Reports from the Field: the Sustainable Design and Development PPN
The fourth article in an ongoing series that highlights the work PPN members are doing in their practice specialty.

ASLA’s Professional Practice Networks (PPNs) are subcommunities for landscape architects sharing professional interests. ASLA recently asked all PPN members to allow a glimpse into their unique work portfolios. This space in LAND Online is where we share what we’ve learned.

Members of the Sustainable Design and Development PPN (SSD PPN) work in a variety of settings, but share a strong commitment to ecology-based planning and design. Most respondents indicated involvement with the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) program, both by participating in USGBC's professional accreditation program and by working on projects aiming for LEED certification.

The founding members of the SDD PPN began a special ASLA initiative to establish a foundation for expanding representation of site issues in the LEED rating systems and to develop a new LEED-like rating system to rate site performance in landscaped settings without buildings. The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin, Texas, is now partnering with ASLA on the SITESS (Systems Integration Tool for Environmentally Sustainable Sites) initiative.

Allegra L. Bukojemsky, ASLA, Mary Ann Lasch, FASLA, and Keven L. Graham, ASLA, have all contributed to the SITESS initiative. Bukojemsky is one of eight leaders of the SDD PPN who have spearheaded the SITESS project. She recently cofounded an interdisciplinary firm, DnA Design. Bukojemsky is LEED accredited. She has a particular interest in ecological restoration, but says all of her work has a strong sustainability focus.

Lasch, who was recently promoted to Senior Associate at Gensler, worked on designing and facilitating the two-day SITESS “summit” in Austin in September 2005. The meeting, says Lasch, “was a big step in assessing progress and planning forward implementation for the SITESS initiative.”

Another leader of the SDD PPN who is actively involved in the SITESS initiative is Keven L. Graham, ASLA. Graham is managing principal and director of planning for Planning Resources, a firm whose work is based on developing sustainable solutions to development pressures. The company’s past work includes the development of green design standards and guidelines for development and storm basin design. Several of the company’s projects have won awards, including the Lake Calumet Design Guidelines (ASLA and Illinois Chapter awards) and the Conserve School Master Plan, which in addition to winning numerous awards has also been featured as a Wisconsin Green Building Project. Another recent accomplishment was Graham’s presentation on stormwater basin guidelines to the Illinois Association for Floodplain & Stormwater Management.

Members of the SDD PPN include many landscape architects who work on LEED project teams. Lisa J. Geer, ASLA, is LEED accredited. Her firm, LJ Geer Design, focuses on sustainable site design and natural landscaping. Geer has special expertise in alternative stormwater design and rooftop gardens. She designed the site and landscape for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Regional Headquarters project, using native plant community restorations to provide on-site stormwater infiltration. The project recently received USGBC LEED certification at the Gold level, the first Wisconsin Department of Administration project to be LEED certified. It was also honored with a Governor’s Award for “Excellence in Sustainable Design and Construction” in 2005. Another of Geer’s recent accomplishments was a presentation at the 26th Annual Natural Landscapes Conference in Milwaukee, titled Using Nature as a Guide: A Design Process to Create Your Own Natural Landscape.

Thomas R. Tavella, ASLA, says that his firm, BSC-TerraSphere, does mostly public work, with a strong focus on LEED and sustainable design. Several current projects use sustainable/low impact concepts in construction. Tavella recently published an article in the New England Real Estate Journal: “Low Impact Development: An Interdisciplinary Approach To Stormwater Management.”He also made a presentation at ASLA’S 2005 National Meeting, called “Form Follows Flow: Does LEED 2.2 Go Far Enough?”

Melissa M. Evans, ASLA, says that the firm for which she works, EB LandWorks Inc., is becoming more and more involved in LEED projects. The company has completed three LEED projects, including designing the landscape for the first LEED-certified project in Arkansas, and is looking to do more green and sustainable work. One project that Evans found particularly exciting was a stormwater collection system involving a pump and cistern for landscape irrigation use on a rooftop garden.

Design Concepts, the firm for which Kerry B. White, ASLA, works, focuses on community spaces including parks, schools, open space, and neighborhoods that can help create walkable and livable cities and communities. White is a LEED-accredited professional who has worked on Denver Public Schools Learning Landscape projects. These projects involve renovating existing playgrounds into new outdoor learning environments, which also serve neighborhoods as public parks. In 2005, White made a presentation at the Colorado Park and Recreation annual conference on Learning Landscape elementary school playgrounds and its partnership with city parks.

Brian M. Swope, Affiliate ASLA, is the founder of Tierra Seca Landscape Design. He advocates for the use of plants “native to my region to help preserve local flora and create habitats for insects and other creatures.” Indigenous plants, he points out, also require no fertilizer or soil amendments and generally use less water than traditional landscaping. “I consider every lawn that is removed in favor of a native garden to be a success,” says Swope. Since moving to a new condominium with a small rooftop deck, he has been experimenting with California natives in containers and as bonsai, and has built planters to fit his specific needs.

For David J. Smith, ASLA, of Eberly & Associates, historical relevance, minimizing landfill, and specifying recycled productS are key sustainable design factors. He also chooses drought-tolerant plant species to reduce water use. Smith worked on the Adairsville streetscape and public square renovation project, which received the 2006 Design Award from ASLA Georgia Chapter. Smith explains that downtown Adairsville’s 130 historically listed buildings are clustered around the original railway depot in the town’s public square. The site is “steeped in history associated with the Old Dixie Highway and the Great Locomotive Chase of 1862.”

David P. Whittaker, Associate ASLA, says his company, Human Nature, “strives to weave together ecological/sustainable design with art and other cultural forms.” Much of the firm’s park, open space, and campus design work encourages sustainable practices and stormwater management. In 2005 Whittaker made a presentation to the Greening Rooftops conference in Washington, D.C. The subject was a Northern Kentucky Sanitation District project that uses a number of linked stormwater best management practices to store and cleanse rainwater. The project was also featured in the July/Aug. 2005 issue of Stormwater magazine. Whittaker finds a rewarding part of his work to be envisioning BMPs as an integrated system for managing and celebrating the role of stormwater in people's lives. He is particularly excited about using these same facilities to educate children about watersheds and their potential impact on them.

Elizabeth E. Fischer, ASLA, works for the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration. Her work entails the realm of transport systems and facility planning, and includes the correlation between transport and land use decisions.

Brice Maryman, Associate ASLA, of Charles Anderson Landscape Architecture, says the company looks toward sustainable methods and modes through its design work. He has been involved in building on the Olmsted Plan for Seattle, and co-organized a 300+ person charrette to look at the next 100 years of Open Space in Seattle. Maryman has found navigating the local political landscape to create a successful project in Open Space Seattle 2100 to be “daunting, challenging, but ultimately rewarding,” saying that it “requires straddling the line between advocate, professional, academic, citizen, and community organizer.”