February 2024 – THE DIRT

The Future of Landscape Architecture

02/24/202403/02/2024Jared GreenLeave a comment

Tom Lee Park, Memphis, Tennessee. SCAPE / SCAPE and Ty Cole

“When Frederick Law Olmsted was practicing, he was working at the scale of the city. Today, landscape architects face challenges on a global scale — carbon emissions, land fragmentation, and extraction,” said Kate Orff, FASLA, founder of SCAPE, an urban design and landscape architecture practice.

Orff made her comments during a discussion organized by the Olmsted Network to mark the 125th anniversary of ASLA and explore the future of landscape architecture.

In addition to scaling up, Orff also sees the need for landscape architects to shift into policy and regulatory decision making. “Landscape architects in leadership can connect the dots.”

For Thomas Woltz, FASLA, owner of Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects, just designing landscapes is a political act.

“I am honored to have a political role and address the societal issues of today,” he said.

He argued that all landscapes are embodied with the histories of indigenous people, colonialism, slavery, and the industrial revolution.

The EcoCommons at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia. Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects / Nick Hubbard

Landscape architects can unearth and reconstruct the layers of the past to create cultural landscapes that shape societies today. “We are stewards of the truth and can make that truth resilient for the future. In doing this, we shape the political realm.”

Orff argued that landscape architects also need to take the lead in the future to undo the destructive planning decisions of the past and present. “We need to give the planet CPR and enter repair mode for the next 50 years.”

“Sprawl and a lack of landscape stewardship has left a petroleum texture on our landscapes. The Mississippi River, Great Plains, and Florida swamp lands are in a state of collapse. We have taken for granted the landscapes that sustain us.”

Petrochemical America. 2014. Richard Misrach and Kate Orff / Aperture

“There is crisis and opportunity in American landscapes. We need to focus on the landscapes left behind. We need to offer ways to mend them.”

“We also need to make new places and forms of public space. We are not satisfied with the world the way it is now; we should cast our lot into the future.”

Given landscape architects are needed more than ever, why is the important work they do still a mystery, wondered John King, Hon. ASLA, urban design critic of The San Francisco Chronicle, who moderated the discussion.

For Torey Carter-Conneen, CEO of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), the issue is language.

“Landscape architects can sometimes use technical jargon that the everyday person may not understand. With our partners, ASLA has been developing science-based frames that break that down, explain how to communicate, and simplify language.”

“For example, instead of saying stormwater management, which involves all the technical details of managing water flow, we can say flooding, which the public understands,” Carter-Conneen said.

Educating the public about the value of landscapes is also key. “I dislike the terms empty space, tabula rasa, or green space,” because “landscapes are full,” Woltz said.

For public engagement for his projects, Woltz first educates the public about the history of a landscape.

“You can have groups come in asking for 20 lacrosse or disc golf fields. But if you go to the public and tell them the land is full with history and ecological systems, it really helps; they will honor that. They also then enjoy the conversation because you have delivered something of value to them.”

At Tom Lee Park, SCAPE’s new landscape in Memphis, Tennessee, “we respected the past while creating a new place for people to come together,” Orff said.

The park educates the public about Tom Lee, a Black man who saved 32 people from drowning on a sinking ship on the river. “The entire park’s ethos is about having a generosity of spirit; its design is this grand welcoming gesture.”

Tom Lee Park, Memphis, Tennessee. SCAPE / Tom Harris

SCAPE then developed a curriculum on the park for high school students. “All ninth graders in the city are taking field trips to the park and learning modules related to the park, including urban heat, biodiversity, and water.”

“This creates broad constituencies for the park and linkages with the community. It’s about creating stewardship and care.”

Tom Lee Park, Memphis, Tennessee. SCAPE / Brad Howe

Woltz also focused on the role landscape architects play in long-term stewardship.

“Turning 50, I am realizing it’s not about our generation. It’s about setting projects in motion for future generations.”

The Orongo Station Conservation Plan, one of his firm’s projects in New Zealand, which began twenty five years ago, involved planting more than 400,000 rainforest trees and restoring Maori lands. Now, there is a rich ecological landscape.

Orongo Station, New Zealand / courtesy of Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects

He wants to see more long-term restoration projects set in motion. “We have a duty to the planet. It’s empowering and invigorating. It means we need to get to work.”

Carter-Conneen wants to see landscape architects leave their reputation as “shade-loving species” behind. “We need to be bolder and put ourselves out front more.”

“We also need to advance public policy. To do that, we need more landscape architects in government deciding where the money goes and driving long-term, consistent funding for landscape architecture projects.”

“I am running for president of the United States,” Orff joked. Many commenters in Olmsted Network’s zoom said they would vote for her.

New Linear Park Shows the Great Potential of Material Reuse

02/13/202402/15/2024Jared Green1 Comment

Mission Boulevard Linear Park, Hayward, California / Marion Brenner, courtesy of Surfacedesign

A new landscape in Hayward, California demonstrates how to reuse materials on a grand scale to save money and reduce climate impacts. Designed by landscape architects at Surfacedesign, the Mission Boulevard Linear Park — a mile-long park and walking and biking trail — repurposed asphalt, concrete, trees, soil, and even benches.

Surfacedesign saw an opportunity to try something new at the site. The existing landscape included a run-down trail with cracked asphalt, overgrown plants, and dying trees. Abandoned land on either side of the trail spanned 60 feet.

The existing trail could be expanded and enlivened by native trees and plants, new seating areas, stormwater management systems, and visual connections to the surrounding mountains.

James A. Lord, FASLA, founding partner at Surfacedesign, said reducing costs for their clients in the Hayward city government was a priority, but it wasn’t about that alone. “We thought: how can we reduce our carbon footprint? How can we reuse what was already there?”

The cracked asphalt was cut to create more sinuous pathways. Dog walkers complained that hot asphalt hurt their dogs’ feet, so they expanded the width of the trail by adding beds of decomposed granite from a local quarry.

Sitting areas incorporated logs from fallen trees. Over 10,000 square feet of concrete weighing 250 tons was cut out of the foundation of a deconstructed municipal building and reused as pavers.

The team refurbished benches from the 1980s that were collecting dust in a city boneyard. “We used the same approach as with car detailing.”

Unused soils from another park were brought to the site to form hills. “They visually connect to the hills beyond,” Lord said.

The team also reused municipal trees. 48 trees sourced for other city projects were planted. “The trees are all native and will soon not require irrigation,” Tyler Jones-Powell, a senior associate with the firm, said. And by rejuvenating soils, many redwoods were saved.

“The project is about distilling simplicity into something,” Lord said.

Surfacedesign pitched their reuse plans to the city government during the midst of the pandemic. They found a champion for their vision in Michelle Koo, the city landscape architect, and other officials. They then collaborated across multiple departments to get permissions and source city-owned materials.

“This project required tenacity but also visionary people in government who allowed it.”

While there may be a perception that reuse is bespoke and therefore expensive, the extensive reuse of materials didn’t cost more, Lord argued. In fact, the 7-acre project came in at $2 million, or $7.50 per square foot.

The cost of transporting materials was also kept low. “All the materials were from within city limits, just a few miles,” Jones-Powell said. This also resulted in far fewer greenhouse gas emissions from trucking in materials.

The project shows that old materials can provide new inspiration for designers. Their history of past use adds to their beauty. “There is a dynamic register of what the thing was,” Lord said.

“And reuse was the responsible thing to do,” Jones-Powell said. His advice to other landscape architects: “Don’t wipe the slate clean.”

Student Design Competition: Integrating Solar and Agriculture

02/07/202402/09/2024Jared Green1 Comment

Agrivoltaic farm, California / istockphoto.com, JasonDoiy

Solar energy now accounts for nearly 5 percent of U.S. energy generation. With billions from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and Inflation Reduction Act, that number could grow to 40 percent in the next decade. It is estimated all the new solar power facilities could take up to 5.7 million acres, or land equal to 0.3 percent of the U.S. land surface. Where will all this new solar go? Combining existing farms with solar power is a smart option, as it would help leverage existing energy infrastructure and increase efficiency of land use.

To explore the future of renewables and agriculture, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is seeking submissions for its agrivoltaics student design competition. The goal is to design new ways to integrate solar into both rural and urban agricultural landscapes. Design concepts are also meant to help solve “community sustainability challenges across the food-energy-water nexus.”

According to NREL, agrivoltaics is a term for combining agriculture and solar photovoltaic (PV) in the same parcel of land. But it’s also much more than that. “These systems prioritize food production, ecosystem services, farm viability, local community values, land use efficiency, and energy generation to increase the sustainability and shared value of solar development.” The Laboratory states that “inclusive and holistic system design” is needed to bring all these elements together.

Agrivoltaic farm / istockphoto.com, Jenson

Already, some 2.8 gigawatts of agrivoltaics exist across the U.S. Many combine solar energy with pollinator habitat and sheep grazing.

Agrivoltaic farm / istockphoto.com, Miropa

NREL is looking for new design proposals that:

“Thoughtfully integrate solar PV facilities into agricultural landscapes while also optimizing agricultural productivity, energy generation, and engagement.
Address all aspects of the food-energy-water nexus, particularly in optimizing agricultural and energy outputs while minimizing freshwater use.
Are adaptable to different geographies with similar climatic conditions.
Include novel approaches to engage local communities and stakeholders on food and energy generation in the same land, including long-term food security
considerations.”

The Laboratory has selected three sites that offer different sizes and contexts:

Cattle Grazing / Commodity Crop Farming, 200 hectares (500 Acres) in Weld County, Colorado
Fruit Production / Orchard / Viticulture, 8 hectares (20 Acres), Mesa County, Colorado
Urban Farm / Rooftop Farm / Small Farm, 2 hectares (5 Acres), Denver County, Colorado

NREL invites graduate and undergraduate landscape architecture students to participate, ideally as part of a transdisciplinary team of no more than four people. Winning student teams for each of the three sites will receive $2,000-$3,000.

Two landscape architecture professors are among the jury:

Dr. Jody Beck, Landscape Architecture Department, College of Architecture and Planning, University of Colorado Denver
Jane Choi, Department of Horticulture & Landscape Architecture, Colorado State University

The winning teams will also present their work to an international audience of renewable energy policymakers in Denver, Colorado, June 11-13. All teams will showcase their projects in poster format at a showcase.

Registration deadline is March 29 and the submission deadline is May 10.

Call for Entries to the ASLA 2024 Student Awards Program Now Open

02/05/202402/06/2024Jared GreenLeave a comment

ASLA 2023 Student Collaboration Award of Excellence. On the Edge: A Climate Adaptive Park for the Battleship NC Memorial. Wilmington, North Carolina. Marguerite Kroening, Student ASLA; Stella Wang, Student ASLA; Faculty Advisors: Andrew Fox, FASLA; David Hill. North Carolina State University / Marguerite Kroening

ASLA is now accepting submissions for its 2024 Student Award Program.

Registration deadline: Friday, May 3, 2024
Submission deadline: Friday, May 24, 2024

The ASLA Awards Program is the oldest and most prestigious in the landscape architecture profession. They honor the most innovative landscape architecture projects and the brightest ideas from up-and-coming landscape architecture students.

ASLA bestows Student Awards in General Design, Residential Design, Urban Design, Analysis and Planning, Communications, Research, Student Community Service, and Student Collaboration.

The 2024 Student Awards Jury includes:

Jury 1: General Design, Residential Design, Urban Design & Student Collaboration

Chair Jury 1: Aida Curtis, FASLA, Curtis+Rogers Design Studio

Members: