricular way. Sustainable design is a paradigm shift in construction, and it is your job to be an advocate for ic JUst make sure you really know what you are talking about. Explain your reasoning, and, if you can, use case studies of other places where your idea has worked. Design decisions that come from nowhere often come to the chop ping block. If you can justify your designs or new ideas, and present them in a way that 44 1 LiindscapeArchitecture

fIIA_e H 2001

is meaningful to your audience, you will generally be more sllccessful. Also, go beyond rhe call of dury. I was able to earn my current position by volunteering beyond what was reqllired of me. I served on a number of commitrees and actually functioned in my current cirie in a volunreer capaciry prior to getting the promorion. Once people know you are passionate and willing to puc in rhe rime, more opportunities will follow.

"MY INTERl'<ATIONAL EXPERlENCE HELPED GHEATLY L'< GETTJNG A JOB. " Craig Johnson EDAW/ AECOM â&#x20AC;˘ DENVER

y INTRODUCfJON to the workplace began overseas. During my last semester, I studied abroad on a research fellowship with the Singapore National Parks Department. 111e fellowship morphed into an extended trip throughout Southeast Asia, where I hada wealth of wonderful experiences. Before going overseas, I was not mentally prepared to work at a firm or think aoom applying for a job, bur after six months in Southeast Asia, I came back with a desire to look for a job in landscape architecture and earn some money. I also

came home with an interest in staying dose to f.unily and friends, something that I had not really felt important beforehand. , spem aOOm four months applying to various jobs, living with my parentS in Colorado Springs, Colorado. In college, I'd studied ooth landscape architecture and planning, and ' was looking fora Job where I could lise all of my skills. I tapped into the alumni network and searched for positions online. I also had to make a portfolio, which I had not needed for class or any previous jobs. , didn't spend too mllch time on my portfolio, and I am a bit ashamed to admit chat I did the whole thing in PowerPoinr. My international experien<:e helped greatly in getting a job; I found a lor of firms were looking for people interested in working or lIVing overseas. , ended up caking a job ar rhe Dem'er office of EDAW. J chose EDAW because the finn was dose to home, yet sri II worked on many internarional projects. J have worked at EDAW for rhe past chree years. I was blessed wirh having an unbelievable mentor. This boss capped into my international incerests-sending me co sites on five different continents-and gave me the opportunity to grow and develop as a designer, planner, and project manager on projeccs ranging from a 35-acrecampus redesign to a 35,000-acre citywide concepcual plan. Despite che varied scales and geographies, a cypical project for me progresses from an existing conditions phase to a scenarios phase to a final concept plan. 111e mosrdefining and fulfilling project that I have worked on is in Rwanda. This project has won two Colorado ASLA Awards and just recently won a Daniel Burnham Award, which is given by the American Planning Association for excel~ lence in comprehensive planning. My role was project planner in charge of collecting and analyzing existing condi tion dara, drafting the land plan and public participation strategy, and providing policy recommendations related to land development. J developed a tight connection with my fellow consultants--engineers, archi tects, and economists-and together we have

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been able to tea<:h a graduate-level class, present at conferences, and Start a lecture

series in Denver. Through this projeer, [ fed I am starring to find a niche working in developing countries and emerging markets. I am developing connenions and getring experience that is helping me pursue

more work in this niche. However, whenever a new summer intern works in rheofficc, I am constamly aware of the computer skills that 1 did not learn in college and have not had a chance to learn on the job. Even being away from college

for three years, I feel in some as\X""CtS like an aging dinos.'lUr and have been a bie frustrated with how difficult it is co learn new programs while working full time. I have told myself chac r would go back to school when

r full

into a rut at work, but the rues have luckily been quite shallow, and after three years at EDAW, J still find my work co be stimulating and deeply engaging.

Daniel Jost. Associate ASLA LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE'

Washington, D.C. O HOW DID I END UP writing for

S Landscape Architecfllre

magazine? I ask myself that question sometimes. Let's JUSt say it's not what I imagined right after graduation. At that time, [ was intent on moving oo<:k to my hometown, Buffalo, New York , and being a parr of irs ever-elusive renaissaoce.1 did abun<:h of part-time work there. But five months afte r graduating, wirh a number of successful inrerviews under my belt bur no one actively hiring fulltime enny-leveJ lands<:ape designers, J decided to test the waters elsewhere. J posred my resume on ASLA's J ob Link and e-mailed wve r leners, resumes, and porrfol ios co a number of firms with openings. Almost immediately, J starred get-

ting phone mils, and three different mmpanies agreed to fly me out to interview with their firm s. I doubt I would have the same experien<:e nxlay. T hese were boom times, right at the height of the housing bubble, and there was actually a shortage of young landsmpe architects nationally. After getting offers from all three mmpanies, I took a position in Las Vegas ar a 17 -person lands<:ape architecture firm. My interview there had left me impressed. It seemed to have the most di verse sraff and proiens, including master planning work for a bird-viewing preserve on rhe sire of an old sewage treatment plant. And the principal really looked me in rheeye, which at the time I took as a sign of honesty. I would soon find Out that rhe man was an avid poker player. Certain things that were promised during the interview never materialized. H e said the firm was in the process of adding vision and dental coverage co their insurance, which never happened . H e'd promised to pay for a plants identification class that would let me familiarize myself with desert planrs,

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but a week or two after arriving, ic ba'ame clear chac chis was not going co happen ei{her. He had also promised me an active role in the bird preserve project. Through a liule bitof grandstanding, J managed to make him follow through on chis parcicu-

lar promise, and that's probably the only reason J Stayed {here for the nexc cwo and a half years. The extremely flexible work schedule didn't hurr either. For chose companies tOO cheap or not able to offer bener benefits,

it路s a great way ro inspire employee loyalty. \VIe were allowed to arrive anytime before 9:00, and if we worked late Monday through Thursday, we could take a half day on Friday or perhaps not come in at all, as long as we met our 40 hours. This schedule was great for taking weekend trips to visit friends also living in western ci ties, and it was really good for taking night classes. I could usually leave a little earl ier on a day I had a class and make up for it the following day. It also allowed me to break into freelance writing. Initially, work at the office was really boring, as I sjX:nt the first six months doing nothing bur redlines and plugging hand drawings into AutoCAD. 'was finding little reward in my work and I was deprr--ssec\ with che style of development in Las Vegas, which surrounds every communicy and every individual home with a six-foot concrete block wall. As a firm, we didn'c have any concrol over chis; we were jusc there to throw a few shrubs in from of the wall. Day co day, chis made up the majority of my work.

MA RCN 2009 Landscape Architecture

147

PRACTICE Eventually, 1would be able to playa major role in a number of more interesting projectS as a projen manager and assistant project manager. H owever, my early dissatisfaction with work led me to pursue other methods of creative exprc-ssion. After I read a Critic at Large piece comparing Pafe Andre Cirrocn co the Luxembourg Gardens, two places ' had visited on a Studio trip to Paris, , wrote a lener to the editors of Landscape Archilectllre magazine, poinring our rhe flawed methods of evaluating a park's use found in that article. T he lenerwas published in Apri12006. J wrote

"My early dissatisfaction w~h work in adesign office led me to pursue other methods of creative expression." a second Ictrer afte r Bill Thompson's Land

Matters column decried the state of writ-

IMfRICIN SOCIHY Of IINOSllPf IRCHIHC1S 636 mmfH NW. WISHIN61ON. 101·898·1144 •fIX 101·898·1185 • 48 1 LiindscapeArchitecture

fIIA_e H 2001

ing in landscape architecrure, follow ing the death ofJane Jacobs. In rhe lener J noted that I would be interested in writing somet hing for the magazine. Using my first lerrer as a wriring sample, I convinced him to let me try writing for the magazine in my spare time. T he fact that they didn·t have any ocher wricers living in las Vegas also didn·t hurt me. l 11e first article I completed was a piece looking at a comroversialnew law that prohibited feeding the homeless in las Vegas parks. I researched this scory on my lunch hour, on the weekend, and on rhe Friday afternoons I had off-speaking with homeless people and advocates and reviewing tapes from a public meeting. T he editing process on this piece was a litde painful for me, and I remember having a long talk with my housemate about whether J should try to fight various edits made. H e convinced me to only challenge three edits that

affected the veracity of {he are ide. T bey were w illing ro make these changes, and it was exci ting [0 see the areide published in November 2006. Six months later, I had anO[her article published. Meanwhile, while life at work was improving, our company was nO[ prepared for the housing bus£. When [ was first hired, more than 80 percent of om work was for residential developers, and more than half of that was for a single company. My fi rm laid off twO people only 10 months aft('r I started. After that, there was a mass exodus from the company as it became clear t hat there was nO[ enough work to go around . By the fall of 2007, the company was less than half of its previous size, and we had moved to smaller quareers. It seemed like a good time to apply to grad schools. last spring, my hours were reduced to 36 hours per week, so I started looking into more articles in IA1/dscape Architecfllrt as a way to earn a little extra money. Meanwhile I had bttn accepted into a numberof master's of landscape architecture (M.LA) programs. \When planning a visit to Virginia to check OUt a campus where I had applied, I decided it might be nice toactually meet the person who was editing my work. To this point, I had never met Bill Thompson, PASLA, the editor; I had never even talked with him on {he phone. All of our interaction had taken place via e-mail. So I e-mailed him with [he idea of meet ing for lunch. Somehow, [he trip ended up being an interview. I had not been rotallyconvinced by my recent visits ro the MLA programs where I'd bttn accepted. If I was going to pay for more schooling, I was looking for something research based that would allow me ro actually contribute some sort of knowledge to the profession, and none of the programs [hat were offering me any financial aid seemed ro fit the bill. So, when Thompson offered me the job, I accepted. This new job has been a challeng ing change of pace, but I love the chance to travel, see landscapes, and interview interesting people. I get to choose most of my own assignments with the caveat that whenever I travel any significant dis tance, I need to find at least two articles ro write based on that trip. Writing during the day and on a deadl ine has bttn a little rough, but I think it was the righ t move.

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149

PRACTICE SHIFIlNG FOCGS: FROM GOLl' COLllSE TO RESIDEN'"I1AL DES1CN. Cameron Sp i es SUlMAN AND COLE DESIGN ASSOCIATES'

San Francisco

YCONCENTRATION was go lf course design, and I was fai rl y convinced about that career path. JUSt prior to graduation from Cornell's landscape architecture department in che spring of 2005, r

IMfRICIH SOCIHY Of IIHOS[lPf IRCHilmS 636 m S1RfH HW. WISHIH6lOH. 101· 898·1U~ •fIX 101·898·1185 • 50

I LiindscapeArchitecture

fIIA_e H 2001

explored an internship with Tom Dook, a Cornell alum who isago1fcourse architect in M ichigan. The plan was [Q attend rhe internship in t he summer after graduation and see what opportunities it would ereace. Unfort unately, I was not awarded entrance into the progrnm, so I focused my sights elsewhere. Due ro a limited number of jobs in rhe very tight-knit and esoteric field of golf course design, r applied to a number of more typical landscape archi te<:ture firms, primarily on t he \'{1est Coast (I grew up in Pord and ). I looked toward Seat tle , San Francisco, and San Diego. Wh ile I looked fo r work, I moved back to Poniand and stumbled into a summer job wi th a previous freelance client installing a planting plan at their residence

in Lake Oswego, Oregon, an affluent suburb. I was able to be very hands on that summer and oversaw a crew of workers. A large portion of it was trial and error, and it was a massive learning experience. [ was able to make some money being outdoors and doing what I wanted w do while [ interviewed and sought longer-term work in ocher cities. That work opened my eyc-s to rhe world of residential design, which I had rrivialized while in school. Being outdoors, interacting physically with plants and rhe crew, and geuing a litde dirty was exhausting, bur totally gratifying. I ended lip taking a job with Suzman and Cole Design Associates(SCDA), which is primarily a high-end residential dc-sign fi rm, and began my new life in San Francisco. The immediate benefit of working at a residential firm was the opjXJrtunity to do actual design work early. The level of detail required for the kind of work SCDA was doing left numerous bits of design for an enrry-Ievel designer such as myself. I d id a fuir amount of grunt work on a daily basis and found myself picking up redlines much of the time, but I relished the impressive number of design problems {hat were thrown my way. The market in which we primarily worked was unlike any other in the world, being home to some of the world's wealthiest people, and often budgets were nO[ even discussed. This meant we had ultimate freedom when choosing materials, and designs could be less conservative from a spending standpoint. The economic situation has definitely affected our office, though, and we ·ve seen work drop off drast ically. Smaller to midmnge jobs have gone by the wayside, and we find ourselves depending on the big fish. It is amazing to look back on my ini tial summer plam insmllation If1 Portla nd through the lens of someone who's spent three years in the profession. These three years have availed me with skins and knowledge that leave me slightly embarrassed abom some of the decisions I made on that particular job. I am just glad that the client is happy with the work. I guess it's all just part of the formative experience, though, and ultimately it has taught me that in such a complex and interesting profession then' is always something to learn.

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I 51

ERRJE liGHT STANDS outside Oakland's srunning new modem cathedral

in a firsr-of-irs-kind garden {hat hon-

ors victims of clergy

sexual abuse. She was

abused

by a priest at age 7.

"It's a really small, important physical representation of a horrific thing [hat happened in many places," she wId CNN.

She says the garden's

A cathedral offers a garden to sex abuse victims. By Peter Ornstein

ill~

centerpiece, a symbolic low S[Qne sculpture that's broken, is fitt ing for

those whose lives were shatfered by priests. "The energy that the artist pm {into the project} was [his circular swne trying co pull itself to become unbroken. T hat is our

journey. T hat is what we try to do every day- try to be unbroken." The garden is placed near a wall of the Cathedral of Christ rhe Light, which was consecrated September 25, 2008.

Two low-curved benches bracket the sculprure, one facing toward rhe cathedral,

sure we bring healing co people who are in need of ie, even if we were the cause ofir," he

says. "Having this garden on (he campus says we are serious about our desire to help in your heal-

ing process on whatever leveL As (his cathedral will be around for 500 years, so wil!

]11

the other facing away. 路nle benches are surrounded by hedges. The bench placemellf is deliberate and takes into acCOUIl{ (he feelings and needs of abuse v ictims.Those who choose not to face the cat hedral end up facing a small lake ac ross the st reet. Father P aul Minnihan, the provost of t he cathedral, says it was impormnt to have the garden- for the victims, and for the church to atone for the sins of its past. "Part of the church路s mission is to make

{hac garden as a place of healing and hope,"

11le CatholicChurch was rocked earlier this decade by allegarionsof children being sexually abused by priests, with scores ofvicrims filing lawsuits against their alleged abusers. The church was accused of covering up the abuse for decades by sending offending priests to adler parishes. 111e church wound up paying hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements. Some

priests wem to jail; adlers resigned. Pope Benedict XVI in J uly 2008 apologized co

victims and called the abuse "evil." At the garden's dedication on October 11, Allen Vigneron, bishop of Oakland,

For the first time, the Catholic Church has offered a garden that honon wictims of clergy sex abuse, top. Benches flank a stone sculpture, above. 52 1 LandscapeArchitecture fIIA_e H 2001

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LANDSCAPES OF COMPASSION

Concrete planter wall

Existing

once again offered rhe church 's apology. "To rhe hurts of SO many innocents, we preferred rhe darkness to rhe light. And

in-ground _ _ _ lights

for that, I again make he-.mfelr apologies ro all vi([im survivors. As it says on rhe plaqur'S at rhe em ries, 'Wle remem ber and we affirm: never rI,f,'ain.···

Light, who has Ix:en a vocal advocate for abuse viccims for many years, says gening the garden built was not an easy process. "W/e gOt silence; then we got passed around ," she says. She says Barbara Flannery, the former chancellor of the diocese who became rhe church's point person on helping victims, advocated for the garden ro rhe bishop. "He thought it was a good idea. But it 's d ifferent from 'It's

Memorial plaque

The simlMe design, top, calls to mind fradurn .nd heJli~ Terrie Light, I yictim of se.nl.buse, H)" the broken rock, right. represents the . II.It· tered lives of wictim •. The , arden, MID .., is meant to be a quiet, contemplatiwe space.

hi.ting pawinc

Elistinc iandKape

.! ~

II I !

,! ; !

a good idea' (0 'Here's the people to meet with to make it happen,'" she says. "\"'\1hen we finally met with the archite<:t, things really <:hanged. "He really undersnxxl what we were crying to accomplish and put together some architects to create this garden that he thought would give us what we wanteda place not inside the church for people to mme and (Onnen to their spirituality." Why outside? "There are people who want (0 go into a <:hurch who cannot. It's t()() painful, tOO emotionally traumatizing;' she says. "111ere are other people who are ambivalent- who

The garden is not ,,,hat survivors had originally em'isioncda lush. English gm·den with flowers and trees. But they m·c pleased with the outcome.

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KORNEGAY want to be there and do not want to be there. ll1is gives them the option."' The garden is not what survivors had originally env isioned- a lush, English garden with flowers and trees. But they are pleased with the outcome. "It's a very simple space," Light says. Most victims of abuse in the Oakland area favored the garden; a few opposed it, feeling that it implied closure to a problem that still exists. Minnihan says the church has sought "to bring back healing and wholeness and work with those who are survivors" since the scandaL 'nle garden is emblematic of that. "\"'\1e wanted to have a place respectful of their needs and their wishes," he says.

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636 fYf SImI NW. WASHIN618N. nc 100013736 101·m·1444 •fIX 101·m ·1185 • WWW.ASUORE MUCH 2009 Landscap e Architecture

I 55

NEW TECHNOU:X;Y HAS EVOLVED

move a Japanese maple ( Acer palmalllm) from a very tight spot, he decided to see ifhe could use his air spade not JUSt to investigate subgrade rooting conditions, but co uneanh the tree's root mass entirely. He

in the green induscry--bare-l'OU{ transplanting. Previo usly, landsrape crews had (0 contend with the high proba-

bility oflosing a tree once it was laboriously transplanted. Now, rhe (relatively) new air-spade technology of bare-root transplanting enables crews to re-

move a tree from the ground whi Ie keeping intact roughly 95 percent of the cree's TOOt system.

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the kmd of roO! shearing

A Revolution in the Making

Air-spade technology was initially developed tounearch land mines in war zones. In che lace 19LJOs, the technology was introduced to the tree indusClY and promoted mainly to diag nose and creat root problems. Using an air spade- a nozzled , compressed-air hose-an arborist can locace the original trunk flare of a tree planted tOO deeply, reduce compaction in a tree's root zone, or reveal girdling rootS that may be threacening a tree's healch. To demonstmte what bare-root tmnsplanting entails, the Massachusetts Arborists Associacion held a special workshop for industry professionals in Aub'UStat Nonser Fam1,a tree nursery in \Westford, Massachuserrs, owned by Matt Foti. Nearly 100 arborists, landscape architects, landscape contmctors, and designers gathered at the nursery to witness and discuss the bare-root transplanting of a cedar (Cedrm) tree. The workshop'S featured speaker was Mike Furgal , who developed a method seveml years ago to tmnsplant bare-root trees using an air spade. Furgal is experienced with using the technology for ornamental tree transplanting, and he gave a slide show demonstration to explai n his met hods. Furgal and Foci 's goal for the

ROOTS FIRST

that can cake place when asoi l root bal l is moved. He proceeded to blow soil om of che tree pit, pick up the (much lighcer) tree with his com pan mility loader,and move it toOl new location on the property. \With che nee thriving (Cxlay, Furgal now uses his air spade for cransplants whenever possible. For che workshop, Furgal and Foti chose se\'eral trees to move, selecting each according to the lesson it might illustrate. Foci- an advocate for imitating nature in cree planting and cultivation- selected the seed-grownjlllllPel"/ls t,'lrglllialla (eastern red cedar) to show how a noncultivated tree's roocs grow and to test how well it might withstand the stress of airspade tmnsplantation. T hen, the arborisrs chose to spade and move matching [win cm-leafed European white birch (Betll/a pelldll/a "Gracilis'). Birch, of course, is well-known for being a fall digging hazard. As is typical pmctice, Foti had his crew hydrate the trees a few clays prior in prepamtion for the transplanting. In che cool of early morning, before the workshop began, Foti's crew dug the first birch with a 40-inch tree spade. \When they finished their work, two hours later, the tree's leaves had completely wilted and its health was in serious decline. By day's end, the tree's leaves were withering. The arborists determined that

Teclmology designed to unearth land mines carl be used to transplant trees. By Deborah Howe, ASlA

56 1 LiindscapeArchitecture

fIIA_e H 2001

workshop was to educate attendees about the benefits to trees when transplanting using the new method and to promote this new crend in tree-tmnsplant technology. Existing Technology, New Use

At the workshop, Furgal explained how he came to use his air spade for transplanting. \'ÂŤhen faced several years ago with having

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An air spade is used to excavate a 'Bloodgood' Japanese maple (Acer palmatum 'Bloodgood' l, abo~e, from its original site. The maple is lifted out of its location after being excavated by the air spade, bew", Note the breadth and density of the root mass,

it would not survive the excavarion and move, and ir was sell[ to the chipper. In contrast, the second birch was air spaded during the workshop in rhe heat of midday. With an eight-foot-diamerer root mass, the (fee was lifted by a Bobcat, relocated, and then replanted, wirhour evidence of wi Iring. Two weeks later, rhe transplanted birch remained settled in its

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58 1 LiindscapeArchitecture fIIA_C H 2001

new location wirhout sign of srress. The crowning achievement of rhe workshop, however, was rhe relocation of an IS-foot <Bloodgood' Japanese maple (Arn' pa/mafllfll 'Bloodgood'), which had grown tOO large for its currenr location. Again, rhe crew hydrated the nee prior to the excavation and mo\'e. TIle day before the demonstration workshop, Furgal

and Foci's crews air spaded the tree's rootS, sprayed them with water, and covered them with wet burlap. On the day of the workshop, a crew trans)XJrted the maple by truck to Nonset Farm and ploced it shortly atTer noon in its new location in Foti·s nursery. They backfilled and welled the planting, then flooded it. Despite the hot, sunny weather and exposed location, noc a single leaf on the tree wilted.

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Currently, arborists use two standard methods for moving large trees. Ar,guably, the more )XJpular IS the balled and burlapped (B&I3) method, which uses a backhoe and then a fork to dig the tree·s root ball, which IS then tightly wrapped in burlap and drum laced for tranS)XJrt and planting. Some arborists double burlap the ball to help ensure its stability du ring transport, as rootS encased in soil are susceptible to breakage when pressure is PUt on the root bull during lilTing and moving. T he size of the root ball is determined by the size of the tree and the equipment available to move it. Alternatively, a tree may be moved by a mechanical tree srode, which is a hydraulic machine with a set of curved blades that spread to grab at a wide area of soi! around a tree's trunk. As {he bladesdescend- slic ing through soil and roors- the aperture formed by their 10wer)XJints closes, form ing a cone-shaped root ball under the tree. T he tree and its root bal l are then lifted from the hole with the hydraulic arm and moved, still held by spade "bucket:· to its new location. It is plamed in a hole dug earlier by the same spade; the srode operator simply lowers rll(' spade and root ball imo the waiting hole, then releases and retracts ell(' spade blades so the tree can be leveled and the fOO( ball backfilled and watered in. Both methods rely on the formula diameter at breast height (OBI I), which allows 10 inches of root-mass diameter for every inch of trunk caliper. T his ratio is considered the accepted standard for determining what the minimum diameter of a root ball should be.

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Once removed from its original planting site, the maple is transported b, truck. Its trunk is supported with ha, bales; wet burlap will cover its roots, and a tarp will be tied over its crown.

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the time it rakes for a transplanted tree to adjust co its new site and begin co PUt on visible new growth. Using the B&B method to move a tree offers a number of major benefits. For example, an arborist can "cuscomize" the d ig and retrieve a larger root mass than he might with a tree spade, should the cree require ic. l:'lking the tree's weight, its transportability, and the size of the truck and equipmenc into account, he can dig a fairly wide-diameter root ball based on that particular tree路s requirements. An additional benefit is that an arborist can make clean root CUtS before burlapping the tree for transpon. Clean CUtSenhance the tree路s ability to recowr from the move and to sproUt new fibrous roots. Hand digging is expensive, though , given the labor requirements fordoing it properly. Depending on site and soil conditions, even the on-site move of a B&B tree might take a crew of tWO or three men more than a day to complete. Tree spades, on the other hand, have their own benefits. For starters, a tree spade saws time, given the efficiency of the g rab-and- lift process. \'{then used properly, and with attention to the accepted standard ratio of tree caliper to rootmass diameter, a tree spade excels at the tradi t ionally labor-intensive process of

digging and installing a tree, thus cutting labor COStS dramatically. 111e on-site move of a tree using a tree spade can take tWO arborisrs a couple of hours-much less than the amount of time it takes three laborers to finish the same task for a B&B tree. Also, a tree spade simplifies the digging and cranspon processes and makes tree storage and transport more space efficient. But tree spades do have their disadvantages. As the largest tree spade has a spread of 96 inches , trees with a OBH larger than 9 feet 6 inches should not be moved with one. Rocky or rough soils may prevent their use in places. \'{that's more, the equipment is quite expensive. Tree-spade blades also glaze the sides of the root ball, and tree spades cannot make clean root CUtS, tending instead to tear the tree's roots. Both of these factors lengdlen the period of transplant shock and root reestablishment . Evaluating the Air Spade

\X1ith an air spade, almost all of the roo t mass survives the excavation and move. Furgal estimates that a bare-root specimen may retain 80 to 95 percent of its root mass, as opposed to 30 percent for one dug by hand or with a mechanical tree spade. Minimizing harm to the roo t mass minimizes transplant shock and, as

a result, the air-spaded rree needs a shoner establishment phase when the tree is planted in its new location. While hand digging is apt to be the slowest and most expensive transplanting methoo, it is not so dear which of the other two methods COStS less. Air-spade transp lanting, whICh takes longer than tree spading, may still be less expensive than tree spading oc-cause the equipment WStS tend to be much lower. Furgal, who has done most of his transplanting from one job location to another, believes the COSt of an on-site, bare-root transplant is halfof what it might COSt to use a tree spade because more heavy equipment is needed with the tree spade. However, the need to movea tree from one job site to another may change chac equation somewhat.

HEALTH CARE GARDEN DESIGN

Opportunities for Growth

To date, Furgal has moved mainly ornamenral specimens ofJapanese maple, cherry, cedar, false cedar, stewarria, birch, and pine trees. However, he noted chatas he develops the method and opportunities arise, he will learn what ocher types of trees tolerace being moved. Foti , who had seen Furgal's phocosof airspade transplants, was intrigued by the idea of bare-root trnnsplantation and became a convert to che method shortly before hosting cheworkshop. Describing somecretS he has transplanted since che workshop, he says, "Every cree I've bare rooted--even in full leaf- has shown absolutely no sign of trnnsplant shock, even in late summer, early autumn weather."' He anticipates using the method in all sorts of situacions where a tree spade might place d-.e root system at too much risk, yet hand digging might be impractical or tOO expensive. Furgal points out thac while noc every tree is a candidate for bare rooting with an air spade, the technique can, in certain circumstances, be an option ror moving a plant that might otherwise be inaccessible or immovable when using ocher equipment. "Ie's really, really important to deal with the soil issues each cree meets. When you move a tree from one place to another, bare rooting it lets you introduce the tree to the sicesoils ofics new locacion," he adds. "\Vhen you plam B&B, you may be dealing with one soil type in the root ball and a different one in the planting location. Roms don't

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Tips for Success When Transplanting Trees with an Air Spade .... Hydrate the tree's roots thoroughly before excavating it. According to Ma" Foti and Mike Furral-certified arborim who recently hosted a demonstration of bare-root transplanting-it's important to water the tree deeply 72 hours prior to its scheduled move. Soil type will affeel the timing of watering, Clay soil blows out best when it is damp; sandy soil blows out best when it has drained a bit. .... Asuss the tree's below·grade strudure as thoroughly as possible before detennining where to put the trench. The standard 10 to 12 inches of root·ball diameter per caliper inch should be taken as a minimum. Go as far out from the trunk as possible to dig your trench. Furgal starts his trench at the drip line; if he doesn't find roots there, he moves I am a leader in innovation: I crea te artful, functional and sustainable environments without compromising

inward toward the tree until he does find roots, and then he scribes his trench line. Foti doubles the standard root·ball diameter and checks the root system by hand digging to see if he needs to dig his trench farther out or farther in.

on the performance of the equipment

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.... Continue to irrigate the tree through the growing season to ensure its establishment. lf)'Ou use drip irrigation, be sure to place the lines out around the drip line of the tree, rather than at its trunk. The roots will search oulward for water and help anchor the tree. .... Assess the conditions, and stake the tree at your discretion. Furgat does not advocate staking. though it may be useful if you've placed the tree in an especially windy or exposed

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location. .... Aftercare is most critical to the success of this transplanting method and may make the difference between a tree that continues to thrive and one that fails. Adequate mois· ture is probably the single most important ingredient in successful maintenance.

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For those trees that can be moved bare root, the simplicity of the process, the preservation of root mass, and the resuKing cost savings make acompelling argument for doing so.

P AC KAG ES UNMATCHED D U RA BI LITY

like to move from one type of soil toanmher, and that can hamper root growth. With bare-root transplants, chac's nO( an issue."

DIAMOND

As Foci and Furgal use [he air spade [Q move more crees, they will be looking co see how other species- chose that presenc fall digging hazards or may be ocherwise

deemed temperamental- react co being moved in chis way. Early indicat ions from rhe work chac Furgal has done show [he

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crees using an air spade, without {he mor-

rality thac comes from hand digging or cree-spade transplantation. For chose trees that can be moved bare root , the simplicity of the process, [he preselVation of root mass, and the resulting cost savings make a compelling argument

for doing so. Where previously rhe remedy for a poorly located specimen might have been [Q cut it down and plant new, now landscape crews have the opportunity to move that tree and see it thrive in a new location. TIle air spade is a "U1tting-edge" revolution in tree transplantation.

Deborah Hmue, ASLA . is a registered landscape architect with a partimlar interest in w(lrxiy plallfs. In nearly 20 yean (If professional experiena, her WJrk has ral/gedfrom large-JCdle Pltblic projeitS (inrlllding Boston's Central Artery streetsCdjJe rest(JYation) to priwte residi!lltial dnd imtitlltional planning. design, and landscapelIIanagemellf plallJ. She cowritfj a blog alx)IIt landrcape architfftllral practice anddesign iW/fJ on www.takingplace.net.Shecanbereached at dhowe@ lighthallco.com.

landscape Architecture Magazine

Goes Di~tal. In conceIt with National Landscape Architechlre Month, our April issue will be the first issue made available in digital format. Please see our mention in Rip Rap on page 26.

Reprinted with permission from Alllerican

NlIrseryman, December I, 2(X)8. MUCH 2009 Landscap e Architecture

163

TECHNOLOGY Et.lAND FOR WATER is a spreading prob-

lem across the Uniced States. T he Govern-

ment A<:coumabiliryOfficc projcns chat as many as 46 srates will face water shortages within five years because of a combination

of rismg temperatures, drought, population growth, urban sprawl, and waste. Droughts and conflicts over water issues have

Ix--en a common occurrence in rhe Somhwesrcver since people settled in the region, bue now other parcs of rhe Uniced Scates are experiencing rhe same problems. T he Southeast has always been

considct'(--d a warer-rich pan of the country, bur [huc perception is quickly changing. T he 2007 drought was the worst to hie the Southeast In

more than a cenmry. Ie extended over most of Ten nessee, Alabama,and [he nonhern half of Georgia,

PLANNING FOR WATER DEMANDS Digital data belps make better decisions. By James l. Sipes, ASlA, and Mickey O'Brien

as wei] as parcsofNorrh and South Carolina, Kentucky, and Virginia. More than a quarter o f the Southeast was covered by an "exceptional" drought, which is the National \'Veather Service's worst drought category. Tn October 2007, Georgia scate officials warned that lake lanier, the primary source of water for Atlanta, was within three months of being depleted. TIle city of Atlanta proposed piping in additional sources of water from the Tennessee River or even pumping in seawater from the Atlantic coast.

Georgia legislators considered modifYing the state's boundary with Tennessee to pull water from the Tennessee R iver. T hecity of Chattanooga, Tennessee, responded by sending 2,000 !:xxtles of water delivered to the Georgia Scate Capitol, in essence saying dlis was al l the Tennessee water Georgia was going to get. A year later, even though there was an abundance of water in rivers and reservoirs downstream, lake Lanier was still 13 feet below its full fXJOllevel, and many Atlanta residents are concerned about future water issues. Most water experts have criticized the The National Weather Service's Precipitation Analysis can be used to understand water availability in Texas. The map at left shows the depar路

64 1LandscapeArchitecture

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ture from the norm iu the average amouut of raiufall for the ~ear to date. The map at top shows the amount of precipitation in the state over a seven路day period starting January I, 2009. The map above shows the total amount of precipitation for the year to date.

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region for its "total fajlure of planning" that led to ies dependence on lake lanier. Landsmpe architects address these types of water resources in a wide range of projects by encouraging suseainable practices. Regional planning projects, including naeural resource management, community planning, and watershed planning, need to consider water resources. EDAW iscurrently working with the state of Georgia to develop a staeewide waeer resource plan, and ehese eypes of projeccs are becoming more commonplace. \'Vater disericts such as ehe Sc. Johns Waeer Diserict in Florida are developing similar plans, and landscape architects are an imporeane pare of ehe team. While some communities have taken a policy approach , limiting developmene based on proof of available water supplies, other communities have turned to creative planning solutions.

tions. These programs have an impact on water availabiliey for cities, rural communities, and development projectS that lands<."apearchitects may be involved with. T he one ching these programs all seem to agree on is that mmprehensive water conservation planning has the potential to improve waeerqualieyand in-scream flow levels,decreast the need for new capital investments, reduce vulnerability to drought, and procect valuable cultural and natural resources.

T he National Drought Policy Commission proposed the foundaeions of a naeional drought policy that would include all of the various drought programs. T he intent of the national drought policy is to use the resources of the federal government to suppore but not supplant nor interfere with staee, regional, local, tribal, and personal effores to reduce droughe impacts. The drought poliqr favors preparedness over insurance, insurance over relief, and incen-

Planning Efforts to Address The Problem

Ie may be surprising, bue the Unieed Scates lacks a coordinated policy to ensure thae water resources are protected and that we will have ehe water needed for future generations. But even with the lack of coordination, there is no shortage of efforts to manage our water resources. There are more chan 80 federal drought-related programs and literally hundreds of other programs from staees and nonprofit organizaWith data from the National Weather Service's Precipitation Analysis, the series of maps, abo~e and opposite, shows the amount of precipitation in the United States for a variety of time frames beginning January 1, 2009. The map at right shows the amount of precipitation for the entire year.

66 1 LandscapeArchitecture fIIA_e H 2001

O _IV"~

rives over regularion. This IXJlll1' requires a shift from the current emphasis on drought relief and requires a more furward-looking plannin g approach. Although at first glance a national drought IXJlicy may seem beyond the realm of landscape architecture, the recent droughts in the SourllCaSt United Scates have had a significant impact on firms in the area. Without available water, for example, growth in the Atlanta area came coa standstill,and all landscape projeees were canceled. \Vhile the federal government is working on a national drought policy, individual states are establishing their own policies. Georgia路s Comprehensive Scatewide \Vater Management Plan is similar co che programs many scates have implemented. Georgia's p lan is intended to guide the state in managing water resources in a sustainable manner, and it lays OUt statewide policies, management practices, and guidance for regional planning. The provisions of this plan are intended to guide river basin and aquifer management plans and regional water-planning efforts, and they will have an impact all the way down to the local planning level.

At rhe stare level, though, water resoun:e planning varies considerably. In the Southeast, Somh Carolina, North C1.rolina, Virginia, West Virginia, and Kentucky all have drought plans chat emphasize re sponse. Georgia's drought plan emphasizes mitigation. Florida delegates drought planning co local authorities. AsofOccober 2006, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi , Arkansas, and Louisiana were all states without a drought plan. At a more local level, a watershed-based planning approo.ch can help communities make bener decisions on watershed restoration priorities and make the most ouc oflimited funding and staffing resources. Many communities are implementing watershed management plans that include recommendations for scormwater management programs, cotal maximum daily load, source water protection, watershed improvement, land use, and basin-specific strategies. Landscape architects have an opportunity to work with water resource orgal11zaCions co mtegrate watershed management plans with comprehensive plans and other long-term planning efforts.

Tools for Green Infrastructure Site Design

At the site level, landscape architects are implementing design solmions fur green infrastruaure scormwater management such as low-impact development and watersensitive urban design. Best management praaice (I3MP) tools that result in a more sustainable approo.ch co water management include but are not limited co COllStttlCted wetlands, biofiltration, rain gardens,cisterns and water reuse, ecoroofS or green roofS, stream daylighting, and perme-Jble paving. m,fPs can help achieve gools such as improving water qualiry, reducing water demand, and maintaining predevelopment condicions oneta project has been implemented. Developing a bener understanding of precipitation and drought- regardless of whecher it is for a national , scate, or local level- will enable landscape architects and planners to make beccer decisions about how to protect water resources. This knowledge wil! also help government agencies, private inscitutions, and stakeholders make more informed decisions about risk-based policies and actions to

MUC H 2 0 n

LlInd&caPIIArcbitllcturll 1 67

TECHNOLOGY mitigate che dangers posed by floods and drough ts. landscapearchi te<:c$ may not be able to prevent droughts, but we can cer-

tainly help develop alte rnative water sources, introduce water-efficient planning

approaches, and help establ ish effcnive and affordable redundancy in water systems. For example, one approach would be co deve10pmmmunity and regional parks

in aquifer rccharge areas

minimize

scormwaccr runoff from paved surfaces. Changes in temperarure, precipitation panerns, and snowmelt have significant

impans on our water resources. In Georgia, for example, wuceroriginuces primari-

ly as rainfall, and the srace experiences litric month ly Of seasonal variations in rainfall, so (here is a relatively unifonn distribution of precipitation throughout rhe year. According to the National Weather Service, more than 50 crillion gallons of water ful l over Georgia each year, so being able to understand when and where the rainfull hits could help the state manage fururewater needs. EDAW is working with the state to determine where to develop reservoirs, establish protect ion zones, and encourage or limit growth in accordance with anticiroted available water. Tools for Water Resource Analysis

rt is difficult to predict future changes in regional precipitation patterns and to identify areas where drought is a priority, but there are digital tools that realistically generate forecasts across the United States Data from the National Climatic Data Center was used to produce the map at top right, which shows some of the more than 12,000 weather stations scaHered around the United States. The map second from top shows precip路 itation and weather stations in the Southeast. The map second from bottom shows the annual rainfall in the United States for 2008. The map bottom right shows U.S. precipitation for 2008 throu gh the month of April. On the opposite page, the top map shows the annual amount of snowfall for 2008, while at bottom the U.S. Drought Monitor can be used to research areas that are more susceptible to drought.

68 1 LandscapeArchitecture

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overflow areas may help reduce flooding downstream. Data from AI-IPS can also be downloaded in a shapefile format for use with GIS programs or in a KMZ format for use With Google Earth, a popular geospatial browser. T his data is updated every 15 mimltes, so you can be assured of having the most current hydrologic informacion available. T he National Weacher Service (N\XfS) provid es hydrologic forecasts for almost 4,000 locations across the United States. These forecasts are developed by N\XfS's River Forecasr Centers and distributed to field offices for various uses. The River Forecast Centers use che best available forecastS fur futllre precipitation amounts given the constraints of current hydrometeorolog ical science. Information products produced by the National Drollght Mitigation Center (NOMC) come from many sources and perspectives, ranging from numerous drought indices to a national-scale web site for reporting and cracking impacts of drought. NOMC produces a weekly U.S. Drought Monitor thac depicts areas of the United States thac are exper iencing drought. Being able to determine areas thac are particularly susceptible co droughc is useful for landscape architects working

wich seasons and geographic area, For exThe AI-IPS web sice also includes maps ample, continuous, national-scale precipi- of individual river basins as well as points ration estimates are available through {he along the river for which information is Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service available. The maps provide information (AI-IPS), a web-based suite of forecast cools on impactsofhigh water or flood, impacts that are part of the National Weather Ser- of low stage or level, agricultural impacts, vice"s Climate, \'{facer, and \'{feather Ser- shorc-cerm and long-term hydrologic forevices. AHPS products are developed using castS, water supply forecasts, documented sophisticated compmer models and large drought conditions, and potential drought amounts of data from multiple sources, in- areas. This informacion can be plugged cluding automaced gauges, geostacionary into water modeling programs to detersacellites, Doppler radars, weather obser- mine areas mosc vulnerable w flooding or vation stacions, and the Advanced \'{feath- droughcs. Iccan also be used w help deterer Interactive Processing Syscem. AHPS mine che types of micigation measures thac tools ca n be used to model floods or may be needed, such as where shoreline droughts and make predictions from hours stabilizac ion may be necessary or where to months in advance. AI-IPS nor only makes predictionsaboutfuDecembe r 30, 2008 ture events, but it also includes Volki ....... EST historic dara thac allows us to see pasc trends of water availabilicy. \Xfhen determining long-term future growth, understanding these patcerns helps determine ~ where potencial growth should occur or be limited based on water availability. ,0 AI IPS allows users w view a ~ ~ 03A national composite map or w zoom into regions, states, and 0 1.. county-level areas over multiple time periods, including for the Orowh' ImD8ct T"d!II'; previous day and precipitation o DOAbnotmaIyOry rJ [)eIjneal" domintnl impa(:U wtals over the past seven, 14, o 01 Drought . MoI:Iomlte A"' AgricuI1unol (crops. pastures . gr1ll$$lands) 30, or 60 days. Archived data is • 02 Drought • severe H · Hydrological (wa1ef) • 03 Crought · Exlrtme available back to 200S with • D4 Drought • Exc:ept;ooaI monthly estimates of departure ~ Drought MonJIor focUW$ on 0t'08d~ conditiotI$. from normal and percent of norLocal cond;r;t)n$ may vary. se. ~nying 1&xt summary kxforeQl$I$/.9/&m&nt$. Released Wednesday, December 31, 200B mal precipitation. There are also Author. em" Ftx:hs, N.tJo,,-, 0t0u11h1 Mltlg.11on c.,,/w http://drought.unteduJdm links w historic data going back decades.

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LlInd&caPIIArcbitll cturll 1 69

Drought Severity Index by Division Weekly Value lor Period Ending OEC 27. 2008

TECHN OLOGY on large development projects. For example, in these areas, spending more money

on drought-tolerant plams, cisterns to catch rainfall, and catch basins [0 can:h and hold scormwarer may be good decisions in rhe long Tun. The Climate Data Online site provides access to an annual summary of monthly temperature means, depanures from nor-

mal, and extremes; heating and cooling degree data; and precipitation totals, departures from normal, and extremes. A monthly rally of rain days, snow days, and

days within selected temperature thresh olds is also included. Prices for the data range from $2 Foran individual station to $300 for an annual fee that allows you access [Q all online informacion.

The National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) is the world's largesracrivean:hive of climate and weather-related data and informacion. NCrx: operaces che \'{1orld Data

•

-4.0 01 less (Extreme Drought)

D -3.0 to -39 (Severe Drought)

+2.0 to +29 (Unusoal MOOst SpeI~

-2.0 to -29 (Moderate Drought)

•

+3.0 to +391yery MoOst Spell)

-1.9 to + 1.9 {Near Norma~

•

+4.0 and above (EKlremely Moist)

Center for Meteorology in Asheville, North Carolina, and the \'{1orld Data Center for Paleoclimatology, which is located in Boulder, Colorado. NCrx: products are based in

large part on land-based observations that contain meteorological elements such as cemperature,dew point, relative humidity, precipitation, snowfall, snow depth, wind

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fIIA_e H 2001

St. SI:h;ler Pari<. IL 60 176

~ 7 · 260{)333

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The Drought Severity Index, opposite, indicates the amount of moisture in a given area compared to normal conditions. The map at right shows the total snowfall for the Milwaukee area for a four-dar period in february 2008.

speed, wind direnion, cloud iness, visibility, atmospheric pressure, evaporation, soil temperatures, and w('atheroccurrences such as hail, fog, and thunder. There are a number of products available from NCIX that may be of interest to landscape architects. S'IOI~ st(lrms Acrau the Nati(ln is an atlas that includes information such as the frequency and dimensions of snowstorms, weathe r conditions and damages associated with heavy snowstorms, as well as descriptions of some recent major events. The fntegrated Surface Dataset provides hourly, synoptic, and some daily summary data for approximately 12,000 worldwide weather stations. NCDCs G IS Divisional Data

provides data on current u.S. temperature, precipitation, and droughts. fnformation about snow is important because for many areas snowmelt is a major source of water.

Communities that depend upon snowmelt (0 till reservoirs are likely to experience severe droughts if the amountof snowfal l is much less than norma!' Landscape architens need to get involved wi th helping these communities make decisions about how to implement conservation measures and manage resources before a drought hits. U.S. Snowfall Maps IS a web-based proclun aVailable from NCIX. T he data is extraned from a meteorological database from the U.S. C{X)perative O bserver Network (COOP). COOPconsisrsof alx>ut 8,000 stations operated by state universities, State or federal agencies, and private organiza[ions. T he earliest clata is from 1886, and it is organiztxl by month. Data on snow IS available from the National O perational Hyd rologic Remote Sensing Center. It provides information on snow COVef, snow depth, average snowfa!!, snowfall rotal the past 24 hours, and more. fnfonnation from raclars,gauges,

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MA RCN 2009 Landscape Architecture

I 71

Snow De pt h :!OOIl - UI - UI 01$

TECHN OLOGY and s.1.tell icts is combined to provide fairly accurate estimates of precipitation. NWS says chat the dataset is one of the best sources of timely, high-resolution precipi-

ration infOrmation available. It does warn, thoug h, that users need (0 understand there are more than 10,000 precipitation gauges

scatTered across the coumry, and these collect data 24n, and the information on rhe web is updated three times per day, at approximately 9:30 AM, 12:30 PM, and 4:30 PM Eastern Standard lime.

NCOC also produces rhe Climate Atlas of the United States, a CD-ROM that provides archived cl imate maps of rhe Uni ced Statts, including Alaska and Hawaii, for the years between L96! and 1990. Users can map climate data such as temperature, precipitation, wind, pressure, mean percenrage ofvisibiliry,and record maximum heating degree days, jusr to name a few of rhe many possibiliries. TIle dara can also be

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The Miami-Dade County Park and Recreation Department is seeking an outstanding landscape architectural professional committed to bu ilding healthier, more livable communities. The department is one of the largest urban par!<: systems in the United States with over 250 parks and an ong~ng $790 million capital program. The selected applicant will be responsible for managing the landscape architectural design of park projects through a professional staff of registered landscape architects and support staff, developing al1d implementing design criteria standards with emphasis on green building technology, and acting as design criteria professional for design/buik! development projects. Applicants must have a bachelor's degree in landscape architecture with six years of professional landscape architectural experience and must possess a state of Florida landscape architect license. Miami-Dade County offers excellent benefits that include full medicaJ, dental, vision, life, and disability n surance; a 457 pretax savings plan; flexible spending accounts; 13 paid holklays; vacation and sick leave; employer-paid membefship in the Florida retirem6!lt system; professionaJ development ; and a tuition relmoorsement program. Applicants must apply online by Aprl13, 2009, at

VISIT W(B SITE

12 1 LandscapeArchitecture fIIA_e H 2001

_.""

....

exporred into ESRl's suire of GIS rools so you can creare your own maps. \\lith more a<:curate information, landscape archirects, planners, and other decision makers can make berrer decisions

Salary Range: $77 ,063 - $127,770

The job opening number is 8191 .

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MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, FLORIDA LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT 4

www.miamidade.gov/jobs.

Snow data is a,ailable from se,eral sources, including the National Operational Hydrologic

Remote Sensing Center. The map .bore shows th e snow depth on Janual)' 1, 2009, for th e Northeast United States.

about more responsible si te design and water resources. That wi ll be critical as we try to meet the needs of the next generation . T he world's population is expected to expand to more than three billion peop le by 2050, and scientists are concerned that our water resources will not be able toaccommodate this mass of people. Landscape architects need to take a leadership role in how we manage water resources, and this includes determining where ro bui ld new reservoirs, developi ng more water-efficient cities, and helping implement pol1Ciesand procedures at the local, regional, and stare level to promote smarr decisions about water and other natural resou rces. T he future effects of climate change on warer t"(""SOllfCes in rhis country will dqx:nd in large parr on the pol icies we establish and the warershed planning approaches we implement ro help protect these resources. \'{fater conservation is one of the highest priorities in helping ro ensure we are able to balance human needs wirh environmental requirements, bur conservation alone wil l nor solve the water supply challenges.

Large reclamation projects enhanced settlement of western states, but these were developed prior ro the implementation of environmental regulations, so they are much more difficult codevelop than in the past. Desalination is not a viable option in most places because it COStS 10 times more than traditional surface water treatment. Regardless of what app roach w e take to ensure there is adequate water for future generations, landscape architects will play a major part in the process. T he bener we understand the problems and the opportunities, the bener the decisions we wlil make about water resources.

James L. Sipes, IISLA, iJ a senior associate for l:'DII W- AECOAI in Atlanta andfof/l/{J;ngpnndfW/ ofSand COllllty SflIdi(IJ ill Seattle. Mickey O'Brien, d IdlldJcapearrhitKl dnd /d1/dplaf/f/et; is a smior associate with l:'DA W- AECOM.

• Georgia's Comprehensive Statewide \\later Management Plan, IWIIII.gmrgwwater

collncil. orgl Fi/eJ_PDFIwater...)lan_20080 I

09·pdf • National Climatic Data Center,

IlJIllW. ncd~. noaa.gov • National Drought Mitigation Center,

drought.lm/.edtl • National Drought Policy Commission,

govlnfo.library.lll1t,edtddrollghtl}inalreportl fidlreportlreportd/Md, htm • National Operational Hydrologic Remote Sensing Center, wlIIw.nohrsc.f1Ma.gov • National \\leather Sen'ice, IVlIIW,fIWS.

f/Ma.gov • National Weacher Service P recipitation Analysis Site, 11IWI1,.srh.f/Ma.govl

t/asharelprecip_analysis_ flf:lI'.php • Tracking Precipitacion Across che N acion, sd. f(Xh-drrhive. fletl A rrhivelsci. geo.

meteor%gyI2008-1 2ImsgO0002.htfil/ • U.S. Droughc Monicor,

Resources

wUltv.drollghr. {(II/.edtl!dmlmo1litor.html

• Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service, www//ws.//Ma.govlohlahps • Climate Data O nline, cdo.llcdc.lloaa.gw

• U.S. Rain Days and Dry Days,

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MUCH 2009 Landscape Architecture

173

Built originally to shunt freight around the city center, most of the Beltline corridor is now

abandoned and an obstacle to circulation.

ECADES OF IIEADWNG suburban

expansion have made Atlanta a famously dysfunct ional metropolis. But an infrastructure project called the Beltl ine could playa powerful role in reversing that. It will convert an irregular loop of railroad rights-of-way, averaging three miles from the city's center, into a 22-mile trail-and-transit greenway. The route links 45 neighborhoods and a similar number of parks; one third of the 14 1 LandscapeArchitecture

fIIA_e H 2001

RING OF GREEN The retrofit of a disLLsed rail loop could revitalize central Atlanta. By Jonathan Lerner

parks will be newly builL All this could easily take 25 years [0 complete, but it is definitely moving forwa rd . Now, at the level of playgrounds and paving and plants, it needs to be designed. Atlanta originated in 1837 as a railroad hub. By the end of that century the town was choking on train traffic. The segments of the BeltLine were built to relieve congestion by shunting freight around what was then the city's outer edge. 111ecity long ago spread beyond it, and most of the Beltl ine is abandoned. Lined with thousands of acres of mainly disused industrial buildings and waste ground, ir is now a fenced-off, kudzu-choked eyesore, a barrier between neighborhoods-bur a potential bonanza, Irs reinvention is intended co concentrate people and activity back coward Aclanra's core-already a measurable trend- while providing the infi ll , linkages, and ameniries they will require. Central among rhose amenities will be as many as 1,300 acres of new parks and green space, including and adjacent ro the rail corridor. The design hurdles are enormous, beginning wirh rhe rerrain. Unlike Aclanea's main rail lines and arterial streets, which generally follow the ridges of the region's piedmont ropog raphy, rhe BeltLine cransects the copography via numerous sreep trenches and embankments and dozens of bridges and tunnels. Some of its 48 street crossings are at grade, but for many, notes RyanJenkins, ASLA, a landscape arc hitect with Tunnell-Spangler-\'<7alsh and Associates who is working on several of the parks, "creating the vertical circulation from the corridor either up or down ... is going to be a key driver in the landscape architecture design ." A nother challenge is that the riglH-of-way varies in width from 30 to 200 feef. "Everybody wanes a piece of if. T here are mult iple advocacy groups, for anything from arboretums to art to functional transportation," says landscape archi tect Eric Bishop ofEDAW, who designed another new park. 'There's a lot of

The towen of downtown are wisible from man)' points on the BeliUne [AI. Some existing industrial buildings on the corridor (BI hawe been conwerled for residential use, but most are derelict Ie and DI. Afew sections of the corridor still carry freight trains [EI. Brownfields and historic resources define the existing BeIlUne,

abtJ~e.

interest and not a tremendous amount of space. T hat's the most complicated thing within the right-of-way."' Nor all the issues lie within the corridor itself. Ryan Gravel, who articulated the BeltLine idea for his 1999 Georgia Tech master's thesis and now pract ices urban design at Perkins+ \Vil l, voices a largerpairof considerations. "\Vhat are the design ele-

ments that [can} tie rhis thing rogerher and provide continuity along the route so that it's a coherent form in the city, so that when you see rhe BeltLine, no maner where you are, you know what it is?"' he asks . "And then what are the things that are special about the BeltLine as it passes through different communities?" Still anQ{her overall concern is for aesthetic quality. Of the city"s track record on urbm-design interventions, "We just historically settle for 'on budget and on time,'" laments Cooper Carry landscape architect Peter Drey, ASLA, who cochairs Atlanta's Metropolitan Public Art Commission. "'Bur if you're building city infrastructure with a notion of creating lasting value .. .it路s got to be outstanding and attractive and alluring.'" MUC H 2 0 n

LlInd&caPIIArcbitllcturll 1 15

Coordinating all t h is is Freel Yalou ris, di-

recto r of desig n for Atlanta BeitLine Inc., chI' emiry tasked with planning and execut-

ing [he project. Yalou ris, who played rhe same mIl' for Boston's "Big Dig ," is not a designer but a former college dean and an archaeologist whose dissertation was on JXlc-

terns of senlemem and the groWdl ofcities. "A 101: of these parks are being built in areas where there's not a lot of development," he

says , "so the park has got to antic ipate what's going [Q happen around it." For the

corridor itself, he asks, "How can we ensure through goocl desig n that [he SeitLine interfuces widl the city itself, so that if you're a developer we can encournge you to dlink of the BelrLine not as your back side bur as your front side? So thac you don't put your dumpsters there, you don't put your parking there, you put opportunities for residents to come out into this public realm." Yalouris notes ways in which the Bei tLine can broadly in fl uence the city·s form : making circulation more efficient by providing

16 1 LiindscapeArchitecture fIIA_C H 2001

The corridor transects the piedmont terrain via tunnels, embankments, and trenches, above and left, Due to a population trend back into the city center, some BeItLine segments have alread)" seen considerable in· fill construction, above right. A for· mer quarry, right, will be the dra· matic centerpiece of one new park while also serving as a reservoir.

a new transit option; creating linkages where the righ t-of-way now presents an obstacle; and ··by looking at the streets in a more holistic way." He says that for Bosmn, the Big D ig, which replaced a nightmarish elevated highway with an inviting , urbanIStl( g reenway, "pUt more conSCIousness withl!1 the city government about sidewalks and the pedestrian realm. So there are a lor of ancillary advantages." An obvious strategy for establishing visual continuity within the corridor, and between it and the adjoining parks, is to use common desig ns for benches , bollards, paving , signage, and such. "One of the more subtle ways is in the streetscape. H ow sidewalks work. H ow crosswalks work; how crosswal ks are identified,·' Yalouris says, still imagining the BeltLine's influence radiat ing into the ci ty. Every point where the corridor crosses a street ·'is an entrance into the BeltLine. And many of them will be how you get to the transit,"· he says. ··We need to be able to show people

how the sidewalks will metamorphose into the pedestrian passages. In some cases the intersection, the crossing, needs to be uniquely designed- there may be as many as a dozen of those-bur for the others a common design language will suffice." For

the tmnsit component, the choice remains between light rail, streetcar, or bus rapid transit, so design of the system's stops wi ll come later, But Yalouris suggests that these should be small plazas with seating, information kiosks, and art, ",g athering places,

A proposal for a linear arboretum would divide the 8eItLine corridor into 14 "natural neighborhoods" distinguished by their geography, history, and urban contexts. The transitions between them would be demarked by groves, tree rings, or "green sculpture,"

where people go to sit, to people watchthey're not necessarily wai ting fOr a train, So here's a chance to take a utilitarian function and turn it intoa more social opportunity," Gravel is concerned about the foml of the transi t line itself: "It has to be there, MUC H 2 0 n

LlInd&caPIIArcbitllcturll 1 17

but it can't be too imposing." He points to systems elsewhere rhar "have grass plamed berween rhe rracks so you don't end up with this concrete swath taking up a third of your right-of-way." Landscape coherence and organization widlin the BeltLine corridor could be provided by a linear arboretum proposed by Trees Atlanta, a nonprofit dedicated to the city's urban forest. Using native piedmont and piedmont-adapted plantS, it would also provide opportunities fur interpretation and educarion. l1leconCept plan, developed by the organization's program director, Greg Levine, with landscape architects Shannon Kenering, ASLA, and Greta DeMayo of Ecos Environmental Design and landscape architects Dennis Meyer, ASLA, and Jay Rood, ASLA, and landscape designer Audrey Stout, Associate ASLA, of the Portico Group, divides the BelrLine into 14 "natural neighborhoods·· delineated by their geography, history, and adjacent urban 18 1 LiindscapeArchitecture

fIIA_e H 2001

contexts. Some planting design elements would be consistent throughout, but plants would be chosen to express each neighborhood's uniqueness. For example, a granite surface mine, the digging of which has created spectacular cl iffs, will be rhe centerpiece of \'{/"estside Park, the largest of the new parks. There, to represent granitic OUtcrops common in this piedmont region, plants could include winged sumac, winged elm, spark leberry, and Georgia oak. The quarry section's landscape design could also include represemation of outcrop plam communities from elsewhere in North America and the world, and ornamental rock gardens using sedums and other fitting elements. TIle arborerum concept envisions the transitions between the 14 natural neighborhoods clearlydemarked by groves or tree rings or some form or "green scuipture"perhaps bent saplings, a traditional waymarking device among the Creek and Cherokee cultures indigenous to the region. TIle five ··portals" where the BeltLine crosses intetstate highways would be made conspicuous with edge plantings or arbors, and the transit stops would likewise receive some recognizable planting treatmem. Art could also g ive the BeitLine a unifying dimension, making it not just

a place toplayora waytogetaround but an inspirational space within the city. Public art, however, has been a matter of contention in Atlanta. Many people feel it has been poorly supported in general and in the planning so far for this specific pro}ect. ·'It"s hard to comprehend how to fold {an} into rheprucessofa big undertaking like this. So it got addressed {in an early plan} with a few cursory words and a line in a budgetand that was it," Drey comments. In response, the public art commission is pushing fora BeitLine arts master plan. "It needs to be a physical framework that desc ribes the continuity of the BelrLine...and all these various environmental or urban chat"aner zones. And then there needs to be some kind of overarching vision that says art can emerge in these areas in a number of different ways," says Drey. He adds that among the considerations should be how pieces would fi.mction in both daytime and night[ime,and how they might relate to the history Of environment of Atlanta, "so that artists, when they're commissioned, they have a whole tool kit." Drey describes Atlantaas a "low-intensi ty environment.'· He says, "TIle scale of rhe city is very diffuse ... . Tn this kind of COntext art has to be bigger, or visually nOisier, or in motion." He draws a distinction between applied arc that might serve the project perfectly well in the

form of benches or light standards and fineart installations that could be lasting parts of the city's "cultuml infrastructure.·· Beyond landscape questions for the BeltLine as a whole are issues within the individual parks alongside it. 111ese mnge from I S5-acre Piedmont Park, an O lmsted Brothers-designed and lately reinvigorated jewel, to spaces now little more than neighborhood playgrounds or even empty brownfields. Typical of the laner are two small existing parks in Peoplestown, an underdeveloped neighborhood that expects mnsiderable BeltLine-driven infil!. O ne touches the corridor but has almost no streer fronrage; the other occupies a full city block a short distance away. An adjacent pared , ifacquired by the city, muld scarnlessly unify them into a 20-acre g reen space. Bm even withom it, Ryan Jenkins's mncept would stitch the two parks rogethcr. It would reconceive the residential street running between them for five short blocks

as a boulevard with extensive new planting, a mult iuse trail along one side, trafficcalming measures like bulb-outs and highly visible crosswalks, and, as focal points, gazebos inside the park at either end . T his concept reflects the pervasive concern fur integrating the Beldine·s green spaces into the surrounding urban fabric. Another consistent aspect of these emerging new park designs is that the parks should have dual roles. T hequarry in Westside Park will be bmh a visual amenity and a reservoir. [n Peoplesrown,Jenkins would turn a dry creek trace into a linear swale for "first-flush treatment" of srormwater. For much larger Old Fourth Ward Park- a low, flood- prone former industrial tract where a creek once flowed- EDAW's Bish op designed a water feature centerpiece. Technically its function is srormwatercontainmem, but it was also an opportunity for a sunken garden, a bridge, an overlook, and a climbing and bouldering area. 11le

PIa,. strudures, left and right, are the main existing features of two small parks in a neighborhood that expects considerable BeHLine·driven intill. A proposal would turn the street between them into a greenway boulevard, below, and greattr enhance the parks' ame-nities.

parks "need to help craft a more sustainable future for the city,·· says Bishop, often by ··restoring a sim ilar functionality to the way that land originally worked." Considering the pressure of anticipated development, he says, ·'these parks are going to serve multiple functions. T hey are going to improve the environment more than JUSt providing open space and respite from the daily grind." A short p rototype section of trail and earth movi ng for O ld Fourth Ward Park have been the first tangible fragments of the BeltLine. An Rl'"P for designing the corridor will be released soon. TIle years ahead will reveal whether what results is JUSt a serviceable loop of greenway and transit or a transformative gesture of urban revitalization for a major American city.

Jondthan Lerner writes aboul art, architfXtllre, a1/d plaJ/1/ing fmm his Imme liP the street from one ofthe BeltLine's mdny trestles.

HE UNIQUE AND BEAUTIFUL nacure of water in rhe desert is (00 ofren lose in Arizona's urban "oases," where manipulated rivers and aquifers make it possible to import a foreign lushness. In the Phoenix suburb of Scotts-

dale. artist Lorna Jordan 's charge was to uncover and interpret (he community's true relationship [Q water and to provide a responsible example of rhe beauty of xeric

landscapes. Another charge was to be a voice for a damaged "wash "- the dry bed ofa seasonal storm channel upon which Chaparral Park is builc-and co interpret {he riparian systems it represents and the water that rains upon ir. That's a tall order for a small kernel of a park. Terraced Cascade, designed by Jordan, attempts co interpret the relationship between people and water in the desert landscape. It is an anistic manipulation and interpretation of the wash, blended into 80

I LiindscapeArchitecture

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What does this xeriscape garden teach us about conserving water in the desert? By Rachel Hill, Student ASLA

a larger xeriscape garden designed by Ten Eyck landscape Architects of Phoenix as part of a complex [hat includes Chaparral Park and Chaparral \Va ter T rea[ment Plane Within itself, Terrdced CdSCdde is rich in texture and movement, peaceful in the desert sun while swirling and active in the summer monsoon rains, Yet the nested context of the design-a verdant greenway and golf courses- provokes questions about the role of water in a desert city and our responsibility to the natural desert systems upon which our cities are placed. When the city ofScotcsdale was looking for a site on which to build a water treatment plant and park, it found 29 acres of land that included a mini golf course, one of the last pieces of open space in the city. Twenty of the 29 acres sat in the Aoodplain, which left only a small area for the plant (which could not be situated in the Aoodplain). Using a microfil[mtion plant instead

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of a land-consumptive traditional design, the city was able to condense the area on which the plant sat and use the rest ror Chaparral Park. T he plam and park were designed in conjunction with each other- the process began in 2001 and finished in 2007, when Terraced CasCdde was completed. Chaparral Park sits near the m iddleof lndian Bend Wash Greenway, which extends 12 miles before terminating in the Salt Rive r. Formerl y a Superfund cleanup site, Indian Bend \'V'ash is now one of the largest swaths of open space in the city and is a popular recreation system that connects Scottsdale to a network of communities in metropolitan Phoenix. It is also covered primarily in lushly irrigated flIrf. In addition to TerracedCas.ade, Chaparral Park includes a dog park, a reservoir fishing pond , six baseball fields, three soccer fields, and two volleyball couns. In 2002 the Scorrsdale Publi c Art Program chose Jordan to create a piece of land art within Ten Eyck"s xeriscape garden. (Seattle landscape arch itect Daniel \'V'interbottom, ASLA, would collaborate with Jordan on the concepmal , schematic, and design development.) The program's directors wanted to exemplify how people could "get rid of lawns" and ··harvest rainwater" but left the expression up to Jordan. Jordan describes herself as an "envi ronmental artist" and a "place maker.'· It was her first desert site, and she had a lot to learn about water in the desert before she interprned it. Jordan is from Seattle, where water is a very different beast than in Scottsdale. When Seattleites describe "water'· they may talk of rhe perpetual mist of the Pacific Northwest, not the

infrequem, violem, drenching monsoons of the Southwest and then the parching desert sun that speaks of"warer" in irs absence. Jordan asked community members in Scousdale to describe what "water" meant to them in a focus group setting. She got a list of responses that spoke more of "drama," "torrem," and "exhilaration " than the quiet drizzle of Sean Ie rain. She chose to focus on the wash and the community's emotional tie to stormwateras expressed in the focus group meetings. Jordan saw Terraced Cascade as an opportumty to restore a small piece of the orig inal desert to the wash. She sought to reveal natural systems. 'The desert knows how it wants to be if we only allow it to blossom on its own," Jordan says. Shealsodrew from theconnection the native Hohokam Indians had with storm water. Like the Hohokam , Phoenix-area residents appreciate the beaUty of water and recogn ize how essential it is to life in the desert. The difference is that modern residents do not feel forced to be as suict in its conservation as the Hohokam were.

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An entry plaza can function as a classroom, with metal shade structures "stretched" across the sky over the zeroÂˇedge water feature, abow. The greenway, below, tenninates in the Salt Ri'er. Its lush appearance is valued by many but water consumptive. The site for Terraced ca$cade is still under construction

ERRACED CASCADE is accessed primarily through a plaza designed by Ten Eyck landscape Architects adjacent to t he Chaparral \'{fater Treatment Plant, which treats water from the Arizona Cll1al for use by Scousdale residents. TIle Arizona Canal pulls water from the Roosevelt Dam, northeast of the city. Th is water used to Row as the Salt River, which is now mos{-

at the far right of this aerial photo.

ly a dry riverbed-and of which, ironically, Indian Bend \'{fash is a tributary far downstream of the dam. Some of rhe canal water is pumped directly into the park's reservoir pond and used to irrigateChaparral Park's lush fi elds. Most of it is made potable in the plant for Scottsdale residents.

The plant's simple architecture is a neutral backdrop fur Ten Eyck's plaza and TerrtKu/ Casrat!e. Gabion burrresses along the walls of the plant tie the build ing to the .garden as low h>abion walls af<: on the sloping site and control erosion. But the relationship of Terraced Cascade to this building, both dedimted to the treatmem of water in the desert in rather contradictory ways, is unexplained and incongruous. An elegant, cirndar, zeroedge pool occupies the cemer of Ten Eyck's plaza and is fed with created water from the plant. Etched onto the lipof the pool is the proverb '"The frog does nor drink up the pond in which he lives." Etched into the concrt1:e walls surrounding the ph17..a, being the pool, are the words "Scottsdale Xeriscape Garden: Demonstrati ng the Beauty of Saving \'Vater." It seems unnecessary to use a literal water element in a garden that talks of water conservation, cons idering that the water in the zero-eclge pool is being sacrificed to the dry desert air and sun. Jordan's design is based on the human body. The shapes that define the landscape are formed likea torsoand ribs, arcing over the topography of the wash. T he anthropomorphic forms represent human marks and manipulation of the landscape while the swirling "cascades" and the vegetation they support are the marks water makes on it. A path textured with river rock meanders through the gently rolling desert garden with remnants of old vegecation,g iam eucalyptus planted a half ce ntury ago, native mesquites, and saguaro cacti. The

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DESIGN airy fo liage of palo blanco trees (Acacia willardiill14) lines rhe dry path chac water takes during a Storm. J\bry Irish Wfites in Corrin/lug illihe Deserl: A Gllide 10 Plulll Seleaioll alld Cart that the palo blanco's peeling whitt bark is like "an ancestral scroll, revealing the secrets of the bark beneath," Jorci.1n found rhis metaphor compel ling as it reinforces her concept of nature as an author, writing upon the land. T he curved [ow walls and paths ofTen Eyck 's plaza merge into jordan's design: T he gabions intersect with various shades

of warm brown flagstone, and Ten Eyck's linear shapes bow and widen into the platforms ofTerractd C(lJ((J(/t. One path widens into a flagslOne termee from which you can see the course water would take during a srorm. The terrace walls wind around spiny ocotillo and agave [hat will sprout fire-red blooms in [he spring. Visitors can

sits on a small piece of the Indian Bend Wash Greenway, which serves two functions: a drainage corridor and a popua.r recre路 ation site. In contrnt to the leulpted or flaHened golf courses and fields of the greenway, the duign res ponds to the undulations of the site.

also walk a pach chac follows the edge of the ball fields. There, lush green rurf on one side of the path conrrasrs with the muted deserr soil and deserr grasses of (he xeriscape garden on the other. The path winds inroa depression. Kidney bean-shaped formal terraces become more obvious as che use of gab ion turns to flagscone and rock, layered wich a cadence of texcureand warm color. Arizona mesquites (native co Sonoran riparian areas), brittlebush, and ocotillo are planted along the path, although the xeriscaped plant choices are nor fully nati\路e; aloes, gopher phnt, rosemary, and lantana line the gabion walls. An African proverb is etched at the bottom of the spiral path: "The sf(me ill the water kl1(J1llj l1(1thillg (If the hill which lies parched III the Slm. II \Vhen che monsoon rains hit, stormwacer flows into and over the terraces, which are meant co capture rainwater, allowing it co infiltrate and nourish the plantings. The consolidation and movement of storm water is meant CO interpret natural processes; however, the overflowing water terminates in the depression, which does not repl icate the natural Aow and form of a wash. Rather, the terraces "highlight movement through changes in elevation," according to Jordan. The spiral

creates what Jordan oils an "earrh room" using cexcure, topography, and light to form a contemplacive space.

in its nested mntext, it provokes questions about our responsibility as residencs of this desert landscape.

I-fE GARDEN WAS QUIET the day I visited, a Sunday afternoon last September. People were in the adjacent dog park and teenagers directed each other in a homemade film next to the ball field, bur J wandered chrough TerracedCascadealone. Alchough it was near the end of the monsoon season, even the skies were quiet. \Vithout rain in che garden, the only marks of where water usually flows were eroded areas along the spiral path people usually walk, where water had chosen irs own path during storms, an impact of the Southwestern monsoons that Jordan probably did not predicr. Terraced Cascade is a nexus for messages chac are complicated and concradiccory. It can be seen on a number of levels-as a piece of art, as a public space, as a functioning piece of urban hydrology, and as an educational instrument. Although it is difficult to extract dear meaning, the issues the park and garden raise are ones we must confront as our desert cities continue to grow. Terraced Cascade does not resolve the contradictions inherent in modern desert life and water use. Rather, seen

Rachel Hill, Stlldell1 ASLA, is a gradllate stlldent ill landscape architectllre at the Unit'ersity of Arizona.

PROJECT CREDITS CnentstorChaparralParte

City of Scottsdale Parks and Recreation, City of Scottsdale \Vater Resources, and Scocrsdale Public Art P rogram. Engineers for water treatment plant: Black and Veatch, Phoen ix. Architects: Swaback Partners, Scottsdale, Arizona. landscape archited for Chaparral Parte Ten Eyck Landscape Architects, Phoenix. Contractor, water treatment plant constl1lction: Archer \Vestem Contractors, Phoenix. Contractor, park amenities: Barton Malow Company, Phoenix. Eco-artist and designer of Terraced Cascade: Lorna Jordan, Seattle. Consulting landscape architect: Daniel Winterbottom, ASLA, Seattle. Chaparral Park is located at 540 I Nonh Hayden Road, Scottsdale, just south of East McDonald Drive. TerracedCascadesits to the south of the Chaparral \X'ater Treatment Plant and can be accessed from East McDonald Drive. HOW TO GET THERE:

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wa T SEEMS INEVITABLE chac (he

grounds of [he \Vashington Monumenr would someday be like (his. 111e slight rise on which the monument was originally erected has been sculpted into a shallow earthen dome. Elliptical pmhs ascend this rise in a spatially dynamic manner chac is consisrenr with (he baroque urbanism of

Pierre L'Enfam's 1791 plan !Or rhe capical district. The 5010mh ground laid out in repose amplifies the iconic minimalism of the mpered obelisk. It isas ific has always I.x:en- yet it took more chan I 20 years. And without theactacks on [he Pentagon and \Vorld Trade Center, as well as the hi jacking ofFlighr 93 on September 11, 2001, the monument would still be smndi ng in an unstrucmred landscape, on misshapen ground, with an array of spotlights, makeshift strucmres, and concrete barriers (placed after the domestic terrorist bombing in Oklahoma City) cluuering and degrading America's t ribme [0 our first president. Because of the 9111 attacks, however, funding emerged and the renovation of the monument grounds was initiated as a security project by the National Capital Region of the National Park $enrice and funded by the U.S. Congress, which had, until then, rejected funding proposals for t he monument grounds for more than a century. 1111' misshapen and cluttered grounds of the monument are finally fl'SOlved by OUN (formerly Olin Partnership) with a boldness and

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clarity that make the solution seem [0 have been obvious all along. Yet, as with many urban landscapes, the renova tion of the monument grounds was bundled into a project that was nt)[ initiated from the idea that the design oflandscapes in cities-ewn one as prominent as this -is, in and of itself, an en terprise of merit. W hy can't rhe design of landscapes such as this be commissioned without being initiated by security measures-and why did it take 120 years and the prospect ofa terrorist destroying the monument (or using it as a sniper's posi tion) to complete this

landscape? \Xfhy can't we fund and construct landscapes because they are socially, culturally, and spatially essential to great cities?

ilE PLAN FOR TI IEORIG INAL \Xfashingron Monument, an 1836 competition won by Robert Mills, included a Greek Revival pavilion wrapping the base of an obelisk. Construction took from 1848 to 1885, as it was prolonged by financial shortfalls and the Civil War. The effort was so challenging politically, economically, and technically (the monument was the tallest struc-

ture in the world at the time of its completion and remained so until it was surpassed by the Eiffel Tower) that the project ended widl dle completion of only dle obelisk. Subsequent unbuilt plans for the grounds include Andrew Jackson Downing's Monument Park, a study in elliptical path comrositions, and the McMillan Plan of 1901, which proposed a monumental terrace that spanned the entire width of the National Mall. More recently, Dan Kiley's planting propos.'li from 1965, in association with Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), structured

the landscape wirh orderly grids of canopy trees and an understory of cherry rrees rhar drifred our info [he area around rhe monument. Despire all these grand plans, John Parsons, FASLA, the former assisrant regional dIrector of rhe Narional Park Service who direcred rhe project, says that "rhe pile of dirt that [he Army Corps of Engineers dumped on rhe sire in 1890 was the same pile of dirt rhar was [here until five years ago." The new plan emerged from a hasrily convened invited competition offour landscape arThe plan of the monument grounds from the competition, abore, shows the geometry of the paths Utat circumnavigate and ascend the shallow earthen dome on which the monument now stands. The let路 lers correspond to photos in this article, showing the corresponding views from those locations. The grad路 ing and planting plan, left, includes localiled anomalies that preserve the grading around a specimen mulberry tree southwest of the monument.

The competition $themes by (top to bottoml Diana Salmon, Salmori Associates, with David Childs, $OM; Arnold Associates with Tsao + McKown; ilnd Michael van Villkenburgh Associates included securit)' screening aud a visitors center that were later eliminated from the projed. The new grounds replace haphazard paths and drives, bottom left, with a clear organization,

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<:hitens in November 2001: Henry Arnold , FASLA, with Tsao + McKown Architects; Diana Balmori, Balmori Associates, with David Childs,SOJl.I; L1.urie Olin, FAStA, with Hartman/Cox Ar<:hitects; and Michael Van Valkenburgh, PASLA. The quick-fix solution that preceded the competition, which was unable ro gain design review approval a( any level, was ro install bollards at 40 inches on

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slope. It was clear, Parsons believed, that it center in the grass halfway up the existing was necessary ro seek the expertise of nationally recognized landscape architects-who, ir should be noted , have rarely been the

lead professionals working on the N ational Mall. ':Arch itects make architecture," says Parsons, and he hoped that the problem of security could be solved with manipulation of the landscape rather than (he addition of structures. T he invitations were thereforegiwn only {Q landscape architects, who had JUSt 30 days {Q deliwr the competition proposals due to the perceived urgency of the security threats. The competition resulted in a close COntest between the proposals by Olin and Balmori . The Olin scheme was selected in December 200 1 only after the Nat ional Park Service acted as the tiebreaker for the divided review panel of agency representatives and b lue-ribbon professionals. The decision came down to (he preference for the landscape-based

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__0 __ solution of Olin's over the slightly more architectural solution of Balmori's. The project opened to the public in July 2005- more than four years after the competition- without the security checkpoint and underground tunnel to the base of the monument that had been part of Olin 's original design (see "Invisible Barriers," Ldl/dscdpe A rchitecfllre. September 2002). Concurrent with the design of the \'{1ashington Monument grounds, Olin was working on tWO similar projects. "My obelisk

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period," he laughs, included the renovation of Columbus Circle in New York (ASLA Design Merit Award , 2006), where a traffic roundabout was transformed into a vibrant meeting place at the southwest comer ofCemral Park, and the renovation of the Memorial m Martyrs at Targu-Jiu, Romania, a commemorative path of sculpturesbyConsrantin Brancusi that terminates with the hillmp sculpture The Elldless CoIllmn. \'{1ith these contemporaneous projects, Olin studied sequences of approoch and the relationship of horizontal surfuce and vertical structure. Olin cited Karl Popper's Opm Soeietydlld Its Enemies in declaring one of his primary objectives in the design. He insisted that a family-or a carload of students-visiting Washingmn, D.C., for tile first time should be able to arrive at the monument, even at two o'clock in the morning, and walk directly up the hill to pat the base of the obelisk that honors the first president. The physical aa ofcommemoration-to touch the thing- was fundanlental to Olin. Ofgreat concern m Olin was reducing the wrtical elements in the landscape to only two: the monument itself and the 50 flagpoles that surround it. To achieve this, the usual cluttering array of light poles, handrails, signs, and historical markers had to be suppressed. The profusion of text that is usually present at such sites is also reduced so one can actually concentrate on real things-the structures and spaces of the site. The paths are slightly recessed into rhe

ground (0 aid the visual mnrinuiry of the lawn and, because they are designed wi th an accessible slope of 4 .5 percent, do not require handrails as would be necessary with steeper paths that might directly ascend the hill. 111ere are no retaining walls that require guardrails, and the installation of grOlUld -mOlinted lights eliminated light IXJles. Again, in an era that sttms to Olin was working on two other obelisks: Columbus celebrate adding "stuff· into landscapes, Monument in New York, abore, and the Endlen Column in Targu-Jiu, Romania, below, at the the restraint in this project is remarkable: same time as the Washington Monument one monument, 50 flagpoles, three paths, grounds, The security screening for entrance one wall, a ring of benches, and a very shapely mound oflawn. into the monument remains in a small hut at the base of the obelisk, bottom. 11le project also includes about LOO trees of mixed species chat add mass at the edges of the g rounds. 0 lin·s notable restoration of Kiley's chcrry groves from the L965 plan is a gracious gesture to history and a reminder to designers that gtxXI ideas, even by others, are worth mming back to.

OR THOSE INTERESTED in the w· space-makmg potcntial of landscape form, the earthen plinth of the \"Xfashington Monument is to be celebrated. In an age of micrograding design, when small teardrop-shaped earthworks reveal hydrological act ion or where obi iquely tilted pLanes activate the su rface of landscapes, the conscruction of the \"Xfash ingron Monument Landscape reenergizes the proposition that large-scale earthworks can also create space in cities. 111e interlocking ell ipses of the paths that encircle the \"Xfashington Monument remind me of the compLex urban geometries of

Piazz.1.San Pietro, the rurecourt to St. Peter·s Basilica in Vatican City. Following the mathematical and scientific advances of Copernicus and Galileo, among others, the circular geometries of the Italian Renaissance gave ,vay (0 the ovals of the late Renaissance and the orbital ellipses of the baroque. It is from this later period that Pierre LEnfant·s plan for America·s new capital districcemerged, and it is chis period of geometric and spatial invention that is the heritage of the new earthen dome of the grounds of the Washington Monumcnt. T he geometries of the new grounds are more sympathetic to L·Enfanr's baroque mnception of monumental D.C. than that of the influential City Beautifulera McMillan Plan. The work also falls into a continuum of notabLe monumental earthworks such as Asplund and Lewerentz at Woodland Cemetery in Stockholm, Sweden, and the work of Olin's teacher, R ich Haag, PASLA, at Seattle's Gas \'Vorks Park. T he design of the grounds is really a "mitosis" pLan of tWO ellipses encircled by a single, Largerone. According toOlin, the plan of the tWO elliptical paths that ascend tothe monument was derived by a technique that has been employed by landscape architects for generations. After determining the verticaL rise and a fixed accessible slope of 4.5 degrees, a length of string was CUt and laid on a scale plan and quickly manipuLated. T he ellipses emerged out of this simple device. The project aLso draws from the 18th-centu ry English landscape design to estabLish a secu re perimeter around this iconic

American structure. Below the monument, at a "setback" distance that is safe from truck bombs, is a stone wall that encircles the bottom of the hill and serves to prevent vehicles from approaching. TIle wall is 400 feet from the monument- rather than just the 200 feet required-so that it would nestle into the toe of the slope. T his wall, de rived from [he ha-ha that separated manor grounds from grazing pastures widlOU[ interrupting sweeping views across the landscape, follows the elliptical paths at the base of the hill and pinches together where the paths begin to ascend the hill. The pinching establishes a threshold that allows visitors to enter onto the hill while keeping vehicles safely away. Olin is adept at accommodating human comfort in landscapes, so it is nac surprising that the wall, which would be uncomfortably tall due to security height criteria, is enhanced with a low, wide curb at its base that makes the height of the wall comfortable for sitting, especially for those watching softball games at the adjacent fields. Nevertheless, the project's construction was not free of problems. At a site meeting when the grnn ite pawmem at the base of the monument was being installed, Olin saw that the mitered corners of the pavement failed to meet the precise corners of the monument as required in

The elliptical paths, above, reinforce the baroque urbanism of Pierre l'Enfanfs original plan for the city. The Washington Monument is surrounded b)' haphazard roads and paths in an early aerial photograph,

behJw, that also shows temporary buildings on the Mall during World War I. Ninety years later, the grounds were hardly improved.

the drawings. "How do you miss that?" TocIay, careful scrminyof the installed pavement discloses a subtle change in pattern where the reluctant contractor inconspicuously remedied the error.

lin's design for the monument grounds, while modest, is quite skillful,·' says G. Martin Moeller, curator of the National BUilding Museum. "Seen ftom the perimeter of the monument gtounds, the slender ring that Olin added does provide a minimal bur welcome visual base for the obelisk. Meanwhile, the curving ramps that lead pedestrians to the monument itself allow fora more dignified approach than the seemingly accidental paths that preceded them : · '·From the north you getacompletely natural vista- no buildings in sight,·' says Washington, D.C, architect Robert SjXJosdler, "jUSt landform and monument against the sky and treetops:· TIle Nacional Mall- America's from yard- is a fiercely contesred landsmpe burdened with local and national imerests. It also represents the many public landscapes thar have unnecessarily languished from inaction , rhat have been calcified by rimidiry, char have suffered from JX>Orly scaled spaces, or that have been constructed with materials that do nor endure. Here, however, is an exampleof urgency g iving rise roa cliem seeking expertise from accomplished professionals co design a long-neglected site thar also happens to be one of the most prominent in the nation. There may be no more noble and more challenging design problem chan co design public spaces and landscapes in America. It is noc the rowering office buildings, the augusr museums, rhe domed government buildings(or the domed sportS sradiums), or rhe houses of worship rhat constitute Americans' common ground.

If Amerimn highway and utility infrastructures are in need of renewal, then certain ly the S<'lmecan be said for public spaces. These surely call for the same urgency, determ ination, and expertise gathered at the Washington Monument to accomplish in 2005 what had languished for 120 years.

Ron Hell(lm"Oll, ASLII, is fOflndillg principal of L+A Landscape Arrhilectflre m Prot,it/CTlce, Rhode Island, alld aJ"sociate professor of landscape arrhiuaflre al Tsinghfla Unlt-ersily m {Jeijing, China. PROJECT CREDITS Client: National Park Service. Furtding: Un ited

States Departmem of the Imerior. landscape architect: Olin Partnership (now OUN), Philadelphia <UurieOlin, FASLA, partner; E. Allan Spulecki, ASLA, and Kate john-Alder, ASLA, project landscape archirects; Matt Chu, ASLA, Xiaodi Zheng, ASLA, Chris Grey, Bryan Suchy, Hallie Boyce, Les Bishop, and Frank Gamier, project ceam). Blasteonsultant Applied Research Associates Inc., Albuquerque, New Mexico. l..Ightk1gdeslgn: Fisher MarnnrzStone, New York Structuralen&lneer. James Madison Cures u.c, \'qashingcon, D.C Wayfindingand slgnageconsultant: joel Katz Design Associates, Philadelphia. Mechanical, electncal, and plumbing engineer: joseph R. loring & Associates Inc., New York Irrlgationconsultant: Lynch & Associaees Limited, Annapolis, Maryland. Soils engineer: Mueser Rutledge Consulting Eng ineers, New York CMI engineer: Wiles Mensch Corporation, Reston, Virginia. Architectforthecompetition: Hartman Cox, \'qashingron, D.C Generalcontractor. Grunley-Walsh, Rockville, Maryland. MasonryCOfltractor: lorton Stone, Springfield, Virginia. Planting contractor. Davey Tree Expert Co., Chantilly, Virginia. UghUlgcontractor: Cole Lighting, South EI Monee, California, and MUSCO, Oskaloosa, Iowa.

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USAN SUllIVAN AND CONNELL COWAN have modest cottages; however, some of these homes have recently been rogecher for more than 20 years. They nev- been replaced by large mansions. The couple's house, a modernist design from the 1960s, was er did have any children. Instead, their relationship produced a garden. "For the two of us, this originally a mere 900 square feet-a bit too small for them-but was our offspring," Sullivan says. 路"[The project} rather than knocking it down and scarting from scracch, chey was an interesting adventure into what he wants worked with locally based Neumann Mendro Andrulaitis Archiand what I want. It was a bonding experience tects to remodel and expand if. In 1999, while the house was still under construction, Van Atta Associates, a firm in nearby Santa thac we boch enjoyed immensely." Sullivan is an accress, best known for her roles on Fa/con Crest Barbara, was hired ro work on che surrounding landscape-a set of and Dhartlld & Greg. Cowan is a psychologist, author, and artist. gardens that it calls Two Pacific Rooms. Van Atta Associates strives to create projects t hat are both They live in los Angeles, but during the 1990s, they purchased a lx."ach house near Santa Barbara, California. The house is locat- beautiful and sustainable. For many years, che firm has worked on ed on a private road that is built out with houses on only one side. habitat restoration projecrs throughout the area. It did restoration work at the adjacent Carpinteria Salt Marsh The front yards of these houses look out on Susan Sulliwan and Connell Cowan relax the Carpinteria 5.11t Marsh Reserve and the Reserve, and its design for L1goon Park, anmountains in the distance, and their back- in their garden, opposite, which looks out other wetland restOration project that inteon the Pacific Ocean. The rear garden, yards offer spectacular views of the Pacific grates soc ial spaces, won an ASLA Honor abore, called Oune Room, uses plants Ocean and the Channel Islands. The area has Award in 2008. Before pursuing a career in landscape architecture, the firm路s founder, natin to California's coastline. long func tioned as a weekend retreat wi th

Aseaside garden in Southern California has gone through a s By DANIEL JOST, ASSOCIATE ASLA

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The house, outlined in blue, below, sits on a narrow lot between a marsh ,nd the oce,n. Unlike the rear garden, V~n Atb Asaoeilltes designed the interior eourtyud to hne strong geometric forms, right. The front entry, .bo"., hints .t the garden beyond. P,rt. of the entry were redesigned by Sulli"n ,nd Cow,n after, multi stem It" that WllS' m,jor p, rt of the V,n AHa A$$oci~tes design for that 'rea, left, wlliost in , windstorm.

Susan Van Ana, ASu.., earned a degree in environmemal studies, and she is currently writing a book about gardening with California natives. Bur her inlluences are varied-everything from gardens she visited in J apan ro nearby Disneyland , Residemial design makes up a little less than half of the firm 's work \'{fhi Ie Van Area's commercial and institutional cliems are expressing a greater inrerest in sustainable design, she says that few of her hig h-end resident ial clients are ask ing for it. Sullivan and Cowan were more interested than most and actually requested some naturalistic narive plantings.

Main house

These photos show the path through the interior courtyard before iln, improyemenh were made. above, as it was designed b, Van AHii AS$Ociiltes. below. ilnd ilS it is tod a,. left. Since the courtyard Will constructed. the tree near the door was lost in a windstorm and the owners hue replaced the blilck mondo grass in the outer ring so that the ring is now entirel, chipped slate.

Bm the plantings aren't all naturalistic or native. At Two Pacific Rooms, the garden rooms reference the two shores of the Pacific Ocean. Zen Room, dle courtyard between the garage/guest room and the main house, combines strong geometric forms with an Asian flavor. Dune Room, which has views 00l to rhe Pacific Ocean, has a more natural look with plants natiw toCalifornia's coastline. These two rooms don 't just have different looks to them; they are experienced differently. As the firm wrote in a recent awards subm ittal , one is a "space to see" and the other is a "space to be."

Zen Room Sullivan and Cowan played a large role in imagining their new landscape, both its major themes and its details. "One of the things T really love about this garden is the red door," says Van Atta. "That was their idea." The red front door, which serves as a gate

to the imerior courtyard, is one of the first things you see as you approach rhe house. Tn both the from yard and the interior courtyard, it acts as an important accent in the landscape. T he area in from of the house-a field of gravel edged with plantings along rhe property lines-is beautiful in its simplicity. As you walk over the irregularly placed pavers that lead toward the front door, carefully positioned rocks on either side of the entrance and a clump of bamboo provide hints of the garden beyond. Moving through the doonvay and into the courtyard, you enter through a narrow hall. T he path is stmight, and the pavers are armnged in a pattern that is more commonly fOund with flagstone pavers than the concrete pavers used here. Two types ofbamb:>o-one on either side of the path-obscure the wall of the garagel guest room and screen the neighbor's fence. As the space opens up, a narrow ring ofchipped slate edged with concrete curbing intersects the path. A small grouping of rocks interrupts the ring, softening the space's strong geometric character and acting as a counterpoint to a simple rock sculpture at its center.

The plans for the sculpture, designed by Cowan, evoked considerably over the course of the project. Cowan originally imagined the scul pture as a group of concrete columns with water flowing over them, but Sullivan convinced him to go in a more natural direction. "I didn't want to undercut Connell's creative vision, but I was worried I was going to walk by it and hate it," she explains. So instead of concrete, Cowan chose three pieces of basalt and arranged them so they have a familial feel. Paullindhard , a sculptor familiar with the porous volcanic rock, helped execute the design, setting the stones to Cowan's specifications. P ipes were installed to produce a weeping effect. Two myoporum trees that already grew in this area were preserved, and they flank the sculpture on eitber side. 111ese trees, which have a sculptural character themselves, frame views along the path. T heir silvery-white trunks contrast with the dark green and black-stemmed bamboo and the roo door. From certain vantage points, it appears as though one of the trees is growing up through Cowan's sculpture; however, the trees actually obscure views of the sculpture as you approach it from the entry. T he Cllifornia Invasive Plants Council labels myoporum an invasive, but it is not as problematic as many other species given this title. It does not spread much vegetatively or by wind; irs primary method of spreading is by birds eating its fruit. Van Atta says that while she never plants the species, she decided to leave it here for a

few reasons: It's very hard to get anything treelike to grow in that environment; the species is planted as a screen on almost every nearby property; her work in the nearby salt marsh involved removing myoporum, but it was not aggressively taking oyer that environment and most of what was there was obviously planted to screen an adjacent railroad; and the frees were old and didn't flower or fruit much anymore, so they didn路t strike her as an ongoing hazard. An oversized glass door connects the guest bedroom to the garden and turns it intoa meditative space, reminiscent of the viewing areas in some traditional Japanese gardens. The bedroom is really the only place to linger with in the garden; the garden is mainly experienced as the entry procession into rhe main house.

large wave w ground (he structure and hide its unattract ive concrete supports.

Dune Room At the top of the stairs, a narrow pathway alongside the house leads to

-As you proceed wward the house, you walk up a stairway char bridges a refleccing pool lined wich smooth pebbles. The fronc of the main house is cantilevered over the reflecting Ix>ol w make che house fed as ifit is floacing on wacer, an idea Cowan suggesced. The Ix>ol helped wsolveone of che problems facing che landscape archicects -how to disguise che fan that che main house was sticking up in the air. Thoug h che coctage is protected by a breakwacer, building codes required chac che residence be raised a number of feec above sea level so high waves can crash beneath it. Van Ana Associates also designed Cor-Ten sceel panels chac will break away under {he pressu re of a

the rear yard. T here, the couple requested mOfe naturalistic plantings that reference the adjacent salt marsh and places (0 sit and look out on the ocean. Two terraces are connected by a simple sand path that winds through a

bed of native plantings. Hedges near the property line so-cen the garden and enclose che space co make it feellikea room .

Many of the neighboring properties have lawns in rhe backyard, a difficult feat in this soil, which is nearly pure sand. Plaming a lawn here requires extensive remediation to rhe soil and constant irrigation. Bur instead of changing rhe soil, Van Arm used native plants that would thrive in rhe soil chac was chere and require little additional wacer. Sea pink (Anlleria maritima) highlighcs che edges of che sand path. Farrherfrom che path, the plancings are dominated by blue wildrye (Leynllls colldemafllS 'Canyon Prince'). Van Acta noces chac

this cultivar was actually discovered by the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden on one of the Channel Islands, which are just offshore. Other regionally native plants found within th is area include bea<:h morning glory (Cd/yslegia microstegld). maritime <:eanothus (CruflofhflS fIIdritillllls), bea<:h sun<:up (Cdfllissonid cheirduthi!olid), and seaside d1isy (Erigeron glaIlClis). 111ese plants stabilize the dune while tolerating the salty winds that blow off the ocean. While, as Sullivan notes, the garden isn·t big enough to meander through, it provides a number of places to sit and enjoy the outdoors. Large floor-to-<:e iling glass doors make a renilinear patio, designed by the architens, fttl like an extension of the house. T he surface of the patio IS raised to allow water to flow beneath it. Purnishings include tWO comfortable loungers and a table for eating outside. The furniture is all white, and it COntrastS ni<:ely with the gray color of the house. Four large potS are used as accents. Sullivan and Cowan are cur rently planting them with a type of restio(a group of grasslike plams native to Africa). Van Atta Associates designed the more irregularly shaped concrete patio that is tucked inro the rocks at (he top of the breakwater. Here, you are able to sit and look out over the beach. A small fireplace is protected from (he wind, making it a comfortable space ro catch the sunset, even as the temperature drops. 111e surface hasasalt finish, which looks more at home in this intimate garden than in the big-box retai l outfits throughout the Southwest where it is commonly seen. Concrete steps allow you ro descend ro the beach for swimming , surfing, or a quiet walk.

outer ring to be all in the same thing. I juSt thought it would have a cleaner look.·· As Van Atta remembers it, the failure of the black mondo grass to thrive in that environment may have also played a role in the decision. T he look of the bamboo has also changed over the years. In early photos of the garden, before the bamboo matured, it was very lush; ((xlay, the lower srems of rhe bamboo are exposed. Cowan likes the idea of exposing the stems so that they can be lit at night to cast interesting shadows ah'TIinst the wall. But the change was pre<:ipirated by other fanors. T he space is quite narrow, and when the stand of bamboo fills in with new canes every spring, that cms out light to the lower branches. Eventually they d ie back and need to be trimmed off. While the couple hi res a gardener to do maintenan<:e on the property o nce a week- mostly trimming and raking-Cowan takes care of thinning rhe bamboo himself. 'There·s something meditative about thinning the bamboo, deciding which canes go and which stay," rellects Cowan. '· 1 could have somebody do it, but I choose to do it myself.'· He's even had an expert come in ro give him a lesson. Additionally, salr burn has been an issue with the golden bamboo (BdNlbflSd lllldtip/ex 'Golden Goddess') in the Zen Room. T he black bamboo (Phyllosfachys nigra) seems to be less affecred, bur it is also better pTOrened from the winds. Van Atm says that bamboo is found on lists for seaside planting, bur its success seems ro depend on where it is used. The couple is currently debating whether to remove the remaining myoporum {rees. "'r fought to keep those trees," explains Sullivan. "'I wanted to keep anything that was old ." But today she wonders whether it wouldn't be nicer ro have open views of the sculpture and the house as you walk down the entry path. Tt's a rough decision to make, made roughe r since they lost the other tree in that area. TIle trees aren't ideally located , but they add a great deal to the courryard with their contrast ing color and the way they frame the door. The changes in the rear garden have been more subtle. Some things have grown bener than ochers. According to Sullivan, there was originally moreccanothus on the beach side and it died off, although two patches have held on and managed to grow. Plants have also been added here and there. TIle agave near the fire pit was originally planred in one of the pots on the patio, bur Sullivan and Cowan moved it aher the other agaves went ro seed. Salts in the air and soi l also seem to have affected the Pacific wax

"T HE ONLY SUCCESSFUL

GARDENS ARE GARDENS THAT BELONG TO THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE THERE."

Fine-Tuning by Owners The gardens were designed and completed nearly 10 years ago, but only recently bestowed with an Honor Award by ASLA 's Southern Californiachapter. Over that t ime there have been some changes---changes ro the garden itself and changes to the way that Van Ana Associates approaches sustainable design. Some of these changes were caused by natural forces beyond anyone's COntrol. Four trees were originally preserved in the design, bur recently two of these were lost in a windstorm that took down trees all along the coost. In the front yard , where one of the trees was an important part of the design, it led Sullivan and Cowan to rethink parts of that area. "If you moveone thing, you have to move 20 other things to make that all work," says Sull ivan. "Tt was sort of Iike we lost our design , yet a new design came OUt of it." O ther things have been changed by Su llivan and Cowan to better suit their tastes. 111e planrings in the Zen Room were originally much more complex. \'{1hen Van Atta Associates first designed the area, it specified tlm."'C rings of plantings surrounding Cowan's sculpture, not just the mondo grass and chipped stone there today. There was originally a ring ofscQtch moss at the base of the sculpture, a ring of green mondo grass, and, in part of the more defined ring where the chipped slate is today, there was black mondo grass (OphiopogOfl 'Nigrescens'). After a few years, the owners decided to simplify this on their own. "It was too much in too sma!! of a space,"' explains Cowan. Also, "I wanted that

myrtle (M)'rira pacifica) used for rhe hedge-something that surprised Van Arm because rhe species naturally grows along the coost-so rhey are considering options {Q replace it. One pleasanr surprise has been how (he sea pink has grown mgerher, som(-rhing it is nor known for. When LalJ(/scapt Arrhittcfllrt asked Van Ana how she felt abom the ways that the design had changed over the years, she s.1id silt' was comfortable with it. '11,e only successful gardens are gardens that belong to the people who live there," she says. "Over time, t!l('Y've fine-tuned it, which is rhe way it should be with a garden. " She even noted a change she would make, were she designi ng the garden today. "If I had done the project more recently, I mig ht have arranged [rhe reflecting pool] more like the water feature at

my office." Ar her office, a small warer feature is fed from the roof. This curs down on the amount of city water necessary to run rhe feature and helps to clean the roof water before it is released. "[Ar Two Pacific Room s] , I don't even know where the downspoucs come down. Now that's rhe first thing I ask." PROJECT CREDITS Client Sus.m Sullivan and Connell CO\van. landlape Irchitect: Van Arta Associates Inc., Santa Barbara, California

(Susan Van Ana, MiLA, principal; Michael Saochez, project manager, Guillermo Gonzalez). Architect Neumann Meooro Andrulaitis Architects LLP, Carpinteria, California (Andy Neumann, David Mendro, Bob Pesrer). landscape contractor. Monteverde LtndSGlpe, 5.1nta Ana, California (Sandor H adosy). General CQntrm:or: Ch ismahoo Construction, Carpinteria, California (Frank Louda). Sculpture design: Connell Cowan, Los Angeles. Executlonl1nstaUation of sculpture: Paul Lindhart, Art City Studios, Ventura, California.

bttIet' till â&#x20AC;˘ .."eM I", the existing und soil, abol'e, 10 grow lawn, Van AHa c: hose phlnb thlt would tllrift ill Ulese c:onditions. The sta pink and blue wildrye seem to be INrtic:ularfy hlPP)', Irerr.

BOOKS Political Economies of Landscape Change: Places of Integrative Power, ed;ted by jame L W'emut Jr., tlSLA, alld DOl/glas AI. j ohmtOfl, !ISLA; GeoJournal Library Ser ies, vol. 89; T he Nethe rlands: Springer, 2008; 22 1 pages, S 11 9. Reviewed by Kim Sorvig

OUT/CAL ECONOMIES Of L1.NDSCAPI:: CHANCE

resulted from

Landscape Futures Initiative, a 2002 to 2005 symposium series sponsored by the Landscape Archjrecture Foundation (LAF). Focusing on megaforces (urbanization, conncniviry, technology, population, environmental threars, and politics/economics), {he in i-

tiative aimed "to redefine and rediren the profession and prepare it to assume an informed leadership role" as landscapes change. Editor James L \Wescoot Jr., ASLA, starts this volume on a high noce: "Every landscape," he writes, "embodies inrenseeconomicand political struggles; every Street tree, park, and cicy scene has remarkable stories (0 tell about the financial and political forces chat shaped them." He noces chac landscape researchers have largely ignored these stories, challenging contributors to examine their "potencial significance for environmental design as well as social research." He also discusses the book's subticle: "Integrative Power" (from The Three Faces of Power by futuriscs Kennech and Elise Boulding) is acommunicybased counterbalance to policical and economic power. How landscapes are negotiated and funded, what role design plays, and the pocencial for integrative results are increasingly critical. Sadly, despite much worthwhile scholarship, none of che essays really bring these concepts down co earth. \'{1escoat's creesparks-scenes specificity disappears; "landscapes" remain huge and abstracc , "shaped" by political-economic theories and policylevel decisions. This limits significance for designers; some contributors obviously deem design irrelevant at any level below regional planning. (One author's liS{ of "design " interventions scarts with creating self-governance!) The Bouldings and integrative power are scarcely referenced. "It is a mistake co regard political economy solely as a driving force in landscape change," states one author, "when it is also shaped by landscapes." \'V'hy do so many make this mistake? S0ciety (and abstract social forces like econom ics or politics) cannot exist without physical structures. \'{1hy do we (including many contributors to this book) privilege abstractions over ecosystems, property over place, theories over direct observation? For social-science researchers, each essay may have value, but the book as a whole is not hkely co redefine pragmatic landscape planning/design inco leadership. LAF shares part of the responsibility: Accord ing to the editors, the board required a socioregional perspective, rejecting amore tangible proposal. Academic 102 1 Ludse&pe Architechre IUIC H ZOU

affiliations in political science, economICS, and large-scale geography frame the book; only four of 14 contributors are landscape architects, only one primarily a practitioner. Why, despite the editors' attempt to get diverse opinions, is there such a sense of shared d IChe? "Culture is too crude an explanation for much of anything." "All landscapes are inherently political" (or COntested, or socially constructed). "No landscape is local." "All landscapes are capitalist." Contributors each use different (unstated) definitions of "landscape," including a disembodied "financial landscape." Not merely confusing: By not confronting ambiguity, we avoid genuine analysis, 1c is ironic that for anyone rtading the book tooay, it rt"fers happ ily to the stability of Wall Street and Fannie MaelFreddie Mac, lauds "financial instnunents" and trickle-down f(.unomics, yet has no index entry on extractive industry, the SOU-pound gorillaoflandscapechange, Political and economic changes are clearly OUtpacing our understanding of landscape. The issues raisecl in che book are well worth thinking about. Too few landscape architeccs do so, which partly explains the probable disconnect between this book and ics incended readers.

Kim Smvig is a lalldscape archileÂŁ! who lillf!j ill Sallfa Fe, New Me\""ico,

A History of the Gardens of Versailles, by Michel Baridoll, frallSlafed by Adrienl/e Mason; Philadelphia: U nive rsity of Pennsylvania Press, 2008; 3 12 pages, $55 . Reviewed by Lake Douglas, ASlA HIS WORK WIllCERTATNLY APPEAL to garden historians, but its scholarly approoch will hold litde interest for nonacademics. Because of the depth and complexities of the book's content, a casual reading is inadequate to grasp the author's scholarship, and more than one reading will be required to absorb fully what's here. The first part is a discussion of the "State, the King, and the Gardens," in which the narureof the government and political order in France prior to the ascendancy of Louis XIV lays the foundation for the establishment of Versailles as a conscious political statement. \'<fhileestablishing the context of Versailles is helpful, some might get lost in this discussion of royal relationships, romantic liaisons, and IXllitical intrigue that preceded the 17th-centuty reign of Louis XIV and theestab!ishmem of Versailles as his universe. In "The Empire ofGeomerry," the aLJthordiscusses the role the gardens at Versailles played through their inspiration, design, content, and symbolism in the advancement of scientific, cultural, academic, and political life in France and, by extension, in \'<fest-

em Europe as well. For me, this section was the most interesting becauseofitsexam ination of how emerging scientific inquiry of the late 17th century- in geometry, measurement, optics, engineer ing, hydraulics, physics, and plant sciences- was integral to the design and realization of Versailles. T here is a brief biography of Andre Le Notre and a leng thy investigation of his "aesthetic. 路' This examines Renaissance and baroque concepts of beauty as a meansofexplaining 17th-cenrury motivations for the organization of open spaces and how Le Notre realized these concepts through his ski llful use of perspective and proportion and other means. T his discussion of spatial and visual effects would have been stronger with more images. The historyofVersailJes from Louis xv to the present, including additions and changes made by others, is interesting, parricularly in the discussion of how this symbol of monarchy and its excesses escaped figurative decapitation and literal destruction during the French Revolution to become symbolic of French culrural patrimony. Unforcunately, the author's attention tocontemporary developments dissolves after the first few decades of the 20th century, and other t han brief discussions of postwar restoration efforts and how extensive stonn damage from the 1990s has been addressed, scant information is given aboutcomemporaryconditions. \'lhy nor, for instance, comment on contemporary garden COStS, comparing them with 17th-century expenditures of labor, construction, and materials previously discussed? Certain ly such current statistics exist, and adding them to this historical discussion (even without arrempting to establish financial equivalencies and make di rect correlations) would have made this work relevant for nxlay's landscape professionals. The English text, while cercainly academic, has none of the awkwardness often found in translations. End matter includesasection offive maps (three archival maps and contemporary detail plans of the Petit Pare and the Trianon), barely adequate for historical purposes and disappointing in size. Also included are a developmental chronology and a helpful glossary of French garden terms (including one new to me: Jdllfde-Io/(p, a ha-ha. Comparisons between Michel Barid on路s work and Ian T hompson's TheSII11 King's Gardm- l",()lIis XIV, Andre Le NOt/'"/! alld the CreatiOIl oftheGardem ofVmailler of 2006 (Landscape Architectllre, February 2007) are inevitable. While both presumably draw from the same sources, presentations and conclusions reflect differences in the authors' backgrounds and perspectives: Bardon is a professor of English at the University of Burgundy in France; Thompson, a landscape architect, is now a professor of landscape architecture at [he University of Newcastle Upon Tyne in the United Kingdom. Each work has its own audience; academics will want both. \Vhile Thompson路s work appeals to dle genernl public and to professionals because of his experience in the field and his accessible writing, Baridon's work offers a thoughtful, scholarly discussion of Versailles as a vehicle to express scientific knowledge in multiple fields and philosophical attitudes about political authority and economic and social power. \Xlhile few of us wi ll likely ever have professional oppormnities to include these concepts in our work in the complexity and magnitude seen at Versailles, such larger issues should certainly inform approaches to design and inspire us to insert as much content as possible in design solutions, regardless of scale.

... THE LAND HAS MEMORY : INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE , NATIVE LANDSCAPES . AND THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN , edited by Duane Blue

Spruce and Tanya Thrasher; Chapel Hili, North Carolina: The University of North Carolin a Press, 2009; 166 pages, 524.95. THE LANDSCAPE SURROUNDINO the National Museum 01 the American Indian in Washing路 ton, D.C., Is Intended by its designers (which Include EDAW and Jones & Jones) to be a living exhibit that extends the museum into the outdoors. This book discusses the inspirations for many aspects 01 th e landscape deSign, while giving additional background on how Indigenous peoples re late to the land .

... THE INSPIRED GARDEN: TWENTY-FOUR ARTISTS SHARE THEIR VISION ,

by Judy Paolini; Rockport. Maine: Down East Books, 2009; 160 pages, 535. As THIS BOOK FEATURES designs by nonprofessionals, landscape architects may not have much to learn 'rom the designs within. However, the 'ullcolor pages 'eaturlng gardens In Maine may capture the attention of people Interested In the region, and the home owners/designers-ail chosen 'or their artistic backgrounds and Interestsbring a bit 0' their specialties to their own backyards, which may provide some Inspiration.

... THE RAIN GARDEN PLANNER ,

by Te"y Wallace; Atglen, Pennsylvania: Schiffer Books, 2009: 96 pages, $29.99. WRITTEN BY A LANDSCAPE DESIGNER who formerly owned and managed her own landscape architecture firm. The Rain

Garden Planner Is a useful primer 'or home owners Interested In creating their own rain garden and 'or professionals who might appreciate the lists of rain garden plants or might want to use the book as a tool with clients who could use Information on

Lau DOliglaJ, ASLA , teaches at UiUj Robert Reich School of Landscape Architectllre in

maintenance.

Batoll ROllge, Lollisiana. IIUCN 2D OI ludsupeArthitechre 1 103

] IJ.l l. 11\ I( 1\ UIf nT ~Jillirnll (l i

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include vegetable gardens, slides built imo natural hills, greenhouses, JXlnds, and dirt t1"ails. T he Botanical Misting Arbor allows children to plant and cultivate flowers, fruits, and vegetables. T he Imeractive Grass H ill Slide is built direcrly into a hill and includes shade roofS, built-in underground tunnels, and an optional water-misting system. Outdoor Learning Environments offer a smlCmred way for children to learn about Because their environment and have they are custom-built, a user mn create an elaborate namml playground or incorporate natural elements into an existing park or playground. For more information, please visit WWlI'.progressivepiaygrotlflti"i. com.

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116 1 Landscape

Architecture MUC H

2009

Outdoor Learning Environments

LAYGROUNDS ARE DESIGNED to get kids playing outdoors, but Progressive Playgrounds' new line of natural play structures may get kids ewn closer m narure. O utdoor Learning Environments incorporate narural elements such as sand, plams, earth, and water to teach children about their environmem. Outdoor Learning environments are cusmm-built. Configurations vary according to a playground's location, climate, budget, and targeted age range. TIley can

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OPINION (Con/mild from Page 120) These promised potential buyers the status of a McMansion with rhemnveniencc ofamndominiurn, bm the concept felt as if it was created more to preserve the propeny values of

larger neighboring homes than roserve rhe needs of the community's residents. There has been a nationwide shift to-

ward deconstruction Oed by companies like Planet Reuse and Bu{fulo Reuse), the surgical raking apart of homes ro salvage [he build ing materials for reuse, but often the building materials used in thesedevelopmems aren"r of good enough quality to warrant salvaging.

[don"t have the perfect solution for how co transform these broad swaths of su!xlivisions, and while r ve heard much talk of [he foreclosure tragedy, I've heard nary a peep abom what to do abom ir. A recem areicle in che New YIWk Times sporred an emerging trend of kids usurp-

ing che abandoned pools of foreclosed homes for use as cemJXlrary skace parks. (It is imeresting chacchis was big in the 1970s, as you can see by wacching the rad skace documencary Dogf(!wl/ and Z-Boys,) Ie's a

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g reat shore-eerm stracegy for adolescent recreacion (and for ridding neighborho<Xls offetid JXX>ls, which often harbor West Nile virus), though ie's nor a comprehensive solucian co che problem of increasingly aoon-

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W~"rllw tie ~9;i9>.

doncu, ill-maintained, and more dangerous streetscap<'S. Bur there art' some interesting avenues to be pursued. Parr of President Obarna's proposed massive publi<: works program, for example, is to be dedicated mclean tffh infrastructure. lnduded in this is the intent to weatherize (that is, make energy-efficient) one million low-inwme homes a year. One <:an al ready see how those in the mnstruct ion industry mn begin to make t he shift frum new mnstruction to home retrunning. It's the centerpiece of The Green

Col/ar Economy: How One SO/fllioll Can Fix all, TUJfJ Diggest Problems, the best-selling, AI Gore- and Nancy Pelosi-endorsed book by enviro nmental anivist Van Jones. T hough we hear a 10( in the news about new LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmencal Design)bui !dingsand incentives for im p lemencing the latest green technology, it's often the case that fixing leaks and insulation is JUSt as effective in reducing the carbon footprint of singlefamily homes (which account forabour 18 percent of the country's carbon footprint) .

I still dream that a self-sufficient mixed-use neighborhood can emerge. As people inueasingly Stay put- and resell homes less- this retrofit strategy makes sense. Millions of homes, not juSt low-inwmeones, are in need of the son of weatherization the O bama plan describes. T he nonprofit Ar<:hitenure 2030, esrablished in 2002 in response to the g10b..11 warming crisis, is leading a maJor effort in this arena with the goal of dramatically reducing greenhouse gas emissions of the buil d ing senor by <:hanging the way buildings and developments are planned, designed, and constructed. And after decades of renovation obsession that has simply gotten out ofhand, it seems a prudent time ro swap Viking ranges for double-paned windows and high-efficiency nrrna<:cs. It's the perfect moment ro fix what we'vegor. Despitetheircurrently low numbers, g reen homes typically resell for more

C~E

money chan theirwnventional WW1rerplfts. I still dream that some major overhaul can occur: that a self-sufficient mixed-use neighborhood mn emerge. T hat three-mrgaraged McMansions can be subdivided into rental units with screetfront cafes, shops, and other local businesses. I n short, that <:reative ways are found nor JUSt to rehabili tate these homes and communi ties, but to keep people in chem.

Allison Arieflis editor at largefor Sunset and the forme, editor in chief 01 Dwell f/lagazme. She is coallthor 01 the books Prefab af/d T rai 1er Travel arid the edit(ff 01 !!lallY book.5 0" design (mdpojm/arm/tllre, II/dlldiflg Airstream: The H istory of the Land Ya<:ht artd Cheap Hotels. She lives ill San Francisco.

From TheNew 'i'ork Ti1l/e!", January 11,2009. 漏 2009 The New Y(ffk Times. All rights reserved. Used by permission and protected by the copyright laws of the United States. T he priming, mpying, redistribmion, or retransmission of the marerial without express wricten permission is proh ibited.

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Inc " lOot Landscape Architecture 1 119

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On subdividing McMansions and otber innovative solutions to declining suburbs. By Allison Arieff OR A LONG TIME NOW rye been ob-

sessed with suburban and exurban master-planned communities and

how to make them better. But as rhe economy and the mortgage crisis just seem [Q get worse, and gas prices continue to plunge, the issues around housing have chang ed dramatically. The problem now isn Or really how [Q bener design homes and communities, but rather what are we going to do with all the homes and communities we're left with. In urban areas, there's rich precedent for the transformation or reuse of abandoned lQ[s or buildings. Vacant lots have been

converted into pocket parks, community gardens, and fXlP-UP stofCS (or they remain

vacant, anxiously awaiting recovery and 120

I Landscape Architecture

MUC H

2009

subsequent conversion inro hig h-end office space condos). Old homes get divided into apartments, old factories into lofts, old warehouses inro rerail. Projects like Manhattan路s High l ine show dmt even derelict tmin tracks can be turned into somedling as valuable to citi7.ens as a vibmnt public park. A brownfield site in San Fmncisco has been cleaned up and will house an ecoliteracy center for the citis youth. Hey, even a dump (Fresh Kills, on Staten Island) is undergoing a remarkable metamorphosis into a recreation area. But similar transformation within the carefully delineated form of a subdivision is not so simple. These insta-neighborhoods were not designed or built for flexibility or change.

So what to do with the abandoned houses, the houses that were never completed, or the land that was razed for building and now sits empty? Take as an analogous example their symbiotic partner, the bigbox store. As I learned in artist Julla Christensen's new book, [Jig [J ox Reuse, when a big -box store like \'Val-mart or Kmart outg rows its space, it is shut down. It is, apparently, cheaper to start from scratch than ro close for renovation and expansion, let alone decide at rhe outset to design a store that can easily be expanded (or contracted, as the case may be). So not only does a community get a newer, bigger big box, it is also left with quite an economic and environmental eyesore: a vacant shell of a retail operation , tons of wasted building material , and a changed landscape that can路t be changed back. T he communities she's discovered that have proactively ad dressed the massive empty shells they've been left with are [he silver lining in Christensen's study, turning structures of anywhere from 20,000 to 280,000 square feet into something useful: a charter school , a health center, a chapel , a library (and, in Austin, Minnesota, a newSpam Museum). TIle repurposing of abandoned big-box srores is easier to wrap one's head around: One can envision within a single volume (albeit a massive one) the potential to become something else. But exurban communities are a unique challenge. The houses within them are big , but not genemlly as big as, say, Victorian mansions in San Francisco that can be subdivided into apartments. So they路re not great candidates for transformation into multifamily rental housing. I did visit a housing development last year that offered "quartets:' McMansions subdivided into four units with four separate entrances. (Coflliflfled 011 Page 118)

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