Sustainable Design

density of development that did not burden the holding capacity of the landscape. The residential development Sea Ranch (Figure 4.12) on the Northern Californian coast was one of the early projects paralleling McHarg’s Design with Nature approach to land planning. Lawrence Halprin’s firm was responsible for the planning of the project, following a process using a system of thematic overlays (soil, geology, land form, plant species cover, weather and sun patterns, etc.) to find the optimal locations on the property for proposed land uses and siting of specific building footprints. Closely following this successful project was the Woodlands Community planned by the firm Wallace, McHarg, Roberts and Todd. The Woodlands was a master planned bedroom community located north of Houston, Texas. It featured a comprehensive system of greenways that served to accommodate storm water, provide recreation amenities, including bicycle and walking trails, and conserve extensive woodland and other natural ecosystems. The project, as originally conceived, became a well-regarded example of the benefits of designing with nature.

During the past 15 or so years, landscape architecture has found itself one of the leading design professions in the discussion and practice of design and planning involving concepts related to sustainability, resilience, and best management practices. These movements have increased the breadth and depth of knowledge that landscape architects bring to the creation of new communities and cities, revitalization or re-imagining of failed or dysfunctional landscapes, and the rehabilitation of affected natural areas. Current trends in landscape architecture involve exploratory design and resource management strategies in response to globalization issues (global warming and sea level rise) and the search for healthier and livable cities. The future of the profession is bright and an attempt to foresee the part the professions will play in the future will be presented in Chapter 11. The new technologies and knowledge base for practicing the profes-

Figure 4.12 Sea Ranch, California, by Lawrence Halprin.

Figure 4.13 Brooklyn Bridge Park, New York City, by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates.

sion in the future are currently being developed and applied. These are very exciting times for the profession. The Brooklyn Bridge Park, New York City, shown in Figure 4.13, is an example of the application of sustainable design strategies provided by landscape architects. The London 2012 Olympic site is another excellent example, showing the skill of landscape architects in restoring a derelict section of London. The planning and design team included landscape architects Hargreaves Associates. The team transformed a lost and a derelict post-industrial site containing a polluted, dysfunctional river channel into a healthy, attractive, highly desirable, mixed-use neighborhood and now heavily used greenway recreation system.

Boston’s Emerald Necklace by Frederick Law Olmsted was an early predecessor of what is today referred to as “green infrastructure.” Today the Emerald Necklace greenway system is enjoyed for its beauty and recreational amenities while its underlying intent was to manage the storm waters that had plagued the city prior to its construction. The Emerald Necklace can be seen today as a design strategy that provides both functional as well as aesthetic benefits to a dense urban area. The landscape architecture firm of Reed+Hilderbrand in Cambridge, Massachusetts, designed a green infrastructure system on the Clark Art Institute campus shown in Figure 4.14A. The system was created with the strategic location of buildings, parking lots, and other structures, considering the topography. Site grading was necessary to refine the direction of surface storm-water flow and to create an integrated system of water collection, redirection, and retention. On a larger, urban scale, the plan model shown in Figure 4.14B reveals a well-planned green infrastructure designed to manage the handling of storm water for a future community in the Netherlands.

The examples shown in Figures 4.13 and 4.14 provide a window onto work by landscape architects who apply best management practices (BMP) and low impact design (LID). The American Society of Landscape Architects, in partnership with the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center at the University of Texas-Austin and the United States Botanic Garden has established the Sustainable Sites Initiative (SITES). The Sustainable Sites Initiative is a voluntary system of guidelines and a rating system with the objective of promoting the design of sustainable landscapes in both the private and public

A

B

Figure 4.14 A: The Clark Art Institute campus diagram. Courtesy of Reed+Hilderbrand Landscape Architects; B: Low impact storm-water management: towards sustainable design with green infrastructure for a new neighborhood in the Netherlands.