Landscape Architecture in the News

University of Arizona's School of Landscape Architecture
Ronald Stoltz, ASLA
Arizona Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects
Zachary Babb, Student ASLA
Christy Fisher, Student ASLA
UA landscape students aid Gulf Coast rebuilding
Arizona Daily Star (Tucson, AZ)
Combing through the incredible devastation along Mississippi's Gulf Coast months after Hurricane Katrina, ideas for a rebuilt park and golf course clubhouse crystallized in the minds of a group of UA landscape architecture students… Ronald Stoltz, director of the University of Arizona's School of Landscape Architecture, said he wanted to work on projects in smaller communities that didn't have so much federal aid, so he contacted a friend who teaches at Mississippi State University…. Working in Gulfport was particularly poignant for Zachary Babb, a former Gulf Coast resident whose Pensacola, Fla., condominium was destroyed by Hurricane Ivan in 2004. "Instead of having everything theoretical, it was great to go and work on something that immediately had an impact on people's lives," said Babb, 29…Making it better included rebuilding in a smarter way, said Christy Fisher, 28. The native trees, live oaks, frequently survived, while the palm trees were gone, ripped out by the roots and washed and battered away. 

Landscape Architect career
A Labor Day look at careers
Christian Science Monitor
What does Labor Day mean to you? The end of summer? Barbecues? Back-to-school sales? What does this have to do with labor, or work?  Monday is Labor Day in the United States. The holiday, which has been celebrated on the first Monday of September for more than 100 years, is a tribute to working men and women. It also is a day off from work for many Americans… How about becoming a chef, a nurse, a landscape architect, a truck driver, or a carpenter? They, too, are some of the fastest growing jobs, according to experts. Do any of those careers sound like fun to you?

Peter Walker, FASLA
Zero Summary
New Yorker (New York, NY)
On July 4, 2004, at a ceremony to mark the start of construction on the Freedom Tower, the seventeen-hundred-and-seventy-six-foot skyscraper intended as the centerpiece of the effort to rebuild Ground Zero, Governor George Pataki said, “How badly our enemies underestimated the power and endurance of freedom…The memorial by Michael Arad and Peter Walker, a strong design that challenged the master plan head-on, has, in its turn, been dogged by a host of objections—from family members, who didn’t like how the names of the dead would be displayed; from security experts, who today are the silent partners of every architect doing major civic or corporate work; and from public officials worried about the cost.

Peter Walker, FASLA
Fifth anniversary of 9/11, still on alert
Monticello Times (Monticello, MN)
After five years, the U.S. faces continued threats by terrorists, and heightened security after the recently foiled plan in Britain seems to challenge authorities.  As the country struggles to move on from that fateful day Sept. 11, 2001, it is important to reflect on where we were and where we are now, as well as how we can memorialize these events in the future…Architects Michael Arad of New York and Peter Walker from Berkeley, Calif., designed the memorial, which also honors survivors and those who assisted in the rescue and recovery process.  The proposed design features two large pools that encompass the footprints of the Twin Towers, surrounded by trees and waterfalls to block out noise from the city. The names of the 2,979 victims will be written along the edge of the pools. Visitors will enter through Memorial Hall, a quiet space that provides views of the waterfalls and pools.

Erik Sweet, ASLA
Connecticut chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects
Changing landscape for scholastic athletes
Danbury News Times (Danbury, CT)
Dean Hancock can tell the difference. The 17-year-old defensive end for Danbury High School's football team has played on both natural grass and artificial turf and he knows what he prefers…Connecticut landscape architect Erik Sweet isn't surprised that school districts are increasingly using artificial turf when renovating existing athletic stadiums or building new ones."With the wear and tear of time and the growing number of athletes, it isn't unusual for a school district to find its current recreational facilities inadequate to accommodate its current needs," Sweet wrote. "Choosing synthetic turf over natural grass fields can be a highly successful and cost-effective choice." Sweet, who lives in Fairfield, is a member of the Connecticut chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects and has more than nine years of experience in synthetic turf field design.

Design Workshop
David Amalong, ASLA
Norris Design
Scott Ohm, ASLA
Arina Habich, Associate ASLA 
On the move, September 5
Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO)
Architecture and engineering ---Design Workshop hired landscape architect David Amalong, architect Olga Pitenko, economist Britt Palmberg, planner Jill Jennings and information technologist Cynthia Raber… Norris Design, a landscape architecture and planning firm, added landscape architects Scott Ohm, Kevin Lynn and Arina Habich; planner Kathryn Lansink; and 3D animator Josh Cochran

Alan Goodheart, ASLA
Art, science thrive in garden
Trenton Times (Trenton, NJ)
Day by day, a garden filled with fanciful sculptures is emerging on a vacant lot in Princeton Borough where dozens of artists, landscape architects and scientists have collaborated to create Quark Park, a public garden in tribute to local science…The garden is the brainchild of architect Kevin Wilkes and landscape architects Peter Soderman and Alan Goodheart, the same team that brought Writer's Block to the site two years ago. That installation, which paired artists and writers in fanciful "writer's follies," became a popular attraction and won the 2004 National Honor Award from the New Jersey Chapter of the American Institute of Architects.

Rice Foster
City council rejects, then OKs park improvements
Hutchinson News (Hutchinson, KS)
A plan to improve the Cow Creek channel through George Pyle Park took a slow route Tuesday through the Hutchinson City Council…The park improvements first were proposed in 1999, and the city applied to the Kansas Department of Transportation for matching funds. That plan, which was a proposed 75 percent state and 25 percent city match, was rejected, according to Mike Rice, president of Rice Foster, a Wichita landscape architect firm hired to design the improvements.

Chris Camp, ASLA
Lose & Associates
County considers millions for parks
Atlanta Journal Constitution (Atlanta, GA)
Ten years from now, Rockdale County could have a lot more — and better — parks.  County commissioners are going over a comprehensive master plan that calls for building new recreation areas and renovating others at a cost just under $66.7 million.  "Rockdale County is going to be forced to increase spending levels to keep up to pace with the demand for parks and recreational facilities," said Chris Camp, a landscape architect with Lose & Associates, a Nashville-based consulting firm the county hired to draw up the plan.  For five months, Camp and his colleagues interviewed residents, lawmakers, parks and recreation officials and others. They also visited each of the county's parks and recreation facilities.

MYRLA Landscape Architects
DEP issues permit for Fayette Crossing
Connellsville Daily Courier (Connellsville, PA)
Construction on the primary road leading into the Fayette County Business Park has begun. In July, the state Department of Environmental Protection and the Army Corps of Engineers informed South Union Township supervisors and the Fayette County Redevelopment Authority that a road into the 54-acre development would encroach on a portion of the Jennings Run wetlands…Local firms included in the development include McMillen Engineering, of Uniontown; GeoMechanics Inc., of Elizabeth; Penn Development, of Uniontown; and MYRLA Landscape Architects, of Uniontown. The project is being financed by Bank of America.

Lardner/Klein Landscape Architects
Committee appointed to assist with study of Flight 93 corridor
The Tribune-Democrat (Johnstown, PA)
Fifteen community leaders and government officials will shape future development along the Flight 93 travel corridor from Somerset to the permanent memorial near Shanksville.  County commissioners appointed an advisory committee Tuesday to assist a suburban Washington, D.C., firm that is studying ways to control expected growth along highways leading to the crash site…Lardner/Klein Landscape Architects of Alexandria, Va., is scheduled to complete the $99,996 study in June.  The study is being financed by two $50,000 state grants.

Carol Reed-Mayer, FASLA
Zimmer Gunsul Frasca
Budget realities limit Park Blocks dreams
OregonLive.com
The ambition is big: Build one new high-profile park and tinker with two others to connect disparate sections of downtown. And do it on a dauntingly small $3.5 million budget. That's the task facing designers and a citizen steering committee as the Bureau of Parks & Recreation hits high gear in planning a new South Park Block and revamping nearby O'Bryant Square and tiny Ankeny Park... "We don't want to steal the thunder from Pioneer Courthouse Square," says Carol Reed-Mayer, a landscape architect consulting with the Zimmer Gunsul Frasca design team. Yet with a neighboring hotel, restaurants, retail and movie theaters, she says, the block has "good sociological bones" to be a lively public space. Look for about half the site to be greenery, perhaps with a small event space.

Carol Rizzio, ASLA
Land Studio
To see green, Beach will need to spend it
Virginian Pilot (Virginia Beach, VA) 
The only appreciable green space in the concrete-and-steel jungle of Town Center is a storm water pond on Columbus Street.  The Central Park Pond, as it is called, has a tranquil walking path, wooden benches, trees and a sewer pumping station. Its surface is a pallid green, thanks to the reflection of those trees… "It's going to take a lot of citizen support," Duke said, standing on the creek's shore last week. "It's also going to take some thinking about what the benefits of it are." Those payoffs - nebulous concepts such as improved quality of life and access to the natural beauty of Thalia Creek - are worth the cost, said Carol Rizzio, a landscape architect and planner with Land Studio in Norfolk.  The city paid Land Studio about $20,000 to help design the greenway. Now, Rizzio is trying to generate some public interest.

EDAW
How To Rebuild New Orleans
Slate
It's been almost a year since Hurricane Katrina and the New Orleans flood. A year after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire, San Franciscans had moved out of emergency camps in parks and playgrounds and were rebuilding their homes… To facilitate the rebuilding process, the foundation, funded by a $3.5 million Rockefeller Foundation grant, has selected 15 teams of architects and town planners who will be available to advise the more than 70 neighborhoods. The teams are national as well as local, and include EDAW of Atlanta and Frederic Schwartz Architects of New York. Notably, Goody Clancy of Boston and Duany Plater-Zyberk of Miami (who recently held a planning workshop in the Gentilly section of New Orleans), as well as two other firms, are associated with the so-called new urbanism movement.

American Society of Landscape Architects
Iowa State University campus is one of the nation's prettiest
San Jose Mercury News (San Jose, CA)
Smack in the middle of the Iowa State University campus stands a small grove of hard maple trees.  Tall, beautiful, leafy trees that provide welcome shade on a hot summer afternoon.  If trees could talk, these maples would have plenty to tell. After all, they have been part of the campus since 1923, when they were planted to honor four-time acting president Edgar Williams Stanton. That's what the marker says…In 1999 the American Society of Landscape Architects recognized it as a "medallion" site, one of only three central campuses selected, along with Yale and the University of Virginia.  The natural beauty is complemented with a collection of more than 200 public artworks scattered throughout campus, inside and outside.

Florida Chapter Design Awards
University of Florida program
Glenn Acomb, ASLA
UF landscape architecture students sweep state awards, reach out ...
University of Florida (Gainsville, FL)
The Annual Design Awards Gala for the Florida Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects was all about students this year – University of Florida students to be exact.  This year the organization received a record 63 entries from professionals and students around the state. UF students were recognized in five categories, where they competed against not only students, but professionals in the field. UF student projects were recognized in the following categories: open space, planning and analysis, preservation and conservation, resort and entertainment and philanthropy.  “The ability of our students to actively compete on both the collegiate and professional level really showcases the talent we have here at UF,” said Glenn Acomb, UF lecturer of landscape architecture… One award was very special to Acomb. In the philanthropic category, the project “Courtyard Design Charette: Landscape Architecture for All Ages” received an Award of Excellence. Acomb directed the project, which was a collaboration between the UF department of landscape architecture and the student chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects.

Spurlock Poirier Landscape Architects of San Diego
Martin Poirier,  ASLA
Designed to a fault
San Diego Union Tribune (San Diego, CA)
When Po Shu Wang described some of his science-based public art projects at a community meeting in San Diego's East Village, residents and others had questions…The duo was midway through their first trip to San Diego since being chosen to collaborate with Spurlock Poirier Landscape Architects of San Diego on a new, 1.3-acre public park. Meetings and tours filled their recent two-day visit and their heads with names and personalities, history and visions of the future, and impressions of a fast-changing downtown that's both gritty and slick… Landscape architect Martin Poirier presented an updated park design, which the Centre City Redevelopment Corp. board, as overseers of downtown redevelopment, approved in concept in June.   “This now becomes your palette to respond to, react to, modify, etc.,” Poirier told Bertelsen and Wang.

Richard Arentz, ASLA
Joan Honeyman, ASLA
Jordan Honeyman Landscape Architecture
Warren Byrd, FASLA
Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects
Aquatic plants bring natural appeal to pool
Orlando Sentinel (Orlando, FL)
Swimming pools are as popular as ever, more so perhaps as back yards are converted into outdoor entertainment areas…Landscape architects and designers are striving to make the pool a less jarring element…Swimming pools form parts of larger ponds where plantings filter the water. "I guess in theory you could have enough plant life to clean the water," said Richard Arentz, a landscape architect based in Washington. "Can you get it so clean it would meet American tastes? I don't think we are there yet, but it's promising that the Europeans are doing it."… While other designers have not yet followed Mannion's use of plants in swimming pools, they are striving to integrate the swimming pool more successfully into a larger landscape. "People are much more design savvy and don't want the pool as this big barren thing in the middle of the back yard," said Joan Honeyman, of Jordan Honeyman Landscape Architecture in Washington… At a large contemporary house in Tidewater Virginia, landscape architect Warren Byrd created a swimming pool and nearby lap pool next to a designed freshwater pond where native bog and aquatic plants are used to filter storm water from the house… "They are basically three related, designed bodies of water that tie together, that relate to the larger body of water in the distance," said Byrd, of Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects in Charlottesville.

Martha Schwartz, FASLA
'Wow factor' buildings compete for £20,000 architectural award
Guardian Unlimited (England)
Architecture begins, said the famous modern German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, when two bricks are put together well. One of the six contenders for this year's £20,000 Stirling prize, the annual beauty contest for new British-designed buildings, boasts Mies only knows how many bricks put together very well indeed. The floors and even the ceilings as well as the walls, inside and out, of the emphatically named Brick House, designed by Caruso St John, an architectural practice that likes to go its own way, are made of brick, brick and more brick…This year's judges are the television personality Mariella Frostrup, American landscape architect Martha Schwartz, the German architect Stefan Behnisch, Isabel Allen, editor of the Architects' Journal, and Ian Ritchie, architect and chairman. The winner will be announced at the newly restored Roundhouse, Camden Town, on October 14. Expect plaudits, brickbats, and even bricks to fly.

Timothy Walters, Student ASLA
School Notes
Arlington Connection (Arlington, VA)
Timothy Walters, of Arlington a senior majoring in landscape architecture in the College of Architecture and Urban Studies at Virginia Tech, recently received the Benjamin C. Johnson and Janice K. McBee Prize for Excellence in Design. This award is given to a fourth-year undergraduate student and one graduate student based on academic achievement, design performance, leadership in studio, contribution to collective learning in studio, confidence in graphic, written, and verbal communication, and demonstrated vision for landscape architecture.

Complete Landsculpture
Internet Marketing Firm MasterLink Announces New Client
Promotion World
Dallas Landscape Architect Complete Landsculpture is pleased to announce that the MasterLink Group, Inc. has been chosen to provide Internet marketing solutions for its website at http://www.completelandsculpture.com. Complete Landsculpture provides many services to its clients including residential and commercial landscape design and installation, custom landscape maintenance services, arborlogical and tree services, irrigation installation and maintenance, drainage services, custom stonework and masonry services, and pools and water feature design and installation.